Lo mein, not chow mein
If you ask a Filipino what the noodle dish in the photo is, he would probably say “pancit canton”… Strictly speaking, however, that is chicken lo mein in the photo.
Although both lo mein and chow mein refer to noodle dishes with stir fried meat or seafood and vegetables, there is one distinct difference between the two and it is not the crispiness of the noodles. When cooking chow mein, the noodles are fried separately albeit not to a crisp but simply to coat it with oil and give it better texture. The frying stage is skipped when making lo mein.
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Bamboo shoots stir fry
Whenever I cooked bamboo shoots in the past, I always used fresh. The trouble is the amount of time it took to make the bamboo shoots tender…
So much has been said about canned bamboo shoots. The “true gourmets” claim that the delicate flavor that defines bamboo shoots is lost with the canning. Truth is, except for the convenience, the shorter cooking time and the wider cooking options, I have nothing to complain about canned bamboo shoots.
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Grilled chicken teriyaki
If you’re a barbecue lover and you don’t mind the little extra work, boneless chicken meat are not only easier to eat, they are easier to grill too. Because they can be cut into uniform pieces, cooking them evenly doesn’t need a miracle. There is less chance too of the outside charring too much and too fast before the innermost parts are thoroughly cooked. And if your chicken barbecue experience has so far been limited to the kind that had been marinated with thick sauces and food coloring, it might be time for a little change. Try grilled chicken teriyaki.
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Steamed fish fillets, 2 versions
Two steamed fish dishes for dinner last Monday. They cooked at the same time in two separate steamer racks. It’s an experiment on how much different two dishes can taste with the addition/omission of an ingredient or two.
Rice wine was added to the first and omitted in the second. The first was garnished with onion leaves, the second with cilantro. Personally, I like the second version better but that might be because I am partial to cilantro.
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Char sui (Chinese barbecue sauce)
My husband came home last night with a kilo of pork tenderloin and I knew I was going to cook them a la Chinese asado. You know, the thinly sliced pork served as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants. These reddish rimmed and highly seasoned meat is served as a stand alone appetizer or as part of the cold meat platter. In the latter case, it is served with duck or chicken, pickled seaweeds, century eggs and suckling pig.
The marinade for the pork is called char sui sauce. You can buy char sui sauce in jars or you can make your own.
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Ikan Moolie (fish in coconut gravy)
Rich and spicy, this dish might look like fish curry but it isn’t. It has no curry powder although turmeric, one of the spices that make up curry powder, is an ingredient and responsible for the bright yellow hue. Any white fleshy fish can be used. I suggest tilapia, dory, river cobbler, snapper (maya-maya) or grouper (lapu-lapu). The fillets may be cooked whole or cut into smaller portions.
Cooking time is less than 30 minutes.
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Pork and mushrooms noodle soup
The fresh shiitake and enoki mushrooms were meant for sukiyaki but thirty minutes before I was due to start lunch yesterday, I got flustered. In all the Japanese restaurants I have eaten in — and I have eaten in a lot of them — sukiyaki has always been served as a soup. Then, I saw an article by a Japanese lady that says sukiyaki is a fried dish and the eggs are for dipping the hot beef and vegetables into. Sounds more delicious than the sukiyaki soup served in Japanese restaurants in the Philippines (shall I call them bastardized sukiyaki now?) but something that would require quite a set-up — like a skillet on the dining table itself.
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Miso soup
Because my husband was not feeling well yesterday and made a special request for miso soup, we had miso soup with homemade siopao last night. It was the fifth time I made miso soup and each attempt has been a learning experience — about ingredients, quality of ingredients and techniques. It’s really insane how a soup so simple in appearance could be such a challenge to make at home.
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