Food articles posted in Oct 2007

Pizza topping on my pasta

If the noodles look picture pretty, I have my daughter Sam to thank for. Or, perhaps, blame would be a better word. We were at Clark Field over the weekend, had a blast with the Sale! Sale! Sale! at the duty-free shops and among the loot we brought home was pasta in shapes that I don’t normally find in local supermarkets.

Kalamay (rice cake) sa latik

It’s easy enough to translate kalamay into English but I am not aware of any English term for latik, the brown bits that float after coconut milk turns to oil after cooking, with continuous stirring, for about half an hour. It’s toasted milk curd, actually. Milk curdles when cooked and coconut milk is no exception.

Chicken soup for a rainy day

Ham bones, especially those from Chinese ham, are wonderful for making soup. You just drop the bones in water, add onions and garlic and let everything simmer for an hour. The flavors from the bone will transfer to the water and you get a broth that is simply bursting with flavor.

But who has ham bones at this time of the year? Well, see, Majestic Ham sells bones by the kilo…

Taiwanese food from Shuin

Traditionally a Japanese delicacy, mochi has found its way into many Asian cuisines. There is a winery in Central Taiwan that sells ice cream stuffed mochi. According to Wikipedia, the Filipino version is palitaw.

I bought a tray of mochi from Shuin, my kids weren’t impressed and said it was just tikoy…

Lamb biryani

The first time I cooked lamb biryani was sometime during the last quarter of 2005 after viewing an episode of Globe Trekker… Long-time readers of Pinoy Cook will probably remember that in December of 2005, all my blogs suffered from a massive technical problem and I lost four months’ worth of entries, the lamb biryani recipe among them. I think it’s about time I post a new lamb biryani entry.

Mini cakes from Cafe Ysabel

When my husband asked me what birthday cake I wanted, the first thing that came to mind was Shoppersville’s chocolate cake. He suggested Red Ribbon, I countered with Estrel’s or Conti’s. Estrel’s had run out of ready-made-cakes for walk in customers and parking at Conti’s was a headache. We settled for Cafe Ysabel where we had our very first date almost 17 years ago.

Mango tart, pili nut tart and turrones de casuy

For the past decade or so, there appears to be a renewed interest in traditional Filipino pastries. I don’t know where or how it started. Probably, with the cake shops like Red Ribbon and Goldilocks when they began selling tarts and pastillas side by side with the ensaymada and mamon. Perhaps, the real craze began with the set-up at Market! Market! with stalls selling regional specialties…

Grilla Bar & Restaurant along Sumulong Highway

Eating out was not among the plans last Friday. We went out to view some houses (we’re thinking of moving) and we planned to be home as soon as the sun went down when house viewing would be impossible. But Sam was insistent — they just finished their mid-term exams, didn’t they, so couldn’t they have some leisure OUTSIDE the house, and so on, and so forth…

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Fish & seafood

• No meat during Lent?
• Sweet and spicy talakitok in a flash
• Baked river cobbler fillets
• Baked pompano and red cabbage
• Lemon-butter-garlic prawns
• Fish croquettes
• Crouching tiger, hidden salmon
• Pritong tilapia (fried St. Peter’s fish) and cheese-topped chili-cauliflower bake
• Tilapia with shredded corn and coconut cream
• Fish fillet with corn sauce

Superb soups

• One pot of broth, 2 soup dishes
• Salmon and tomato soup
• Chunky Beef and Macaroni Soup
• Fish head soup with coconut cream
• Kalabasa (squash) and potato soup
• Bulalo (beef bone marrow) noodle soup
• Beef, misua and upo soup
• Macaroni soup
• Real cream of mushroom soup
• Save the meat from the soup bones

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