Oven Roasted Tomato and Bell Pepper in Asparagus Cream Soup

This is something I came up with after eating this really nice soup at a Tagaytay restaurant. I really didn't try to copy it exactly, but I just used the idea of it to come up with something of my own.

The ingredients are simple:

10 medium sized tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 can Campbell's cream of asparagus soup
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped
salt and pepper
chopped coriander for garnishing

Those ingredients are the ones I used to cook the soup pictured above. After tasting it, I think it would be much better to add more bell peppers. Add one red bell pepper to the list above.

OK, so roast the tomatoes and bell peppers (red and green) in an oven. If you don't have an oven, you can just pan roast them until they're soft. In the oven, it took around 25 minutes at 150 C. Take the tomatoes and peppers out of the oven and let them cool.

Once they're cool enough to be handled, peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Remove the stems from the bell peppers and chop into small pieces.

In a deep soup pan, sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the butter. Allow the onion to cook for a bit, then add the tomatoes and bell peppers. Stir and beat the tomatoes occasionally for 10 minutes so that the juices come out as the mixture gently boils.

Add the cream of asparagous soup and then add water equivalent to one can of the Campell's soup. Bring to a boil and keep stirring and boiling for 5 minutes.

In 2-3 batches, pour the mixture into a blender and set on liquefy until the soup becomes a consistent cream without any chunky bits.

Serve with coriander (or parsley or kinchay) garnishing.

Roast Peking Duck at Wai-Ying, Binondo

I lived in San Miguel, Manila for15 years, and lived an additional year in P. Noval, near UST. Both places are in striking distance to Chinatown in Binondo and for the life of me, I don't understand why I never went there to eat in all that time.

I guess I never really became a "foodie" until around 10 or so years ago. Before that, I just pretty much ate wherever was convenient. Nowadays, I've become more discriminating. I no longer just want to "eat", but I want to "taste". And knowing there's so much to taste out there just drives me out of my mind, because one can really only eat so much.

Now that I live in San Pablo City, some 85 kilometers away from Manila do I suddenly get the urge to go Binondo food hopping. I've heard for many years how nice the food was there but I really didn't pay it any mind. Now I'm making up for lost time.

One of the first places I wanted to visit was Wai Ying Restaurant along Benavides St. It's the kind of place where their chickens and ducks and other food items are out on display on their front windows. It's almost like a hole in the wall. Frontage is very narrow, but the restaurant goes pretty deep, and it has a second floor.

At 11am the ground floor was already full so we went up and we were lucky to find available seats. I hear this place fills up pretty quickly. I ordered the Peking Duck Rice and Hakaw. Ilyn ordered the steamed bokchoy.

And man, this duck is the softest and tastiest roast duck I've ever had. It was maddening. I've had plenty of duck in other places, but this is probably the first time I'm tasting duck at its best. Both the hakaw and bokchoy were also pretty good, but I was just so bowled over by the duck it was pretty hard to get over.

I have no complaints at all about the food, but if there is one bad thing I didn't like was that their service started to suffer during their peak hours. At 11am it was still OK, but when we were trying to get our bill at around 12 or so, the servers seem let go of the ball a little bit. They tend to forget things. It's harder to catch their attention. It's clear to me that they can solve their problems if they had a bit more manpower. The bill took 15-20 minutes to get to us after we asked for it. And we had to remind them several times. It was a needle in an otherwise very pleasant experience.

I would recommend that you go because the food is just terrific, but visit during off peak hours to prevent any hassle.

Dynamite!

Dynamite is "street food" that I just discovered today here in San Pablo City. It looks like I'm late to the parade as it seems this has been around for a while not only in San Pablo, but in many other places. It's very popular in town with people crowding around vendors who start selling them near the public market at around 4 in the afternoon.

Dynamite is a large green chilli pepper that's stuffed with pork and cheese (sometimes with beef), wrapped in lumpia wrapper, breaded and deep fried. The little stem of the chili sticks out of one of the ends making it look like a fuse. I'm pretty sure that's how it got its name.

And I tell you guys, this is pretty awesome. You can eat it as it is, or have it with sauce. Whether the dish will be much awesome or not depends on the kind of sauce you get. The one I had earlier today at a different place came with different sauce and it tasted much better because of it.

It's dynamite in more ways than one because because this is a green chilli pepper and it's pretty hot. They keep it in control and keep the heat managable by removing the seeds first. But it seems in a particular batch, not all seeds are removed (most likely unintentional), and one in a bunch may pack a really mean wallop.

I guess that's part of the thrill. Somewhat like eating a blowfish, but to a lesser extreme.

Each dynamite costs P10, and I think it's more than worth it!

Middle Eats, San Pablo City

There's a newly opened restaurant near the corner of T. Azucena and P. Zulueta, beside Simple Treats, here in San Pablo City. A Mediterranean cuisine restaurant? Here in San Pablo City? I knew I wanted to try it as soon as it opened. The name of the restaurant is pretty clever too, don't you think?

As for appetizers we tried something we had before at other Mediterranean restaurants, the "Baba Ganoush".

I thought it was nice that the flat bread came wrapped in cloth. As for the taste, well, it tasted like what I would expect Baba Ganoush to taste. I didn't see much difference compared to how others like it tasted, which is pretty good. This appetizer went for P108.

For the main dish, Ilyn ordered the "Chicken Cacciatore", which is chicken braised in tomato based sauce, olives,  mushrooms and white wine.

It's probably not apparent in the photo, but it was a lot of food on that plate. Lots of pasta and almost half of a small chicken. Ilyn is pretty picky when it comes to pasta, and she seemed to really like it. It was a little too much as she was unable to finish it and we brought home the leftovers later on. This dish went for P248.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Souvlaki, which is actually a kebab of grilled chicken and vegetables marinated in a "Tunisian Spice Mix".

I don't know what Tunisian spice mix is, but it tasted pretty good. It's not as flavorful as I would like, but it's still very nice nevertheless. It came with this white sauce that tasted quite unique. I kind of wished that you could order that sauce as a sidedish because it went really well with the grilled chicken and the sauce just wasn't enough. Well, I never did find out if you could order it as I never asked. This dish went for P198.

As for drinks we had "Maltese Ice Tea by the Carafe", which is simply a large pitcher of really nice tasting ice tea. It was enough for two servings for the both of us. This went for P158.

These prices are probably on the higher end of what regular San Pablo residents are probably used to but for the quality of this food, plus the quantity of it per serving, plus the quality of the "little things" like napkins, utensils, furniture, cleanliness and ambiance of the surroundings and attentive and friendly servers, I think it was worth it.

Even their toilets are extremely clean and nice smelling. It's obvious this place is very well maintained.

I really like restaurants that invest in seemingly unnecessary things. But if you put them all together, you come up with the impression that this is a place that wishes to make your stay as comfortable and as pleasant as possible.  I hate it when restaurants use cheap napkins and utensils, ketchup, sauce, and napkin holders, salt and pepper shakers, cheap decor, cheap furniture, cheap furnishings. To me it seems those restaurants want to have as little overhead as possible. It's all about making money, nothing more. Isn't it a wonder those kinds of restaurants don't really last?

While I have no illusions that places like Middle Eats are also in it for the money, the fact that they invest in the little things only goes to show that they are also interested in quality of service, along with quality of food. And that's important in the success of any restaurant.

