Heavy creme and half and half

[omnivorism]

Related topic.I am a culinary grad with like 10 years cooking experience. I'm looking to maybe move to baguio.I am interested in local cuisine, but even more interested in cooking at home with cheap local produce, fish etc.I like HEAVY CREAM and half and half for cooking.Is this going to be near impossible to find? Obviously not a likely find at the local market, but what about stores more geared for expats? I am sure some of you Europeans use this stuff more than the average American.

[Old55]

Related topic.I am a culinary grad with like 10 years cooking experience. I'm looking to maybe move to baguio.I am interested in local cuisine, but even more interested in cooking at home with cheap local produce, fish etc.I like HEAVY CREAM and half and half for cooking.Is this going to be near impossible to find? Obviously not a likely find at the local market, but what about stores more geared for expats? I am sure some of you Europeans use this stuff more than the average American.

I bought heavy cream in a local supermarket outside of Cebu City last year. I would think any fairly large city would feature an upscale western style supermarket these days.

[Old55]

Off topic a bit but would you please keep us posted on your cooking adventures in Philippines I think its very interesting. I like to play around in the kitchen but am not any kinda expert like you. :thats-funny:

[omnivorism]

I wont be going there for quite a while. 1 year minimum away I think. But if I ever get there, yeah, I might even create a food blog about my experience with local ingredients, trying local foods, trying to make local foods myself, and also creating American foods, or fusion foods from local ingredients.

[MarcManila]

You can get heavy cream at S&R in Taguig and also most of the time in Metro Market Market grocery store in the basement of Market Market! mall also in Taguig.

[Tatoosh]

Heavy cream of the UHT sort is available in Baguio City without much problem. Standard pasteurization heavy cream is not available at all. Really. You will have to learn to live with it. UHT milk is the norm but Baguio does have a dairy farm on the outskirts. Milk is good but will not keep more than 3 or 4 days. Yes, they pasteurize it and you can buy it raw but even they recommend you pasteurize before consuming. SM and Holiday supermarkets regularly carry heavy cream. Victoria and OMG are the popular spots for bakers and cooks, SanRos has better prices but limited selection since downsizing.Their is no half and half around generally. Do the culinary half step and mix your Heavy cream with milk to get closer to the fat level you want. UHT treated cream and milk will give you a longer storage life (in the fridge since they have been opened) and close to your preference. Coffee is available with both Starbucks and local coffee available. Garcia's is the best known of the local coffee roasters and their Benguet Dark or House Blend Dark (arabica) are pretty good and quite inexpensive by US standards.Local ice cream is generally marginal so bring your ice cream maker, something on the order of a Cuisinart ICE-50 would be a very good choice to put in your balkbayan box. I have an ICE-20 which is great and a White Mountain 6 Quart Electric. But unless you are making for a lot of people, the smaller unit will be fine. Good cookware is almost impossible to find here. Ship your AC, Staub, or whatever over via balikbayan, you ain't gonna find any of it in Baguio City and hard pressed to find in Manila often. Same for your knives. Get some lower end stuff for the help to use. They do not know how to treat good cutlery or flatware here because they don't have any. Not their fault, but when you see the bent prongs on your quality dinner fork or a busted Shen chef's knife from trying to pry open lids, you may find your good will tested mightily.No sous vide or molecular cookery vendors here, so bring or ship what you need over. Even an Aubers Instrument temp controller will do with a locally purchased rice cooker or crock pot keeps it all 220v. No bubblers.unless you adapt an aquarium unit. Oh, and no baking stones, so bring baking tiles. Ovens here are smaller, much smaller unless you drop big bucks. No one has ever heard of a baking stone, so you can resort to half height bricks or bring the baking tiles and fit to your oven. But they can be instrumental to having a well regulated oven, temperature wise.Lastly, when you arrive, take time to learn the local farms that specialize in culinary produce including herbs and you should be a fairly happy chef. Tatoosh

Edited January 9, 2012 by Tatoosh