Asian Food Trip

Check Out My New Blog

2010-02-07T10:42:00.001-08:00

Hi! I am reformatting my blog! Check it out at http://www.mikurueats.blogspot.com/
See you there! ^^

Realistic Breads!

2009-10-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have developed a fascination towards fake food over the years. I don't know why, but there's something about fake food that makes me very interested. Nowadays, fake food is widely used for restaurant food displays. So instead of putting up real food which will definitely spoil at the end of the day, food shop owners are opting for plastic or whatever man-made material displays.

One day my mom enthusiastically showed these:

It's a small chocolate donut topped with strawberry cream! I was so amazed because it looked so real and smelled like the real thing, too! It smelled like frosted chocolate, really! And on the right, it's a stress ball that looked like a chocolate bun! Even the facial features smelled like chocolate syrup! It was too cute! Too cute that I even bought my own from the same store and here's what I bought:

More smiley choco buns! I also bought a fancy chocolate donut, it is glazed with dark chocolate, sprinkled with bittersweet chocolate bits and topped with whipped cream and peeled sweet oranges. The features are so detailed, anyone might mistake them for actual treats and eat it! Just look at the bottom part of the chocolate buns! It looks like the real thing!

And I also purchased those stuff above. That one is a purse. It looks like a tube of wasabi but if you squeeze the top part it will open and it has a lot of room for your small stuff like coins or whatever and no, you can't open the black cap. That's what I thought too when I first saw this. Good thing there was a helpful clerk to assist me when she saw me curiously tinkering this. Isn't it cute? And the last one is a box of Do-it-yourself cake. Yup, what you see pictured on the box is what it should look like after you finish sewing everything. Yup, you will sew! Inside the box are lots of fancy fabrics and cloths and other yarns you will need. Since I am so lazy, I let my brother do it. He is halfway through and I hope it will turn out right. How about you? do you like fake food , too?

Super China Bowl!

2009-09-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a year since I last saw my Chinese friend, Jianya Tang. She is a classmate in college and we helped each other through some tough times. We perfectly understand each other amidst barriers brought about by culture and language. I learned a lot from her and I believe she also did from me.

After looking at some Japanese school for us to learn Nihongo, we decided to eat at Super China Bowl!

The menu is mostly dumplings, noodles, vegetables and meats served on rice and that includes:

Those are pork and chicken on rice, pork dumplings and noodles. I had the pork dumplings and I was so surprised about the size of it! It was bigger than the usual siomai that are served on the street or on any other restaurants I have been in. It was very meaty and chewy. My noodles had siomai and beef strips. The noodles are way too thin than I think it should be but I enjoyed eating it with a pair of chopsticks. Eating at Super Bowl China really gives an extraordinary and authentic food experience even if the food is pricey.

Reyes Barbecue

2009-09-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

Do you love barbecue? I do! I love anything grilled! While scanning through my computer folders I ran into some pictures we took when me and my colleagues ate out for barbecue! We went to Reyes Barbecue in Greenbelt 1, Makati.

The menu is all about barbecued meats. There is Boneless Chicken Barbecue for 115 pesos, a stick of Pork Barbecue is 45 pesos, Grilled Pusit or Grilled Squid is 160 pesos, Liempo or Pork Cutlet is 150 pesos, Grilled Hamburger 95, Grilled Bangus (MilkFish) Belly is 105 pesos. Pretty much reasonable prices. By the way, 1 US dollar is roughly around 48 Philippine pesos.

It's so nice to eat out with friends! Our company doesn't impose strict rules when it comes to breaks so we took our time, but of course we don't abuse this privilege. We were all smiles when our orders came, just look at my Chinese colleague and "mentally-challenged" friend (just kidding! ^^) Jessie.

Aren't they in cloud nine? Haha!

From the top starting from the left pic, that's pork barbecue on a stick, grilled tuna, bangus, liempo and finally, chicken. Each meal is served with rice, pickled papaya and a dipping sauce - a combination of peanut sauce and soy sauce or worcestershire sauce, I am not sure about the actual mix but I can definitely taste peanuts! And oh, that's a mango shake, over there.

Barbecue is more enjoyable if shared with friends!

Pizza!

2009-07-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves pizza! Who wouldn't? Specially me! I mentioned pizza here.

I took the day off and I baked my own version of pizza. Here are the ingredients I used:

2-Medium sized Pizza crust. Okay, I haven't tried making my own dough so for the meantime allow me to cheat a bit. I had some grated quick-melt cheese. These are indeed quick melt, I had to refrigerate it after grating. I also had some ground beef and Italian sausage boiled for 20 minutes or so. The ground pork clumped together during the process of boiling so I have to crumble it. I had some sliced longganisa, onions and a few minced garlic just to have a little twist to my pizza and spaghetti sauce! Yes, I like my pizza with spaghetti sauce. This one had mushroom bits in it so I don't need to buy mushrooms anymore.

I sliced the Italian sausage. I bought this one from the local grocery and it was expensive! But it looks fancy with all the peepers and herbs inside. I spread the crusts with the sauce. I made sure I didn't place too much. Most of the pizza chefs say so. Then I arranged the sliced onions and garlic. And after topping it up with meat. I came up with two different pizzas!

The left one is the Italian Sausage Supreme and the right one is the local version, the Pinoy Longganisa Supreme Pizza!

After placing them in the oven, I realized I had a few ingredients left. So I used them to make mini pizzas with white bread.

The result turned out really great! The cheese melted wonderfully! The longganisa pizza was sweet and juicy and the Italian sausage had a hint of spice in it. Wow! I was able to bake two totally different pizza! My aunt loved it so much she told me I could run my own pizza restaurant. LOL. Who knows, maybe I would, someday!

