The Bangus in a Box

Whenever we travel home from SM City Fairview, we would always see the Pixie's Sinugba stall, and in a few moments, we have tempted to check it out, but because a trip to the mall would always mean eating out, we couldn't find a reason to buy any of their products because we were already full. Still, our interest in it stayed.

Last week, sister went out for some "me time." She had a trip to the salon, and decided to take home one of Pixie's Sinugba bestsellers - the Inihaw na Boneless Bangus na Walang Kaliskis (Grilled Boneless/Scaleless Milkfish).




There were four fish sizes - Bunso, Large, Extra Large, and Jumbo. Sister took the Jumbo one (P178). I had good first impressions of the product - very nicely packed; the bangus came in a box, giving support to its fragile meat. I also loved that aside from packing the fish in aluminum foil, there was also a sheet of plastic under - preventing any juice spills.

Of course, the true test to any food would be its taste, and I was happy that they didn't disappoint. It was really delicious! Normally, I don't like the relish inside the grilled fish, but when I tasted it, it was so great! The whole fish was cut butterfly style, with the spine removed and the relish spread inside the whole fish. It was also scaled, so the only worry foodies will have would be the actual eating. :)

It was actually funny - when we do the fish grilling at home, the family can only eat half of it, but when we ate this, it seemed not enough for us! It was that delicious! We only mumbled "We should eat this again" while eating it.

Sister said they also offer Inihaw na Rellenong Bangus (Grilled Stuffed Milkfish), Inihaw na Tinapang Bangus (Grilled Smoked Milkfish), and she would love to try it next time.

*** Jenn ***

ps - For those who don't know, "Sinugba" is the Cebuano term for "grill," or "to grill."

K - Korean Noodles

Ever since local television started airing soap operas from Korea, not only did I find myself watching most of it, I also got interested with how they eat noodles! Being far from Korea and being far from Korean restaurants, the best thing for me to enjoy Korean noodles is to buy the "instant" ones, which I bought in a supermarket one time in 2009.

The noodles were not as salty as the ones made in the Philippines, and at first I found it quite bland. However, as I eat more and more of it, I started appreciating its taste. It was actually good. :) The cup is colored red - which meant this was a spicy kind. I have learned through a little segment in one of the magazine shows that orange packaging meant it's mildly spiced, red is spicy, and black is extra spicy.

The noodles may be good, but was a bit expensive for me (I could buy 2 cups of locally made noodles for just 1 of the Korean made), and because I was told instant noodles had so much monosodium glutamate, I stayed away from it bit by bit. Now, I cannot recall when was the last time I had a taste of instant noodles. :)

*** Jenn ***

Choco Lava Cake

In 2008, scrapbooking friends and I volunteered to help a co-scrapbooker based in the US for a charity event to help raise funds for the construction of the Carmelite Nun's church in Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac. Before she traveled to the Philippines, it was just us (volunteers) meeting up. On this day, we met up with her to present all the plans we have thought about, and to divide some of the goods up for sale.

We met her at the Kulinarya Experience in Robinson's Place Manila. After eating our lunch, one of us asked if we wanted to have some desserts, and since most of us were quite full already, we just decided to get one dessert for all of us to share (there were 6 of us).

I wasn't into photography yet that time, but I have already started blogging. It was quite nice to be in a group of scrapbookers, because as people who works on memories + pictures + art, taking pictures of the foods didn't seem weird. Using my cellphone, I took a quick shot of this dessert, and after that, we were like kids attacking the dessert. It was really delicious!

Like last week, I took the quote from the Quote Garden. The quote was actually quite contradicting (on my part), because I don't really have a sweet tooth. :)

*** Jenn ***

Flipping Through the Pages of FOOD

I was hoping to talk about the FOOD September issue, but since I now have the October issue, might as well do a 2-in-1 post. :)


In the 15 years that FOOD has been serving great recipes and articles, my brother has been a part of it - by collecting issue after issue. It was my favorite culinary magazine until Yummy Magazine came along. Yummy had more recipes into their magazines, and somehow FOOD took some changes, that also gave me a sudden change of heart. Back then, my concept of culinary magazines were about the recipes, so if the magazine didn't have that much recipes and food pictures, I wouldn't like it instantly.

