Foodie 365 | Week 18

Week 18 is another mellow week for me - no food trips, no recipes tried... the family just cooked usual dishes we felt cooking. The main thing this week, though, is that we got to eat some regional foods. Here are the foods for Week 18:

120. Alukon Dinengdeng

30 April 2011

Mom just asked me to cook vegetables for dinner, and when I went to the market, I saw one stall selling alukon (the ones that look like worms), because I knew mom loves it (and I do, too). Dinengdeng is a how Ilocanos (people from Ilocos Region) cook their vegetables - no definite veggies to use, it was more of a mix and match thing, and to complete the dish, I added sweet potatoes, malunggay (moringa) leaves, lima beans, and jute leaves. Of course, no dinengdeng is complete without the fried fish, good thing we had some left over fried fish from lunch. Yummy dinner!


121. Goto

01 May 2011

Sister and I went to the Sidcor Weekend Market, but no major food trip for us - this day I just wanted to sustain my body with some food because I haven't eaten breakfast yet.

122. Slers Chicharon

02 May 2011

Brother came home from Cagayan de Oro, and he gave us this big bag of chicharon - something his girlfriend bought for us. When I first posted something about the Slers Chicharon last year, I talked about the oh-so-big chicharon, but I wasn't able to show how really big it was, so this time, I took a quick picture before we started eating it. The plate was really there for a purpose, I really wanted to show how huge it was. :)

123. Vjandep Pastel (chocolate)

03 May 2011

Whenever brother comes home from Cagayan de Oro, he always brings home a box or two of Vjandep Pastel (soft buns with filling - a product of Camiguin Province), and this was no different. Last time, I requested for chocolate, but there was a misunderstanding and they weren't able to do it, so this time brother made sure he would take home a box. This was very expensive (p105 / half dozen), but really delicious! It quickly became my favorite flavor.

124. Pilipit

04 May 2011

This one was made from Bulacan Province, but my siblings just bought this from the nearby market, because sister already missed eating it. It didn't have lots of sugar, but it was still good. Well, for p10 per pack, it was okay enough.

125. Kalamay with Peanuts

05 May 2011

Neighbors Charo and Cindy just came home from their Cebu-Bohol trip, and as pasalubong, they gave us this Kalamay. It was okay, I guess... unfortunately it was a bit stale already.

126. Banana

06 May 2011

My dessert after dinner. Potassium!

- * - * -

It's going to be my birthday week next week... hope I could could cook dishes, I barely touched my culinary magazines this week!

*** Jenn ***

Foodie 365 | Week 17

With brother flying to Cagayan de Oro, us girls pretty much decided to enjoy eating at home and cook simple dishes. No food trips for me this week, but it sure felt great donning my kitchen tiara. :) Foods for this week:

113. Salmon Head Sinigang

23 April 2011

Sister and I was able to buy salmon heads for only p160 per kilo, and we wanted to cook immediately, but it ended up sitting in the freezer until today. I cut two whole heads in half, and with three of us eating it, sis and I decided to eat half each, and let mom eat two halves, because she just loves fish sinigang, and it's rare for the family to eat salmon. Mom ate one half that dinner, the other half she ate the next day. This was also the first time I used mustasa for the greens, which I liked - the bitterness of the leaves and the tang of the broth was a good combination. The family always use kangkong or camote tops whenever we cook fish sinigang, and knowing mustasa tastes great in fish sinigang, I guess I will be using it more often now.

114. Grilled Liempo

24 April 2011

It's Easter Sunday and sister was just itching to cook pork! :) This was a very simple and basic grilled meat - seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of ground oregano. Sister cooked quite a lot for lunch that time, so we decided to eat the left over for dinner, too.

115. Dinuguan

25 April 2011

The woman who delivers meat and sausages every weekends delivered a bowl of pork blood as per mom's request. She also delivered some pork, and since we didn't want the blood to sit in the fridge for that long, we decided to cook it right away. I was supposed to be the one cooking this, but sister insisted she wanted to try and cook it, so I let her. The pork cuts were quite big (almost kinda looked like adobo cuts... well smaller than that, but it was big for Dinuguan), so the meat was a bit tough, but she got the flavors correct. I personally wanted my Dinuguan saucy, mom wanted it quite dry and oily, and I think my sister did a good job of making this dish in between.

She plated this dish - well, Dinuguan is probably one of the least appealing Filipino dishes - so I apologize if I didn't photograph this quite well... my girls (mom and sis) were quite hungry already and I didn't want to hold their eating up by trying to come up with a good shot. By the way, the chili on the foreground was something from my little veggie garden. Hooray for another harvest!

