Pork8 Comments

Pork & Apple Stew

Iska

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!

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Musings3 Comments

Xinnian Kuai Le!

Iska

Tonight is the eve of the Spring Festival or commonly known as the Chinese New Year – the most important festival or holiday for the Chinese people. It falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month and is celebrated like Christmas for Pinoys. So here are just few facts that I observed for the past years…

1. No meeting with Clients, Consultants, or suppliers. Basically everybody is on vacation for a month or even more.

2. Constructions are also on hold as migrant workers go back to their hometowns.

3. 2 weeks from the festival is the busiest time for transportation systems – the airport, train stations, long-distance bus stations, the subway.

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Appetizers11 Comments

LP6: Adobong Isaw

Iska

My chosen field is said to be a man’s world. Back in college where one interacts with more males and t-squares than females, important and close friendships between opposite sexes is as natural as breathing. And after each semester of hard work and sleepless nights, breaks and summer vacations were celebrated with parties full of booze. (Parents, no need to worry. As long as you know who your kids’ friends are there is no reason to panic.)

The 1st time we had a drinking spree at home was my 19th birthday and that day marked the beginning of a series of inuman either with friends and relatives. My parents were always there enjoying every bit – mom drinking liters of cola while dad with just half a bottle of beer that’s consumable for the whole night.Social drinking eventually played a huge part in my kind of work for a lot of reasons. Dealing with colleagues, clients, consultants, suppliers, contractors, even laborers. Also like Ting said, drinking is a way of unwinding. It’s a person’s way of de-stressing from a hard day’s knock although now it’s been quite a while since I went into such a pinoy-style gathering and my tolerance to alcohol has diminished considerably.

Pulutan is a kind of food that is served as accompaniment to a drink. It comes in different kinds like meat, fish, nuts, chips. It’s prepared in different ways… fried, steamed. Basically, it is anything that makes drinking enjoyable.

Source: Lasang Pinoy 6 : Let’s wash it down with booze!

Too bad I forgot what Dad & Mom normally prepared for pulutan. My guess, menudo or inihaw na tilapia (broiled tilapia over live charcoal). With my friends, I do remember that isaw has always been a favorite. It could be IUD (chicken intestines) from a street vendor (IUD photo is courtesy of GUTS. GRIT. GUMPTION.) or crispy chitterlings as prepared by my friend’s mom. Here in Beijing we occasionally go to this English bar with Pinoy musicians, an equally Pinoy chef, and among our favorites are sisig (a sizzling dish of spicy chopped pork head & liver) and chicharong baboy (pork rinds).

However, when it comes to pulutan it’s the other way around over here as it is alcohol that accompanies food. The Chinese traditionally drink while eating so you can imagine the scenario as it’s considered improper to say no to the host especially if he’s our Client. Gan Bei! ( Pronounced ‘gam bay’, meaning ‘dry cup’) You are expected to empty the glass. The good thing is that drinking with food decreases the rate of alcohol absorption and may also reduce the amount consumed.

For LP6, here is the recipe of our carinderia adobong isaw ng baboy (stewed chitterlings, chit’lins or pork intestines, whatever) as I remember it from my Dad. It’s not standard turo turo (eatery) food but a delicacy especially popular with the common masses served as pulutan. Oh was I glad to find that the chitlins being sold here in supermarkets are really clean.

