Buco Loco

Has it really been a week since I last posted here? Well, I had problems with Internet connection - signals break every now and then, and during night times it was really awful. Maybe it's the endless rain causing the breaks with the connection, but anyway, this weekend wasn't really that good as I hoped it would be, but we are all safe, so that is reason to be thankful.


This weekend, I was able to pass by a thrift shop where I got to buy 4 tops for only p15 each. Told myself I won't buy any clothes 'til I lose 20lbs., but p15 pesos a piece was so cheap, couldn't resist it. It was of good quality despite the price, one even had a tag still attached.

One thing I did a lot of last weekend though, was to watch "Criminal Minds" on DVD. It is one my favorite TV shows, and I started watching from the first season again, so my mind will be fresh when I start watching seasons 6 and 7, which I still haven't watched yet.

Last night, sister came home with this bottle of Buko Loco, a coconut drink that got her craving for it for many weeks already. This week, she has the early morning shift, so before coming home, she passed by SM Fairview to buy it.

I still haven't checked Buko Loco's kiosk, so I am not familiar with their drinks, but sister told me there's always a beeline of people. She went for this drink - with nata de coco inside - and I personally found it too milky, that it already lost that coconut flavor.

Of course, one sip isn't enough to conclude if I like it or not - so when I go to SM I will check it out and see if they have other flavors I might love.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Bro's Chicken Inasal

On our last grocery day, brother texted to include some chicken breast for him. When he saw sister didn't finish all the Sprite in the can, he decided to marinade the chicken meat to make inasal. Yesterday lunch time - I was still very sleepy when I overheard he was going to the market to buy some pork to be grilled. Even if I was sleepy, I managed to shout out a favor of buying some eggplants, because I loved eating ensaladang talong during BBQ days. :)

I wasn't able to take a picture of my grilled pork chop and my ensaladang talong with lots of chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced radish, and bagoong balayan... but I was able to take a picture of brother's chicken inasal. I am not into chicken breast, but I gave this one a taste. It was surprisingly tender, but it was quite far from my own version of the dish. I wasn't able to taste much of the ginger and lemon grass, but the dish was okay enough.

Thanks for the great lunch yesterday, brother dear!

*** Jenn ***

Kowloon House's Jumbo Pao

I was really lazy this weekend; I even forgot to take a picture of something I ate, so I will just rewind and share another food I ate from the other weekend. :)


Every Saturday late afternoon 'til late night, my brother would go to Lagro (Quezon City) to attend the SFC-CLP of their chapter. I received a call from him the other Saturday, just to have a quick chat, and I asked him to buy me one jumbo pao from Kowloon House kiosk, also in Lagro. It's open 24 hours, so brother didn't have any reason not to buy me one.

I have always loved Kowloon House's siopao. Normally, I would just buy their regular sized siopao (P55 for 2 pieces), but when I read an article on the Top 10 Best Tasting Siopao in the Metro and Kowloon House's jumbo pao made the list, I got a little interested in tasting it. Come to think of it, I still haven't tasted it, until now.

Size wise, it was really that big - slightly bigger than the 7-11 siopao, but it was really heavy! When I steamed this one (I ate my share the next day, of course), I couldn't pick it up using the tongs! Hahahaha... In eating this, I really had to use a knife, because if I just hold it, it would be a bit too thick to handle.

I am used to eating the asado flavor, so me eating the bola bola flavor was a great change. What made me like it more was that the chorizo slices were just so big, too! I love, love it! The downside is that, I had a difficult time eating the whole siopao! I guess I will just have to stick to the regular ones. :)

*** Jenn ***

Steamed Tilapia and Veggies

Yesterday, my mom asked me if I wanted to eat tilapia or bangus. Both fishes were available in our fridge, but seeing we only had 2 pieces of tilapia and it was just the two of us eating, might as well cook it and save the bangus for later because we can cut it in 3 to 4 pieces for the whole family to eat.