This customer is definitely very satisfied and I will definitely be coming back.

Middle Eats is open 7 days a week from 11am to 11pm.

Breakfast at KFC, Shell Mamplasan

We went to Manila yesterday and along the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) we stopped by Shell at Mamplasan to have some breakfast. This was around 8 in the morning. We were glad to see that Kentucky Fried Chicken was not only open 24 hours, but they were also serving breakfast. This is new to me. I've never seen KFC's breakfast menu before.

Good thing they had a lot of chicken on the menu (well, obviously I guess). I had the Chicken Tocino, coffee and orange juice (above) while Ilyn had the Chicken Sausage.

The girl at the counter was kind of puzzled that we ordered a second drink (the orange juice) when we already had the coffee. Well, hello? If I start to get hiccupy from the food, do I glug down the scalding hot coffee? Of course I won't. In fairness, I get this puzzlement from many other food joints like this. I don't get it.

Anyway, the chicken tocino was good. It wasn't too salty and it was just sweet enough. I really have no complaints about that. I tasted Ilyn's chicken sausage, and I kind of liked the taste of that better. It had a very nice smoky flavor.

The coffee was revelation. I never really expect to get good coffee from fast food places like this, so this coffee took me completely by surprise. It was not only good, but it was pretty good! It had a really unique taste to it too. Since I always take my coffee black, sugar is really the only additive to it. I don't know it must be the combination of the coffee itself, the sugar and even the paper cup that brought about this unique taste that I found addicting. I don't usually finish a cup of coffee. Most of the time I really only finish half. But this time I finished it all. Next time I'll go to another KFC to see if all their coffee is like this or that one time was just a fluke.

Ok, here comes the bad.

I don't really have any complaints about the food or service... the restaurant itself had a big issue for me. It was hot inside, and it smelled kind of bad. I don't know if we just came in too early and they hadn't opened the AC yet, but it was hotter inside than it was outside. And the place had an almost overpowering bad smell that I  just can't describe. It smelled like various smells that have been left cooped up in an enclosed place for a little too long. It's actually enough for me not to want to go inside again, in spite of the nice coffee.

Chili Prawn and Chili Kangkong

My trip to Singapore definitely influenced my recent cooking experiments. One of the dishes I came up with is this Chili Prawn, inspired by the famous Singapore Chili Crab. I tried cooking Chili Crab earlier using Belacan (solid shrimp paste) I bought in Singapore, but my I didn't like the results too much. I decided to try again, this time with prawn, and using a local shrimp paste called Bagoong Alamang.

Chili Prawn Recipe:

1 kilo prawns, peeled and deveined
1 big white onion coarsely chopped
5 birds eye chillies coarsely chopped
1 medium sized green bell pepper chopped
1 medium sized red bell pepper chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons Bagoong Alamang
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
chopped green onions or kinchay for garnishing
Cooking oil

Procedure:

In a blender, blitz the onion and bird's eye chillies together for 30 seconds or until the mixture becomes a somewhat chunky paste. Saute this in oil, add the bagoong alamang and cook for a couple of minutes or so.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, and vinegar. Stir and allow to boil for a couple of minutes.

Add the bell peppers, then add the shrimp. Cover and allow to boil until the shrimp is cooked.

Garnish with chopped green onions or kinchay when serving.

The amount of bird's eye chilli is really up to you. In my original recpie I used 7 chillies, which was a mistake because the dish became a little too hot. The next time I would go for around just 5.  But I think I got a good balance of ingredients which made for a really nice tasting sauce.

At the same time I did this, I also did some Chili Kangkong.

Chili Kangkong Recipe:

5 bunches Kangkong (this measure is based on the bunch that's available for purchase at the local market).
1 bulb onion finely chopped
5 pcs Bird's Eye Chillies finely chopped
2 tablespoons Bagoong Alamang
1 tablespoon toasted garlic for garnishing

Procedure:

This is my approximation of the Kailan Sambal recipe I tasted in Singapore. I tried to make it less spicy, with simpler ingredients, and using a local equivalent of kailan.

In a wok or large deep pan, saute chopped garlic in oil and let cook for a bit (do not brown). Add the bagoong alamang and chillies and mix well. Add the kangkong. Lower the heat and cover for 5 minutes to allow the kangkong to cook and settle in the steam.

After 5 minutes, take off the lid and mix thoroughly until the garlic and chillies are well distributed throughout the kangkong.  This is pretty much done.

Garnish with toasted garlic upon serving. I usually get my toasted garlic from the local market where they sell siomai. I can do it myself, but it's time consuming, and sometimes I don't really get the best results.

At Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, Singapore

Researching online where to find the best food in Singapore, I found that the best advice always given is to eat where the locals eat. And Lau Pa Sat Festival Market is one such place. It's kind of an open food court with plenty of different choices.  When the Komikon group and myself went to visit on the evening of September 1, 2012, many of the stalls were already closed, but thankfully enough, many were still open.

It didn't make the choice any less difficult though, as we really had absolutely no idea where we wanted to eat. But there were a few of us who were just crazy to taste the world famous Singapore Chili Crab. After speaking with one of the local servers and getting nowhere, she called her boss who just happened to be Filipina, and it made conversation much easier.

After much discussion we decided to yes, get the Chili Crab, but we also wanted to try the Barbecue Stingray, Chicken Satay, some kind of noodles, and some kind of veggies. Sorry but I don't remember what they were called anymore, ha! ha! The veggies look like Kang Kong, but I think they're actually "Kailan" or some local equivalent.

Our server suggested we just go to a nearby grocery to buy our drinks as it would be far less expensive.  I still think it's unusual that drinks aren't served where you buy food, but I guess I'm just not used to it. Locals I'm sure think this is how it's always done, and will be similarly confused when they visit the Philippines.

Anyway, after around 20 minutes our food arrived.

Barbecue Stingray and Chicken Satay

Some kind of noodles, some kind of greens.

Unfortunately, I was so crazy hungry by this time that I failed to take a photo of the Chili Crab. Actually, I didn't even get to taste it so much aside from the sauce, which was just delicious.

The Chicken Satay was just amazing. The last time I ate something like this was in 1989 in Jolo. I always craved to eat it again ever since. I never knew it would be in Singapore I would taste it again. As with Satay, it is the sauce that really makes or breaks it. And the sauce is probably the best I've ever tasted. It's crazy. I bought a bottled version of this from Rustans some months ago, and it wasn't this good.

Still hungry, I got a big chunk of stingray and ate it. It tasted like fish, but an awesome kind of fish. I then ate the greens which also tasted so good. Some 30 seconds later, my mouth started to burn. HOOOLLLLEEE CRRRAAAP did my mouth start to burn. I took a drink really quick and my scalp started to sweat. The heat wasn't going away. In fact, I felt it increasing. I had to get something colder in my mouth. I ran for the grocery and got something cold... anything cold. I wish I could say my mouth was literally on fire, because it's not literally on fire, but it certainly felt like it.

Back at the table I stared at the stingray and man, I wanted to taste it again because it was so good. But I wasn't sure I could take the heat of it. I decided to scrape off the sambal topping, taking as much of it off as I can. It still tasted awesome, but it still burned, I couldn't believe it.

