The Cheesestick Factory

Today was a gloomy, rainy day because of storm signal 2 that hit Manila. Classes were suspended (though it should've been suspended since yesterday) and I, wonderfully, had nothing to do. So I started to crave cheesesticks.

Mind you, when I say cheesestick, I don't mean the mozzarella with breading kind that comes with marinara sauce. I'm talking about the "poor man's cheesestick". A slice of plain bar-type cheese encased in some lumpia wrapper and deep-fried to golden brown perfection. It can even come with some dip. Yummers!

I got into a Twitter convo with some friends and they talked me into hauling my lazy ass to the grocery to get the ingredients, so I switched to thinking about the dipping sauce. Usually, cheesesticks come with "special sauce", which is a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise. But that was so fneh... And then my friend Jon suggested exactly what I was thinking: Garlic Mayo. :D

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Cheesesticks with Homemade Garlic Mayonnaise"][/caption]

So I got some small lumpia wrapper for P30 and cheese for P40. A whole bar of cheese can make about 25-30 cheesesticks. The garlic mayo came out a teensy bit on the runny side because I lacked a couple of ingredients and had to do with some alternatives, but actually tasted really good. The leftover sticks I made today were stored in the freezer for the next time I ask for a snack.

It's not like the mozzarella things you can get at Friday's, but it's a really cheap and easy-to-make option that hits the spot.

I remember when I was a little kid I would ask our house helper to make cheesesticks. She didn't make dip, so I ate it as is, but liked it anyway. And now I'm shaking it up my making it from scratch myself. It makes me nostalgic.

Now onto the next craving...