Weekend Eating - Siomai

Happy new week, foodies! It's Monday once again, time to talk about something I ate from the previous weekend:




Last Saturday, my sister and I went to the market because I wanted to buy some shrimps for the Ampalaya Guisado I planned to serve for dinner. Before we had our usual soft ice cream fix, she mentioned she wanted to eat some siomai. I told her there's a kiosk of Master Siomai somewhere, but she told me she wanted to try those cheap ones sold per kilo, so I walked with her to this one stall in the market that sells that and other processed meat foods.

It wasn't our first time to try it, actually. In 2009, I first tried it and it tasted okay, so we had no problems about it. For 20 pesos per 1/4 kilo, it was a good buy; it tasted like regular siomai, but of course I have to agree it was more extenders than actual meat. Sister liked it - she said she would buy again this coming week, and until I learn how to do it, I guess I will just have to go with it, too. Siomai is one of the foods I really hope to cook, but I just couldn't get right.

Yeah, I will try again.

What did you eat last weekend? Please share by entering your link using the form below:


*** Jenn ***

Cashew - Crusted Cream Dory

The family already celebrated sister's birthday a day before, but I wanted her to feel special on her exact birthday, so I woke up early to prepare this dish for her, which I took from the Yummy Magazine website.




Cashew - Crusted Cream Dory
{serves 4}

Ingredients:

• 300 grams cream dory fillets, cut into 2 equal portions
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon minced onions
• 2 tablespoons rum
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose cream

Ingredients (Crust):

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cashew nuts
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients (Tomato Confit):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced onions
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered chicken bouillon
• 3 tablespoons water

How to Cook:

• Make the crust: In a mixing bowl, combine cashew nuts, Parmesan cheese, and butter; blend well. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
• Heat vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Season fish with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Top one side of fish with the cashew crust and place in the oven until crust melts or turns golden.
• In the same pan used to cook the fish, sauté onions and deglaze with rum. Reduce until 1/4 in volume. Pour in cream and season with salt and pepper.
• Make the tomato confit: In a sauté pan, heat olive oil and cook onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and season with Italian seasoning and chicken bouillon. Cook for 3 minutes. Add water and cook for 5 minutes more.
• Plate the cream dory and drizzle with rum sauce and tomato confit. Serve with white rice or pasta.

Note to Consider:

• You can also use lapu - lapu or salmon for this recipe.

The recipe looked complicated, but it was actually very easy and quick to prepare. The only main problem I had was that we don't own an oven, so to brown the crust, I used our oven toaster. I just placed the fish in aluminum foil, covered the top with the cashew mixture and popped it in the pre-heated oven toaster for about 7 minutes.

My sister didn't have that much time as she had to leave right away, but she did eat half of the fish for breakfast and thanked me for taking the effort to prepare it for her. My mom ate the other half, and she, too, liked it.

I still had one small cut uncooked fish, so when they left, I cooked it again so I could have a taste as well. It was really, really, good - the cashew provide great texture to the fish, and the tomato confit added a different taste. Mom actually wanted me to cook this again, but we already ate all the cashew nuts, so we have to wait 'til we visit the weekend market again for us to buy some cashew nuts.

*** Jenn ***

Foodie 365 - Week 4

Time really flies fast! I remember just thinking about making this project, and already, I am about to wrap up its first month. Here are the foods ate from 22 - 28 January 2011:


Foodie 365 > 22/365 - Tulya
22 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

Us three siblings were out to look for something for dinner, and both brother and I got interested with this seashells. Brother cooked it with some ginger, lemongrass, and chili leaves, but I didn't like it that much because brother didn't make the initial sauteeing (onions, garlic, and tomatoes).


Foodie 365 > 23/365 - Brunch
23 January 2011
{Sony Ericsson K800i}

Since I started doing the DVD marathon for "Criminal Minds," I always see myself sleeping late and waking up late. For this day, I woke up around 9AM, and since my cousin and sister woke up late, too, I just cooked brunch for us - luncheon meat, hotdogs, and sunny side up eggs.


Foodie 365 > 24/365 - Grilled Chicken Breast
24 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

Brother grilled some foods again for dinner, and since I already posted a picture of grilled tilapia from last week, I decided to take a picture of the grilled chicken breast. Brother marinated the meat in some soy sauce, calamansi juice, pepper, crushed garlic, and a little olive oil. I am not a big fan of chicken breast, but I did give this one a taste, too.


Foodie 365 > 25/365 - Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa
25 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

We love dishes cooked in coconut milk. For today's dinner, brother cooked squash and string beans in coconut milk, and it was really delicious! Very simple dish to make, just saute onions, garlic, and crushed ginger root in very little oil, followed by the meat of choice (he used pork). Once the meat turned opaque, season with some salt and pepper, then pour the coconut milk. When it boils, add the vegetables and simmer until it is cooked.


Foodie 365 > 26/365 - Veggies in Oyster Sauce
26 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

Another dish cooked by brother - he wanted to cook chopseuy, but my mom doesn't really like eating cabbage and green beans, so he just cooked a somewhat similar dish using young corn, cauliflower and snow peas. Veggies were crunchy, pork was tender... I had a great meal.


Foodie 365 > 27/365 - Chicken Cordon Bleu
27 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

We still have some chicken breast in the freezer, so sister cooked this one for our dinner. We didn't have ham, so she substituted hotdogs... not really a good replacement, but it was good nonetheless. What she did was line up some slices of cheese, chopped tomatoes and onions before rolling the flattened chicken breast meat. Securing the rolled meat with toothpicks, she dipped it in flour with dried oregano, beaten eggs, and panko bread crumbs before deep frying. I am really loving dried oregano now!


