Food articles posted in Nov 2006

Peanut cakes

They are a Chinese delicacy, actually, but the way Filipinos have taken to them, one would think they have always been a part of Filipino food tradition. Peanut cakes are made from compressed ground peanuts and sugar. You can buy them in almost all food shops in Chinatown and they are available in most supermarkets.

What’s [...]

Salted eggs and vegetables salad

I have been experimenting by adding other ingredients to the basic tomatoes and salted eggs salad. Not too long ago, I added some kalamansi (native citrus) juice, pepper, salt and chopped basil leaves and it turned out great. Early last week, I did another experiment — I made my favorite dressing and poured it over tossed tomato and cucumber wedges, hand-torn Romaine lettuce, chopped basil and diced salted duck eggs.

Book review: Nigel Slater’s ‘The Kitchen Diaries’

I’d like to think that Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries is an attempt to redefine cookbook writing. It is more about sharing rather than trying to impress. The message is: Cooking great meals is not the sole domain of professional chefs — we can all do it if we wanted to.

I even appreciate more that there was (mostly) no mention of countries or regions of origin of the dishes. It’s like saying food is universal and a great meal is not about being academically correct about the history of dishes nor ingredients. What can be cooked in one part of the world can be cooked in any other — it’s just a matter of modifying to adopt to the native ingredients of a locale. After all, cooking great meals is about knowing how to make the best use of what you have.

Batangas barako coffee

When I was taking the photos of the coffee percolater earlier this evening, my intention was to post an entry about the percolator itself. I’ve had it for 10 years–bought it in Unimart for something like PhP700.00 and, except for the discoloration (naturally), it’s just as good as it was the day I bought it.

But [...]

Bacon and eggs for breakfast

When we have bacon for breakfast, we usually consume a 250-gram pack. By that I mean the bacon strips are fried to a crisp then served with eggs, sunny side up, and bread. But it’s tedious work. I have to watch the bacon lest they burn. Then, the eggs have to be fried separately. By the time the eggs are done, the bacon is cold. Of course, sometimes, it’s really just a matter of having too little time or just feeling a tad too lazy to cook everything separately. So what do I do on such occasions? I throw everything into the pan.

Lasang Pinoy 15 (Recycled, Reloaded!): Cooking with leftovers

Chinese-style fried rice is not a Filipino recipe. Duh, that should be self-explanatory. Potato salad is not a native Filipino dish either. But paksiw is. Omelet…??? Hmmm… I’m not very sure. The term omelet is Continental but we do have our traditional version where chopped garlic, onions and tomatoes are stirred into the beaten eggs before pouring into the hot oil. What the heck am I talking about? Well, I’m talking about the dishes that I am featuring for Lasang Pinoy 15: Recycled, Reloaded!. Why am I including the Chinese-style fried rice and salad recipes? Because the way I understood the theme, it is not so much about traditional Filipino food but about the ingenuity of the Filipinos to make use of leftover food and to recycle them into great dishes.

Beef chuck and mayo

The inspiration for this dish came from a dip. A former officemate of my husband taught him to make a dip by mixing together some mayonnaise, finely chopped garlic and milk. It’s a fast and easy concoction that we have been enjoying with fried or grilled fish and meat for years. It is especially good with bangus fritters.

A couple of nights ago, I wanted to know if the simple dip could serve as a sauce for cubes of beef chuck…

The Tagaytay trip part 1: La Trobada

We spent three days in Tagaytay last week. For better context, perhaps, you should start by reading this. On the first day, after checking into the hotel, we had a late lunch at La Trobada Restaurant. No, not upon anyone’s recommendation. It was a totally unfamiliar restaurant but I wanted bulalo and La Trobada sat [...]

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