116. Merced Pineapple Pie

26 April 2011

Mom went to SSS East Avenue, and when she came home, she handed me a bag of pineapple pie from Merced Bakeshop, which she bought from the canteen. It is my favorite pastry (ever), and it's so good to eat it again!


117. Fish Sarciado

27 April 2011

The night before, I fried this kind of fish and cooked paksiw na galunggong for dinner. However, we still had some left over from lunch, so we ate the left over and the paksiw, leaving the fried fish untouched. Well, like I said, we wanted to just go with simple dishes (so we could save on food budget), so I just turned the fried fish into sarciado for lunch today.

118. Sunflower Crackers (Cheese)

28 April 2011

One of the difficulties in trying to save up on foods was that I didn't have enough choices which foods to photograph. Eating left overs and opening canned goods didn't look appealing, so I just took a picture of my snack.

I initially bought a pack of these crackers for my Mango Refrigerated Cake (I don't use Graham Crackers, by the way), but I always forgot to buy condensed milk so we would just eat all the mangoes, and up until now, I still haven't done my cake. I got a little hungry, and I wasn't able to resist the temptation of eating the crackers.

119. Double Sausage Spaghetti

29 April 2011

Our rice was nearly spent (the delivery people still haven't delivered the rice, ugh), so for lunch sister and I just went for spaghetti. I used the garlicky longganisa and chicken frankfurters for this dish, which I seasoned with little salt, ground pepper and Italian seasoning. The longganisa rendered a lot of fat, and I didn't want us to put it in our body, so I discarded it and added olive oil to add a little flavor, too. Somehow I followed the Pasta Kai-Vigan served to us from Felicity Patisserie, so no cream nor milk in here, though I used edam cheese spread, which I melted in the dish. My sister loved it, which I am thankful.

Brother will be back this Monday, so I will be sharing the kitchen with him... but it feels great being in the kitchen again, though we surely need to make trips to the market often, as it was difficult to cook meals based on the foods in our fridge and pantry.

*** Jenn ***

Foodie 365 | Week 16

Unlike last week, foods this week were a bit basic... I guess it's because it's the Holy Week, but I could also say I had a feast, thanks to the invitation I received from Felicity Patisserie. Anyway, here are the foods for Week 16:


Foodie 365 > 106/365 - Papaya
16 April 2011

We have a neighbor who sells fruits from their farm in Laguna. Most of their harvest were distributed in different markets, but the family also sells some fruits in their terrace. Whenever they have new harvest, they would phone us to check it out. Mom bought two papaya from them, and it was really delicious! I prefer my papaya really sweet, and this one didn't fail me.


Foodie 365 > 107/365 - Pancit Malabon
17 April 2011

Something I had while sis and I were at the Sidcor Weekend Market.

Foodie 365 > 108/365 - Yellow Watermelon
18 April 2011

One of the food items I bought at the weekend market was this yellow watermelon (very cheap at p35 pesos per fruit). It wasn't too sweet, but sweet enough to make a refreshing dessert.

Foodie 365 > 109/365 - Chocolate Nirvana
Felicity Patisserie - Don Antonio Heights, Quezon City

19 April 2011

I just posted the complete story behind this food trip... so many dishes and desserts eaten that night, but I decided to post this, as this was my favorite dessert among the cakes served to us.

Foodie 365 > 110/365 - Chicken Tinola
20 April 2011

It was Holy Wednesday, basically the last day for the family to eat meat dishes. Brother chose to cook Chicken Tinola and experimented on using malunggay leaves instead of chili leaves, and it turned out good. Actually is was really good that the family decided to use malunggay leaves for tinola from here on out.

Foodie 365 > 111/365 - Banana Loaf

Max's Corner Bakery - SM City Fairview
21 April 2011

When mom last dropped by Max's Restaurant to buy a loaf of bread, it was all sold out, so she just bought a loaf of Raisin Bread and this one. I am not fond of eating raisins, so I just went to eat some of the banana loaf. Eating this one gave me the nostalgic feeling, as the banana bread was one of my favorites while I was in elementary.


Foodie 365 > 112/365 - Dried Fish and Misua Soup
22 April 2011

Very basic dishes for Maundy Thursday / Good Friday / Black Saturday for us here in the family, and for lunch, I just fried some dried fish (which I bought from the weekend market), and cooked a simple misua soup using the remaining carrot and cabbage. To add some meaty flavor, I sprinkled the soup with imitation bacon bits (made from soy beans). Very simple, but still, we had a great lunch.

It is still Holy week, and the family still hasn't served any meat dishes, but I guess tonight we will binge a bit as we will cook the Salmon Heads, one of the family's favorites.

*** Jenn ***