My Cousin's Debut

2009-07-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

It was my cousin Beige's 18th birthday yesterday. And I am one of the emcees together with my other cousin Ieth. I am glad that I brought my camera, there was so much to see. When I arrived my cousins Red and friend Arch were busy with the last decoration. The theme was something like a luau and beach party combined.

The venue is at Kidz World. This is becoming the official venue for our family gatherings and other stuff. If you could remember we also had a celebration at this post. I was very disappointed actually because I wasn't able to feature the food at the buffet table because I need to do my job as the emcee. We had Kare-kare which was so delicious and the vegetables in it are perfectly steamed and the breaded tofu was so firm I almost thought it was breaded fish fillet. There are more and we even had lechon but unfortunately I had no time to take pictures of the. So I'll just dump these beautiful shots I took from the place.

And below is a 3-layered-cake. Each layer has a different flavor, give-aways (I think) and the 18 Candles.

Okay, there are no food features in this post, except for that cake, but it is worth a share. So please do check out my blog again for more!

Healthy Shabu-Shabu

2009-07-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

After going around in circles, finally we found it! Healthy Shabu-Shabu! Shabu-Shabu is a one pot meal where you blanch several ingredients right at your own table. Thinly sliced food is submerged in boiling water or broth or whatever then move in back and forth until it is cooked or simply leave it boiling. The back and forth movement makes a swishing sound. Shabu-Shabu directly translates to "swish - swish", hence the name.

The menu, apart from the cooked meals, are platters of raw ingredients. There are a bunch, actually. As you can see above, there are meat, vegetables, sea food, noodles, etc. It was my first time to eat shabu-shabu style so I was very much excited.

It actually took a while before our orders came in so I took the chance to take a photo of myself, hehe. And observe!

The utensils: there's a small bowl on a plate, 2 small spatulas at the left, one with holes in it. A pair of wooden chopsticks and a ceramic spoon for the soup. At the upper right, is a special sauce for dipping or for soup seasoning. It's pretty much an all-around sauce. As you can see there is a medium sized pot built in the table, that's where everything is cooked by no other chef but yourself. Isn't it nice? Then after a while, the waiter came and handed some more seasonings.

One raw egg, a small plate of minced garlic, spring onions, red and green chilies and an unknown brown paste. My brother said it was bagoong or fish paste, but it didn't taste like one. Then our pots were poured with a special broth. I don't know what it's made of but it's actually good, you could eat it on its own.

As soon as my pot was filled, I immediately seasoned it with garlic and spring onions. You know me, I hate spicy foods so I threw my chilies to my mom's plate. Gahaha!

Then, our orders finally came! Here's what we had..

The first one is a platter of fresh cabbage, lettuce, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, carrots silken tofu, sliced corn on the cob, fish balls, squid balls, white noodles, clear noodle and crab sticks. The next one is the seafood platter. It includes prawns, salmon strips, chopped squid, scallops and sea cucumbers. And the last one is the beef platter. These are fresh, thinly-sliced beef.

As I sip my papaya shake, I took the time to look around. The ambiance was okay. It did felt like a zen garden though it lacked a few more decorations. I love the wheel fountain. For my first time, I took whatever I can and dumped it in the pot.

Noodles and Crab Stick

Shiitake Mushroom and Squid Tentacles

Salmon and Beef

Add a few more, increase the temperature and let it cook!

I suddenly came up with an idea. I will make my own soup version and give it a name. It didn't took so much time for everything to cook. So I came up with these:

"Prawn-tastic!"

I mashed a few silken tofu, folded in some beef, added a leaf of cabbage, a slice of corn on the cob and topped it off with a giant prawn!

"Oriental Brown Soup"

For this one, I selected anything that has a brownish hue on it. Those that I found were shiitake mushrooms, sea cucumber, some scallops, beef and topped it off with some onion springs.

"Soft Soup Fast"

The ingredients in this one doesn't really have anything in common except for the fact that they are the first one cooked among the stuff I dumped in the pot. Cabbage, tofu and squid.

"Mini Seafood Ramen"

And my favorite creation! I had to arrange the noodles in a way that they won't tangle too much then cut the crab stick into thin sheets and delicately arrange them around the bowl and topped it off with a sea cucumber and some spring onions.

I had too much fun creating bowls, mixing possible combination and experimenting on a lot of stuff that I realized I haven't eaten much yet. When I looked around, there are a few ingredients left so I grabbed a few of what's left and again, dumped it in my pot!

I was enjoying every minute of it! Doesn't it show? Haha!

And for dessert, we had Halo-Halo. Yes, it's Halo-Halo. it's the first time I've seen one with very little shaved ice. A serving only had about a tablespoon of shaved ice and my jaw dropped to my amusement. At first I was disappointed but when I tried it, it was really good! The contrast between the sweetness of the banana and watermelon contrasted well with the zest of the kiwi, grapes and mango. The texture of black gulaman made everything nicer.

I really had a blast with my first Shabu-Shabu experience, I think I ate too much but it's okay, I didn't feel too much bloated because everything is boiled, not fried. Most of the time, I was asking my mom, who is sitting beside me if my sea food is already cooked. Honestly, most of them turn out either completely raw or half cooked! But you know, I can say, I have never ever enjoyed raw food this much since sushi. The most time I had waiting for my food to cook is about 3 minutes and for that, I could also say, Shabu-Shabu is not for everyone. Specialy for those who hate sushi but you'll never know! Try it!