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Musings8 Comments

10 random (and weird) facts about iska

Iska

I haven’t started cooking for LP6 and I am already listing down 10 random facts about myself that most of my readers don’t know. I’ve been tagged by Ces of essenCes for this ‘too much info’ meme. Half-tagged, I guess, and this is my 2nd meme. The 1st one is food-related. Anyways, I decided to list down what I find interesting, amusing, funny or even weird… 1. I remember quite vividly some scenes during my very 1st birthday. 2. I was a member of my HS choir despite my lack of talent in singing. 3. I was about 6-7 years … Continue reading 10 random (and weird) facts about iska

Snacks & Breakfasts4 Comments

Corned Beef

Iska

What else am I going to miss? Corned beef. When Ate (my sis) was here autumn last year, I told her we couldn’t find corned beef in Beijing so she gave me some in packets to bring back here. Now we’ve finished the last packet. Sobs! On the other hand, one can always prepare his/her corned beef. I may do that some other time…

What is it about Philippine brand corned beef? Purefoods, swifts, argentina, even rodeo (do we still have it?), you name it. They’re really great especially the chunky ones (or I just miss the taste of it). Not even those imported brands from the mideast, NZ and or even from down under can compare. That’s just my opinion of course and I think I should try those from the US and Ireland…


… other Irish people feel that Corned Beef and cabbage is about as Irish as Spaghetti and meatballs. That beef was a real delicacy usually served only to the kings.

Source: The History and Irish Tradition of Corned Beef

I normally cook corned beef 2 ways and serve them one time – 1 sauteed and another 1 soupy w/ potatoes. Check it out…

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Musings7 Comments

Tableas: Hot Choco Drink & Champorado

Iska

Uh oh, the last of the Batangas tableas from my mom are gone! Can’t get enough of hot choco drink and champorado (chocolate rice as Cean calls it, which is like chocolate-flavored rice porridge). We’d surely miss the taste of these delightful chocolate tablets (or balls?) made from native cacao.

I was just thinking of writing down how I prepared the above but I read about the history of chocolate and I couldn’t resist the urge to share it. To summarize it all, the culinary use of cacao (or Theobroma which means ‘food for the gods’) especially as a beverage, is said to be 1st developed in what is now Mexico. It was passed on from the old inhabitants such as the lowland Maya to the other inhabitants of central Mexico. The Aztecs, in particular, took it to new heights of significance. The Spaniards then picked up the habit, the royals married to the French, and soon the choco drink became popular to Europeans just like coffee and tea. How the cacao plant reached the Philippines sometime in 1670 and how our ancestors experimented w/ this lovingly meticulous cacao processing that made it Filipino is another story I would rather hear from a qualified researcher. Like how true is this story of Spanish immigrant Jose Maria Pueo who arrived in the country and founded a chocolate factory in post-Colonial Intramuros. And I’m sure you’ve heard of tsokolate-eh (thick choco drink) preferred by Intramuros – affluent families and Spanish friars, as well as tsokolate-ah – the indio’s (poor man’s) watered down version from Joji.

The Mayan Indians of Central America and the Aztec Indians of Mexico were the original cultivators of cacao beans. They were growing cacao well before Columbus discovered America. Botanists believe that the cacao tree originated in the Amazon river basin in South America. In 1528, Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, took some cacao beans to Spain. In 1606 the beans were introduced into Italy. and shortly after, people in Austria and France began to use them. By 1707 cocoa had become a fashionable beverage in London. Through the 17th century until early 1900’s the Spanish religious community built a reputation for high quality production of cooking chocolate, which they called ‘Tableas’.

Source: Ground Organic Chocolate (Cacao)

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Noodles & Pasta6 Comments

Bihon Guisado

Iska

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)!

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Pork10 Comments

Lumpiang Shanghai

Iska

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 pancit bihon!

Haha! Now I can cook lumpiang shanghai anytime I want to. I managed to find a store that sells the kind of wrapper I need. This is China and I am sure everybody thinks it’s easy to find. I guess all those restaurants make their own wrappers. I normally find the thick type they use to wrap peking ducks (or Beijing ducks).

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Desserts & Baking27 Comments
iskandals-leche-flan.jpg

Lasang Pinoy 5: Leche Flan & Pinoy Christmas away from Home

Iska

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.