I don't understand how people could actually eat something this hot. I'm sure they're used to it, but do their mouths still burn, do they still sweat? Do their noses still get runny? The spiciness of it went beyond what I'm capable of, which kept me from fully enjoying the taste of it, unfortunately.

I didn't even attempt to try to noodles as my mouth was just to singed by this time.

All this time I thought I could take spicy food, but I had no idea what spicy really meant until I ate this food. I like to think of it as a challenge. I will try to get used to it by slowly increasing the spiciness of my food. Hopefully by the time I visit Singapore again probably next year, I'll be eating this still without a problem, and hopefully loving it!

Chicken Adobo sa Calamansi

Adobo is traditionally done by balancing quantities of vinegar and soy sauce to make a stew. Since I was sick for a couple of weeks, I've had someone squeeze 1 kilo of calamansi for me to make into a juice. Staring into the jar of squeezed calamansi, observing how sour it was, I wondered what would happen if I used that instead of vinegar when making adobo?

Today I did just that.

And it turned out fantastic. Everyone just loved it. I ended up eating more than I should have. Even Ilyn ate two servings when she would only eat one. She said that the calamansi made the adobo taste fresher compared to one made with vinegar.

Here's the recipe:

1 kilo chicken thighs and legs
1 bulb garlic minced
6 tablespoons squeezed calamansi
6 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce
1 sachet Ginisa Flavor mix or 1 tsp salt
black pepper ground
2 cups water
3 bay leaves
Toasted garlic (optional)

In a wok, fry garlic in oil then put the chicken in to fry for a bit. (Don't burn the garlic.)

Pour in the calamansi and soy sauce, add the bay leaves, flavor mix or salt, and black pepper. Once it's boiling, put the 2 cups of water. Don't stir! Bring the heat down to medium, cover, then allow to boil for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Yes, I put in a lot of water because I like my adobo to have lots of sauce. Other adobo variations do not have sauce at all.

On the serving plate, sprinkle some toasted garlic on top of the chicken. It's tough making the perfect toasted garlic, so I just buy a bag of it from siomai sellers at the local market.

There you go!

WHAT IS CALAMANSI?

Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

I spent a weekend in Singapore early this September, and the one thing I really looked forward to was trying out the FOOD! But of course. One of the things on my checklist was to visit a local hawker's center where all the locals eat, and try their famous Hainanese Chicken Rice. I'm told this is practically Singapore's national dish, the same way Adobo is the Philippine's unofficial National dish.

I found the Hawker's center after walking for 30 minutes around Chinatown. The entire second floor of this building was a huge food center. It looks very much like our fast food places locally.

It was hard to choose which stall to buy my chicken from because the food on display on each and every one of these places looked delicious. I settled on this place that a huge sign that said "Super Mummy Hainanese Chicken Rice."

I don't know what "Super Mummy" is supposed to mean, but I just went with it. I ordered the Hainanese Chicken Rice with Vegetables for $4SGD.

I gotta say the thing was pretty good! I have already tried variations of this dish locally at various Chinese restaurants and one I did myself, but the one sold here was just terrific. The meat was extraordinarily soft and tasty. And the vegetables... I'm not a BIG vegetable eater, but these vegetables, whatever they were (probably bokchoy), tasted so nice.

One strange thing I noticed, a notable difference compared to local fast food joints, is that you can't buy drinks at the places you buy food. Drinks are sold separately at stalls specifically set aside to sell only drinks. This is something I noticed not only at hawker's centers like this, but also at the big malls.

More Singapore food posts to follow!

Gravy Chicken Stew

This is a recipe I just came up with today. It's actually based on my "Herb Roast Chicken with Gravy" recipe. I wanted to have that certain taste without having to roast the chicken. So I thought about just stewing it with the same ingredients and this is what I came up with.

1 kilo chicken legs and thighs
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 beef bouillon cube
2 pandan leaves, folded and tied
4-5 cups water
2 tablespoons flour dissolved in 1/2 cup water
pinch white pepper
pinch black pepper
1tsp salt
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1-1/2 tablespoon butter
half a bulb of minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped

Sautee garlic and onion in oil, then add the chicken, water, potatoes, bouillon cubes, pandan leaves, black and white pepper, salt, rosemary, thyme and butter.

Bring to a boil. Boil uncovered for 30 minutes and then add the flour/water mixture. Continue boiling for the next 45 minutes uncovered. I know that's a long time, but as with my other recipes, I like to boil chicken a long time. The meat is close to falling off the bone, but that's the way I like it.

You might also end up with a lot of sauce, but that's also the way I like it. You can reduce the initial amount of water if you like, and just add more if the sauce reduces too much.

KFC's Zinger Sandwich

I don't remember now when KFC first introduced their Zinger sandwich, but I do remember trying it the first time it came out. Before that it was their "Colonel Burger" that I was buying and it didn't seem sufficient specially if I'm hungry.

I even remember why it was called "Zinger" because it was supposed to be really hot and spicy. When it first came out, it definitely was! It was so spicy that my mouth was burning when I ate it. But since I love spicy food, I loved it. It was on the upper edge of my tolerance level so it was manageable.

Since  moving back to San Pablo City from Manila, I never had the opportunity to eat it again for many years. Only when a branch opened in SM San Pablo did I get to try this sandwich again.

Wow. Something must have happened in the many years since I first tasted this because it's not as spicy as I remember it. In fact, it's hardly spicy at all. But in the few times I tried it recently, it was always hot and newly cooked. It's just not as spicy as I remember it.  I guess that in order for more people to appreciate it, they lowered the amount of spice they put in it.

I still like it, although I do miss the old spicy version.

Updates

Hey guys.... I haven't posted here for a while. Well, basically because I haven't really been cooking anything special, and we really haven't been going out to eat as much. By the end of the week I'll have a small party here in the house where I'll be cooking a ton of stuff. I'm sure there will be lots of updates then.

Seafood Platter at Red Plate, San Pablo City

Tonight was probably my third time eating at Red Plate, a little restaurant along Mabini Road here in San Pablo City. I think they've been in operation only for a few months, if I'm not mistaken. If I visit a place more than once, then that probably means I like eating there. Or at the very least, my first experience there was good enough for me to want to come back and try other things on their menu.

Now this Seafood Platter (pictured above) is NOT on their menu for some reason. I only knew that they served it after seeing a photo of it at their Facebook page. I had wanted to order this because it looked really good and I wanted to try it.

Now I do want to say that after eating at the now defunct Hi-Kari restaurant in Ultimart a couple of years ago, I developed a really violent distaste for anything that's breaded. I avoided breaded anything. Squid. Shrimp. Specially breaded fish. Most specially breaded dory. It also put me off eating breaded chicken, but there have been exceptions. I still like KFC for instance.

Anyway, with this in mind, I don't know what possessed me to try this dish, specially after seeing it laid out in front of me and seeing everything was freakin' breaded.  But it looked pretty nice. And it was a LOT. I think this would have been enough for Ilyn and me. I didn't even need rice. If I had been a drinking man, this would have made awesome pulutan.

I tried everything, and I thought it was pretty good. My distaste for breaded stuff seemed to have taken a break. I particularly liked the breaded gindara. I never knew gindara tasted so nice. It was the first time I'm tasting this fish. I might go ahead and buy some of these ginadara steaks I see at groceries and try cooking them for myself.