Mom and Dad's Paluto

2009-06-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

There's a fresh way of eating here in the Philippines, and I mean literally. We have here what we call, "Paluto" restaurants. "Paluto" equally translates to: "let someone else do the cooking for you". Now, the fresh part is, those restaurants are only a stone-throw away from the market whereas seafood is guaranteed fresh! I personally love eating here. You could ask the chefs how would you like it cooked and additional ingredients are provided by them by request. Of course, they don't have everything so you have to buy some yourself. Last time, our family ate at Mom and Dad's and after buying still breathing sea critters, here's what the resto came up with:

(Left to right, starting at the top) Calamres, Shrimp Tempura, Fish in Miso Soup and Shellfish. Calamres is also Calamari, I just don't know why it's called such here but what the heck as long as it taste good. I love their Shrimp Tempura, too. The breading is crunchy like that of the Calamares' and the meat is soft. I find it very surprising. Almost all Tempuras and Calamares that I have eaten have a harder meat texture because it's deep-fried, but theirs is different. It looks like the meat was steamed, then deep fried. Fish in Miso Soup was also good. I can't recall what type of fish it was but I think it's tuna. Miso soup is widely known for its health benefits to regular consumers so every sip of the soup was revitalizing. I also loved the shellfish. I think it was first baked, then stir fried with the shell on.

And of course, a feast is not a feast without Sisig. As seen in the photo, I mixed the sisig with raw egg. Sisig is really delicious but this one had too much chili.

And there's the rice. Garlic and plain rice. I should've ask them to put more garlic.
I just love garlic. This one had enough garlic but I wanted more.

These are the hearty soups I tried. The first one is a Chicken and Broccoli soup. It had, well, chicken and broccoli, some minced carrots, a few noodle strands and other small vegetable bits that I couldn't identify. It was by far, the most flavorful soup that I ever had. I liked it so much that I had two servings of this one. The next is Miki Noodles. Miki is actually a large type of noodle. It is thick and delicious as well. And lastly...

This is "Lato". It is sea weed, eaten as it is when harvested. It's like a soft stem with many sacs attached to it filled with gooey stuff. It's not really a "fear factor" food. I actually enjoyed eating this. The slimy whatever that oozes out when bitten is actually like salt water but not really salty. Lato is best eaten with vinegar.

Carnitine (L-Carnitine)

2009-06-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

According to this site...

Carnitine is a nutrient that helps the body turn fat into energy. It is produced by the body in the liver and kidneys and stored in the skeletal muscles, heart, brain, etc.
Usually, the body can make all the carnitine it needs. Some people, however, may be deficient in carnitine because their bodies cannot make enough carnitine or transport it into tissues so it can be used. Some other conditions, such as angina or intermittent claudication, can also cause insufficient carnitine in the body, as can some medications.

Here in the Philippines, L-Carnitine is widely marketed as a weight loss supplement. Check out the video. Bottled iced tea is as popular as canned soft soft drinks here, if not, maybe even more popular than those sodas. Iced Tea brands included L-Carnitine in their drinks and claim drinking their products regularly will help you slim down faster, with the help of proper diet and exercise. I've been drinking one of these for some time now and I was surprised one day at the office when my colleagues told me that I am losing weight! I was like - "What?!" Yeah maybe it's because of L-Carnitine. I still have a lot more weight to lose, let's see how good L-Carnitine is then.

Japanese Food for Lunch

2009-06-24T03:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I didn't eat all of this in one sitting, haha. We have Sakura nearby, it's a Japanese fast food chain. I usually buy something here every pay day. (Haha, I assume you already know why.) This one here is Katsudon.

Katsudon is a popular Japanese food - a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet, egg and condiments. In my katsudon you see above I had worcestershire sauce and a small service of katsudon sauce in a separated small tub. Katsudon is very special to me because me and my close friends were eating this regularly for lunch back in my college days. Katsudon has a very interesting texture - crispy on the outside and soft and chewy in the inside. Combined with egg, a few caramelized onions and spring onions, it was heaven to me. Since then I have been trying other "don" meals.

Tonkatsu is invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or garlic soup. It is like Katsudon in terms of texture and appearance minus the egg and worcestershire sauce. The Tonkatsu that I had was really crispy and the tonkatsu sauce was really delicious - even on its own! Together with the meal, instead of having miso soup, I had garlic soup!

The soup was okay, it's not too "garlicy". It had a few spring onions, minced sauted garlic and a few onion sheets at the bottom of the cup. By the way, I eat while I work most of the time that's why you could see my keyboard. ^^

I also had this one - Tensildon!

Okay, I am not really sure if this is what it's called. I tried searching it up on Google and wikipedia but I got zero results. Anyway, if this is what the menu says then so be it. Tensildon is like an omelet. It has squid, sting beans, bean sprouts and other vegetables in it fried altogether with some worcestershire or soy sauce. It was good, but not as good as katsudon and tonkatsu but it was really filling. A serving of this could be enough for 2 people but I managed to finish everything, haha. And of course, Japanese food wouldn't be Japanese food if there were no sushis involved. So here they are - California Maki and Mixed Sashimi.

California Maki is a kind of sushi roll, usually made inside-out, containing cucumber, crab meat or imitation crab stick, and mango rolled in caviar. Unlike the traditional sushi, the seaweed wrap is inside. It has a very appealing color. The yellow-orange hue is so pleasing to look at. The sushi chef prepared infront of me and I could say making sushi is an art! I had mine with a little spread on top, I don't know what it is but it makes everything really great! The taste of mango plus the sauce made it even better! The sashimi is also great. In the picture you can see crab stick, tuna, the white stuff is squid, egg, sliced cucumber and shredded carrots. One thing that is good about these raw seefood is that there's absolutely no hint of mercury, and if a sushi is mercuryless, it means it's fresh! How about you? Have you tried Japanese food?

