EACH TIME I HOST A PARTY, I ASK MY- self whether to cook or not to cook?

Doing things myself turns out to be a more costly exercise. So unless it’s a special occasion, I find someone to do the cooking, especially on Halloween when I’d rather decorate the house and have a good time.

Entrusting the food to someone is a difficult task for me.

So many things come to mind: Will the food taste good? Will it look good? Will it be substantial? Will there be enough to feed the guests? Will the setup look nice? Are the plates, glassware and cutlery decent? Is their service okay? And will it be priced just right?

I called Ofie Bauit, catering manager of Philfoods (my source of frozen siopao and siomai), to ask if they could make me a merienda menu for P200 per head.

To my surprise, my P200 (with a required minimum of 50 persons) will buy: two pieces of mini siopaos (asado and bola-bola); three pieces siomai; two pieces mini buchi; choice of almond jelly or black gulaman; and the best part, fried Chinese noodles cooked on the spot. Impressive!

I then asked her to furnish me their Chinese merienda menus and picked the P265++ per head option: Pork Siomai, Siopao Mini Asado/Bola-Bola, Steamed Spare Ribs, Kuchay Dumplings Fried on the Spot, Fried Noodles (again, cooked on the spot), Mini Butchi, Flaky Chinese Egg Tarts. I asked her to split the gelatins in two, so I had Almond Jelly and Black Gulaman.

Everything was good. The fried noodles exceptional. It was topped with massive chunks of meat, seafood, large slices of high-grade dried shiitake mushrooms and fresh vegetables.

The black gulaman so well done as was the almond jelly. The siopao asado is good, which is why I have their siopao in my freezer to reheat whenever I want it. Their siomai is decent, no extenders. It’s the real deal at P5 a piece.

My suggestion, though, is to require them to bring an extra waiter or provide a captain waiter.

They also have packed lunch and merienda sets that start at P80 for the holidays (tel. 8435565, 0920-9602182, 09189414671).

They showed me their merienda pack and it was a huge serving of canton, siopao and siomai. Their packed meals come with plastic cutlery and a drink.

Quadrillage

What is a quadrillage? It is the charred markings on grilled steaks or salmon.

How is it done? I leave you in the hands of my dearest Tita Beth Romualdez who recently launched her cookbook “Cooking Lessons 2” (tel. 4502756, 2110179).

“The word quadrillage comes from the French word “quadrille” which means marked with squares or triangles.

Do not grill frozen or cold steaks. Bring them to room temperature first. Season steak with salt and pepper before grilling.

If the meat is too lean, brush with little butter or oil.

Start off with a hot grill, with the grate in the vertical 12 o’clock position. Put the steak on the grill with its “tail” at 4 o’clock.

Flip the steak and turn the tail to 8 o’clock position.

Finally flip and turn the steak back to 4 o’clock position.

Cooking time depends on the thickness of the meat or fish. To ensure nice-looking grill marks, flip three times. One-inch steaks usually take 6 minutes to cook to medium rare, so divide the minutes for every turn and flip every 2 minutes. Fish takes less grilling time. For a nice sheen, brush with butter or oil and mustard mixture. Serve with sea salt.

Apart from interesting recipes from around the world, “Cooking Lessons 2” has a back to basics chapter that contains how to make “this and that.” Get an autographed copy.

My Thanksgiving and Holiday Cooking class schedules are out. Avail of my Thanksgiving promo for November and get huge discounts on class fees.

I will be teaching in Davao and will be conducting my Mindanao Culinary Heritage Tour in February (tel. 9289296, 9273008, 6474744, 0908-2372346).

E-mail the author at raspiras@inquirer.com.ph