This dish is a bit expensive at 600 pesos, which I only found out after I got the bill. Like I said, this wasn't on the menu. But I think it's only appropriate for the amount of food on it. And as I said, it's a lot. I wasn't even able to finish it. I had at least half of it wrapped to take home.

As for drinks, I wanted to try their house blend ice tea. The flavor of it was interesting. It reminded me of aratiles. Aratiles actually tastes very nice, but having grown up eating it, I got sort of sick of the flavor after a while.

Later, I had their house coffee, which is also interesting. As I've mentioned in other posts, I always try to taste the coffee of all the restaurants I eat in. The coffee beans were freshly ground and brewed so that's a plus right there. The coffee did come in packaged, meaning they already included cream (or milk?) and sugar and chocolate sprinkles on top when they give it to you. It was just OK, but I do like to have the choice whether to add cream on it and how much sugar. I really don't take cream or milk in my brewed coffee. But their coffee tasted nice so I really have nothing to complain about.

Ilyn had the Beef Stew, which she really liked. Although she did say it was slightly "ma-sebo". I don't know the exact translation. The closest is probably "fatty".  Whenever I cook beef, I pre-boil the beef for a few hours to soften the meat. And then I would put it in the ref for a few hours or overnight. The following morning, you can see that all the fat had solidified on the surface of the liquid. That is something I take out because that's what gives beef the "ma-sebo" taste.

It's an ample amount of serving for 130 pesos. Everything is cooked absolutely soft, specially the beef which is just right for something like this.

Next time I go back, I will try their Burger, which I hear is pretty good.

Beef Pares

Beef Pares is a dish that's quite common in Manila, but not so much here in San Pablo City. In fact, I've never seen it made and sold here. I could be wrong of course, but since I couldn't find it easily here, I thought I'd just cook it myself.

This is a recipe I came up with late last year. I'm putting it on this blog for my own future reference.

Recipe/Procedure


Boil 1 kilo beef for 3 hours until meat is very tender. Watch out because after 15-20 minutes dark brown scum will form on top. Remove it!

If using a pressure cooker, it's up to you how long you boil it. I don't have one so I have no idea...

After boiling, let it cool then refrigerate for a couple of hours. Fat will solidify on top of the liquid... remove it!

Drain from broth but don't throw broth away. Marinate beef in 1/2 cup soy sauce, pepper and 1/2 cup sugar. Marinate overnight!

Sautee 1 bulb crushed garlic, 1 big onion and around 1 inch grated ginger. Place beef. Let it fry a bit. Place broth, and let simmer for a while. Add back the marinade, and 2 pcs. star anise. Boil some more. Add salt to taste.

Dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in 1/2 cup of broth and place slowly over stew while stirring. Once the sauce is thickened, this is done. Optional: Before serving, add a few drops of sesame oil.

Make sure to remove the star anise before serving so no one gets to bite on it.

For the soup: You can get this from the extra broth. Just remove any remaining scum, reheat and add salt (to taste), and before serving, mix in a few drops of sesame oil and chopped green onion.

For the fried rice: Fry chopped garlic in a wok until it's slightly browned. Add 1 pc. chopped chorizo. Let it fry a bit. Add 2 battered eggs. Mix it around until egg is cooked. Add cooked rice and salt to taste. Mix for around 5 minutes. Before serving add chopped green onion.

For toasted garlic (you can prepare this earlier): Chop one bulb of garlic very very finely. Fry in oil using very very very low heat. You don't want to rush this. This is toasted slowly so that it won't be too bitter. It will probably take 15-20 minutes before the garlic is browned enough. Remove from oil and drain on some paper towels.

On the serving plate just add the garlic and some more chopped green onion on top.

Kinulob na Manok V.2 Chinese Style

Ok! It's time again to do another version of my Kinulob na Manok! This time... Chinese Style!

Ok, I'm only SAYING it's Chinese style. I don't know if the Chinese do Kinulob na Manok, at all, actually. The reason I'm calling it that is I'm adding ingredients that would play up some Chinese flavor to a dish I've done previously.

That means adding more Hoisin Sauce, and adding Chinese Sausage and Star Anise, and removing other ingredients like ketchup, and pineapple juice.

The ingredients I've used are as follows:

1 whole chicken
120 grams bacon
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 star anise
4 bay leaves
1 chicken cube
3 cups chicken stock
1 Chinese sausage, chopped
1 big white onion chopped
1/4 kilo chicken gizzard (optional)
1/4 kilo chicken livers/hearts (optional)

As with the previous dish, put all of these ingredients in a deep casserole. Me, I put them in an aluminum pot from an old rice cooker. It comes with a lid so it's pretty handy!

Bring that to a boil on high heat, and once it's boiling, turn down the heat to medium, and boil for the next hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours.

I used low sodium soy sauce, decreased the amount of bacon and removed the need for the flavor mix because the additional hoisin sauce would bring in  a lot of additional sodium already. I only used one Chinese sausage this time because well, I only had 1 available. I would have used two if I had it.

The gizzards and livers are optional, although I think once the liver softens and bits of it disintegrate into the sauce, I think it would make for a much flavorful dish.

As always, I love boiling my food for a long time because it makes the flavor fuller and richer. I've learned that boiling chicken for a long time really makes any dish you make taste better. If you boil too long the chicken would start to fall apart, so you need to be careful.

After two hours, take the chicken out of the stew and set aside. Let the sauce continue to boil for 10-15 or more minutes, depending on how much liquid is still left.

At this point, my chicken is close to falling apart, but that makes it easier to cut into. And yeah! This one came out pretty nice as well.

Long Lasting Kinulob

My Dad loves my Kinulob na Manok recipe so much that he absolutely refuses to let go of the leftover sauce, long after the chicken's gone. He digs into that sauce for almost every meal ever since I cooked the thing. Looks like I'll be cooking that again.

Although I've written the recipe down and I know I can practically do it identically next time, I think I'll do a different version of this dish with a different set of ingredients. I'm thinking of playing up the Chinese flavor of it next time by increasing the amount of Hoisin Sauce, Chinese Sausage, and add a few star anise seeds along with soy sauce and sugar. In my mind that sounds interesting... and mouth watering!

I can most likely make a collection of Kinulob na Manok recipe variations, and of course, I'll write them all down in this blog!

Eric's Last Stand

Or more specifically, Baked Potato and Mushroom Cheese Casserole. But I've used "Eric's Last Stand" for the title of this thing for like maybe 8 years now, ever since my pal Jonas Diego asked me what it was called and back then I absolutely had no idea. "Eric's Last Stand" just popped into my mind.

Full disclosure though, I got inspired to do my own dish based on something I tasted at the old Kenkoy Cafe in Malate. I think the dish was called "Dynamic Duo". I couldn't begin to guess what was in it, except the more obvious mushroom, potato and bacon, so I just winged it and came up with this, whatever was available at the local mall. In our case, that's Ultimart, Puregold and SM San Pablo, and of course our own immortal local market.

