Since many restaurants remain closed, I have been trying home-cooked food during the quarantine, such as ube pan de sal, baked sushi, steaks and cookies. I have been pleasantly surprised by their quality.

The ube pan de sal maker has come out lately with Nutella pan de sal. I haven’t tried it, but it sounds very promising. How can one go wrong with Nutella?

Last week, I got two packages of siopao, one with asado filling, the other with bola-bola. These are light, moist, whole-wheat siopao with filling of lean pork asado. No need for sauce. My kids loved them.

I also loved the bola-bola, chunks of lean and steamed pork with salted egg inside. I popped these babies from the fridge into the microwave oven for 30 seconds—delicious, instant midnight snack!

Whole-wheat asado and bola-bola siopao, tel. 0917-8138495

Panini

There aren’t many places that make real good sandwiches. I used to love the crab sandwiches of Chuck’s Deli in Bonifacio Global City.

As a student at Cornell, I would go to Hal’s Deli downtown and have a six-inch-thick sandwich called the Ithaca Bomber. It had corned beef, pastrami, three kinds of cheese and coleslaw.

A German deli nearby served thinly sliced roast beef on pumpernickel bread with a dab of mayonnaise and a sprinkle of salt. These sandwiches were great.

I was in my cousin Joey’s home in Valle Verde, we were exchanging food notes, and he mentioned a deli inside the village. So I ordered its sandwiches for lunch the next day. I tried the Caprese panini, the Reuben, Barnyard and Mortadella sandwiches.

The Caprese was filled with melted cheese and tomato basil and had a balsamic glaze. It had been pressed on the panini grill, so it was crispy on the outside and the cheese just melted in the mouth. Delicious!

The Reuben was made of thin slices of pastrami, mustard dressing, gherkins, lettuce and tomato.

Barnyard came with farmer’s ham, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato. I liked the slight saltiness of ham and the bread did make a huge difference.

The Mortadella sandwich was made with the same bread; it was filled with provolone, mozzarella, house dressing, gherkins and tomato. Very good. I intend to go back to the place.

Marble Deli Sandwiches, tel. 0917-8660023