A culinary weekend

This weekend, I had decided to try making pressed pork after being inspired by Gordon Ramsey's recipe . And I am also on the chapter of food presentation (plating) and garnishing. So with both in mind, I decided to take up a personal challenge.

Before going to my son's place, I decided to stop by the deli/butcher shop to get that slab of belly. Then there were chicken necks that were on sale for fifty cents a pack (of 10 pcs or more) which were irresistible, so I got that as well. From there, I went to the oriental market a block away, and got a few more ingredients.

My grandkids met me with shrieks of joy, upon entering their apartment. I was wondering if they were happy that I came to visit, or was it the expectation of their "something" (pasalubong) that is often the case when I come. Nevertheless, I am always happy to be with my brood.

While putting away the purchased stuff in the pantry, I saw a can of coconut milk and a half mound of panela sugar (pressed muscovado). I decided to make 'latik' to pair with the plantain bananas I just bought. I didn't want to wait on top of a stove, so I placed the can of coconut milk and the panela sugar (oh! I chopped it up of course) into my 3 quart slow cooker. Every now and then I would just stir, if I remembered.

Then the purchased slab of pork I pre boiled with the regular seasonings, such as bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic, etc..etc... I didn't follow Ramsey's own recipe with the wine and chicken stock, but I placed some of my own secrets as well. After simmering the pork to make it tender, the slab formed into a huge mound. This is the part where you take off the meat and put some weight like a block wrapped in aluminum foil, and leave it for a couple of hours. Then I cut it up into perfect squares and then baked it.

Halfway into the baking, I saw that the meat was turning rich brown and not the pale golden as I was expecting. So I took it off the oven and was going to fry half of it and the other half, I would make a humba style plating with that rich gravy sauce. The cuts in themeat were so nicely done and this was really what my experimentation was all about. Appearance. I asked my husband to make the pieces smaller for frying (lechon kawali style)...and...before I knew it, he had cut up every piece---so! there goes my humba experiment. And this is how the unexpected L-kawali style looked like.

While my husband was frying the pork, my latik was almost ready. I then took out the plantain bananas from the pantry. (A few years ago, my aunt taught me how to substitute boiled saba bananas. Just get a ripe plantain banana, cut off the ends, wrap it in clear plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes or so. And bwalah! Nilat-ang saging!)

Oh! and by the way, the chicken necks, I just marinated it with lots of garlic, salt, pepper and a dab of cumin. Then fried it after the lechon kawali batch.

The fresh rice, I mixed with a little cumin and the spicy bagoong that was in the bottle, and boy! was this really so delishhhhhh! Ma-anghang na ma-alat...or something. The chicken was just crispy and you can make kitkit the bones.

Traditional cuisine service had always been presented on platters or casseroles, where the service staff often portions pieces and then transfer it to the diners plates. Until recently, nouvelle cuisine wanted to control the appearances and arrangements of the food they prepared until the last detail.

The chef is not someone who just fills your stomach, but is also an artist. The diner always start to eat with his eyes. First impressions are always important. The sight of food stimulates our appetites, gets those gustatory juices flowing and pushes us to dig in. If a chef took so much effort into making his creation look good, then, one can imagine the effort he also took in preparing it.

Whether one is a cook or a chef, his main concern is when a diner comes in excited to try their concoctions and leaves happy to talk about it. That is all that matters.

A few weeks ago, my daughter corrected me on my spelling of kari-kari and that it was spelled with an “e” rather than an “ I “ . I told her, I couldn’t care less since I’m bisaya and am so proud of being one .I’m still Filipino, ain’t I. But nevertheless, yesterday I decided to make my own version of kari kari or oxtail stew.
I had 4 cuts of oxtail, but didn’t have the other ingredients. Since it was Sunday, and that an open market in the town’s parking garage would be there, I decided to see if there were vegetables to add to my oxtail stew. I only found some Japanese eggplants for the stew, bitter gourd (ampalaya) and leeks for salad, plus a bagful of chocoloate chip cookies for dessert.