My ingredients:

1/2 kilo baby potato, cleaned (but not peeled).
2-200 grams whole button mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
120 grams bacon
1 bulb garlic, crushed
250 ml Nestle Cream
Perfect Italiano "Pizza Plus" Cheese
Monterey Jack Cheese (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (optional)
kinchay, chopped
salt and pepper

You can of course get a bigger can of whole button mushrooms instead of buying 2-200 gram cans, but the strange thing about buying mushrooms in cans is that the bigger the can is, the bigger the mushroom, I kid you not. The small cans contain really really small mushrooms, and the big cans contain giant mushrooms. So it's better to just get 2 medium sized cans for medium sized mushrooms, which are perfect for this dish.

Perfect Italiano "Pizza Plus" Cheese is readily available at our local SM Grocery and I really like using it. It's a three cheese combination of grated cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan, which just works great. Of course, you can just use one big slab of the regular quick melt cheese, which would also be ok.  The Pizza Plus packet comes in 500 grams, and I use about half of that for this dish.

Montery Jack and other brands of Parmesan are also available locally, and because I'm a cheese freak, I use some of both, but this is optional.

Procedure!

First is cook the bacon in a pan until crispy. Chop, and then set aside. If you're a vegetarian, you can do without the bacon, it's fine.

In a pan, stir fry the baby potatoes in oil on medium heat for around 10-12 minutes. Add the butter, mushrooms, garlic,  salt and pepper (to taste). Stir fry for another 5 minutes. One bulb of garlic is a lot, but I love garlic so it's fine to me. But you can use less garlic if you want to.

In a baking dish, put a thin layer of cheese at the very bottom. Place the mushroom and potatoes on it. Make sure to spread it all evenly. On top of this, evenly place the chopped bacon and some kinchay. Pour on the cream evenly on top, and on top of that, add the cheese.

I grated a bit of Monterey Jack and added it on top, as well as a sprinkle of additional parmesan, but as I mentioned this is optional. Add some more kinchay on top.

Place in an oven at 180 degrees C for around 30 minutes or until the cheese has completely melted and is browning on top.

Let it cool for at least 15-20 minutes before serving.

And there you go!

Kinulob na Manok

Whenever I pass this certain restaurant near the SPC Medical Center, I see them advertising one of their specialties called "Kinulob na Itik". Being the food freak that I am, I immediately became curious. I've never heard of that dish before, and I was wondering if I could do it with chicken. (But of course.)

So I went online looking for recipes to Kinulob na Manok, and I found several. The strange thing is, they're all completely different recipes with completely different ingredients.

But the thing that was similar to all of them is that you cook the chicken whole in a deep pan or casserole, and boil it with various ingredients until the chicken is done. That's pretty much it.

So in short, "Kinulob na Manok" is in fact "Stewed Whole Chicken".


I took bits from a couple of recipes, added a few flourishes of my own, and I came up with this recipe:

1 whole chicken
1/4 kilo chicken gizzards
250 grams tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons margarine
240 ml pineapple juice
250 grams bacon, chopped
2 pcs. Chinese sausage, sliced into coins
1 big white onion, chopped
4 pcs. bay leaves
1 chicken cube or 1 sachet ginisa flavor mix
2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup soy sauce
black pepper (to taste)

As you may notice, I no longer added any salt as the sodium would come from the soy sauce, chicken cube and hoisin sauce.

Place the chicken in the center of a deep casserole or any deep pan that you can cover. Add all other ingredients in the casserole. Make sure the casserole is small enough for the liquid to completely cover the chicken. Turn on the stove at high heat. When it boils, turn down the heat to medium, and cooked, covered, for at least an hour and a half.

That's kind of long and the chicken is close to falling apart, but it tastes great!

Remove the chicken and place on a serving tray, but let the remaining liquid to boil for 10-15 minutes to allow it to reduce into a thick sauce.

On the plate, surround the chicken with the sausages, gizzards, bacon and pour the sauce generously over everything.

I must say, this particular dish came out a screaming success.

The Best Coffee in San Pablo City

To be more precise, the best coffee I've ever had in my life. Period.

Of course, taste differs from person to person, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the one I like best. This is the simple brewed coffee from Simple Treats Cafe, located at the end of P. Zulueta St, here in San Pablo City.

I've tasted a lot of coffees all around, including those of Starbucks, Figaro, Coffee Bean, Seattle's Best, Gloria Jeans and so on. I've even had some Starbucks in New York when I went there many years ago, and none them tastes as great as this coffee right here.

You can also get this coffee from CDC Cafe, also here in San Pablo City, which is owned by the same guy who owns Simple Treats, and both cafes operate the same type of coffee machine, using the same beans.

I'm not for fancy coffees like lattes, cappuccinos, frappes,and things like that. I like just simple black brewed coffee. That's coffee at its very basic. That's how you can tell if it's really good when it tastes great without any sort of additional flavor enhancers.

Next time you're in San Pablo, and you want some really good coffee, try this out!

Roast Herb Chicken

Roast chicken is one of my favorite dishes to cook. But the thing is, I really don't have a set recipe. It changes from time to time, depending on my mood, and what I remember from the last time I cooked it. The results therefore varies. Sometimes the chicken is fantastic, but sometimes, not so much. I always thought one day I really ought to write it down! Today I had such an opportunity.

Recipe is as follows:

1 big Chicken
half a stick of butter
salt and pepper
thyme
rosemary
ground black pepper
5 pandan leaves
baby potatoes (optional)

For the gravy:

1 cup water
3 tablespoons flour
1 chicken cube
1 beef cube
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 tsp white pepper

The chicken I chose is a pretty big one. It's one of those jumbo chickens that you can buy at the local grocery. And it's huge, like a small turkey. I chose that because it's going to be feeding 7 people and 2 dogs today, so it had to be pretty big.

I began the thawing process 24 hours before by placing the frozen chicken in a container out of the freezer and down the ref. It's become a habit of mine to do this, as opposed to taking the chicken out and dumping it on water an hour before cooking. I do it the long way to prevent unnecessary bacteria from developing on the chicken by allowing it to thaw while still inside the ref.

A couple of hours before I start cooking, I already took out a stick of butter from the ref to allow it to soften. Now that it's gotten really soft, I rub it on the chicken using a brush. I make sure I brush the entire chicken, including the cavity.

Inside the cavity I place and rub on at least a tablespoon of salt.  I then fold and jam the pandan leaves inside.

I then sprinkle salt, black pepper, thyme and rosemary all over, making sure I cover much of the chicken. How much spices you put really depends on you.

I then place the chicken in a deep metal baking dish or bowl, which is deep enough that I can cover it with aluminum foil without the foil touching any parts of the chicken.

I then place the bowl inside a a preheated oven at 200 C, and just leave it there for two hours. I then remove the foil, place the baby potatoes along with the chicken and place the foil back on. I continue baking for another hour, after which I removed the foil.  I let it continue baking for another hour, for a total of 4 hours. The last hour the chicken is baked uncovered to brown the surface.

Now I know that takes a lot of time, but I had to consider how large the chicken was, and the heat generated by my oven. Through trial and error, I learned that my oven usually takes longer to cook certain things, and for a chicken this size, I learned that I had to cook it for at least 4 hours, at that particular temperature.

Your oven might not behave the same so make sure you check your chicken once in a while.

Ok, for the gravy.

