Posts

Fish, Spice and the Thyme of My Life

Ahh it is the holiest Week of the Philippine calendar. Families taking a break find respite from polluted air city living and go to vacation resorts. Families 'bond' care of the beach and the beautiful rustic and oftentimes rural sceneries. The food? No problem. The locality's food business service will take care of that. They will enjoy the freshness of harvest from the sea: shrimps in Dakak , lobsters from Palawan , and the mollusks of Cavite . For us city-dwellers forever (only because we cannot afford a 5 kilometer travel away from our homes), we plan our meals around fish this time of the year. As Catholics are supposed to be meatless and instead 'endure' fish and veggie eating or none at all. This year would not be any different. I bought some tilapia and bangus , also some yellow fin tuna. Grilled, steamed sauced, our fish will be thymed, oreganoed, basilled, cuminned and black peppered. Delish and healthy. But aren't we Catholics supposed to m

"A man not old, but mellow, like good wine" by Stephen Phillips

There's nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys; renown and grace is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Macbeth, II. iii. (100) I am thinking of writing about wines. Why? There this heady and acrimonious feeling that I seem to be wanting to drown with a glass of wine. But I don't really drink. Not even socially. But learning recently, that a SINGLE glass of wine taken twice or thrice a week may be able to improve the performance of the heart's arteries made me stop and give wine drinking a more appreciative look. Despite some bad news in our family's midst, I need to do a post. Okey. I shall write about wine and food. His element is so fine Being sharpened by his death, To drink from the wine-breath While our gross palates drink from the whole wine. W.B.Yeats (1865-1939) All Souls' Night I found out from my

This is no creepy breakfast food

Image
After talking about food toxicity, here's one for health - from farm-fresh, luscious, red strawberries. My cousin arrived from Baguio and brought loads of strawberries. I thought perhaps, aside from making strawberry milkshake for the afternoon snack, I would also prepare crepe with strawberry filling for a very late breakfast. Here’s what I used to do the crepe batter. 4 eggs 1 c. flour 2 tbsp. sugar 1 c. milk 1/4 c. water 1 tbsp. melted butter, cooled Beat eggs in medium mixing bowl. Gradually add flour and sugar alternately with milk and water, beating until smooth. Beat in melted butter. Refrigerate batter at least one hour before use. When ready to use, lightly butter 6-8 inch non-stick pan. Pour scant 1/4 cup of batter into preheated skillet. Immediately rotate skillet until thin film covers bottom. Cook until light brown, turn and cook other side until light brown. Stack with waxed paper between each. Keep covered. Will yield 12 crepes. Strawberry Fill

Clear Case of Toxicity in My Food

Image
Look at what I found lurking at the bottom of my frying pan as I was just about to clean it. Yes I found this black, stiff as ordinary plastic stuff. I believe it's the residue after cooking tocino. Now what and where on earth did this toxic substance come from? I know that it is a by-product of something. And I know it is NOT healthy. Sodium Nitrate I suppose? By the way as defined by wikipedia tocino or "tosino is a cured meat product native to the Philippines It is usually made out of pork and is similar to ham and bacon although beef is also used. It is often reddish in color and has a sweetish taste. Its name is derived from the Spanish word tocino, which is used to describe bacon or cured meat". "The meat is sliced into thin strips. Anise wine, annatto , water, salt, sugar, and saltpeter are combined in a container. Each strip is the sprinkled with the mixture and then piled on top of each other in a separate container, which is covered and ke

Sarang hamida Koreans

Image
My Korean neighbors were celebrating something the other day and they invited me to come over for some chat and food. Aside from the traditional kimchi the mistress of the house served what she called Korean Beef. I must admit it was kindda sweet for my taste but the beef was tender, to spicy for my palate. The chopped peanuts and the pear provided the relief and from the cholesterol count too. And today I realized Korean and Japanese food have something in common – mirin  Am I telling you?  With very little English on her part we were talking more through sign language. Her children are better English speakers than herself. The children really pick up faster than adults. Me thinks Before I left and with the best sign language I can master I politely asked her if she had the recipe for her Korean beef. She was motioning something and from what I made out of it she was promising to hand it to me the next day. Thank you and Good night. The next morning, her help was buzzing, my r

It is Teri but not yucky, okey?

After posting about those delish cheeses from Europe, I go back to the Asian style of food preparation. Try Japanese. I am posting about that dish called Teriyaki? I am not from Japan . I have not lived nor visited Japan. Well, almost in 1994, the local Japanese Embassy in fact granted me a business Visa. Look, I didn’t know it was winter in Japan that time L . So my trip was cancelled although my scheduled companion-friend went ahead anyway. But I digress. Ah yes - never lived, never visited the cherry blossoms country. But I got me a couple of Japanese friends, okey? I met them when I attended a business conference in Singapore . With little English on their part, we talked about what else, food. Sign language you see. And yes, we were dining in a Japanese restaurant at that time. And Yessss we were feasting on teriyaki. That’s what I call a seguey :-) So, what is Teriyaki? Teriyaki is one of the many ways of Japanese cooking. The word, teriyaki is a com

Posh Mama

I was supposed to write this in Feb 26 after applying for membership to Post Mama hoping I'd be able to take advantage of 100 Entrecard credits. However, I forgot all about it till tonight. Anyway, I'd still want to quote the invitation from their message board as follows: "A message to all members of Posh Mama Posh Mama is an online magazine and a social network exclusively for women from all around the world. The network is a supportive, interactive, and highly engaged community of Posh Mamas who share information on fashion, beauty, style, home interiors, art, book reviews, author interviews, fitness, nutrition, unique products for women, cool gadgets, high-tech toys and important product recalls". "You don't have to be a "Mother" to be a 'Posh Mama'. " So if you think this community is for you "come hang out with" us at www.poshmama.com .