Pork & Apple Stew
I checked my stats and the most visited pages are my hamonado recipes followed by sinaing na tulingan, patatim, tocino and skinless longgonisa. My hamonado is actually not ham-cured; like my tocino, it has no curing processes whatsoever to preserve food such as standard longganisa, ham, fish, cheese, sausage, or vegetables. It is just a term my dad uses when referring to a big chunk of meat stewed with sweetener for hours. Frankly, I cook this hamonado at least once a month, of course with variations. It is, for me, like adobo – a versatile dish. I use chicken or pork or even beef. Sweeten the meat with fruit juice like pineapple juice, fruit cocktail syrup, pineapple chunks, apples, raisins or just plain sugar. Serve it with steamed vegetables – potatoes, carrots, beans, snowpeas, or even tomatoes, whatever is available. Don’t be surprised if I tell you I have quite a number of pictures waiting to be published.
So here is another one… apple-flavored!
Pancit bihon and 
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 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.
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.
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 