Bihon Guisado
Pancit bihon and lumpiang shanghai maybe too boring for birthdays but in a foreign country when one seldom finds the right ingredient like lumpia wrapper and pancit bihon, these dishes become more than spectacular. The birthday boy was really lucky!
My missing ingredient is kinchay or Chinese celery. Again, how come I can’t find it here in Beijing? A common dilemma here and even in Brunei where I used to be based. Always available is this celery that looks exactly like our kinchay but with a stronger flavor. I’m talking about coriander leaves, main ingredient in Thai tom yam soup. Well, there really is Chinese celery available. The leaves are slightly bigger but I only need few tablespoon of it, chopped, but these are sold in big bunches. So I said forget about it.
Bihon guisado, by the way, is fried rice vermicelli or meehoon goreng in other southeast Asian countries. Here’s my bihon recipe (for long life)!
We were so busy thinking about buying our son another birthday cake so we can have our private ‘blowing candle’ celebration. Private meaning just the 3 of us. He already had 1 with our family back home and another one w/ his classmates on his 1st day of school this year. We were almost done w/ eating the cake after an afternoon stroll at the Chinese military museum when I realised it is actually somebody else’s birthday! Good thing I had some party stuff to cook. Lumpiang shanghai and 
I’ve been based in another country since ’93. If I am not mistaken, I have had about 6 to 7 Christmases spent away from home. Before Cean was born, I would say all those Christmases are the worst I knew in my life. Imagine this scenario: I would always put up a happy face and take refuge in the comfort of strangers but after all the fun and I was nested alone within the confines of my square bedroom that would be the time when the reality of not being with my family sets in, tears were shed while calling my mom until exhausted enough to fall asleep.
I seldom cook meatless tortang talong (aubergine or eggplant frittata) for the reason that I might be the only one to eat it. And yes, I do cook it for myself to enjoy (and others like adobong atay, burong mustasa and nilagang talong) while preparing another dish for the rest of my family. Back home, our torta is always meatless – just the aubergine and the egg and their glorious taste. (Adobong atay – chicken or pork liver cooked in vinegar and spices, burong mustasa – fermented or just simply salted mustard leaves, nilagang talong – boiled aubergine.)
Mom’s chicken adobo is dry. She lets the sauce dries up and fries the chicken w/ more soy sauce. I love it. It’s really good paired with plain rice. But what I usually prepare now is something different. It’s a combination of mom’s adobo ala-eh style and what I encountered during my overnight stays on friends’ homes during my college days. Oh my near-bohemian archi student days. Some of my friends’ moms cook it with thick sauce and potatoes. And oh by the way, 2 non-Pinoy friends of ours – a local Chinese MA student and a Singaporean Spa Owner/Consultant, love our Philippine adobo.
Just one of those days when we are rushing for a lot of things and don’t wanna have rice for lunch…
Pakbet or pinakbet is probably the most famous Ilocano dish. It is also one of the very first dishes that I learned to cook at age… 8 or 9? I forgot. I did overcook the vegetables a few times before Dad finally told me they don’t have to be always overdone. Well, they ate my pakbet delightfully during those times, maybe just to show some appreciation.
Tsk tsk. What’s gonna happen w/ all the KFCs around when there are more than a hundred outlets in Beijing alone? There was also another article that says they open over 250 restaurants a year in China and operates in every Chinese province and region except Tibet. Hmmmm… but then, 
As a child, the norm is to stir-fry cooked rice w/ garlic. We may crack an egg, add a teaspoon of soy sauce & stir the rice w/ it as another way of doing it and that’s about it. Here, I still do the browning of garlic to bring out the aroma as a tribute to what sinangag (Filipino for fried rice) really is, and then proceed to all the Chinese stuff. The fried egg topping is definitely Malay inspired. I could have easily called it nasi goreng istimewa (Malay for special fried rice) but that has dilis or dried small fish & shrimp paste, and worth of another blog post.