So.. why the heck did I still buy FOOD Magazines? It's because somehow I have gotten matured enough to know that magazines are different from each other. One of the great changes FOOD Magazine had was their food tour column. I love how extensive their food tours are! Take for instance the Nueva Ecija tour on September issue (October issue focuses on Ormoc) - they were able to cover restaurants, carinderia, even the pasalubong! As a person who loves to travel and hopes to see all of the Philippines' provinces, articles like this one came in handy. They also provide some recipes from the place they visited, so even if you can't travel now, you can still have a taste of it.

I am now rekindling my love for FOOD Magazine. While I still think some of their recipes are lavish and quite difficult to cook, I have enjoyed flipping through its pages. While I would still give my vote to Yummy Magazine for their recipes, I would continue buying FOOD Magazine based on its articles. October issue had this "The 50 Best List," and I might actually follow their lead and post my personal 50 best list next Tuesday.

*** Jenn ***

ps - What's for dinner tonight? Pinatisang Pata ng Baboy, which I took from the September issue.

Catered Lunch

Last Saturday, I went with mom at the Quezon Memorial Circle to celebrate the SSS NCR Central family day. Mom wanted me to watch them perform (and to take pictures, too), so I was the paparazzi daughter that time. Each of the employees had food stubs for their free meal - AM snacks, lunch, and PM snacks... but should the employee take someone with them, they could either share the free meal or eat out (if they didn't bring any packed foods). After the morning snacks, one of mom's office mates handed me his two remaining food stubs. I was a bit puzzled, but still thanked him for the generosity.

{He is, by the way, a neighbor of ours.}

It was a buffet lunch, and on my plate were: fried chicken, mixed vegetables, and pork asado. I loved the pork asado - seasoned just right, and the pork fat has been trimmed. Although there were some fat left, it was just a thin layer that would be okay to eat. The mixed veggies were nice, although the evaporated milk overpowered the taste. The fried chicken made me disappointed - NOT because it was poorly cooked, but because I got the neck part - two cuts, in fact. Ugh. What can one eat in a neck, skin?

I understand that maybe they just wanted to maximize the ingredients, but I do hoped they didn't serve fried chicken necks. Very unfair for people to be eating just skin and itty bitty meat when the others can eat good meat from the breast. If they didn't want the necks to go to waste, then they can just use it to make chicken broth.

Given that this lunch is free, I'd just make it pass. :)

*** Jenn ***

Adobo sa Dilaw

From Adobo sa Buko from last week, I tried another adobo recipe, still from the September 2010 issue of Yummy Magazine.

"Adobo sa Dilaw" was something I was a bit hesitant to cook, because when I was young, I could always dig up turmeric in the lot of my late maternal grandfather. I didn't like how it smelled, and I didn't like how it stained my hands and my clothes - if my cousins and I played with it. My late maternal grandmother would also use turmeric to color the leaves of dried anahaw to be used in making banig, so back then I wasn't a big fan of this.

However, as I read the "Fresh for Last" article on the Yummy Magazine focusing on turmeric, I had a switch of heart. Turmeric had so many good medicinal / health values, so I decided to cook this.




Adobo sa Dilaw
{serves 4 to 6}

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork belly (liempo), cut into 2x2-inch chunks
• 3 bulbs garlic (2 bulbs left whole and washed, one bulb peeled and smashed)
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (2-inch) ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 (2-inch) turmeric, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups water
• grilled or steamed vegetable and spicy bagoong, to serve

Directions:

• Put all ingredients in a nonreactive or stainless steel pot (do not use aluminum or copper pots). Boil for 3 minutes.
• Reduce heat to simmer until pork becomes fork-tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the quality of the meat. Add a bit more water as needed. Adobo must be oily-saucy (not soupy), so add water with care.
• Serve with grilled or steamed vegetables such as okra, kangkong, eggplant, kamote or sayote shoots with spicy bagoong on the side.

