Pakbet
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.
Below is based on my sister’s recipe though it isn’t exactly how our Ilocano dad cooks it. I already have a habit of frying the garlic before the pork which, in dad’s case, is the other way around. With the bitterness of ampalaya or bittergourd, my sister gave me an advice on how to get rid of it. Different from what dad taught us, which is to salt it for about 10 minutes. Ate instructed me not to stir once this vegetable is added to the cooking pan. She did just that when she visited us here in Beijing few months ago and proved her point. She said she got the trick from a friend who said the vegetable is a common ingredient in their household cooking.
The serving was really huge that we almost couldn’t finish everything. The beef rendang was delicious but spicy that we decided to tapaw (take-out) half of it. We are not really a bunch of chilli lovers so for dinner, I did some make-over. I add onions, tomatoes, garlic and string beans plus a cup of water to the beef rendang to lessen the chili flavor. I also prepared deep-fried codfish fillet as I was inspired by my conversation w/ my cousin in Australia whom I chatted with thru YM. For some reason, we always end up talking about food every time we see each other online. He mentioned that a favorite down under is to oven-grill fish (I forgot, was it salmon?) marinated w/ lemon juice, salt & pepper.
My sister requested for a chicken & mushroom dish for lunch so we grabbed some ingredients from the nearest supermarket & I cooked it following my instincts. I chose to do it the Chinese style, taking into consideration how I remember it ala-Ate Vi (Ate Vi as in Vivian), our Chinese interpreter. She lived w/ us for about 3 months during the 
Well here’s a dish that I cooked when my sister visited me here recently – spare ribs stew & steamed veggies – similar to my pork hamonado recipe.
Always wanna have some vegetables for a balanced diet. Bulanglang is a very simple vegetable soup (just plain boiled vegetables) I learned from mom – some kind of a native dish from her hometown. When you wanna have a fast side dish, this is it. You can do the same recipe & use different vegetables. I always like string beans & mushrooms (those that u can just pluck from anywhere) but too bad no mushrooms today. Ginger is also an important ingredient but i purposely omit it because some guys can’t help to be anti-ginger.