Once you've taken the potatoes and chicken out of the baking bowl, slowly try to remove as much of the oil as possible. You can't remove it all without removing all the good chicken droppings so you need to leave a little bit in. Place one cup of water in that same bowl, add the chicken and beef cubes, the flour, pepper and butter, and place it on a stove on medium-high heat. Mix it thoroughly and quickly so that the flour doesn't form into balls. You need to mix this while the mixture isn't too hot yet so the flour would integrate better.

Allow it to boil to cook the flour and for the mixture to reduce a bit. Pour the gravy on serving bowls through a strainer.

Cooking the chicken for 4 hours like this makes the chicken really easy to carve up.

It turned out pretty good!

Chili Lobster at Harbor View

I've never had lobster in my life. I think I tasted a bit many years ago in Escolta, but that doesn't count because I only tasted a small bit. I never really had lobster properly. Today was the first time.

I wanted to try it just once in my life (that seems to be my motto nowadays), taste it and experience it, and never have it again. Because really, it's just too expensive to really indulge in.

I browsed the Internet on where to find the best lobster in Manila, and it pointed me to this Chili Lobster from Harbor View Restaurant, near the Quirino Grandstand. I thought, yeah OK, I'll try this.

Today me and Ilyn had an opportunity to visit Mapua in Intramuros, and I thought this would be the best time to go to Harbor View for lunch. I didn't even look at the menu too much. I knew what I was going to order.

Within 20 minutes our Chili Lobster finally came, looking really awesome.

What's the verdict?

My immediate reaction was that it was pretty good. It tasted like a cross between crab and prawn. The chili sauce that went with it made the entire dish really really good. But I thought it wasn't the earth-shatteringly awesome taste experience I spent a large part of my life expecting.

But as the day wore on, I can't help but think of the lobster, and how good it was. If I kept thinking about it, then it must have been better than good, right? Because for the better part of the day, I just couldn't get it out of my mind. I want to have it again, but well, I just can't afford it.

I think I can approximate the chili sauce that went into it, so I guess I'll just cook it with these really big prawns I usually see in the local market. I'd do it with crab, but it's such a hassle eating crab. We'll see!

Harbor View itself enjoys a nice spot over the shores of Manila Bay. It's an open restaurant,  no air-conditioning. That allows you to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of Manila Bay. Going there at lunch time probably wasn't the best time to go because I could see how dirty the seawater really is. The good thing is, polluted as Manila Bay is, it didn't smell bad so it didn't ruin the experience.

It's become a habit to order the house brewed coffee at restaurants I eat, just to see what their coffee tastes like. It's part of my never ending quest to find the best coffee in the country.  Ling Nam's coffee wasn't that good. See the restaurant review here. But Harbor View's coffee was actually pretty good. It's actually pretty thin and not really dark, but as long as it tastes good, I have no complaints.

Will we return to Harbor View? We definitely will. But we'll just have something else next time.

Chicken Lucban Longganisa Attempt #1

Lucban Longganisa is a popular sausage in the Philippines originating from Lucban, Quezon. It's very small and quite garlicky. It's actually my favorite longganisa of all time.

But since I started cutting down on my pork and beef intake, I've been replacing them with chicken in recipes I cook. Today I attempted to do the same with Lucban Longganisa.

I found a recipe online and went about preparing it. One of the things I decided to take out was of course, the pork back fat, which are the white little cubes that you can find in the pork version. For a long time I was kind of put off by so much fat in the longganisa because it seemed so unhealthy. So out it went.

I also took out the casings, which is composed of pork intestines. I also didn't want to use artificial casings so i just decided to do the longganisa skinless.

Using latex gloves I formed bits of the meat into more or less longgansia shapes. Everything went really well, and I was kind of happy how they turned out, at least visually.

But when the time came to taste it I was like..... wow. I'm not liking this. At all.

It certainly did taste like Lucban Longganisa, but it was dry. Terribly dry. Desert dry. I didn't like how it crumbled in my mouth.

And then it hit me... THE FAT. The pork back fat is what made the pork version delicious. Apparently when you fried the pork back fat, it released oils that kept the sausage moist.

I find it depressing that the one thing that makes my favorite dishes delicious is also horribly unhealthy.

Why are the awesome tasting things in life have to be BAD for you? I don't get it.

It's been suggested by my wife Ilyn that I also need to curb the amount of spice. Chicken probably needs less spice than pork to achieve the same taste. I'm also told that I could replace the pork back fat with chicken skin, which may well also produce the proper amount of oil to keep the sausage moist.

Since there is still a batch of the meat mixture uncooked, I will modify it for another attempt.

But for now, Attempt #1 is a FAIL. I'm not putting the recipe here until I come up with something I'm very happy with.

YouTofu , The Tofu Restaurant

YouTofu is a specialty restaurant located in Brgy Del Remedio (Wawa), San Pablo City. As you can probably guess from the name, Tofu is a predominant ingredient in most of the dishes. You're probably thinking TOFU? Ew! But let me tell you. I'm not a huge fan of tofu myself, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good these dishes were.

The first time I visited this restaurant was a few months ago. Try not to be put off by the location and by how the place looks. At first glance it looks like a hole in the wall on the side of a warehouse. Well, in lots of respects, that's what it really is. There's no aircon and the place doesn't look classy at all. But the place is clean and bright. But as soon as you taste the food, you'll most likely forget about what the place looks like and just marvel at how awesome the food is.

And the best thing is, the food is inexpensive. Food that tastes like this would cost double or triple in fancy restaurants in Manila.

Check out their menu at their Facebook page here: YouTofu Menu.

It's amazing to find a place like this in San Pablo, which really doesn't have too many specialty restaurants like this. After eating there a couple of months ago, I still can't get the place out of my mind. So today I decided to have some dishes delivered here at home for lunch.

What I got was their Silken Tofu, Fish Fillet and Tofu, Fried Chicken Jellyfish and Century Egg, and Fried Rice and Egg.

The Silken Tofu (to the right of the Fried Chicken) is a particular favorite. It's whole tofu with this special sauce and century egg. It's AMAZING.

Vegetarians will find that not every dish here is meat free, as they do serve chicken, pork and beef, but there are lots of options for them that are meat free. I recommend one of the patola dishes. We had that the last time and it was terrific.

If you find yourself in San Pablo City, this place comes highly recommended from me.

YouTofu can be found in Barangay Del Remedio, beside the old Coca-Cola plant, in front of the old BLTB Terminal. There's a huge YouTofu sign along the Wawa road (going to Los Baños). You can't miss it!

My History with Ling Nam

Ling Nam is a Chinese restaurant that has been operating in the Philippines since 1950. It's first branch is still operating and is still located at T. Alonzo Street in Binondo, Manila.

In the mid 90s, I was part of an Architectural firm that was responsible for designing and constructing several branches of Ling Nam across Metro Manila.  The branches I had a hand in are all closed now, but they were located at People's Park (now Trinoma), Divisoria, and Recto.

The branch in Recto (near National Book Store) I had a big hand in because I was the main designer. I also had the demented idea of putting a tromp l' oeil on the curving ceiling of the restaurant, depicting the bright blue sky with clouds. Since none of the painters could do it, I had no choice but to do it myself. So there I was for a couple of days in painter's gear, painting the ceiling.  It turned out pretty nice, I thought.

I feel kind of sad that the Recto branch was eventually closed. I had planned on taking photos of it, but I never had the chance.

