Red Ribbon Lunch

Early February, my friend Zen and I met up at SM Megamall to watch the 5th Arts and Music Festival. It was the first day of the three day event, and although we were able to watch a good performance of the Halili-Cruz dancers, it was basically an open event filled with art workshops, that neither of us joined.

Come lunch, we decided to eat at Red Ribbon, and I chose this meal - chicken breast stuffed with chopped mushrooms. I forgot the name of the dish, but it was really delicious, although the breast was a bit rubbery. Each meal at Red Ribbon has free slice of cake, and I decided to have the chocolate mousse. My friend doesn't eat cake, so he gave me his cake - a slice of black forest. Since there weren't programs to watch in the afternoon, we just took the time to eat, went back at the Megatrade Hall to listen to the workshop, and left the event come 4pm. There was a concert scheduled come night time, but I am a person who doesn't really like traveling at night, so when my friend said he's leaving, I decided to go home as well.

*** Jenn ***

B - Barbecue

... pork barbecue there is. There are lots of barbecues available - pork, chicken using different parts - chicken wing barbecue, drumstick and wing barbecue... and the most unique chicken barbecue - the chicken ass barbecue.

These sticks of pork barbecue was part of the meal I had when I met up with my friend for a photowalk. Both of us had a pork barbecue each, and we also had some grilled milkfish. The pork barbecue in Reyes Barbecue was quite pricey for me (just the pork - their other foods were affordable for me), but then, their barbecue had more meat than fat, and that their peanut sauce dip was really delicious.

*** Jenn ***

Keeping a Food Log

Tuesdays are supposed to be about food talks from my siblings, however, with the demise of our desktop PC, I cannot access photo files from my siblings. Instead, I will just use this space for my own blahbbies. :)

While browsing the newspaper, I came across an article on "How to Keep a Food Log." It was just this week that I really put my heart into losing weight (yes, starting all over again - ugh... how many times have I started again and again)... I think this is the best thing for me to do foodwise, to keep track of what goes on into my body. That way, I would think twice whether I will eat something or not - because obviously, seeing a lot of written items on the journal would mean I ate a lot. But... am I ready for this? I hope I am.

Re-writing the tips, it said in the article:
1) Get a portable journal or go digital. - I guess I will do this both... I will write all of my food intakes in my planner so I can browse it from time to time, and I will also be brave enough to write it all down here on my blog (maybe I will just use the space for Saturday), so that it would be as powerful as its purpose. Of course, publishing all my food intake for everybody to read would also somehow allow people to comment about it - give inspirations or motivations.

2) Focus on portion size. - It said in the article to put in how much or how many of a certain food items you ate. It would really require a lot of effort to count just how much I ate, but then again, it would also be a good thing to stay true to the portions.

3) Don't forget the drinks. - Actually, I already thought about making some marks on our whiteboard just how many glasses of water I have taken during the day, but I still haven't done it. I guess now I really have to, but I will first measure the exact amount of water my little cup holds. Many articles say that we should drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday, some some about 2 liters... I would really like to know if I really am getting enough water in my system.

4) Write down everything. - Wow... this really make things more difficult to cheat, eh? Hehehehe. Publishing this post meant me agreeing to this, so okay... I will write down everything.

There are actually 12 tips on the original article, but the paper only trimmed it down. If you want to read the real article, just click HERE. On Saturday, I will write about the entry on my food log. Fitness, here I come!

cough cough.

*** Jenn ***

Spicy Corned Beef with Rice

Recipe sharing time once again... this one's from Yummy Magazine (March 2009) issue, and is a good meal for breakfast (or lunch or dinner).




Spicy Corned Beef Rice
{Serves 4}

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 cup sliced onions
• 1 regular can corned beef
• 1 can corn kernels, drained
• 1 bird's eye chili (siling labuyo), chopped
• 4 cups cooked white rice
• 4 fried eggs, cooked to your liking.

Directions:

• In a hot wok, heat oil and saute onions until tender.
• Add the corned beef and corn kernels. Cook until most of the juices from the corned beef have evaporated.
• Add the chili pepper and mix well.
• Stir in the rice and mix until the corned beef mixture is well incorporated with the grains.
  
• Serve topped with fried eggs.

Personal Notes

• If you're going to feed this dish to the kids, take out the chili peppers.

A great dish to make if you have some leftover rice. Actually, being home alone with a lot of rice in the pot made me cook this dish, but of course I adjusted the recipe to make just own big bowl. Let's eat!