Foodie 365 > 28/365 - A Beef Dish
28 January 2011
{Canon Powershot SX130is}

My sister and I went to the market to buy ingredients for our lunch when the thought of buying cooked dishes entered our minds. There were two karinderyas (a small food stall selling cooked dishes for people who wanted to eat on a budget) in the market, and with all dishes costing p30 per serving, she decided to go with this beef dish, because she knew beef was more expensive that pork and chicken. We didn't know what's the name of this dish - it had sliced potatoes and carrots, and was a little tangy, possibly from calamansi juice. Regardless of its name, sister and I really loved the dish. We were thinking - if we were to buy each of the ingredients, it would definitely cost us more. Thirty pesos (about 0.75usd) for a beef dish was really a great thing for us to have.


If you want to join the potluck, just click the link above. Happy weekends!

*** Jenn ***

Original Biscocho Haus 4 of 4

Original Biscocho Haus
#8 Lopez Jaena Street
Jaro, Iloilo City
+63 (33)329-0862 / +63 (33)329-0864

To read part 1, click HERE
To read part 2, click HERE
To read part 3, click HERE

Last part of the pasalubong I took home from Original Biscocho Haus:


Hot Sticks (p20). It looked like shing-a-ling, which was the primary reason of me buying it, but it didn't have that distinct shing-a-ling flavor. It tasted just like any ordinary crunchy bread, but my brother liked this one because it was spicy.




Galletas (p31). As soon as I saw this, I was already expecting it to be sweet, but it wasn't really. It was a good snack, though.


Piaya (10 pcs. - p33). Flat bread with muscovado sugar filling. When I first tasted this bread some years back, I didn't initially liked it, but when my sister sent us some while doing her internship at Negros Navigation, I have come to like its taste. This particular piaya was a bit hard, very flaky, but it tasted good.


Ube Piaya (5 pcs. - p33). Same as the regular piaya, only this obviously had ube. Very expensive for 5 pieces, but it was really delicious.

There were more products which I can't get, but what I liked about the store was that customers have their choice of having them to pack the goodies in plastic or in boxes. Since I am traveling by air, I let them pack it all up in a box. Just to let you know, though, should you decide to have them pack your goodies in boxes, each box had an additional charge of p20.

Next week, I will continue with the Iloilo pasalubong, but will feature a different store. :)

*** Jenn ***

Real Italian, Real Fast

Fazoli's
Walk 1 - Eastwood City Cyberpark
E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis, Quezon City,
+63 (02) 421-0453
05 June 2010

I met up with Ethel and Nathalie for a photo shoot, and after, Nathalie and I decided to go to Eastwood City to hunt items for the photo hunt we both joined. One of the items in the list was "fountain," and she told me there is a dancing fountain in Eastwood City. Prior to this, it has been ages since I went there, so I was really excited.


It was dinner time already, so I let her decided where we will eat, as she knows the place more than I do. She told me there is this good, affordable Italian restaurant, and I am very much into affordable, good foods, so I followed her lead. She took me to Fazoli's.




At first I was doubting how "affordable" is affordable, because we entered a two-story building, and I was thinking maybe their foods would be expensive for me (I am very kuripot, that's why). Anyway, there was one major line for diners, and customers will just approach the available cashier. They have the menu printed big enough to make a decision even before we approached the cashier.

We had:




Pizza and Fettucine Alfredo (p140). They had different types of pizza and different kinds of pasta, so for me to taste both, I ordered this one. From what I know, they only serve pepperoni pizza for this kind of meal, but diners can choose what kind of pasta they will have. Aside from the fettucine, other choices would be: Spaghetti in Meat Sauce (p130) and Spaghetti al Pesto (p145). I chose the Alfredo because I knew pizza already had tomato sauce, so I want to taste something different.

The pizza was good. It wasn't as thick as the regular pan pizza, but it wasn't so thin as the regular thin pizza, too. It was soft, a bit chewy, so I really enjoyed the flavors playing in my mouth. As for the fettucine, it was basically like the normal alfredo pasta I have eaten, but because they added some herbs to it, it gave a different depth to the flavor. For its size, it was really more than I paid for.


Sampler Platter (p170). Lasagna, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Fettucine Alfredo - Nathalie's choice. From what I remember, she really enjoyed her meal. Since she also had the fettucine, I just asked for a little taste of the spaghetti and it was good, too. Typical Italian sauce, but not really that sour, so it's something every Pinoy will appreciate.

Both of us went for their Refillable Drinks (p50), which was something I really enjoyed because they had the drinks dispenser in one corner and diners can just choose whatever drinks they wanted - if they already consumed all the drinks, they can choose a different kind. Cool! I saw Mountain Dew in the choices, so I chose to have it.

Fazoli's also have Bread Sticks (6 pcs. - p45) in their menu, but it's something I won't recommend you to order from the start, because they have a staff roaming around the restaurant with a tray of bread sticks, and you can just freely ask for a bread stick for free. I think all in all I had three bread sticks.


The ground floor of the restaurant is where diners can order up and it is where their kitchen in located, the top floor is where the dining area is located. Like most restaurants in the area, they also had some tables outside, and it was where we chose to sit because there was a program and we wanted to see the happenings. Talk about good luck, we just spotted a celebrity - Gab Valenciano!

Great food, great price. I just love this place that when I got home I immediately shared the story to my sister. I told her if there is a chance for us to go to Eastwood City, I want us to eat here again so she can taste it, too. Crossing fingers for it to happen this year.

*** Jenn ***