Itlog na maalat (salted eggs)
Mallard duck eggs, the same kind used for making balut and penoy, are used for making itlog na maalat or salted eggs. I don’t know if that still holds true today or whether large chicken eggs are substituted for the duck eggs which are considerably more rare and expensive than chicken eggs.
Itlog na maalat are [...]
Continue reading 'Itlog na maalat (salted eggs)' »
Tinapa (smoked fish)
When you’ve been eating too much meat (which is usual at this time of year) for days, you start dreaming of something simpler, something more basic… like tinapa. Tinapa is the Philippines’ smoked fish. It is a popular breakfast item served with fried eggs and salted diced tomatoes.
Almost any fish can be made into tinapa. [...]
Continue reading 'Tinapa (smoked fish)' »
The Original Buko Pie
When we decided on a day’s trip to Los Baños and Calamba in Laguna, and nearby Tagaytay City, one of the first stops on the itinerary was The Original Buko Pie Bakeshop along the National Highway in Calamba. Unlike competitor Colette’s, which has outlets all over Central Luzon and Metro Manila, The Original Buko Pie [...]
Continue reading 'The Original Buko Pie' »
Colette’s buko pie
Time was when we had to go all the way to Laguna to buy a decent buko (coconut) pie. It used to be one of my childhoodÕs guilty pleasures, an excuse, really, to go on a road trip with my father. ColetteÕs, based in San Pablo City in the province of Laguna, was not the [...]
Continue reading 'Colette’s buko pie' »
Suman
Suman is a Filipino dish of sticky rice wrapped in banana or coconut leaves. There are numerous varieties of suman with each region having its own version of the dish. The suman on the plate in the photo is called suman sa lihia, so called because it is flavored with lihia or lye water.
The [...]
Continue reading 'Suman' »
Halo-halo
Halo-halo, literally mix-mix, is a popular summer midday snack or dessert. It is a mixture of preserved sweets like beans, mongo, saba bananas, langka (jackfruit), nata de coco and kaong (sugar palm nut) served with shaved ice, milk, sugar, toasted pinipig (soft-dough-stage rice grains pounded and winnowed to separate hulls and debris from kernels), leche [...]
Continue reading 'Halo-halo' »
Balut, penoy
It’s a cold day. Raining since morning what with a typhoon lashing the eastern part of Luzon. I hardly got any cooking done with the work still going on in the new kitchen. Meanwhile, the old kitchen has been totally demolished. The old cooking range is somewhere between the living room area and where the [...]
Continue reading 'Balut, penoy' »