My Siomai Addiction

2009-06-17T01:08:00.000-07:00

Shaomai (also spelled shui mai, shu mai, sui mai, sui maai, shui mei, siu mai, shao mai, siew mai, or siomai) is a traditional Chinese dumpling. It is very popular here in East and South East Asia. Through the years, siomai (I'll use this kind of spelling since this is how it is spelled here in the Philippines) varieties have evolved. From the standard Cantonese filling of ground pork and mushroom - to the exquisite and sophisticated mixture of other kinds of meat (like beef, sea food and chicken) and vegetables.

I personally love them. Here in the Philippines a lot of vendors selling these on the streets like in the picture...

It's a mobile steamer! With either a bamboo or aluminum container, they sell siomai by the bunch! For only 10 pesos you could have 5 pieces, unlimited supply of toothpick and your choice of a dipping sauce. Ususally a combination of soy sauce and calamansi (local lemon) with or without chili.

We have Ministop at my workplace and they sell siomai. I frequently buy a bunch and eat it with rice.

I switch between steamed and fried. I have already tried mushroom, sharksfin, pork and shrimp. They are really good when drenched in soymansi (play with words - a combination of soy sauce and calamansi). I don't use the chili though. See that small packet of orange liquid? That is the chili with a few hot pepper seeds and it's really hot! A drop of it stings!

Random Cooking: Fried Chicken and Tofu

2009-06-05T02:24:00.000-07:00

The first food I learned to cook was an omelet. Very easy huh? Since then my fascination in cooking grew! Here in the Philippines there are a lot of foods that are cooked the traditional way using native and indigenous ingredients. Although I am really interested in cooking, believe it or not, I don't know a single Filipino dish. My approach to cooking is different, I like it unplanned, unmeasured, unexpected and unknown. I cook with my instincts. So last weekend I was assigned to prepare lunch. My mother defrosted portions of chicken the night before and I began the operation. I call this "Operation Randomness". Cook with whatever I see.

First off - boil the chicken in a mixture of lots of cane vinegar, ground pepper, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

then drain it

Before frying, I gathered anything useful in sight for the breading. In a bowl, I mixed flour, a little baking powder, a few or rather lots of turmeric powder and cinnamon powder! Haha! What a mix!

As for the rice, good thing I found this Clara Ole's instant java mix. So I just chopped up some onions, mushrooms and lots of garlic.. I just love the taste of garlic in fried rice!

When the rice is halfway cooked, add them all to the pot.

I still have a few breading mix left and it would be a waste to throw it away. Good thing I saw a pack of tofu at the fridge. Like what I did to the chicken, after slicing them into thin parts, I dipped them in egg, rolled them in the batter and in to the oil.

Lunch is served! The chicken had the aroma of cinnamon and the tangy flavor of turmeric. It was crisp and well done. The rice was a bit lacking in flavor. Maybe I should've put more java rice flavoring. I love how the tofu turned out. I increased the heat and fried it in less than 3 minutes. It was perfectly crunchy on the outside and really soft inside! Let's eat!

Korean Food - Chap Chae and Tofu

2009-05-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

I love my workplace! Lunch is definitely something to look forward to. At the food court we have lots of options, lots and lots of food! This time I want to try more Korean food. So I ordered:

Chap Chae

Stir Fried Tofu

Chapchae is the most popular noodle dish in Korea. Adding a little cornstarch helps the marinade adhere to the beef mixture so that a little beef goes a long way. At first sight, it looks messy and unappealing to me. Well, that's how the lady served it. The clear noodles are tainted in dark sauce and mixed with lots of cabbage. I had my first taste and later on I realized I was eating it non-stop! It was really good! I like how the noodles stick together but it goes down really well, the sauce is somehow sweet, just the right sweetness and I really enjoyed it. I'll give it 8 out of 10.

I love tofu! So I got excited ordering this stir fried tofu. This one is stir fried with cabbage and carrot strips. The tofu was great, together with the vegetables, it was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. The whole contrast worked well even though the soy sauce is a bit strong for me. I'll give it 7 out of 10. I just had another taste of Korean food and I can't wait to come back for more!

Balut Anyone?

2009-04-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

I was unpacking my stuff after getting home from the office when I heard someone shouting: "Baluuut! Baluuut!" I was like: "Oh my God! It's balut, this will be a great addition to my blog!" So I told my younger brother to call the vendor. Yes, here in the Philippines, most mobile vendors selling goods on the streets are shouting what they are vending.

Balut is a cuddly little duck egg that has been incubated for 17 to 21 days soft boiled and served warm. The few additional days of incubation makes a huge difference in the size of the duck. The egg with a line at the center is "penoy" it's just like a hard boiled egg, a normal one. A line was drawn so the vendors could distinguish balut from penoy. Look:

I actually had a hard time removing the egg shell, it was kinda sticking really hard so I wasted a lot of egg whites, I could say. I ate it with rice and a little sweet and sour sauce. A very filling meal. Nothing to be afraid of, it tasted like a normal hard boiled chicken egg. But this one:

Get ready...

Any minute now, a new alien species will sprout out of this embryo. Feeding on the flesh of the first person it sees. Haha, just kidding! Can you see it? It's the body of the duck! I can't eat this stuff so I asked my brother to eat it for me while I capture every gruesome moment on camera. Unfortunately, some photos were really... umm... culturally shocking so I decided not to post it here. Anyway, I think this is the only food I can't eat. Give me sauted crickets, fried frog legs and roasted rabbits, I'll eat them, but this one - nah! Balut became a lot more infamous when it was actually featured on Fear Factor. I just watched in shock as my brother gobbled the whole thing down without a trace of blood. How sweet!

Onigiri!

2009-04-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to find out that the nearest convenience store sells these:

These are called "onigiri". Traditional snack of Japanese rice rolled in either round, oval or whatever irregular shape you desire. It could be filled with a lot of stuff or you could it on its own or toasted and they could be also wrapped in "nori" or seaweed wrap. The left picture is mixed chicken and the right one is Japanese salmon wrapped in nori.