So here’s what I did:

4 cuts oxtail
Ginger, onion, peppercorn
3 Japanese eggplants
Bokchoy (purchased days ago)
Kari kari mix

I submerged the 4 pcs.of oxtail in water just to cover . Then turned the heat to boil.
When the water starts boiling , notice that the scum starts to rise.
When you don’t see much red meat on the outside, although it’s still uncooked,
Turn off heat and throw out all the liquid. (I would rather do this than let it continue boiling
I don’t like the smell of langsa meat which is contained in all that scum and first liquid boil).
Then I put fresh water just to cover the meat, put ginger, peppercorns, and onions.
This time I let it boil, then simmer til tender. (if I still see scum, I scoop it out)
I then cut up the Japanese eggplants and put it with the meat.
(this time I cheated since I used the kari kari mix)
I dissolved the mix in a little water and poured it on the stew.
I placed a little salt to taste. Not much since I still have my sidings of bagoong.
I then turned off the heat and placed 2 bunches of bokchoy

I’ve always liked the way Koreans eat, wherein they have so many side dishes. And that’s just what I did.
Aside from the bagoong (which had already been sauted when I bought the jar), I had the ampalaya salad with balsamic dressing, leeks sauted in crab paste with sesame oil and steamed cauliflower for that fresh taste.
So here is how our meal looked like.

Wall Street and Pinoy Road

It's a Saturday afternoon and I'm just slouching on my bed, practically being so unproductive. It has been almost 24 hours since I left work for my weekend sabath. Normally, i would go visit my grandchildren, but I decided to stay home and spend my alone time. It gives me the much needed retrospection and meditation after the bustling week that just transpired.

Last week was a hectic and trying week for many a wall street people in New York. I should know because I work for one executive of Lehman Brothers. He is the nicest, most respectable, down-to-earth person and one of the best employers I have ever had. And he became a victim, like so many other mid-level executives, by that gruesome Chapter 11 decision. Why do bad things happen to good people? I really wouldn't know but if I speculate, greed must have had a say in this.

Every few minutes or so last week, i would turn on the financial channel. Linggos of mergers, lay offs, tax cuts, bankcruptcy and other economic jargons continue to hit the airwaves. Not one commentator or talk show host passed without giving their thoughts on these matters. Even the presidential campaigns took a back seat for the moment.

In our household, it was never a dull moment. Friends would call offering words of comfort. Or others would just email their sentiments or send funny messages to alleviate downcast spirits. Even mere acquainances would just ring the Mrs. letting her know how good and respectable a man my employer is.

Then there were talks of how the "creme de la creme" of the once dairy lot were coping after the economic fiasco was spilled. Oh! So bad for Mr. So and So, he had to sell his 40 million dollar vacation homes at the Hamptons! I wonder if he will also sell his Manhattan penthouse? Or that Poor Mr. Dodo Head can't go to work anymore in his helicopter since it got sequestered by the bankcruptcy court. Or Mr. Poopoo Brain's wife can't shop anymore at Tiffany's or at any stores in 5th Avenue. She'll have to make do with Target or T.J. Maxx. Poor Thing!

After hearing all these comments all over, my thoughts shifted to my home country in the Philippines. During economic crisis, like rumors of increasing gas prices or news of possible storms, people with money went on a panic buying spree. Others just panicked for lack of funds.

People in crisis often react similarly, yet quite different in a way their circumstances prevail them to.

The Wall Street crowd have to stop going to Starbucks, refrain from eating fillet mignon at fancy restaurants, ride subways instead of bringing their own cars and just watch tv instead of going to broadway musicals.

The Pinoy Street crowd have a similar belt tighting scenarios like making baon 3 in 1 coffee pouches, bring home dinner from the street vendor or what we sometimes call the McDuko Duko and BMW's are good forms of transportation (Baktas Mentras Wala). Not to mention that the neighborhood drama of screaming and slapping a wayward husband is so much better than TV. It's surreal and in full color, sensuround pa. Besides electricity is so expensive.

