There is something special about this food photo that would forever remind me of Bursky (awww Dhey you know why). Do check out his blog. He said I owe him a review but for what?! I don’t certainly do blog reviews or even LP reviews hehehehehe. But hey this guy shamelessly called me “a wonderful lady” in his LP entry which he posted the very next day after I put a shotgun in front of his face; the least I can do is link to his blog and invite you all to read his very interesting post for LP16. It has no food photos but I am sure like me you would be amused by this young lad’s fascinating take on Pinoy food culture.

I have no idea how to call this but beef rice – reminiscent of how I prepare Hainanese chicken rice. A recipe was given to me by a dear friend (Joey yeah that’s you!) but the rebel cook I am I didn’t do it exactly the way it should be done. Reasons… I don’t have the canned ingredients and I don’t wanna bake. Anyhoo, if you are reading this, Joey, you know what I changed.

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 bowl of sliced fresh button mushrooms
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese
Salt and pepper
Beef parts
Thai rice

Add in the beef parts in a pot of boiling water to obtain beef stock. After few minutes, throw in the diced onion and season with a little salt and pepper. Simmer long enough for the stock to be more concentrated and until the beef is tender. Once cooked, scoop out the beef and slice into bite-size pieces. Set aside.

(Much as I like to fry the uncooked rice with sauteed garlic before steaming, I did the shortcut.) Add 2 to 3 cups of washed Thai rice in a rice cooker. Pour in enough beef stock; proportion to the quantity of rice. Add in the mushrooms, grated cheese and butter sticks. Mix well. Close the lid and let the rice cooker do the rest. Left-over beef broth maybe cooked with vegetables ala-nilaga.

You may fry the reserved sliced beef and serve with the cooked rice.

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.