Day 224: Hunger Aftermath

This was what our table looked like after a hunger storm...

You can guess how much we enjoyed that bowl of steaming hot Bulalo...

Day 217: Truly Pinoy

Ask any Pinoy abroad what food they miss most from home and I'm sure Jollibee would be on their top 5 list. A brainchild of the Caktiong family of Davao, it began as a small Magnolia Ice Cream House in Cubao, Quezon City originally named JollyEgg. Over the years, the business evolved into a hamburger/fries fast food outlet and eventually changed its name to the ever famous JOLLIBEE. 

The unique Filipino flavor in their food offerings is probably one of the main reasons why its such a hit for us Pinoys. Nowadays, the famous bee mascot is a familiar landmark anywhere in the country and is even making its presence felt at key cities in Asia and North America.

My own kids have developed a love affair with Jollibee - having the Yum Burger, Jolly Spaghetti and Crispy Fries as their top favorites. Of course, it doesn't hurt that most outlets have a play area where they can spend hours of wonderful playtime.

What's your favorite Jollibee food item?

Day 216: Childhood Comfort

Not many people like the taste of liver, let alone liver spread. I'm quite fortunate to be married to someone who shares my love for the stuff. I was quite surprised to find out that hubby knew about a food item from childhood that I thought was uniquely my own...

LIVER-MAYO SPREAD was something Mom would whip up whenever she ran out of stuff to make sandwich spreads with. In 5 short minutes, she can come up with a snack that eventually became a favorite (mine only as my two other siblings never quite got their taste buds to like liver). 

Fast forward to today, my entire family loves this humble spread/dip and it truly fills us up during breakfast or snack time. Do you have your own liver-mayo story?

Day 214: Week-Start Breakfast

Of all the meals in a day, the one I really look forward to is breakfast. I'm not really sure what it is about breakfast that keeps me hooked. It could be remembering my childhood when I used to wake up to the wonderful cooking smells in the kitchen as my Mom used to prepare yummy champion breakfasts for us whenever she had the time. Or it could just be the idea of "breaking the fast" from the previous night's sleep. Well, whatever it is, breakfast will always top my list as fave meal of the day. Today we had two of my favorite "almusal" viands - "tuyo" or dried fish and skinless "longganisa" or chorizo paired with garlic rice and sunny-side up egg. 

Day 211: Mommy's Special Sinangag

Whenever I have the time, I love preparing breakfast for my family. One breakfast fare I love to cook is fried rice and its many varieties. If pressed for time, I quickly saute finely minced garlic and leftover rice from dinner and come up with garlic rice. Sometimes, I perk it up with a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce or Asado sauce. I had more prep time today so I came up with this all-in-one special fried rice made more attractive and healthy with the colorful mixed veggies (carrots, corn and peas) and yummier with scrambled bits of egg. 

Don't you just love rice?

Day 158: A Mediterranean Treat

Apart from Japanese cuisine, another type of food that hubby and I share a love for is Mediterranean. We won't turn down any opportunity to feast on hummus, gyros/shawarma, kabobs or lassi. 

One of the more popular Mediterranean food fare that is readily available in the country is Shawarma. We like the combination of the meat, fresh veggies, garlic sauce and spicy sauce with the softness of the tortilla bread. A complete meal in itself, it is surely one of our favorites. 

Day 64: Breakfast of Champions and a Champion Breakfast

I'm a breakfast person.  For some reason I can't explain, my favorite meal of the day is BREAKFAST.  So you could say that I "freak out" whenever I see a diner type of resto.  When the defunct Country Waffles was still the all-day breakfast place to go, my Dad would treat me to a huge platter of Sausage/Bacon, Eggs and Fried Rice plus my fave Peanut Butter and Banana Pancakes on the side.  I was sad when the place figured in a major business scandal some years back.  Apparently, this love for breakfast has rubbed off on my son.  He too, looks forward to breakfast as the meal like no other.  He is happiest when served with Garlic Fried Rice, Chorizo Cebu and Eggs (either sunny-side up or scrambled).

Today, our breakfast consisted of Pampanga Longganisa, Plain Rice (but I placed some soy-longganisa cooking juice combo on top) and Scrambled Egg.  It sure beats any breakfast meal from the nearby fastfood chain.  It was so good, Jarred requested me to pack up the leftovers into his lunch box so that he could have a part 2 during recess in school.

Day 60: Mongolian Barbecue Feast

It's been quite a while since my family and I had our Mongolian Barbecue fix.  We usually had a yearly "date" with Kublai Khan's in Cebu but we skipped last year so you can say we're running on empty now.  There's just something about the delicious aroma of wok-frying ingredients that really get to us.  Of course, coupled with the Kublai Khan's saying "Don't blame cook, he only put in fire", every bowl of Mongolian barbecue is a feast in itself.

After surveying that I had enough ingredients to make our own Mongolian feast at home, I began chopping away.  There's no exact science to this kind of food.  You prepare whatever it is you want in your bowl.  Here are the 5 main groups of ingredients to a successful Kublai Khan meal:

AROMATICS - includes garlic, onion, ginger, Mandarin sausage, shallots/green onions, lemongrass

VEGETABLES - carrots, baguio beans, red and green bell peppers, sayote, bean sprouts, chinese cabbage, cabbage, young corn, bean curd, black fungus, mushroom

CARBO - rice, miki noodles, vermicelli noodles, bihon noodles

MEAT & SEAFOOD - chicken, pork, beef, squid ball, fish ball, quekiam, squid, liver, gizzard

SAUCES & CONDIMENTS - terriyaki, oyster, barbecue, szechuan, soy, coco cream, fish sauce, sesame oil, calamansi/lemon juice, sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts

It is really a "make your own" meal...you choose your veggies, carbo, meats and sauces...saute all of them in a piping hot wok and serve in a bowl.  For the homemade version, it was more practical to make a large batch for the family instead of letting each one do their choosing and individual wok frying.  I discovered that the secret to good Mongolian barbecue is the right size of the ingredients...small bite-size pieces of meat and veggies that are thinly sliced make for a yummy Khan feast.  

So, how did our family version of Mongolian barbecue go?  Even my 10-month old baby was drooling over the bowl we prepared for her...it was that good!

Day 59: LaPiS - ROLLED

The Lasang Pinoy, Sundays theme for the week is ROLLED.  My feature is the old time Pinoy favorite snack TURON NA SAGING (Sweet Banana Rolls).  These are fried goodies made up of slices of saba banana (plantains) with slivers of langka (jackfruit), rolled in lumpia (spring roll) wrapper and dipped in brown sugar.

I just love hearing the cracking sound of the wrapper as I take a bite.  The combination of saba with langka is just so yummy which makes it an irresistible snack.  This is a true Pinoy fare as it can be easily found at every street corner around the country.  

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays is a bi-monthly food photography meme, Pinoy style!

Day 43: LaPiS - Hearty...

This will be my first attempt to join Lasang Pinoy Sundays.  I've been following the Lasang Pinoy features of the different members for some time now but have always felt intimidated by their wonderful features and photos of Filipino food. 

Having revived my blog at the beginning of the year, I've mustered enough confidence to finally join Lasang Pinoy Sundays.

For this week's theme - HEARTY, I'm featuring the one dish that my family considers to always leave us "belly-full" and gastronomically satisfied...CHICKEN ADOBO.  Whenever I prepare this or any type of adobo for that matter, I notice that we always have our meal in silence, observing the "galit-galit muna tayo" atmosphere.  I guess there is really something about the Filipino Adobo that leaves that hearty and ultra-satisfying feeling all around.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a bi-monthly FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY meme, Filipino style!