My brother doesn't eat liempo, so I had to cook this recipe that could only feed me. It was a bit challenging, but I was able to do it. To save gas in long simmering, I placed the dish in the pressure cooker and cooked it for 30 minutes. The result? So tender meat, and so soft garlic, it just tasted so good!

The turmeric balances off the strong flavor and aroma of the ginger. They complimented each other well, and although I could taste the turmeric more than the ginger, I was still able to taste some hint of ginger in it. Of the 5 liempo cuts, only 2 had the fat, so this dish wasn't really oily, like most adobo are. Still, with the mashed garlic I was able to achieve the thick sauce needed in this dish, and I was one happy foodie.

The only vegetable in our fridge was the okra, so I decided to steam it by placing it in the rice pot while waiting for it to cook. I prepared the bagoong using store bought shrimp paste mixed with chili-garlic sauce. I don't eat okra so I pretty much "discarded" them after the shoot, but I did eating the dish with the bagoong, and it was good as well.

I was the only one in the family who was able to enjoy this dish because I cooked it for lunch. I plan of cooking this for the family - maybe cook some the night before and reheat it for mom's packed lunch... Yummy Magazine said this dish would taste better if it was left cooked overnight and reheat before serving. However, I was still a bit hesitant how the family would react to the new taste turmeric will bring. I will never know if I won't try, and since mom just had some liempo delivered as of this writing, I guess I will try this one again tonight. :)

*** Jenn ***

ps - I have come to love turmeric based on this recipe. A proof of that was the pot in our garden with some shoots of tumeric. I placed two roots in the pot to cultivate it, and it now has some leaves.

J & P Chantilly Bars

This week and in the weeks to come... I'm going to share the different foods brother took home from his recent trip in Cagayan de Oro.




One of the new foods he took home was this - the Chantilly Bars. I just finished writing a blog post on my travel blog - Where My Feet Took Me - about Chantilly, the pastry shop in Dumaguete City and found out that "chantilly" is French word for "sweet cream." Given that new knowledge gained, I was hoping this would be sweet, but it actually wasn't.

When I first bite on it, it wasn't the type of pastry I was expecting. It was coarse (it was like eating crushed graham crackers) and the chocolate lacked sweetness. The chocolate wasn't the bittersweet type, I know... but chewing on it, it gave me the feeling I was eating one of those chocolate flavored pastries bought at a neighborhood bakery. Cocoa powder, perhaps? Maybe.

I didn't immediately dismiss it as "something not good," after all, it was just the first bite... and the box had 12 bars in it. As I eat one bar after another (I ate one bar after eating lunch), I have come to like it. I realized it tasted much better if it wasn't chilled, and although I still believe they used cocoa powder turned into a paste on this (correct me if I am wrong - somebody from J&P might read this), the flavor of the food is something that just grows on you. When I ate the very last bar, I felt kinda sad knowing it was the last of it, and it would take a long time for me to taste it again.

*** Jenn ***

Ted's Batchoy

While brother was in Cagayan de Oro and mom and I had to go grocery shopping... we didn't really feel we had to do the dining tradition (eating at a new food place). However, while thinking where we would eat, we found ourselves passing by Ted's Oldtimer La Paz Batchoy, and thought we might as well try their foods.

Mom went with their rice meal - daing na bangus with rice and very small serving of batchoy, while I went for the normal serving of their Super Batchoy, the most expensive on their menu at 85 pesos. It had cuts of pork, intestines, and liver, which I gave to mom (the liver only, that is) - because I don't eat it. Mom was actually all smiles when I scooped out the liver slices in my bowl to her bowl and told me her small bowl of batchoy became super batchoy instantly. :)

It was really good. The seasoning was just right, the meat was really tender (it was like eating slices of lechon), and the staffs were really efficient. Mom and I were eating at a mall in Metro Manila, yet we felt as if we were eating at a food stall in Iloilo because the staff were talking to each other in llonggo.

Tasting this batchoy made me excited for my upcoming trip to Iloilo in November - I surely would eat the authentic La Paz Batchoy once there.

*** Jenn ***