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!