I took some pics of our 1st ever barbecue at home in Beijing last month. Like I said, forget the diet. this was the first time in Beijing. up on the roof. My recipe is a combination of what I think was the secret of street vendors selling barbecue back home & one recipe I found in the internet. Grilled over burning charcoal and served with home-made sauce. I would really like to have them grilled on bamboo skewers or what we call barbeque sticks but we couldn’t find any in the supermarket.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 kg. of pork rump or butt (as we love it, w/ fat )

For the marinade:
1 pc. Lemon (we normally use kalamansi back home but couldn’t find them here)
1/2 c. of dark soy sauce
2 tbsp. of finely minced garlic
1 onion, finely chopped
1/4 c. of catsup
1 tsp. of ground black pepper
2 tbsp. of sugar

For the sauce (all mixed together):
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 cup of vinegar
salt & pepper

Slice the pork meat into 1/4in slices. Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the pork meat. Mix in the marinade well, preferably w/ the meat using your hands.  Cover and let stand in the refrigerator for at least an hour, mixing the meat every 15 minutes or so to let the pork pieces marinate evenly.

Grill about 6 inches from live coals. For better taste, we pour the marinade over the pork every few minutes on both sides (a kitchen brush will do but back home, we normally use part of a banana leaf but unfortunately we’re not in the tropics right now). When u do cooking, u know in an instant if the meat is tender or overcooked. For some cook, to test for doneness, they slice a piece of pork at the middle of the skewer. If the juices run clear, the meat is done. Serve immediately. Sauce can be anything from catsup to soy sauce w/ lemon or ‘lechon’ sauce to vinegar w/ garlic, salt & pepper. We also had some grilled eggplants w/ raw tomatoes as side dish. perfect!

I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol. – Steven Wright

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.