Halaan (clams) and malunggay soup
The more common way of preparing this simple soup is to add sili leaves to the clams after the heat has been turned off. The pot is covered for a few minutes to allow the sili leaves to wilt before serving. But after I gave birth to my first child, my father would make this soup using malunggay leaves. Whether there is a scientific basis for it or it is simply another old wives’ tale, I am not sure, but my father said malunggay helped with the production of breast milk. He wanted the best for his granddaughter. 
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Seaweed (lato) salad
In September last year, I posted an entry about a grapelike seaweed commonly harvested in Philippine waters. It is eaten fresh and a popular accompaniment to fried or grilled seafood in coastal areas… Yesterday, I was in the wet market and decided to buy lato again. We were having fried hito for lunch and lato is just so wonderful with fried fish. This time, I decided to try another variety of lato–the ones with larger grapelike structures…
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Tortang tilapia (St. Peter’s fish frittata)
Summer in the Philippines is more than halfway through and what do you know? I’m still alive. 
Honestly, this must be the most hectic summer my family’s had for as long as I can remember. Summer used to be long, hot, lazy days but this time, it’s just long and hot. I don’t think anyone had the opportunity to be lazy. The kids have been very busy with their school’s summer activities (and their personal social activities) and my husband and I had been taking turns driving them. With the heat, and the comings and goings, cooking has to be simple and fuss-free. And this torta (frittata), made with tilapia fillets and vegetables, was definitely fuss-free. Easy too…
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Lasang Pinoy 9: offal in Filipino dishes
The roundup for Lasang Pinoy 9: Lamang-loob: Odd cuts and guts is already up. I was able to squeeze in a few minutes of bloghopping last night and a visit to JMom’s reminded me I am late once more with my Lasang Pinoy entry. Without much ado, my entry is a kind of summary of previous recipes I have posted using offal or internal organs…
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Bicol Express
Bicol Express is pork strips and siling haba (finger chilies) cooked in coconut milk. Very rich. Very spicy. Some versions include ginger, some include dilaw (turmeric), some include bagoong or shrimp paste. I am allergic to shrimps, including bagoong, so I omitted it. This is a repost of another old recipe that I did not include in this blog’s reconstruction last December. The reason–the photo was really blurred. Most of the text is from the old entry except for some improvements–I added chopped cilantro and onion leaves to my Bicol Express. I also served it as a rice topping. It was literally exploding with flavor and aroma.
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Pininyahang manok (pineapple chicken)
A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a reader wondering where my recipe for pininyahang manok (pineapple chicken) had gone. I was a bit flustered at first because I didn’t recall removing that entry. Then, I remembered I must have when I was reconstructing this blog last December. There were some very old entries that I did not repost intending to do so at a later time. See, I wanted new photos to go with them…
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Roast pork asado
The more common way of cooking pork asado is to braise a slab of pork until tender then slice it afterwards. The Chinese way of cooking pork asado is to roast marinated pork tenderloin (lomo). The difference, of course, is in the way the dish is served. Braised pork asado is served swimming in its thick sweet-salty sauce. Chinese style pork asado is served as a dry meat dish with a dipping sauce on the side…
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Calamares
First of all, it’s my husband who cooked this platter of calamares. We have a new agreement–he does the cooking on Sundays. We had been talking about calamares for days when last week’s episode of Nigella Bites featured how to cook the very dish that we had been talking about…
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