They were delicious but I like the Japanese salmon better. Maybe it's because of the nori? Anyway I found this site. It would give you an idea how to make onigiri at home. Looks easy, huh? I'll make my own version if I have the time. Ja!

Eating at the Office

2009-03-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

I really thank God for having generous colleagues. If the alignment of stars are right, someone treats us for lunch. Like last time they bought these:

Pancit Palabok, Pizza and Chocolate Mousse cake. Pancit Palabok is a noodle dish topped with shrimp, a few small meat pieces, egg slices, chopped spring onions, toasted garlic, chicharon and a special sauce that is accountable for the yellowish color. There are a lot of variations, actually. The Pancit Palabok was from Goldilocks and it was drenched in sauce but I liked it so much! The sauce was light but flavorful. There's pizza of course. Everyone loves pizza. This one is from Pizza Hut. Bah! Shakey's, Yellow Cab, Greenwich, Mr. Mappy, etc. name it, for as long as it's pizza, I'll eat it. The last one is Chocolate Mousse Cake from Goldilocks again. It was soft and creamy but not too sweet. Someone divided it into several small slices so I took all the corner parts, haha!

Anyway, change topic.

I sometimes don't eat breakfast in the morning so upon arrival here in the office, I stop by a convenience store and I buy these:

Funloops mini donuts. Just chocolate covered, choco-centered donuts. I love munching on these and my favorite is the peanut butter variant. I also made a cup of coffee from our scary-looking coffee maker. Why scary, you ask? It sometimes operate on it's own and emits steamed milk! What more if it starts shooting coffee beans around. Anyway, the concoction turned out to be super bitter despite the fact that I already added two small packs of brown sugar. So I added a lot of milk so I had this:

Haha, looks weird. Change topic, again. We had our lunch out one day at Gerri's Grill so I'll just place these pictures here.

Sizzling Bangus (Milkfish), Hills of rice, Fish stew in Miso Soup, Fried Chicken and French Fries, Sizzling Sisig, and Iced Tea. All were delicious and filling. This is actually one of our favorite restaurants, we dine in big groups and have a good time laughing and taking pictures.

Hap Chan Chinese Food

2009-03-25T02:40:00.000-07:00

The restaurant is called Hap Chan. After attending mass, we went here for lunch. A few minutes after our arrival there was a power power outage. We were already sitting comfortably when the waitress approached and told us that their machine used to cook food was not available since it runs on electricity, so we decided to wait 5 minutes and see if everything will return back to normal. In Chinese restaurants they serve tea before a meal so we sipped on some light tea. We already finished the whole teapot and still, lights were off so we told the waitress that we'll just look for another place and thanked her for the free tea. Of course it was just a joke ^^. Moments later, power went back so we went ahead and placed our orders..

The drinks came up first we had lemonade, soya milk, iced tea and four seasons. Their lemonade lacks zest but I liked their iced tea. Here in the Philippines, iced tea is like the fast food drink of almost all chains. Their version was very unique, I am a tea enthusiast and I can really say that their iced tea is brewed from real tea leaves not from powder and I like it.

The drinks were followed by these:

From the top, starting from the left picture - breaded shrimp, sweet and sour fish fried rice, pork steak, tofu with sesame seeds and garlic broccoli. The breaded shrimp was different but delicious, breading had no bread crumbs and the shrimp is steamed, not fried! I don't know how they did it but it was really good! The pork sweet and sour fish and pork steak were also a taste of heaven, what I like about most about Asian food is the fact that nothing goes to waste. Even the littlest vegetable garnish to the scoops of "food sauce", everything is edible! Their fried rice was yummy, I definitely tasted butter and egg in it. There were bits of carrots, peas, corn and bits of meat in it. The steamed tofu is a winner, it's almost hard to scoop it out for it was softened to perfection! I also enjoyed the garlic broccoli. I love the taste of garlic and I never imagined it would go well with broccoli! They were all so good that I had seconds, here is what my plate looked like including the "aftermath". Haha.

For dessert we had - Buchi!

Buchi is a local term which is an equivalent for Japan's mochi or rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. It is covered with sesame seeds and has a bean paste filling, this one had sweet yam paste. It's the best buchi I had so far! We liked it so much that we ordered another bunch for take out - which I end up eating most of them, haha.

Shawarma Trippin'

2009-03-24T00:48:00.000-07:00

One good thing about being Asian is that I have a wide selection of food. Asia probably has the most diverse food due to various cultural influences among other continents. It's really fun to try out a new dish everyday! Like when we went to this restaurant. Sorry, but I don't have the photo of the resto, I also failed to get the name. Talk about being a responsible food blogger. I'll keep that in mind next time. Anyway, this restaurant in Malate, Manila offers Arabian food. I personally love Arabian food mainly because most of the meat recipes are grilled to perfection, elliminating some of the fats and they use olive oil which is good for the body. The na'an or flat bread is to die for! An order gives you a stack and it comes with a lot of dipping sauces, mostly made out of bean paste and olive oil, and in one dip I think I tasted parsley and sour cream.

After a few minutes, the kebab platter came. Mmmm... chicken and beef kebab with roasted tomatoes, onions and lettuce. There were pickled vegetables as well.

It was heaven I tell you. The meat is super tender, it will literally melt in your mouth! The chicken is nicely done, so soft and flavourful. I just can't stop filling my mouth with these kebabs. I also realized how tasty onions and tomatoes are when roasted really good and since I had a few more na'an bread I came up with the idea of making my own shawarma. Ok, for the first try:

Sorry for the flashy part, I am using an old digital camera and navigating the settings was a headache. Anyway, I took some beef kebab and sliced it into small parts, laid it in the middle of the bread, topped with roasted tomatoes and lettuce on the left side and arranged the layered onions on the right side and oh, I forgot to mention that I smothered the bread with some of the dips. After gulping the whole thing down I reached for another bread and made a second one.

