Ang Sarap – A Tagalog word for “It’s Delicious” is a recipe blog with stunning photography. Raymund lives in Auckland, New Zealand and is the cook and photographer behind Ang Sarap. He works in IT and enjoys cooking and traveling.
Ang Sarap has a huge following and it’s easy to see why. His recipes cover a massive range though he has a special focus on Filipino and Asian flavours. To give you an idea of size, he currently has over 1000 entries accepted onto Foodgawker and Tastespotting combined. He writes with generosity and honesty about food and dining out. His love for travel is evident through his often exotic recipes. His Food Blogging Tips for Starters is an super thorough guide to starting your own food blog.
I *almost* missed out on this post due to Raymund’s travels but was lucky enough to get it in the nick of time. Below are his answers to the tasty questions I cooked up for your enjoyment.
Describe your blog:
Ang Sarap is mostly about dishes I tried and recreated from different culinary experiences, most of the dishes in my blog are Filipino recipes but not limited to it as there are also tons of cuisines featured like Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, American, Malaysian. There are also some original creations by yours truly as well as some reviews of restaurants and products which I tried and liked.
What is the most popular post on your blog?
Sliced Tenderloin Steak in Butter Sauce. Don’t ask me why, sometimes the internet is interesting you don’t know what will go viral.
Name your favourite comfort food:
It would be “Sinigang na Baboy”, basically a dish of pork belly and tamarind soup with taro, okra and any Asian greens. A week will not pass in our house where this is not served.
What did you have for breakfast?
Crab and spring onion omelette served with garlic fried rice and sweet chilli sauce.
What is the most delicious thing you’ve eaten this week?
I just came from a European Holiday so this will be interesting. The best one I had this week as a macaron from Sprungli Luxemburgerli in Zurich, I have a review of this 2 years ago which you can find here. Why? Because its simply the best, I tried different macarons from expensive ones to cheap ones, popular ones to the ones you just buy in street stall and nothing compares to this Sprungli Luxemburgerli creation. The texutre of the macaron and the flavours of the fillings are just amazing.
What is an underrated ingredient?
This is hard, In my personal opinion it would be beef tendons. This ingredient gives lots of flavour better than bones, its fat free and its pure collagen, definitely an ingredient to have on any soups and stews. And if you love textures like this its an added plus, imagine a pork belly but without the fat, that’s the texture if done right.
What are 3 sources of inspiration to you?
It would be God, Family and Friends. I think this is true for most Filipinos, first comes faith, this is where we grab our energy to be always happy, smiling and be positive even we are in our deepest darkest times of our lives. Next is family, this keeps you striving to do your best to give them the finest things in life. Finally friends, this feeds our social aspect, we just don’t strive with virtual friends like what everyone have on Facebook or Instagram we need real people to talk to and interact, a shoulder to lean on or a buddy to have a dinner or drink on a weekend.
Favourite Auckland restaurant?
There will be many to choose but if I can choose three it would be Chikos, Eight and Chef Rasa Sayang and here is why:
- Chikos – At last a Filipino restaurant (or Filipino fusion) done right, before if someone ask me if I can recommend a Filipino restaurant I would just rather cook for them instead of sending them off to the ones I know but now things changed because of this new restaurant in Henderson. It something to be proud of as a Filipino as the dishes here are well made and presented, at the same time its affordable. Has some good review and here is one http://www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/restaurant-review-chikos-henderson/
- Eight – This is how a buffet restaurant should be, I love the offerings here, dishes are so well made you think you are not in a buffet.
- Chef Rasa Sayang – A really down to earth small restaurant in Birkenhead, food is great definitely comparable to the ones I tried in good authentic Malaysian dishes I tried in Kuala Lumpur.
…and your favourite dish there?
The chicken curry is amazing specially when matched with the roti canai in Chef Rasa Sayang is amazing. At Chikos I really love the quesadillas and well as the crispy pork knuckle.
There’s a potluck dinner tomorrow night, what are you bringing?
It would be my cheesecake any flavour you wish. My wife, my mom and friends tell me it is my specialty so definitely it would be the one to bring.
What is your most memorable meal?
It would be in Budapest in a restaurant called Divin Porcello. Why? because the place was nice, quality of food was excellent, the service was amazing, and most important of all the price was phenomenal. We had a dinner here last July where there was 4 of us, we all got entrees, mains and desserts with proper wine pairings suggested by a really good waiter and it only costed us around an equivalent of NZ$175.
To give you an idea on what our dinner consisted here they are:
Entree
- Mediterranean dip with mussels and shrimp
- Spanish tapas with fresh tortilla and salsa (this consists of 6 different tapas)
- Bruschetta with tomato and basil
Mains
- Lamb french racks with layered potatoes with mascarpone and rosemary
- Guinea fowl breast with radish sprouts salad, ricotta, apple and pumpkin seeds oil
- Rose duck breast, pasta stuffed with purple cabbage, quince chutney with chilli
- Pasta carbonara
Desserts
- New York Style Cheesecakes
- Rich Chocolate Cake
All served with wine pairings produced locally. This place made us feel like we were royalty.
An Auckland eatery that is on your wishlist?
A lot basically everything that I haven’t tried yet 🙂 For me any eatery that I haven’t tried is like a box of unopened gift, it makes you exited to open and see what’s inside.
Check out Ang Sarap here or follow on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
Images used with permission from Ang Sarap.
Bunny Eats Design 
Nicely put together Genie, I am honoured to be in here
Honoured to have you here Raymund 🙂
You and Raymund are my top kiwi food peeps! Love everything you both do. Xox