The Wall Street Crowd have to cut down in buying Armani black suits or Ferragamo shoes, Mont Blanc pens, and cut off the weekly massages, barbers and spas. This helps the budget go farther.

However, this is one luxury the Pinoy Crowd has over the other. There will always be Armani clothes and Ferragamo shoes for as long as there is ukay ukay. (the suits come in handy for mountainfolk because of the cool air). And whoever heard of Mont Blanc pens, Bic ballpens are reliable. As for massages, hair cuts and manicures, every pinoy has a relative who does all those for a living. So no need to cut down, since you can get them free at family gatherings.

The basic difference between families of Wall Street and Pinoy Road are the number of zeros in their balance sheets. The zeros are the determining factors in people's way of life as dictated by society.

Change to a different lifestyle is often difficult when the level of comfort has been altered. We may often feel embarassed for our failures and finger point on who's to blame, not realizing that control comes from within and not from outside forces. Characters are often revealed not as a result of some circumstance, but rather how we react to adversities.

Wisdom is the fundamental tool that is functionally used in resolving dysfunctional relationships and situations. Wisdom is acquired through experience, and experience is acquired through failures .

So whether one is from Wall Street or Pinoy Road, the journey is never done till one says so. And travelling people never quit, they just take a different path to reach the destination.

Pacman vs.Jose Rizal

I have been writing on another website called Kamusta.com and had fun joining their essay contests. Nevertheless, there are comments that I am not particularly happy about and it was about writing in the pilipino text. But then what is pilipino? Eh! bisaya man ta...anyway, here is the content of my article:

Pacman vs. Jose Rizal

Kamusta.com, in my understanding is a website that seeks overseas Filipino workerswishing to communicate and express themselves in whatever and however they feel comfortable in. Excellent Pilipino is better than awkward English is a suppression of ones personal expression because it dictates how one is to relay a message, like a teacher instructing to write a sanaysay.

I opined that people who write their essays, comments, or reviews in English though not proficient are not aspiring to become Pulitzer prize winners or "authors of the week', but basically are just expressing the best way they can. And to control the freedom of expression is a violation of a personal human right.

Wikepidia describes the Philippines as having 172 dialects. According to the Philippine National Statistics Office, among the 18 major dialects, Cebuano speaking Filipinos top the list of spoken dialects comprising 22 million as against tagalogs with only 20 million. And the list goes down to Bicoloanos, Chavacanos, Hiligaynons (Illonggos) etc... Based on these facts, shouldn't we consider cebuano as the base of the pilipino language. Mang Jim said pwedeng isulat sa Pilipino, sabi din ni Mang Jim pwede ring Inggles. So then what is Pilipino?

When a filipina writes to her employer a resignation letter stating, "I wish to resignate my position because my work is many and my pay is few of which my boss makes a little loving loving to me and I say Oh not! Oh not!"--- anyone teaching the essentials of English will consider this REALLY AWKWARD. But the filipina had made her point...to be understood. And understand, we did!

If the truth be told, all languages are crazy. As Walt Whitman might proclaim that languages contradict themselves in someway. That's because language is invented, not discovered, by everyone and not by computers. As such, language reflects the creativity and fearfulasymmetry of the human race, which of course isn't a race after all.

And the pilipino language is as crazy as the English language.

Whoever heard of women's underwear (panties) as salungguhit. (to catch or salo a guhit? is that what women's private parts are called?)
Or men's brief is called salungganisa (would the men want theirs to be compared to a longganisa?) hmmm...
If salumpuwet is for a chair, is salungmgapuwet for a sofa?

Or let's widen our horizons to more islands.

When someone screams "LANGGAM!", a tagalog would look down, while a bisaya will look up. Why? because langgam for a tagalog means ant, and for a visayan means bird.

And if a tagalog in cebu goes to a sari-sari store and buys cigarettes, and the tindera says, "pila", wouldn't that tagalog be pissed off why he is told to line up when he is the only customer. That's because 'pila' in visayan means, 'how much' or 'how many'.