And again I apologize for the flash fail. Phew, I need a new camera. In my second serving I place a long beef kebab in the center, this time the na'an bread was smothered with some sour cream dressing. Placed the veggies at the side and in one minute, I finished the whole thing. I was so stuffed that I could barely breathe out my stomach. After a while the eggplant rice came and a bunch of chicken and beef shawarma... ooohhhh... I could die now. I'm in Paradise! I've never enjoyed eggplant and rice this much and the shawarma was so delicious.

Pantry Check - Chews, Custards and Macaroons

2009-03-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ah, the joys of food blogging. I just finished my post below and here I am again seeking more reasons to post food pictures. So I came up with the idea: "Pantry Check". I'll be posting random foo pictures I found in our pantry. So here they are:

Chewy chocolate bars topped with crunchy oatmeal bits. You have to bite in to go to the chocolatey center that melts in your mouth and the addition of crunchy oatmeal bits makes this treat a guilt-free snack.

These are soft and creamy custard cakes. Soft chiffon with a layer of creamy-goodness on top. This heaven is perfect with coffee.

Macaroons, macaroons, macaroons! Every bite is very nostalgic. I've been eating these since I was a child. Every bakery sells them and up to this date, I enjoy eating them.

How about you? Have you checked your pantry lately?

Sunday Family Celebration at Kidz World

2009-03-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the first registered nurse in the family, Sheery Red Tuazon! We are very proud of you. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Yesterday's celebration was also Tita Lyrie's, Ate Ieth's and Amraphael's birthday bash. The fun-filled event was held here at Kidz World! Here are a few pics of the resort.

I just love celebrations! Guess why - you got it right. If there's a party, there's definitely food! First off - Hamburger with fries. The Burger was nicely done. The patty is tender and flavorful. The fries were also great, they were crispy and I was glad they didn't put salt! Everytime I order fries at McDonald's I always ask for a saltless bunch. Moments later, lunch is served. I had "Chicken Inasal" served with Java rice and achara (pickled papaya). My cousins and brothers-in-law had sisig. My aunts had grilled fish and sinigang na hipon (prawns in tamarind soup) and for drinks, I had a sweet strawberry smoothie, it was so milky and refreshing. My brothers and cousins had beer. They ran out of San Miguel light so they had no choice but to go for pale pilsen. Nyahaha, tiisin nyu ang pait!!! ^^

After a hearty lunch we hit the waters. Although the sun was blazing hot, we had a good time chatting,playing and fooling around with each other. Look at my adorable nephew, Enzo here. You should've seen the hotdog disappear within seconds.

And for our afternoon snack we had pancit! It was believed that eating pancit makes your life longer, and that is what I want for my family, more years to come for more years of love and fun! Have a nice day everyone!

Looks Good Enough to Eat

2009-02-11T02:08:00.000-08:00

I was searching for food on Google images when I came across some pretty interesting finds. These are fake foods that looks real enough to eat. Here are some of them and a few experiences that I was reminded of.

Gyoza. I first tasted 'em when I ordered some out of curiosity from a local Japanese restaurant, by "default" these are served deep fried and goes with a sauce but when I found out that you could actually request how it should be done, I've been asking mine to be steamed ever since. The fried version is good but I find the steamed version much enjoyable plus I get to reduce my oil intake. They are soft (if steamed) or crunchy (if fried) and the meat filling is really awesome. I already tasted pork gyoza and I wanted to try the beef one.

Sushi! Never, ever miss authentic sushi if you get the chance to visit Japan. I really like sushi though I've never been to a sushi bar. You know the type of restaurant where sushi is served on moving rollers. You just wait for the variety you want to get to you, just grab it quick, haha.

Pocky. A Japanese snack brand. So far I could say this is the most popular snack in Japan, specially among the youth. These are pretzel sticks dipped in a variety of flavors. The most popular ones are chocolate, white chocolate and strawberry. Even in most anime's this snack is also seen. I recall my brother buying one box and he never ate it at home. He probably wants to show it off to his friends and eat it in public.

Moon Cake. This is eaten mostly during the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and during Chinese New Year but here in the Philippines, this is eaten as a regular snack. Isn't this key chain cute?! I remember last year when we had our vacation in HongKong, there were a lot of these food key chains, some were bento boxes, a soy chicken leg, a doughnut, dumplings and a lot more!

Japanese Pizza! I find this one very interesting. I consider the Japanese as the masters of the fake food art. Just look at this one, taken from a Japanese restaurant, the display is enough to tempt passers by! Another interesting fact is that Japanese pizza is unique. So unique that they use "unexpected" toppings. Toppings that you usually don't see on your regular pizza, just look at this Japanese Pizza restaurant menu.

Drop Those Fatty Foods

2008-11-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

Today, life has become very easy for the modern man. At this day and age, there are a lot of instant, packed, processed and preserved food. For people-on-the-go, they find it very convenient to simply pass by a convenience store and grab something.

I love it when I shop for staples at our local supermarket. I recall my friends yelling "What are you looking at? Don't be so picky!". I find it very interesting to compare fat, sodium and sugar contents of certain foods, I sometimes wonder if these measurements are even accurate! I'm very particular about the fat content. So, when can we say we are consuming too much of it before we could notice symptoms of heart disease? First of all, let's take a closer look at the world of fat.