*** Jenn ***

Pop Rice

When I was a kid, I knew a lot of junk foods and I think I have tried a lot of it. Well, both of my parents worked and we were left at home, we had a few pesos to spare - off to the sari sari store! :) One of the pasalubongs my parents usually take home was the pop rice. I used to love that food back then!

When I went to the market and saw a man selling these treats, I immediately bought myself a pack. I took a picture of it before eating it, and although the crunchy texture was good, overall I wasn't ecstatic to eating it. I guess the sweet taste was the one thing that made this a great hit for the kids, but because I am not into sweets, I wasn't happy about it that much. Still, I had to eat it all - but it took me three days to eat all 10 balls of pop rice.

*** Jenn ***

Broccoli with Scallops

... in White Superior Sauce.

Whew! Quite a long name for a dish, eh? When the family went to eat lunch at the Flavours of China (located in SM City Fairview), this was one of the dishes we wanted to try, but we nearly scratched off the idea of ordering it because we were a bit apprehensive in trying it because it was expensive and that the idea of having something we haven't tried yet (the scallops) was a bit of a gamble, but mom decided to go for it.

We had three dishes that time, and of all the three dishes, this turned out to be the best. It was just so delicious! The scallops were rather small compared to the ones I saw being prepared in Hell's Kitchen (insert - I love chef Gordon Ramsay), but seeing the fresh scallops in the market, I guess scallops here in the Philippines were indeed small. Anyway, we were very used to eating broccoli with beef in oyster sauce, so eating this vegetable in white sauce was a delicious twist. The broccoli florets were steamed (not boiled) and hearing the crunch while eating it really topped the great dining experience.

I want to taste the flavours of China again! :)

*** Jenn ***

A - Asparagus

Round 7 of ABC Wednesday!




This bunch of asparagus was seen at the weekend market of the Lung Center of the Philippines. When my brother and I went there last May, we checked out every kiosks in every aisle... and since my food blog is also doing the ABC Wednesday, I also took the time to take pictures of different food items that I could later use for this meme.

Personally speaking, I am not a big fan of this vegetable. I don't find it delicious, but my mom loves it, so every time we do the grocery and she sees some good looking asparagus in the produce section, she would buy some. Although I don't find this one delicious, whenever it is served in the table, I would still eat it. Either I am a goat or that I do know the nutrients I could get from vegetables like this one.

I planned to get this bunch for mom, but it was outrageously expensive. I asked if I could get half of the bunch, but the vendor didn't want to. Boo. Nah... it was okay. :)

*** Jenn ***

Mojo Potatoes, My Style

My siblings and I love watching cooking shows on tv. One of the shows that we just love to watch is "My Favorite Recipes" on QTV 11. When it was still hosted by Aileen Anastacio, she shared a recipe for Fish and Chips, but because we cannot really cook it (as we don't really buy fish fillet and that the family might not like it), my sister and I just thought of using the recipe used in the chips part of the dish to create our own mojo potatoes. One lazy late morning, we tried to see how it will go.




Mojo Potatoes, My Style
{serves 3 hungry siblings}

Ingredients:

• sliced potatoes
• evaporated milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• oil for frying
  

For the Breading:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
  
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Directions:

• Soak the potato slices in milk and set aside for a while.
• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the breading.
• One by one, dip the potato slices in egg and coat with the breading and fry in oil until potatoes are cooked.
• Serve with basic mayo with garlic dip, or any dip you want.

Personal Notes:

• The original recipe from "My Favorite Recipes" had beer and without the onion powder. I decided to just add onion powder just because we had it in the pantry and we just wanted to check if it would go well with the food.
• Test your breading by coating a small piece of potato (I cut one slice of potato into four) and cook it. If you liked the taste, then proceed with the cooking, if not, adjust until you get the right blend.
• The breading recipe may seemed a lot, so if you're just going to cook a few, just adjust the recipe so you won't be left with too much breading after cooking.
  

Obviously, Shakey's mojo potatoes will always be the best, and this was no way near it, but then again, I could also say that this one turned out good, too. Good in the sense that my siblings liked it, and after eating up this batch, we sliced more potatoes and cooked up another batch (since there were a lot of leftover breading). In another potato madness that we had, we also added some cheese powder in the breading and it came out nicely, too. Hehehe.. a lot of powder, eh?

It's been a while since we last tried this. Maybe I will cook my sister some on her next day off.

*** Jenn ***