I'm glad to see that Ling Nam is still going strong today. The branch I visited earlier today is next to Tiendecitas in Pasig. When I saw it, I knew I had to eat there!

I had Chicken Noodle, Hakaw and Ilyn had Sweet and Sour Fish and Garlic Spinach. Now Ilyn is pretty picky when it comes to Chinese restaurants, but she seemed to really like the food at Ling Nam.

As for me, I thought the noodle tasted as nice as I remember it back in the mid 90s. It's not earth shatteringly awesome, but it tastes better than a lot of chicken noodles I've eaten at similar restaurants. The Hakaw, which is I believe steamed shrimp dumpling, was also pretty nice, although the other covering seemed a little to chewy. The inside tasted pretty good though.

Like Ilyn, I too like it better than say,  Chow King or Hap Chan. Don't worry, I won't leave it at that.  I think they both deserve their proper reviews in this blog one of these days.


As for Ling Nam, I wouldn't mind coming back, although whatever branches are available aren't easily accessible to me.

Coffee Snob

Sometimes I can be such a coffee snob. I'd settle for nothing less than brewed coffee, so much so that I went ahead and planted my own coffee and cocoa plants. I had planned on growing the beans, roasting them, grinding and brewing them myself. Well, the coffee plants died out but the cocoa plants survived. They made for some awesome chocolate later on.

What I most commonly brew are barako beans I get from town, which is very very good. Very strong.

But then brewed coffee isn't always available, and when I get the urge during those times, I'd be perfectly happy with the instant stuff. I've tasted a lot of the instant coffee brands out there, and I think I've settled on two that I really liked.

Nescafe Gold: My favorite of all the Nescafe variations currently available. Nescafe used to have an Iced Coffee packet that they seemed to have phased out. It's too bad as I really liked it. 

Kopiko's Kopiccino: Instant cappuccino! Surprisingly good for something instant. I've seen this idea executed elsewhere, but it's nice to see it in a local brand.

Once in a while me and the wife would just go out and try out the cafes in town. I will probably write about my favorite coffee spots at some future article.

Dinner at Donovan's

Once in a while I'll be posting restaurant reviews on places I visited before I began this blog. This is one of those things that makes me realize I should have done this a long time ago.

Anyway, the restaurant in question is Donovan's, located at the Gaslamp District of San Diego, California. This was last year when I was invited to be a guest of the San Diego Comics Convention. Since SDCC 2012 is this week, I was reminded of my experience back there and my experience at this particular restaurant.

I wasn't sure if I was ever going to go back to the US again, so I thought I would love to experience what it's like to eat in a really fancy American restaurant at least once in my life.

A  month before my trip, I went to their website, to see what I would expect, and yes, to make a reservation. It looked like for the first time ever in my life, I would have to wear something rather formal just so I could eat a restaurant. I made a reservation for 7pm on July 24, 2011.

I looked at their menu to see what I could possibly order, and I decided upon a 10oz Filet Mignon and their Seafood Chowder. No wine! I have to be careful about ordering too much because I only had a limited budget for this. I also had to keep in mind the mandatory 15% tip at US restaurants. I figured I'd be spending at last $60-$80 for this thing alone. Maaan. I'm only ever doing this once, and I would like to experience it at least before I die. So I bit my lip and went with it.

I went to SM and bought myself this formal jacket, which I most probably won't be wearing at any other time here in the Philippines because it would be so damned hot. But it looks nice and would be perfect for the occasion.

In the days leading up the date, I actually found myself practicing my order, like I was actor memorizing a line for a movie.

"10 ounce feelay minyon meedyum well and a clam chawder please. Just water."

At the comics convention I met people, co-workers and friends who would ask to go to dinner, and I always blocked off the night of July 24 as I had to go on an "important meeting". But of course.

July 24 rolls along and at my hotel room, I got myself ready.

Comic-con booked me at the Marriot, which was convenient as it's just next door to the convention, and a nice walking distance to Donovan's at the Gaslamp District. I had to be careful to go to Donovan's Steak House and not Donovan's Seafood, which is a different place.

I was early so I puttered around a nearby gift shop getting stuff for people at home.

At exactly 7pm I entered Donovan's.

I was kind of dark inside... not really dark, but perfectly lighted to be conducive to privacy and well, eating. It's like entering a library. It's as if you had to speak softly and tread lightly. It was actually pretty nice. I got into the mood right away.

I already knew what I was going to order, but I made a pretense to look over the menu nevertheless. Besides, I'm one of those people who actually love looking at menus. Once in a while there would be an item there that's not in their online menu.

I ordered my steak and sat back and took in the ambiance. At a table nearby, another comics pro was there with his wife talking about future projects. Based on what they talked about, I could get an idea of who he was.

Shortly after, the waiter brought in a huge piece of bread and some butter. Probably their complimentary appetizer.  Oh man. If I eat that bread I'd already be full for the entire night. I just took a little bite, and felt bad I was leaving too much uneaten.

The clam chowder arrived and to be honest, it's one of the best soups I've had in my life. It was just terrific.

Shortly after that, the steak finally arrived.

A little side note to say that I really don't eat much pork or beef anymore (for health reasons), but this is one of those times I'd made an exception. This is one of those once in a lifetime things that I just want to experience once, just to say I've done it. I was also curious what American steak tastes like, after seeing so much of it in American TV and film.

The steak came in with some mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. I like my steak medium-well. I wasn't brave enough to try it medium-rare.

And the verdict?

It's the softest piece of beef I ever had in my life. It was insane. It was as if I was eating cotton, it was so soft. Outside was somewhat crunchy, but the inside just practically melted in my mouth. The taste was interesting. It tasted somewhat different from the beef I normally get to eat here in the Philippines. It wasn't on the salty side, and perhaps it's lack of saltiness made me appreciate it kind of less. Taste wise I've had better steak here at home, but the softness of it just blew my mind.

All in a all it was a rather memorable experience, and I don't regret a single moment. It most likely won't ever happen again, but at least I have the memory of it.

Once You Pop, You Can Stop

I saw this potato chip brand LIGO on the shelves not too long ago and I was intrigued. The people doing the  canned sardines are now doing potato chips? Apparently, they are, based on their website.

I have tried their sardines many times in the past and it's OK. I don't see any big difference compared to other sardines brands out there like 555 or Toyo or Master. Someone out there might take issue to that, but I guess when it comes to canned sardines, my taste buds aren't really that particular.

But I did want to try out their potato chips. I bought three right away, I don't know why.

I barely got past one before I realized one thing. Once you pop, you can stop.

Sad to say, I didn't like it very much, although I really wanted to. I thought I might have just opened a bad cylinder, but all three tasted the same. So it must really taste like that. How to describe it? It tastes kind of old. It's as if the oil they were using was old. Now I don't know that for a fact, but that's how it tastes to me. The saltiness also seems kind of off. It's as if the kind of salt they're using is kind of off.

I could finish a tall cylinder of Pringles in one sitting, but this one, I can't even finish one small cylinder.

Perhaps it's just not for me. There are people out there who most probably love this, so I guess it's just a matter of taste.

Quick Fried Rice

Fried rice is actually very simple. Just fry some chopped garlic, add cooked rice, add some salt, mix it around, and that's pretty much it. That's how you cook your basic fried rice.

