rice cake confessional

Kalabaws are the unofficial national animal of the Philippines. They are your general beast of burden – plowing fields, lugging heavy loads, etc.

But those are not the reasons I heart kalabaws.

I heart kalabaws because I heart pastillas which are little candies made with kalabaw (or carabao or water buffalo) milk. Usually, pastillas are served in little 2-bite sized candies that have a sprinkling of granulated sugar and then wrapped up in pretty multi-colored tissue paper.

My Ate Lucy, who has been taking care of me since forever (and is so used to it that even at my age she babies me more than anyone else), gave me a bundle of goodies when I saw her in the Philippines. Mind you that she was super busy with the service preparations for my Uncle and she still went out of her way to get me these.

The bag had sugary beans, salted dried anchovies, tamarind candy, and this container of white stuff. The white stuff was courtesy of this thing right here… (thanks Wikipedia for the picture)

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I had my first Indonesian meal at lunch today. Pagi Sore (morning afternoon in Indonesian) is a short 3 block walk from the office at the PWC building in the Central Business District. It’s a little fancier than most places and is def more expensive then your usual lunch fare. The outside has a newspaper posting that shows the restaurant was named one of the Top 50 in all of Singapore. Sweet!

I started with guyabano juice (that’s what we call it in the Philippines, in English it’s called soursop). Green skin on the outside, sometimes bumpy or scaly, sweet/sour white flesh inside, big black seeds that you spit out. Kinda looks likes the sugar apple’s big, friendly cousin. The juice was yummy – not too sweet with a few pieces of soursop (with seed!) at the bottom. I enjoyed them for dessert.

The awesome thing about work is that since there are so many different ethnicities you can ask someone who’s actually from that country to do all of the ordering. This time around it was Erika, our resident Indonesian (who ps is planning a wedding in Bali!).

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I’m still here and still eating!

A LOT has happened since the last time I posted. I arrived in Singapore about a week ago after spending one week at home with the family in Hanford. Right before I flew to Singapore, my uncle passed away and I spent this past weekend in Manila paying my last respects. I have a few food shots to take you through but my current accommodations don’t make for comfy blogging (no wireless, ill-mounted internet wall connection, you get the picture).

Let’s just start with what I had for dinner. I’ll come right out and admit that I had Subway last night. Weird, I know but I spent the past weekend in Manila which means a lot of pork and a lot of fried goodness. My arteries needed a break, I was craving fresh veggies, and Subway was close by.

Eager to make amends, tonight I popped down to the basement level of the nearby shopping center which houses Meidi-Ya, a Japanese supermarket, and a little Japanese food court.

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Oh PVH, how I’ll miss thee.

Pho Vi Hoa is my version of Cheers. I’m not a beer kinda girl so I don’t have a local bar or watering hole to frequent. I’m more fobby than anything else so my local watering hole is actually my local pho place. I don’t think they know my name but they definitely know my face and the face of all my nearest and dearest Bay Area homies.

I’m slightly appalled by the fact that I’ve never featured PVH before, but I suppose it’s fitting that I wrap up my Bay Area fun times (for now anyway, I’ll def call it home again sometime in the future) with a post about PVH.

When I first started going to PVH I was all about the pho – served hot and steaming, ever so fragrant, meaty but not oily, and with a side of fresh bean sprouts, lime, and other add ins. Note that PVH pho doesn’t come with cilantro unless you ask for it. (Of course, I ask for it.)

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Hello World!

It’s been awhile since my last entry but life has been a bit busy these days. You know, pick-up-your-life-and-move-halfway-around-the-world kind of busy. I am just shy of 3 days away from my big move to Singapore. I’m excited and sad all at the same time. One thing is for sure, this blog will have lots of yummy food gracing its pages courtesy of the fine culinary landscape that is Singapore.

Back to the present. I’m in Hanford this week enjoying some quality time with the parents and the brothers. In between the many servings of home cooked food, I ventured to the ‘No aka Fresno. (Sorry, Fresno fans.)

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