In one issue of DiabetEASE Magazine that my aunt had, I read that tilapia has got to be the one of the unhealthy fishes one could eat, for reasons I cannot recall anymore. What I do recall was that, while it is very safe to eat tilapia, it would be much better to cook it without oil. With that in mind, I decided to just steam the fish.

Normally, when we steam the tilapia (or any fish), we would put slices of kamias to give the fish some tangy flavor, but our kamias tree didn't have any fruits, so I just squeezed some lemons. Nothing major on this dish - I just seasoned it with salt and pepper before steaming it. I also added some cut vegetables (cabbage, green beans, red bell peppers, and carrots), for some fiber. As for the dressing, I just prepared an aioli sauce.

*** Jenn ***

Happy Birthday, Mafe!

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from tita Flory asking me to meet her outside because she will be giving something. That something is this plate of food, which she prepared because it's her daughter Mafe's birthday. Mafe is actually in Singapore for about two years now (I guess), but tita Flory would still prepare some foods on her birthday to celebrate it. Sweet, eh?

Anyway, mom had a visitor, so the food came at the right time - and us three shared the food. My share became my dinner already, and we decided to keep the macaroni salad for sister. All were delicious, but my favorite was the Lumpiang Shanghai.

Big thanks for the food, tita Flory! And to Mafe, a happy happy birthday!

*** Jenn ***

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 ***

Friday Dinner

Last Friday, mom handed me her lunch bag and told me there were some foods inside. Brother and I were a bit stressing what to cook for dinner, and seeing that mom took home something eased up the worrying. At first I thought it was roasted chicken because it was something mom would buy for dinner from time to time, but when brother opened it, he said it was pork barbecue. Hmmm... yummy.

Brother cooked soup to go with the barbecue, but I didn't like it because it was corn flavored. I guess my tastebuds were used with having Nido Soup or the Cream of Mushroom, that I didn't like this. I took some sip and gave brother my bowl.

Mom told that she bought the pork barbecue at the store near her office. I liked the taste of the meat - this actually wasn't the first time we ate grilled foods from the store; in 2007, mom bought some marinated meats from them, which we took at the neighborhood's summer outing. I asked mom why she bought some barbecue there, and she told me that a stick of barbecue there cost only P15 each, which was a lot cheaper than Ineng's Barbecue. I told them I just ate Ineng's Barbecue two weekends ago, and through mom I just learned that there was already a branch at Nova Stop.

There wasn't much difference in the taste - I liked this barbecue because it had more lean meat than fat... and compared to Ineng's they used a slightly much thinner stick. I guess if one would ask me to choose between Ineng's and this one, I'd choose this.

*** Jenn ***

Ineng's Barbecue

Monday is when I highlight foods I ate from the weekend, and for this post, it's about Ineng's Barbecue.


From the Quezon City Circle, my friend Halie and I decided to walk to the weekend market of Lung Center of the Philippines to check it out since we were already in the area. On my part, I was looking forward to eating this barbecue following a spotlight on it at a recent "Tara Let's Eat" (QTV11) episode. I have been noticing this barbecue kiosk ever since we started going to the weekend market, but I never gave it much attention because I found their barbecues a bit expensive. TV was one great force, it seemed... and me seeing Tonipet Gaba ate the barbecues with gusto, I also wanted to try it, too.

I told myself I would only eat one stick of barbecue just to satisfy my curiosity, but seeing they have meals, too, I decided to go for it since I wasn't able to eat breakfast before leaving the house. I went for this meal - 2 pcs. of small pork barbecue with rice and for my side dish, I ordered ensaladang talong as well.

The verdict. It was indeed good. the pork was tender, it was marinated well, and it tasted great. The ensaladang talong was very typical, but it had a lot of chopped onions and tomatoes... and mixing all with soy sauce, kalamansi juice, and bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste) was just heavenly because it complemented well with the barbecue.

As good as it may be, I still have qualms about trying it again... the cost is still preventing me from eating it again.

*** Jenn ***