But then, isn't English a crazy language in itself.?

English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet. Half of the world's books are written in English and the majority of international calls are made in English. More than seventy percent of international mail is written and addressed in English, and eightypercent of all computer text is stored in English...however, we should also come to realize that English can become as messed up as those that speak or read it.

In this crazy language, the blackbird hen is brown, blackboards are green or blue, and that blackberries are really green that turn red when they ripen. Or isn't blackberries considered cellphones as well. And even if blackberries were really black, and blueberries reallyblue, what do you think strawberries, cranberries, gooseberries suppose to look like.?

And if that's not bad enough, we Filipinos contribute to that craziness. Why do we say, 'open the light?' Should we dissect the bulb? Or did we mean to turn it on? Or closing the faucet really meant that we should shut it off.?

If we conceive a conception and receive a reception, why don't we grieve a greption and believe a beleption? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If a firefighter fights fire, what does a freedom fighter fight? If pro and cons are opposites, is congress the opposite of progress?

Many filipino blogs use English as their medium of expression because of its global exposure. If the scope of a website should limit itself just to be understood by a special breed of people, so be it. And if the website should cater to a much larger scale, then let it beas well.

For as long as one can be understood..that is the bottomline.

And so my friends, this is it? Or is it that is?
It is it, that is!

I'm a CIA

Not only am I a Cebuana In America, I’m also a Cuisine- nera In America .

Cooking is my passion, therefore, I live to eat. But I’m very picky at what I eat.

1) No blood. My husband always orders his steak, rare, and the blood that comes out when he slices it, cringes me. I like steaks that are dry aged which simply means that fresh meat is left hanging to dry in specially controlled environment as against those that are newly cut then packed and sold in the supermarkets. My lamb chops should also be perfectly seared on the outside and pink on the inside, no meaty red flesh, please. The only blood I eat is when it’s cook and made into blutwurst, boudin noir or morcilla. I am even picky when I eat our own dinuguan or blood stew. I have to know what’s in it, and who made it. Innards and entrails in dinuguan are not for me.

2) The smell of what I eat should synchronize with the taste I‘m expecting. I know that durian tastes like heaven but smells like hell or that blue cheese stinks like old socks but is divine to the palate. Normally when it smells rotten and tastes spoiled, then it probably is. Unless I know the food’s characteristics and how it should taste, I refrain from indulging myself.

3) Anything that moves is a no-no for me. We used to have a fisherman vendor come to our house to sell his morning catch. There would be slimy eels or jumping shrimps, and my husband would take the smallest of the shrimps, smother it with ‘pinakurat’ vinegar and eat it. I flinch at the site of maggots in cheese which Italians call Casu Marzu and I don’t care how expensive they are, I‘m not eating them that way. I just don’t want sucking the life of living creatures. Don’t get me wrong, I like raw food, like sashimi, seviche, kinilaw or even carpacio which is raw meat pounded paper thin. But they have to lay still.

I love food, anything I don’t like I don’t swallow. I love those tiny little eels which the Spaniards call angulas. I cook it with evoo and lots of garlic for a sumptuous appetizer. Or I fry then bake pieces of bone marrow, scoop out the buttery center and spread it on a slice of toast. The taste is just divine.

I don’t have to travel many miles around the world to taste different kinds of food, but I'd love to if my pockets permit. Here in America I join food shows, exhibits and festivals where the world congregate and show off what they have back in their home country.

I still have to try Kopi Luwak which is considered the most expensive coffee in the world. They come from excrements (sh*t) of a civet feline found in Indonesia, and in the Philippines it is sometimes called Coffee Alamid. I’ve ordered some and can’t wait to try it. I still have to try the ‘almas’caviar or the roe (eggs) of the Beluga sturgeon, a kind of fish only found in the Caspian sea. This is not the black caviar as commonly known but is lighter in shade due to the age of the fish. Can’t wait to try that as well.

In totality, my taste is simple. I just like the best.