There are two main types of fat - saturated and unsaturated. Together, the two are called, Total Fat. Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol the most. Over time,this extra cholesterol can clog your arteries. You are then at risk for having a heart attack or stroke. This kind of fat is present in fatty cuts of beef, lamb, pork, poultry skin and dairy products like butter, cheese and lard. Some certain oils like palm kernel oil, palm oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter contains high amounts of this kind of fat. Unsaturated fat, on the other hand is a form of fat that is liquid at ordinary temperatures. Common unsaturated fats are derived from oily fish such as herring, tuna, sardines, and salmon; as well as from vegetable oils and nuts. While fats have a bad reputation among the general public (they could pose serious heart disease), they are in fact essential to bodily health, providing protection for vulnerable parts of the body, maintaining warmth in the system, disseminating vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K, helping to keep the hair and skin healthy, and acting as storehouses of energy. These fats are high in calories so they should be consumed in moderation. Thank goodness there are foods that can lower cholesterol levels.

1. Have some fiber for breakfast. Try that oatmeal pack sitting in your pantry for 3 weeks. Eat whole wheat bread products and whole grain waffles and pancakes.
2. Eat Beans! Don't throw them out the window and wait for a beanstalk to pierce the sky. Soy protein in soy products like tofu is very healthful. Try having beansprout soup or a hummus sandwich for lunch.
3. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Don't substitute fruit juices to whole fruits. Juices are fruits minus most of the fiber!
4. Befriend garlic. Raw or cooked, garlic contains compounds that hinders cholesterol production in the liver. Hah! Good thing I overdose my fried rice with garlic.

These tips are just some of a few,so simple yet I find it really hard to follow. Sometimes being hungry is like having an amnesia. Most of the time I forget all about this and if I do remind myself, I tend to bypass 'firewall' and 'security protection', haha. Well, anyway the bottom line is - you need self discipline if you want to have a low fat, low cholesterol diet.

Korean Food Craze!

2008-11-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

I met a Korean girl while I was playing an online game. We started chatting about each others' country and I can't recall how the conversation went on but we eventually found ourselves talking about food! I just discovered that Koreans also use blood in most of their dishes like that of our very own dinuguan. Here it is:

This dish is called Soondae. This is a Korean pork blood sausage, it is stuffed with rice and sweet potato noodles. It is sliced and served with a dry dipping mix of salt, pepper, and ground chili pepper flakes. There are also other versions of this treat. This is often seen in Koreanovelas served by pojangmacha or street vendors. It is a very popular street food.

There's only one thing that kept me licking this picture off my computer screen...

The mere fact that kimchi is spicy and I hate anything spicy but this one looked so good, reminds me of tapsilog. This is Korean Fried Kimchi Rice. The name says it all - it's Korean, it's fried, there's kimchi and there's rice! Ahaha! There are a lot of interesting Korean dishes, try them out at your local Korean resto!

Bananas for Breakfast?

2008-11-07T00:04:00.001-08:00

There's a new diet craze booming in Japan. It's called the "Morning Banana Diet".

A Japanese opera singer named Kumiko Mori revealed she lost 15 pounds in just 6 weeks!

The whole concept of this diet is to eat a banana in the morning for breakfast and for the rest of the day, you could eat normally. Note, the term used here is "normally". Cut your rice intake in half and find a substitute for fried foods. The only liquid you can drink is water at room temperature (not hot or cold). You should eat dinner between 6-8pm, go to bed before midnight and have enough sleep. There was a study that lack of sleep could actually contribute in weight gain! So people, count your Zzz's and befriend atleast one sheep. Haha. These are just some of a few reminders in doing the diet.

So, what's with the banana you ask? Actually you could substitute a banana with another fruit, but then again, you can't call it "Banana Diet" would you? Haha. Well anyway, Bananas contain resistant starch, which ferments in your large intestine, creating by-products that block conversion of some carbohydrates into fuel. A University of Colorado study found that an increase in the amount of resistant starch contained in a meal "significantly increased post-prandial lipid oxidation and therefore could decrease fat accumulation in the long run." Replacing 5.4% of ordinary carbs with resistant starch could boost fat burning by up to 30% Practically speaking that means eating two bananas in the morning could enhance fat burning for hours.

This kind of diet is proven effective based on scientific findings. The good thing about this diet is it doesn't require exercise. Well, you could exercise if you want to, I think it would be better. This diet is also good for chronic breakfast-skippers for it provide metabolic boosts. I'm really interested in this kind of diet, if I won't go for vegetarianism I might consider this.

What's in a Cream Puff?

2008-10-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

A year ago, I bumped into a cream puff bakery and I took a good look at them... very closely. They looked plain and boring but out of curiosity I bought some and when I tasted them, it felt like a breath of fresh air. That was the first time I went crazy over something unexpected. I loved how the creamy filling melt in my mouth, I just couldn't describe it. It was love at first taste. Since then, I regularly buy these heavenly pastry but I realized it was hurting my pocket. For four plain cream puffs, it would cost me 125 pesos. So I searched online for a simple recipe I could follow. Here it is:

Cream Puff Pastry
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup boiling water
1 cup flour
1/4 tspn. salt
4 eggs
Stir butter and water in a saucepan over high heat until melted and until mixture is boiling rapidly. Add flour and salt, raise over flame and continue stirring until it forms into a ball. Cook for 30 seconds, remove from heat then beat in one egg at a time. Form batter into balls and bake at preheated oven for around 35 minutes at 356 degrees F.

Cream Puff Basic Filling
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tspn salt
2 pcs. egg yolks (beaten)
Melt the butter, add sugar, cornstarch and salt. Slowly add milk then boil it. Add the egg yolks and cook for two minutes longer, add vanilla and stir constantly.

There you have it! You could also fill your cream puffs with flavored whipped cream and fresh sliced fruits for a simple touch, glaze them with egg yolks for a dramatic shimmer, and sprinkle a lot of things like powdered sugar of candy sprinkles, cinnamon, etc. You could also fill it with your favorite ice-cream flavors! I recommend vanilla and drench it with chocolate syrup.... Mmmmmm... Yummmmy! Cream puff is something that is new to us Filipinos, try it so you'll know what you've been missing.

