Failure To Lunch

One of my favorite places to lunch is a small, non-descript eatery called Ulo-Ulo sa Veteran's (Project 6, in an alley behind the Veteran's Memorial Hospital). The specialty of the house: sinigang na ulo-ulo ng maya-maya (red snapper heads in tamarind-soured broth), which is served, steaming hot, in humongous proportions to droves of diners from all walks of life who pack the place to the rafters by the time noon comes around. To avoid the midday rush, I've always made it a point to either order carry-out (as early as 10:30 a.m.) or actually eat there way after the lunchtime crowd has dissipated (2:00 pm onwards), so it's really not a place to have a (comfortable) noontime meal on a whim. Today, I decided to take a shot at making my own version of this comfort food favorite, especially conducive on this nice rainy day. I picked up a salmon head and some salmon bellies (I'll deal with them later this week) for a steal at Makro last weekend, figuring that they...

Last Saturday afternoon, I put in some assisting hours at Landmark Education Manila's workspace. Since I'd be working through the day and heading off to an Introduction to the Landmark Forum afterwards, I brought some lunch - not just for myself, but, upon special request, for some of the other assistants as well. The meal turned out nicely: puttanesca and chicken cordon bleu (one of my new culinary challenges is to feed my friend and fellow Landmark graduate Chill, who doesn't eat red meat, on a weekly basis). I learned to make puttanesca many years ago from my best friend Miles - it's a simple enough dish to whip one when company comes over (I remember her having a full-blown conversation with me while she was chopping and cooking away). On the other hand, chicken cordon bleu is something I'd never tried making before (link below goes to Tyler Florence's recipe, which I adjusted to what I had on hand), but I used to order it all the time at Full House, one ...

I stepped outside a climbing gym's party last night for a few minutes, and espied a fond and familiar sight: a fishball vendor! I have loved those little deep-fried pieces of piscine-flavored batter (cornstarch and flaked fish according to a recipe) since I was knee-high and strictly forbidden to buy the stuff off the streets. Then again, I've never been one to listen to the "You can't" command, which I guess explains my predilection for fried fishballs and reckless stunts. At any rate, the parental injunction was not without sound basis: it wasn't the fishballs per se that were the problem, it was the sauce. Those three magical and mysterious jars of sweet, sour, and spicy condiments of varying degrees of heat were potential breeding grounds of nasty transmittable diseases, such as hepatitis or cholera. In fact, a friend of mine from law school came down with a bad case of hepatitis A just as the Bar exams were underway - fishball sauce being the culprit....

I recently saw the documentary 638 Ways To Kill Castro , and I found the man fascinating. Not that I agree with the way he runs his country, or with his ideology, but boy, you gotta admire the guy for his cojones . The dictionary should have a picture of him under the entry "underdog." Anyway, I will not go into the state of US-Cuba relations or engage in a diatribe on American foreign policy. I will instead, in the spirit of magnanimity and world peace, bring the nations to the dining table with my take on a familiar recipe attributed to Castro's beloved island state. Arroz a la Cubana was one of the first things I learned to cook, especially since it's one dish I really enjoyed eating as a child. I still love how the combination of all its elements - the fried saba, a spoonful of egg, the meat-raisin-potatoes-peas mixture - results, with a mouthful of steamed white rice, in one perfect bite. There is simplicity in its complexity, if you catch my drift. Today I ...

Just flew in from a weekend in Cebu, and I now I have to deal with the "excess cargo" of that brief adventure. As always, our meals were abundant and extremely satisfying - to the point that I had to frequently order a hot cup of water or tea to digest everything properly (i.e., matunawan ). I was there less than 72 hours, but I think I ate enough to last me 'til Christmas! Anyway, one of our favorite things to eat in Cebu is the outrageously delicious munggo soup at Chika-an on Salinas Drive - a divine symphony of lentils and vegetables simmered in a hint of coconut cream. Totally TDF. Today, I had another failure to lunch - or to breakfast, for that matter, so I decided to whip up a nice dinner of munggo guisado , adopting some of Chika-an's flavors and doing a little experimentation of my own. In honor of the Queen City of the South, I threw in a tribute to the famous Tabo-an dried fish market: sauteeing onions, garlic, and tomatoes with dried dulong instead...

