kroger jobs

Here’s the wiki on balut…

A balut is a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common, everyday food in countries in Southeast Asia, such as Laos, Cambodia (pong tea khon in Cambodian) and Vietnam (trứng vịt lộn or hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer.

We bought ten (TEN!!) pieces at ninety-nine cents each. That’s forty-one pesos each! I consoled myself with the thought that at least, I didn’t have to pay for airfare. My Mom passed on to me the cooking how-to she learned from her California-based sister (Hello Ninang-Auntie! *wink*). Just put all the eggs in a pot, fill the pot water and cook for 40-minutes starting from the time you turn on the fire. That’s it!

Balut is thought to be “pampalakas ng tuhod” (literal translation: strengthens the knee) or boosts energy. We just love the stuff. If only they weren’t too expensive. I should probably look into kroger jobs so I can fund my daughter’s balut cravings. Nah. I’ll just raise my own ducks. Kidding!

The last time I enjoyed a bowl of champorado was in January during our vacation back home.  It was made with Belgian chocolate and had a scoop of raspberry ice cream and then topped with a fresh strawberry. Yum-mee! I told myself I’ll never have champorado any other way again. That was until I received a box of Ghirardelli Intense Dark treats a week or two ago as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program. *wink*

Hubby and darling daughter have been wanting to get their hands on the chocolates but I just wouldn’t let them. I told them I’m saving those treats for something. Then I thought, it’s about time I made some champorado, raspberry ice cream or no raspberry ice cream!

Champorado is, more often than not, cooked with powdered cocoa.  For this venture, however, I chose to use the Twilight Delight variety of Ghirardelli chocolates, which is 72% cacao. I used an entire bar of chocolate plus a few more of the individually wrapped ones that came in a bag.  It took all of my willpower not to munch on the chocolates! It also seemed like it took forever for the champorado to cook! Everyone was impatiently pacing in the kitchen!

And then finally, after more than an hour or so of stirring, the chocolate-y rice goodness was done! Hubby likes to eat his champorado as is, no milk whatsoever. As for my daughter, my mom and I, we added a little bit of soy milk. When I was little, I had my champorado with lots of evaporated milk. ;)

Do you want to give sweet chocolate rice porridge a chance? Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sweet rice
1 bar (and more!) Ghirardelli  Twilight Delight chocolate
1/2 cup sugar (add more according to taste)
6 – 10 cups of water (add more for a less thick consistency)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put the rice, sugar and water in a pot.  Cook over high heat until the water starts to boil.
2. When the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to low and stir constantly to prevent the rice from sticking.  Start adding the chocolate. Break the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and then drop in the pot of rice. Stir for 30 to 40 minutes until the rice is cooked.
3. Add more water, 1/2 cup at a time, if you want a less thick consistency. You may also add more chocolate and sugar if you wish.
4.  Serve hot or cold with your choice of milk (fresh, evaporated or soy).

It was late in the afternoon when I made this two days ago. I had a bowl of champorado for dinner and so did my mom. Hubby and my daughter had it as a pre-dinner snack. Hee hee. What can I say? Everyone loved it!  I just love taking gastronomic trips back home. :)

Cheers and mabuhay, y’all!

One of the most noteworthy meals we had during our Philippine vacation was at Fish Out of Water at the posh Greenbelt 5 and for very good reasons:  good food and one of the best company.  Our cousins (hubby’s actually…my cousins-in-law!) treated us to a yummy feast of Filipino dishes that were familiar and new at the same time.

For starters, we had Chicharon Bulaklak…

Ooh la la!  We haven’t had these in the length of time we’ve been away.  That’s close to four years!  I found Wikipedia’s definition of chicharon bulaklak very amusing:

“It is made from (deep fried) mesenteries of pig intestines and has a bulaklak or flower appearance.”

Click here for the definition of mesenteries. I could have eaten an entire plate of these.  But that’s a heart attack waiting to happen so I didn’t.

So we wouldn’t feel too guilty about the chicharon, we had Cebuano Danggit Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing…

That’s my danggit fix right there!  Danggit is salted dried fish that is fried to a crisp.  It is actually perfect with garlic fried rice, eggs and tomatoes or vinegar. Yum!

We sure love oysters so we had some Manila Rockefeller Oysters…

These were baked with saluyot (jute), cream and bacon bits.  I normally just prefer plain steamed oysters but how can you say no to cream and bacon? You  just can’t!

Believe it or not, we ate several whole crabs.  They were not the king or Alaskan kind though…

Crispy Shrimps and Crablets.  There sure was a crunch in every bite. Hee hee.

