Goldee's Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Chocolate Chip Cookie has been a major part of my life.

In high school, I used to boast that I could finish a whole column of Chips Ahoy in one sitting, while reading a good book. I especially loved it when dipped in milk. I was a Chips Ahoy addict. This was in the early '90s.

Then Mrs. Fields opened its flagship store in Greenbelt 1. But my college allowance couldn't afford the expensive, P40 a piece (or so) cookie. I would then con my sister Goldee to use up her allowance instead (she's always been better than me at budgeting) to purchase that one cookie (semi-sweet is what I liked).

And then Goldee learned to bake.

Goldee is my older sister. I call her Ate. She lived in Canada for 7 months in 2003 and, because she lived away from our maid-dependent culture, learned to whip up meals on her own. When she got back and saw that my mom and I had started Nana Meng Tsokolate, Goldee revealed that she wanted to open a bakery shop. (Really, it's because secretly I'm her IDOL - it's an open secret that she really wants to be me ... Once she even wrote in her diary, "I want to be just like my Ate ...". )

Kidding aside, Goldee has since experimented with pastries in the kitchen - and done a really good job. I've tried her chocolate cheesecake, her carrot cake, chocolate mousse. But of all the complicated cakes she's made (Wednesday morning before Tagaytay pot luck gimmick: "oh my gooood, yung carrot cake, hindi umalsaaaaaa!!!!!" - but it tasted good nonetheless), I think she's still best with cookies.

We've figured out that the secret to her cookies is hand mixing the dough. (Her cookies are chewy soft.) After pastry school she started using a Kitchen Aid and I complained that her cookies didn't taste the same. So she went back to hand mixing - and the good cookies are back! (Don't know the scientific explanation for that one.)

One time, in 2004, we had a really big fight. Then she baked these cookies and I was banned from so much as touching them. Evil!

To me, chocolate chip cookies (especially those by my sister!) ... one of the best inventions in the world!