I was once asked: if I were to eat only one food every day for the rest of my life, what would it be? There was not the slightest hesitation as I answered, " spaghetti! " Ah, the naïveté of an eleven year old. I have since learned that variety is the spice of life, and my self-diagnosed suspicions of ADHD would probably have me sick of the stuff within a week, but I do love a good plate of spaghetti. I will have it alla vongole , or alla carbonara , or aglio oglio , even baked like lasagna in cheese and sauce... and I would eat it in a boat. And I would eat it with a goat...and I will eat it in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train. And in a car. And in a tree. It is so good, so good, you see! (with apologies to the late great Dr. Seuss) But my favorite pasta pleasure is embarassingly plebeian: more often than not, I hanker for the children's party variety of spaghetti - that of the sweet, slightly spicy sauce with hotdogs, goo-ey processed cheese food, and (heavens...

My sister, the US-based doctor, could give Rachael Ray a run for her money when it comes to preparing quick, satisfying meals (ten minutes or less, instead of 30). Granted, she has a pantry full of Lucky Me instant pansit canton and Purefoods Carne Norte at her disposal (courtesy of relatives like myself and my parents who fill our suitcases with half the shelf stock of Hi-Top and Landmark Trinoma each time we visit. Try explaining that to curious customs officials!). But she does have her moments. Take, for instance, this lovely recipe of Korean-style BBQ beef, that takes no time at all to prepare. Just marinate thin sirloin slices (breakfast steak or sukiyaki cut beef would work as well)in a good amount of store-bought Lee Kum Kee Korean BBQ Marinade, sear on a hot pan sprayed with oil, and voila ! A meal fit for a Korean telenovela emperor. As RR would say, "yummm-o!"

(I posted this originally on my other blog sometime last year, and thought it would be more appropriate to give it a new home here.) Weekends in my family's house have been mostly lazy days for me, especially in the kitchen. But this last weekend had me busy in front of the stove due to popular demand: my Mom wanted pork pata humba and my brother wanted binagoongan , but only if I cooked it myself. Thus I obliged. If I may say so myself, my bagoong is to die for (and to die from, if your kidneys are averse to salt overload). It's the coup de grace of my kare-kare , which in turn is one of the most popular features of our C+C catering menu (my sister, right before I left Chicago for Manila last July, begged me to make some kare-kare , which wasn't quite the same as we had to make do with the ready-made bottled stuff so as not to stink up the condo kitchen and wreak havoc with the neighbors). Anyway, I'm not much for proportion, but my timpla involves a lot of white c...

This last New Year's found me all alone in a downtown Chicago apartment in subzero weather. My sister had gone down to the warmer climes of the West Coast to ring in 2008, and I had the good excuse of too much studying still to be done. This was the first time I celebrated New Year's with only myself to toast to, but it was still a good enough reason to have a mini-feast. After all, I wasn't about to break the time-honored tradition of slaving away in front of a hot stove on the one of the most festive evenings of the year. And since it was also my first time to spend the holidays in the good ol' USA, what better way to herald the incoming year than with the culinary centerpiece of American festivities - (insert dramatic pause a la Chairman Kaga) turkey ! While I have roasted a number of chickens in my lifetime, I had no idea whatsoever how to tackle the granddaddy of all fine feathered fowl. My Uncle John had previously dished up one of those big boys for Christmas...

So I'm finally getting my act together and putting up a real food blog I can take care of and maintain on a daily basis. The previous one fell through the cracks after suffering many months of neglect, but this one is going to be for keeps, dammit. I've got a ton of photos I've always meant to upload and a wealth of gastronomic insights I've always intended to write down, but intentions have counted for nothing so far. Back to the keyboard, baby.