Not Into Vegetarianism

2008-10-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our family had dinner last week at a restaurant in Mall of Asia. Although I have been to this gigantic mall a couple of times, it never ceases to amaze me. This mall is the 4th largest in Asia, hence the name, I suppose. It is so huge, you could definitely lose your way here. That is if you have a bad sense of direction like me.

Anyway, I had a hard time biting off one of a broccoli's microscopic "branch" due to my newly operated tooth, so I just munched on a soft carrot and I said: "Hey! This chopsuey is really good!" And as always, I had a self-realization. Almost all of my college years, I've been struggling with weight problems. I don't eat a lot at times, but I still feel like I'm getting bigger everyday. Then it suddenly occurred to me. What if I submit myself to vegetarian diet? I tried a number of times, but I end up forgetting about it. How bout getting serious this time? Hmmm....

I tried looking on the internet about this vegetarian thingy and I just found out that there are many kinds of vegetarians. Talk about complicating things.. Anyway, here are a few:

Lacto vegetarians - vegetarians that also eat dairy products however, they do not eat eggs. So I suppose they spread the butter and drink milk. Lacto-ovo vegetarians are like lacto vegetarians (reminds me of lacto basilai shirota strain or yakult or whatever), except they include eggs in their diet. Pesca vegetarians however, eat everything that lacto-ovo vegetarians do but they also consume fish. So I'm starting to think that if you include one more thing you consume other than what the mentioned type eats, your vegetarian name evolves.... again. Funny, people really want to make some things official. Above all this vegetarian jargons, this type is the one I really had in mind - "vegans". I don't know if they worship Vega but one thing's for sure, they only eat plant based foods and consume no animal product of any kind. I don't think I could handle this kind of diet. Geezz... what an exciting life they have!

Most people are turning into vegetarian diet for many factors like medical condition, religion, etc. but most of the time, I encounter people 'showing' they're in this kind of diet because of twisted reasons like I don't know, maybe they feel like they are fabulous and classy everytime they pierce their lettuce with their salad fork or maybe being a vegetarian is an indicator of being rich?! Let me quote something interesting and quite true from www.slightlywarped.com this one is by Donner and goes out for vegetarians trying to convince everyone that they are better than common omnivores:

When was the last time you saw a cauliflower flavored piece of bacon? You ever see a carrot flavored roast or a apple flavored steak? The answer to all of these questions are no... why? Because no one is interested in that kind of crap. However, as I look around the vegetarian side of things, I see hamburger flavored mushrooms, I see tofu that looks and tastes like bacon, and meatless ribs made out of God knows what. My question to you is, if vegetarianism is such a great choice, why the **** are you trying to make your food look and taste like meat?

I don't think a day would pass without me eating an egg or simply consuming any kind of meat. Most of the world's delicious foods have meat in them and I don't wanna die missing any of them. I don't have anything against vegetarians, but for those true blooded ones, I salute you, people.

Let's Eat Tapsilog

2008-10-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Italy boasts its pasta, Japan introduced sushi to the world, and Mexico is famous for its tacos. Well, for us Filipinos, we have our own rising star. Among the local dishes, nothing beats this trinity of heaven. Behold...

The perfect breakfast meal for many, comfort food for most. I myself, am a fan of this original Filipino dish - TAPSILOG. A combination of tapa or cured beef jerky ("TAP"), fried rice ("SI" from sinangag) and egg ("LOG" last syllable of itlog) best eaten with coffee or juice and a few tomato slices. And as always, wordsmiths are able to substitute that "TAP" for "LONG" (longganisa), "CHICK" (chicken), "CORN" (not corncob, it's cornbeef), "HOT" (hotdog), etc. Possibilities are endless and I'm sure future foods will have its own SILOG versions. Tapsihans or Tapsilog houses are scattered all over the metro, I'm sure you won't get hungry, some are even open 24 hours! Talk about convenience.

Now if I were asked how to describe life in general, I wonder how could I connect it with Tapsilog. Hmm... First of all, not all people would accept tapsilog like how I claimed it to be, the words I used above to describe Tapsilog may not be as heavenly to others. Therefore I could say Tapsilog is like life. Not everyone sees life as a gift, a wonderful thing. People look at life differently. Some people choose to live their life in disgrace, some answered God's calling, some are easy-going, others are too serious, etc. Just like the different varieties of tapsilog, people have teir own ways and means in their lives. You can't just tell someone that the path they chose is wrong the same way u would convince me that your corned beef is better than my tapa.

I prefer my sinangag with a lot of garlic and slightly toasted with a little zest of calamansi. I figured that each ingredient should be symbol in life. Sinangag is like a typical Filipino family. You can't call rice if it is just a single grain, right? Like in this country's family setting, it doesn't end with the youngest child, it extends up to your tito, tita, lolo, lola, cousins, 2nd degree cousins and family dog all bundled up in one house. Families go through a lot of difficult trials in life, yet they still stick to each other and the bond just kept getting stronger, just like sinangag which is slightly brown because of frying.

Eggs symbolize life itself, a beginning of something great. These are long-term goals that requires constant perseverance and commitment to achieve. I prefer eating my tapsilog with two eggs. Sunny-side up please! Well as for the tapa, it's my favorite. This is my tapa, the choice that I made. You can't say that I made the wrong choice. After all, only I have the right to say: "Ayoko na. Sawa na ako sa tapa ko." I would opt for another variety by that time but as for now, I'm still munching on this great invention.

Indeed this asian jewel should be known all over the world. Truly Filipino, simply amazing, definitely satisfying. So be proud! Next time you eat one, try to connect it with your life, then maybe, just maybe... it would taste better.