What was it back home that I wouldn’t swap for a Christmas in another country though I was young and got to live independently without my parents’ nagging (not to mention that it was a non-Christian country way down south of the Philippines)? Oh I could think of a lot of things…

Seeing my dad hang parols (star lanterns, kaleidoscopic and bright or not) while us kids decorate our home with the Belen depicting that first Christmas, the Nativity Scene, and the Christmas tree when we could finally afford to buy one. Struggling to complete Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo , a traditional nine-day novena of Masses in pre-dawn hours with my ate & kuya for 9 consecutive mornings before Christmas to either obtain special graces, implore special favors, or make special petitions (whichever is your reason). The aroma of native puto bungbong (purple yam glutinous rice dessert) right after the dawn Mass. The visits of carolers going from house to house and what fun we had when we would sometimes turn off the lights to hide from ‘serial carolers.’ The colorful Makati by night. Buying gifts especially the ones for my family and the challenge of hiding them before Christmas day. The Misa de Aguinaldo, the ‘gift mass’ held before the clock strikes 12. Mommy still cleaning the kitchen mess when it’s almost midnight. My dad’s pancit bihon, my mom’s fruit salad, kuya’s sweet & sour fish, ate’s lumpiang shanghai, while I, the youngest, got the simple task of frying the fiesta ham. Oh I am also sure they do miss my leche flan (caramel custard) as I am the only one who knows how to prepare it.

But most of all, for a small family of 5 who lives away from other relatives most of our lives and especially during this season, what I miss is our family togetherness, our simple and sometimes humble Christmas feasts, our ceremonial gift-giving after the Noche Buena, and those few hours before we finally retire to bed when we would sing or talk about anything or just enjoy each other’s company. None of all those drunken partying I’ve done away from home can compare to all these.

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Pork10 Comments

Lasang Pinoy 4.5 – Pork Steak and No to Plagiarism

Iska

How did Lasang Pinoy evolve into this ‘beyond Yemagate special edition’? Check it out here. History is here and there. I guess some of the parties involved already knew where I stand in this matter so I’d rather not talk more about it. The bottom line is that I joined LP4.5 (even brainstormed a bit) to support people with such deep love for culture. Four LP events and I have already learned a great deal. A lot more to go, a lot more to learn.

What to say about borrowing someone else’s photo? Like Stef said, ‘the best way is always to ask first and get that person’s permission, which more often than not will be granted.’ Sassy even checked whether she has another photo of the same dish for me to borrow!
Why Pinoy Cook’s photo? Ok, now I have to disclose this. Before I started foodblogging I’ve been struggling to remember dishes that I used to prepare years ago (mahirap masanay ng may tagaluto) and as I am always open to new ones I began searching for recipes on the internet. Mr. A (he’s shy he prefers not to be mentioned) was the one who actually found her site. It must be his way of telling me what to cook (and how it should be done hahahaha). Also, every time I google I always end up reading a recipe from Sassy, the Pinoy Cook.

Why pork steak? Though I am always trying to make any vegetable dish as attractive and delectable as possible to the 2 guys (1 big, 1 small) in my life, here is a dish that has always been a hit. (Is it a case of hereditary preference for meat or just the male hormones?) We just had our medical check-up and good thing we are healthy as bulls so it’s about time to go devour sinfully delicious taba ng baboy.

So do check out her recipe and below is how I did mine. The way I cooked my pork steak is almost similar to the way Sassy did except that I used lemon juice and no Worcestershire sauce.

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Vegetables8 Comments

Tortang Talong

Iska

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.)

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Pork, Poultry6 Comments

CPA (Chicken and Pork Adobo)

Iska

If I didn’t check it out and research a bit on the country’s national dish (which is lechon), I would certainly say that it’s adobo right away. So let’s just say it is the best-known Filipino dish. What more is there to say about it? Well, I just wanna add that it was something I envy every time I had fried galunggong (or mackerel scad) for binalot and my classmate seating beside me had adobo. For a 6-7 year old kid, galunggong wasn’t something I really liked back then.

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.

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