We were all game that night, so we decided to order something game-y, Cagayanon Ostrich Salpicao…

I believe it was the first time I had ostrich meat.  It wasn’t bad at all!  Salpicao is the perfect way have ostrich meat.  It was garlicky and buttery.  Then again, everything tastes good with butter! *wink*

Unfortunately, the restaurant only had enough ostrich meat for one serving.  So we settled  for the next logical choice of protein…beef (Beef Salpicao)!

At first glance, the beef salpicao didn’t look too different from the ostrich salpicao.  They do differ in color, and of course, in taste.

How many deep fried dishes have we had so far?  Why don’t we throw one more in the mix, Deep Fried Fish with Chili Mango Sauce…

It tasted as good as it looked.  If only we could have this as often as we liked and I mean with somebody other than me doing the cooking.

Last but not the least, we had a very tender Twice Cooked Pork Belly…

It was saucy, moist and served with quail eggs.

To wash down all that glorious food, I had Dalandan Juice.

Hubby, on the other hand, had something “light” from the  patron saint of Filipino men – San Miguel…

I’m glad we got to add Fish Out of Water to our Pilipinas Food Trip List.  The place was pretty upscale, being in an upscale location and all.  I thought it was classy until the servers started singing Happy Birthday to the beat of what I believe to be kitchen utensils.  It was a Singing Cooks and Waiters- slash- Ihaw-Ihaw, Kaldero-Kaldero moment. Hee hee.

For dessert, we had gelato at another establishment. :)

Thank you again, cousins, for a wonderful night.  We hope to show y’all a good time when you come visit us.  Your cowboy hats and cowboy/ equestrian boots are ready and waiting.  Yeehaaa! ;)

I’ve decided to feature Asian recipes, recipes I am most at home and familiar with. I’m kicking-off this 4-part recipe series with a popular dish from the Philippines, Nilagang Baka – Boiled Chuck Shoulder Roast with Vegetables.

This has got to be one of the easiest of Philippine dishes to cook.  One just needs to be patient specially in the absence of a pressure cooker.  I do have a pressure cooker but I decided to go old-school with the dish.  That is, I boiled the beef until very tender, which took 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Boiling also happens to be one of the healthiest methods of cooking.

There are many interpretations for this dish. At the barest minimum, I usually cook it with napa cabbage and some potatoes.  But I wanted vibrant colors for this assignment so in addition to napa cabbage, I added some carrots, sweet corn on the cob, and instead of just regular potatoes, I used red potatoes.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 lbs. chuck shoulder roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2-inch thick pieces,
2 ears of corn, cut into thirds
10 pcs red potatoes, cleaned (with a vegetable brush) and halved
1 nappa cabbage, cut off the core and separate the leaves from each other
10 pcs. peppercorns
sea salt

For the dipping sauce:

1 lemon
fish sauce
jalapeno or chili  peppers, sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Put the beef cubes, peppercorns, and onion in a stock pot.  Fill the pot with water until it is about 2-inches above the beef.  Add some sea salt then boil.  Skim the scum that rises.  Turn down the heat and let the beef simmer until it is fork tender (about 2 to 3 hours).  Add water as needed, keeping the water level 2-inches above the pieces.

2.  Add the potato halves and carrots during the last 30 minutes of boiling and the corn during the last 10 minutes of cooking.  The nappa cabbage can be added during the last 2 minutes of cooking.  Adjust seasoning then serve with steamed brown rice and dipping sauce.

3.  For the dipping sauce, mix the juice of one lemon, fish sauce then add the jalapeno/chili pepper slices. :)

The hour after hour after hour of boiling brought out the natural flavors and goodness of the beef.  The broth, in spite the use of only a handful of seasonings (if not less!) was really good and flavorful.  The beef and the vegetables were all oh-so-tender.  The number 1 beef fan in the house (hubby!) couldn’t be more pleased.  As for me, I was very well pleased, too.  After all, this was a meal that took me back to my Nanay’s (grandma’s) kitchen, back when I could eat anything I want and not worry about things like fat burner, metabolism, calorie count, etc. *sigh*

Mabuhay, y’all!  Cheers to meals that take us “home”!

The highlight of our last day in the Philippines was a trip to the University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus. No, the trip was not to take photos of The Oblation nor for the pursuit of intellectual enlightenment but for a last ditch chance of satisfying a 4-year craving for what I consider to be THE queen of Philippine street foods…right up there with balut, FISHBALLS. Why did we go all the way to UP for our fishballs fill?  I’ll get to that in a bit. *wink*

The photo I posted of fish/chicken balls was, to my surprise, well-liked by my Facebook friends.  Hee hee.