If you want to add some flourishes, it's really up to you. Here is an example of a simple flourish that I did just tonight.

First thing you do is chop a whole head of garlic. Yep, a whole head. Now if you think that's too much, you can do just half. But me, I love garlic, so a whole head of it it is. You need to chop that rather finely so you don't end up with big pieces in your fried rice.

Take one or two eggs (or more if you have plenty of rice), and beat them in a bowl.

Put some oil in a pan, turn on the heat and when it's hot enough, put the beaten egg in it. All you need to do is to make sure all the egg is cooked. Mix and chop this up as much as you like so you end up with little bits of cooked egg. Take it off the pan.

Add some more oil to the pan, then place the garlic in it. Place a bit of salt into this, or flavor mixes of your preference then fry it until the garlic is somewhat browned. I do this so that if by chance you bite on a piece of garlic, it has actually has some taste to it. Salted fried garlic has actually a nice flavor if you do it right. It usually works better if the heat is on low.

Now you can take whatever leftovers you have in the ref, perhaps some leftover chicken or fish, or whatever meat stuff you have lying around. If you have things like bacon or ham or hotdog, that would be just great. Ideally, the best thing to add here is a chopped good quality chorizo. But I don't have that at the moment.  I found a piece of hot dog, and that's the one I used. Chop them into little pieces and then add them into your frying garlic.

Mix that all around until the meat is well heated.

Now add the rice. Rice has to be already cooked of course. Add a little more salt (not too much because you already added some earlier on in the garlic), set the heat to medium high,  then mix it well so that the garlic flavors get evenly distributed.

Add the chopped egg and continue mixing for a few more minutes.

That's pretty much finished as it is, but you can definitely add more flourishes to this. You can add a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce, or ketchup, or barbecue sauce, depending on what you like. Just make sure you no longer add salt to the rice if you intend on adding these as it would probably make your rice too salty.

You can also add chopped bell peppers, or green peas or chopped green onion to give some color to it. You can also add some toasted garlic on top of it for additional flavor.

Add some turmeric if you want it to turn yellow. It actually looks pretty nice that way.

Toasted garlic, by the way, is kind of an art. Do it wrong and it would taste bitter. I can do it myself by frying chopped garlic on very low heat, but it takes a long time. I just buy prepared toasted garlic in the local market.

The Lumpiaco

This is a dish that combines the traditional Pinoy lumpia and the Mexican taco into one. So naturally, it's called the Lumpiaco. (I know, I know)

Anyway, I arrived at this from an inspiration from a dish I tasted when I visited my old college classmate Weng Dayrit's house in Pampanga in the mid 80s. I believe it was her birthday and a bunch of classmates went there for a visit. One of the dishes served was this curious taco that used lumpia wrappers in place of the traditional taco shells.

I tried it myself when I got home and it was great. It was rather difficult to shape the lumpia wrapper into the taco shell shape. And unlike the somewhat flexible taco shell, the fried lumpia wrapper is rigid and brittle, which made eating it rather messy.

So today I decided to try again, this time instead of shaping the lumpia wrapper into taco shells, I thought I'd just wrap the content like a traditional lumpia.

The contents are as follows:

1/2 kilo ground chicken sauteed in garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and 3 tablespoons Old El Paso Mild Taco Sauce.

Chopped tomato, white onion and cabbage.

Grated cheese.

Burong Dalag, OMG

Ok, this is probably one of the nastiest things I've ever eaten. Basically, it's fish and rice that's left to rot for a week and then sauteed in oil, garlic and onion. That's basically what Burong Dalag is.

"Buro" is a process of fermentation that originated probably in Pampanga, an area of the Philippines noted for its cooking. And eating decomposed food too apparently.

Strangely enough, I actually like it. In fact, I love it. I couldn't get enough of it.

This Burong Dalag was just given to us by someone who knows how to do it well. My mom has attempted to do this twice and it's always ended in disaster. Apparently, there's a fine line that separates well done Buro and a totally fetid piece of horse vomit. And our attempts resulted always in the latter.

We just couldn't stand the awful smell as the thing decomposes during the week. We were told it was supposed to smell that way, but holy crap, the thing was just nasty. We ended up burying the thing underground.

I guess we'll just have our friend do it for us.

Kulawo: Proudly San Pablo Made

This is a reblog from my main blog (I've been posting food articles there once in a while, which helped me decide to put up a separate one here).

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I've been talking about Kulawo on Twitter for quite some time now. When I was younger, I didn't appreciate this exotic dish which my mom used to make a lot. Only later when I got older and my taste for food had gotten more evolved did I appreciate it. I also learned only recently that the Kulawo most likely originated right here in San Pablo City (as far as I know), and it is still very much largely unknown as a dish outside of Laguna.

Today, I decided to cook it myself.

Kulawo has been generally cooked using either of the two main ingredients: Puso ng Saging (banana heart) or Eggplant. I decided to go with eggplant. If you would like to try to cook it yourself, these are the ingredients that you will need:

4-6 large eggplants
coconut gratings from 2 coconuts
coconut shell charcoal
1 cup vinegar
4 medium sized onions
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper

First, I grilled four large eggplants in a charcoal grill. You can also grill it over a stove if you like:


Yes I grilled some Bangus as well. Don't mind it. hehe. Recipe later.

When they're all done grilling, they would look like this:



Set them aside for a while to let them cool. In the meantime, place the coconut gratings in a metal pan.

Place live coconut shell coals right on top of the coconut gratings. Keep fanning to keep the coal alive. Occasionally move the coal and sift the coconut to cook as much of it as you can. It's inevitable that you will burn parts of it, but that's all right. That's what we want.



After the charcoal has died out, carefully remove the burnt charcoal with tongs. If they had completely gone out, you can do this by hand. Make sure you sift the gratings to evenly distribute the cooked and burnt areas.



Pour the vinegar on top of the gratings and set aside for a while.

Chop the onions:



By this time the eggplants have cooled enough for you to handle them with your hands. Carefully remove the blackened skin, slice, then lay them over a pan like this:



Go back to your gratings and then squeeze the milk out of them. Add the onions to the milk, then place it all in a cooking pan. Add the salt.



Slowly cook the coconut milk on medium heat. It is generally a rule to not stir any stew with vinegar in it to allow it to cook, but to prevent the milk from curdling, you do need to stir once in a while. Let it boil for around 5 minutes until the milk and onions are cooked. Remove from heat, then pour the mixture over the eggplants.



You can eat this already if you're really hungry, but we generally refrigerate it for a while, probably an hour just to let everything settle and blend together. And here it is with the grilled bangus:



How to do the grilled Bangus? Here's a quick recipe.

Get a large Bangus from your local market. You can usually request that they clean it and cut it for you, "daing" style.

In a medium sized bowl, mix 1 large chopped onion (or 2 medium sized ones), 1 large chopped tomato (or 2 medium sized ones), 1/3 cup oyster sauce, thumb sized ginger: grated, dash of pepper. Mix well. Place inside the fish cavity and then close it. Wrap fish inside aluminum foil and then grill, arond 12-18 minutes each side, depending on the size of the fish.

All right! there you have it! You have your San Pablo City style lunch, wherever you may be. Serve with hot rice!