This is the first time I’ve done this. I had a lot of seafood stocked up in my freezer and I needed to free some space. Since I didn’t have the time to buy veggies to cook some chop suey (not to mention how tedious prep can be), I decided to make it easier on myself and whip up a dish based on what I had in the fridge....
If you don’t want your beef salpicao to be chewy, you’ve got to have the choicest cut and this has to be a very quick stir-fried dish. On my end, no matter how ‘quick’ I do it, my beef always end up chewy. That’s the reason why I decided to use the slow cooker for this dish. It makes the beef tender, whatever the cut they...
My grandma used to cook this dish every time I got sick. She cooks the soupy kind, put it in a bowl then add rice. After I’d eat it, she’d ‘reward me’ with a glass of Royal Tru Orange. She’d say that we’re lucky. During their time it was lugaw [rice porridge] cooked in garlic and ginger. Now, this is something we end up...
I got Chef Aleth Ocampo’s taba ng talangka bottle in the fridge. Was wondering what I could cook and at the same time catch up on sleep. So I looked up a few recipes online and settled for this one. This has minor tweaks already. I used chorizo [Poco Deli’s] instead of the andouille sausage. I also added her taba ng...
I was fortunate to spend a Christmas weekend at Auntie Joy’s place in San Pablo, Laguna. I was craving for Caldereta when Marife served me this dish. It was called Sinantomas. It was delicious! They said it was a dish that’s unique to people in Laguna. There are two variations to this and this is one of...
Yes, I do love my slow cooker. I just dump the ingredients inside and then leave it for 5 hours or more to catch up on my sleep. However I learned a few things after using it for almost a year. The food tastes better when the sauce is cooked before hand. This means, you can schedule your meals too. That is, cook the...
We were seatmates back when we were in high school. I loved doodling back then. I even doodled on my classmates’ notebooks when I got bored. She loved my sketches back then that she made me promise to do a naked portrait of her. After a few pounds and decades later, we met again during our high school reunion. She...
Any foreigner who meets a Filipino will soon discover what Adobo tastes like. It’s one of those dishes that we call our own and it is quite easy to make. Of course, there will always be that “secret ingredient/technique” that would be handed down from generations to generations. There’s no defined way of cooking adobo....
I am not a chef. I didn’t even take up cooking – well I did in high school, but that doesn’t count. I am just a mother who wants to eat food that’s healthy and tastes good. Filipinos love fried food because it is easy to cook. However if I can dump something in a pot and come back to a hearty meal 8 hours later, that...
Chicken Pastel is a version of Chicken casserole – the Filipino style. That means – we get and put whatever is available and add sugar to taste. I didn’t like putting hotdogs in this because it would turn the sauce pink. No matter what you do, the hotdog would always dominate the dish with its strange chemical...
I always loved cooking- I just never had the time for it. I’d look up “20 min cooking” or “30-minute dinners” online, only for me to realize that it would take 1 – 2 hours because of prep time. Prep time includes cutting up the veggies, thawing the meat, and measuring everything. Forget the last part – I’m a...
I’ve always dreamed I’d get a needle-thin and reliable [doesn’t skip] fountain pen. I finally had it when I purchased the Platinum 3776 UEF. One brand, 3 tips: UEF, F and the music nib. I think am done buying pens ….for the year. I had the chance to use the pen when I did a sketch tribute for the late former Senator...
I’ve always loved onion soup. I’ve tasted good ones and a few strange ones. I loved it for both the broth and the fact that I could have it with bread and cheese. I checked the recipes online and most of them looked simple enough. That is until I came across one that suggested I use both chicken and beef broth. Knowing...
This is the first time I’ve done something like this. According Tony Perez, it is a form of crosshatching. I love it because, it is more fluid and expressive. I feel like I am not constrained by lines and technically, it does feel like doodling. Details of the swirls. A portrait of the master penman himself – one...
One of the things I learned is that Filipinos don’t like caricatures. Caricatures usually mean that a part of your face would be exaggerated and you would look funny. Most Filipino caricatures would often be a cartoon version of the person – simple lines, shadows and less exaggerations. That’s what I did for this...