Here is where the art of “making tusuk-tusok” (skewering) the fishballs take place, in a wok with lots of oil…

With a bamboo skewer, you pick the  fishballs one by one until you get your full 5 pesos worth, which is 10 pieces.  You push the balls up the stick with the help of those contraptions on the side of the wok that looks like a coil.

This is the reason why we went all the way to UP to satisfy our fishball craving…

No double-dipping!  The different sauces are in easy-squeeze bottles.

As you can see, there was not even a need to squeeze.  One just tips the bottle a little and sauce comes out. Hee hee.

I think I had 3 sticks of fishballs and a stick of chicken balls  that day.  I could have had more, but someone pulled a kj card on me. Hmp!

The next time we’re home, I’ll make sure to make more time for fishballs…absence of hand wash areas and hand dryers notwithstanding.  ;)

Mabuhay y’all!

Kusina Felecitas is the in-house signature restaurant of Grandpa’s Inn.  The restaurant’s  walls, according to the website, is made of 18th century bricks.  Hanging on these walls are paintings, which diners can buy.  The rustic furniture pieces are all locally made, furniture making, after all, is one of the industries that Vigan is known for.

The Kusina Felecitas menu offered us plenty of choices.  But there’s only so much we can eat, so we ordered dishes that were mostly new to us or that had an Ilocano twist.

Of all the food choices, Poqui-Poqui Balls, piqued our curiosity the most.  The name of the dish made us smile, too!

It is simply an eggplant omelet formed into balls, sort of like croquettes.

We tried the Krispy Bunog as well, my choice.

There’s just something about deep-fried fish no matter the size that just calls out to me. Bunog, we learned, are small fishes indigenous to the Abra-Banaoang River.  They are fried until crispy to the bones.  The dip of choice is referred to as KBL – kamatis (tomatoes), bagoong (shrimp paste) and lasona (onions). Yum-eeee!

Because we were in Ilocos, it only made sense to order Bagnet, deep fried pork.

Gotta love the crispy pork skin!  The Ilocano way of eating bagnet is to dip it in KBL. *wink*

We had to have vegetables, so we ordered what I believe is called Baradibod, a vegetable stew thickened with gabi or camote.

One has the option to make it more special, that is by adding fish to the vegetables, and that’s exactly what we did.

We also had Pinakbet, which was topped with bagnet…

As it is, I already love pinakbet, but I sure loved it more with the crispy deep fried meat! I sure ate sinfully during our vacation! Ha!

We weren’t too sure how my daughter will warm up to Ilocano food, so we ordered some dishes, which she was sure to like the Tinola Ilocano.

We also had pork barbecue, again for the youngest members of our party.

For the big boys, pork spareribs made its appearance on the table.

Here’s the last dish, promise, Lomi served with 2 pieces of pandesal…

Oh my, we did eat a lot!  Didn’t I say we feasted?!  Long drives will do this to you, really!

I’m glad we had our first Ilocano meal at Kusina Felecitas.  The place was really homey.  It’s like dining in your lola’s (grandma’s) kitchen.

Believe me when I say that we didn’t always eat like this.  Well, that’s a lie.  Hee hee.  A lot of times, we ate like this, specially on our last week of vacation.  And you’ll read about each and everyone of them! :)

Mabuhay, y’all!

I may not know artist-writer-chef Claude Tayag personally but I sure am glad I am now friends with his bottled pure crab fat!  I have a close family friend to thank for tipping me about this 7-0z, heavenly goodness in a bottle.  I have been crazy about crab fat since I was a little girl.  And I can’t thank God enough for parents and grandparents who fed my brother and me well!

On top of my “must buy” list when we came home to the Philippines for the holidays is bottled crab fat.  We bought 2 jars of Claude 9 Pure Crab Fat at Unimart.  At P332.50 (about $7.55) per 7 0z. (200 g) jar, it’s not exactly cheap.  But, and here’s the big but, it has no MSG, no preservatives and is 100% pure.  You can tell it’s pure crab fat all right because it’s not quite the bright orange the other bottled crab fat are.

I can have a fully satisfying  meal with just crab fat and rice mixed together and sprinkled with a little vinegar, weird as that may sound.  But last Monday, inspired by the Sugpo sa Taba ng Talangka we so enjoyed at Abe, I made Tilapia sa Taba ng Talangka…

Ideally, the tilapia fillets should be drowning in crab fat, just like the unforgettable prawn dish we had at Abe.  You have to understand though, that I have to make my 2 jars of crab fat last for as long as I can possibly can. Hee hee.

To make these, I simply seasoned the tilapia fillets with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and fried them in a pan brushed with a little bit of oil.  After both sides of the fillets were done, I transferred them to a serving platter and, using the same pan,  proceeded to heat some of the crab fat I’ll be needing to top the fillets with.  And that’s it!  It’s not a Michelin star worthy recipe, but…

I can have this everyday…but I won’t because I know what’s good for me.  If only a diet rich in crab fat will help me lose stubborn belly fat.  Wishful thinking. *sigh*

Mabuhay!

I don’t recall if we had a chance to eat at Mang Inasal in Iloilo when we visted the city in 2006.  But during our short but sweet vacation in the Philippines very recently, we made sure we did.  We had our Mang Inasal fix in Laoag City, at the Robinsons Mall Ilocos Norte, on the night we were driving back to Manila.  I’ve always been a fan of “inasal” (barbecue), which, funny as it might sound, reminds me of weekend overtime work in Makati when I was still a newbie architect. :P  And this is what I would always order, Pecho (chicken breast), otherwise known as Paborito Meal #2…

I have to admit, there is something comforting about skewered barbecue chicken with rice wrapped in banana leaf on the side.  It’s home-y. :)  I always dip my chicken in a  mixture of calamansi, vinegar, soy sauce with a crushed chili pepper. *wink*  Hubby, being not so big on chicken breast, had the Paborito Meal #1, which is Pa-a or skewered dark chicken meat.

My daughter had the Sulit Meal #1, which is 1-piece chicken leg, also with a side of rice…

Mang Inasal is always filled to the rafters specially during lunch and dinner times and it’s success can pretty much be summed up in two words: UNLIMITED RICE!  For every rice loving Filipino, rice, which costs about Php 26.00 in other inasal serving restaurants, unlimited rice is such big bonus!  Think of all the pesos you’ll be saving, specially if you can easily down 3 cups of rice! There’s unlimited soup, too!  Panalo (winner)! :)

Here are your typical inasal condiments of soysauce, chicken oil and vinegar…

What does one do with the chicken oil?  Drizzle it on the rice, of course!  We would have loved some baticolon (chicken gizzard) and chicken liver, too, but they were out of stock at the time of our visit. Bummer.

For dessert, my niece had Mais con Hielo topped with Ube ice cream and a barquillo…

My sister-in-law, on the other hand, had a little bowl of Minatamis na Saging (sweetened bananas), which was also topped with ice cream…

Yum!  This meal was a fitting farewell to an “amazing race” in Ilocos, whose ruins, I hope, are asbestos free (you can’t blame me for being fearful of Mesothelioma!).

I’m happy I have all these food memories to hold on to, while we recover from our vacation and save up all over again for the next one. ;)

Mabuhay!

My daughter is wide awake as well.  And we’re both hungry.  All I could think about is the Champorado with Belgian Chocolate and Raspberry Ice Cream, which I had for dessert and thoroughly enjoyed at The Stock Market in Bonifacio High Street…

This is the best champorado I’ve ever had in years.  Never mind that it’s the priciest, too!  I told myself, I’m never having champorado any other way again.  Like the art prints of the Louvre, this dessert made a lasting impression on me.

So I’m buying raspberry ice cream and belgian chocolate when I find myself at the supermarket, which should be real soon.  I’m glad I convinced hubby to have this dessert and share it with me.  He’s also glad he gave in to my gentle prodding. :)  The champorado was thick, just the way he likes it.

In addition to champorado, hubby and I shared another dessert, Suman sa Lihiya with Mango Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce on the side…

How, tell me, can you go wrong with that combination?  You just can’t!  Yummm-eeeee!  Like the champorado, this is the priciest suman and ice cream I’ve ever had.  Talk about high-end panghimagas (dessert!). I have to learn to make suman and the lihiya.  And I will!  I just need to get my cooking mojo back.

Thank you to my girl friends from college, D, I and D who introduced us to these sinfully updated favorite Filipino snacks/desserts. *muah*

I’ve got so many personal cooking projects lined up.  I’m excited! ;)

Mabuhay!

The House of Silvanas’ silvanas are a delicious layer of buttercream sandwiched between two cashew-meringue wafers and coated with cookie crumbs.  It was love at first bite for my daughter who practically wanted the contents of the box all to herself.

Silvanas now come in a variety of flavors: Original (Regular Buttercream), Ube, Buko-Pandan, Mango, Mocha, Strawberry, and Chocolate.  I have yet to taste the other flavors but I’m thinking I may just be a little too partial to the original.

This is just the inspiration I need to finally cross out silvanas from my to-do list.  I hope to make this my first project for 2011, the first treats out of my oven.  *wink*

Thank you, cousin “R” for the yummy treats! *muah*

Mabuhay, y’all!