rice cake confessional

I am so fatchin’ tired. There are about 80 other things I should be doing – cleaning my house, paying my cable bill, ironing some clothes, sleeping since it’s well past midnight – but here we are blogging. Yay for messed up priorities.

I just got back from a few days in the Philippines and unlike most of my trips I got to actually stay in Manila for awhile. My dreams of moving to Manila to work have slipped off the radar since I moved to Singapore but were sorta kinda resurrected by the 3 days I spent exploring and enjoying the city life rather than the usual weekend of hanging out in the bahay kubo all up in the province.

In the middle of what I like to refer to as Meeting Marathon Tuesday (not to be confused with Meeting Fun Times Monday), Lianne and I had time to grab a real lunch at Greenbelt 5.

Lianne let me pick between Travel Cafe Philippines  and another Spanish restaurant whose name escapes me. TCP won because we found it first and because I was not feeling the urge to revisit my people’s colonial oppression. Kidding. I was also wearing 3 inch heels and carrying my stupidly heavy laptop so really finding it first meant sitting down sooner which was the idea overall.

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I’ve been on a cooking spree lately. It’s a bit more ’spency (too much slang? read: expensive) but it’s nice to know what’s going into your food sometimes. Plus it’s kind of a nice way to unwind. I’m not doing anything too complicated in the kitchen. After all, I have exactly 1 pot, 1 pan, and 2 burners at my disposal. This past week I made chicken adobo using chicken wings that I picked up at the supermarket. 

In a moment of genius I opted to use the leftovers to make some adobo fried rice. Not quite as fancy as the adobo fried rice omelettes of Las Vegas fame ( it was a moment of genius coupled with laziness) but still a nice way to wrap up a day of Sunday housecleaning.

Ingredients:

• rice (I used brown but white rice is a-ok)
• garlic, minced
• chicken adobo leftovers (shred the chicken, pick out the peppercorns)
• green onion, chopped (just for looks really )

No measurements for the rice and adobo. I made one medium sized bowl of it and used the meat of 2 chicken wings, 3 tablespoons full of adobo sauce, and a heaping scoop of rice. Fried rice is pretty forgiving so do whatchu want in whatever proportions you want. 

Method:

1. Add a little oil to a hot pan and throw in the minced garlic (I used 1 tsp). 
2. Add the chicken and adobo juices. It might be a bit watery so let the juices cook down a bit (stir constantly to avoid burning). 
3. Throw in the rice and mix like you mean it.
4. When its heated through and mixed well, take it off the heat.
5. Throw on the green onions and take a picture. 
6. Enjoy.

If you’re not lazy, you could make this into a Japanese style omelet (aka omurice) with the rice in the middle and an omelet wrapper. If you’re only moderately lazy you can add scrambled eggs to the mix (cook beforehand and add unless you want to eat brown eggs).

Today’s post is a little bit about food and a lot about being Filipino.

The picture above was breakfast in my godparents’ bahay kubo this past weekend. This time around it was tinapang galunggong (smoked mackeral scad) and talong (eggplant, in this case boiled) served with a dipping sauce of toyo (soy sauce) and kalamansi (Filipino lime). Delicious. 

If you’re Filipino, a morning in a creaky bamboo house on stilts with a light breeze and a full belly is as content as you’ll ever get. 

If you’re Filipino, sometimes it really does taste better when you eat with your hands. 

If you’re Filipino, you have a high forgiveness threshold so even though Philippine Airlines treats you like crap you’ll ride them again anyway. (This time around though they won’t disappoint you. In fact, they’ll be really pleasant and terrific.)

If you’re Filipino, “labs” does not conjure pictures of chemistry sets. It makes you think of cheesy romantic comedies and lots of pink hearts.

If you’re Filipino, when you’re uncle passes you’ll sit outside the house where his remains wait for their final place and greet and feed the guests that pay their final respects. You’ll do this for however long it takes with whatever you time you have – 2 day, 3 days, 7 days, 40 days. You’ll cry a little but watch your cousins’ many kids run around playing the games you used to play and understand that tradition and family goes on. 

If you’re Filipino, you’re celebrating a little bit at the passing of the Stimulus Bill. On a few little lines, a 63 year old effort has finally been realized. Although imperfect, those lines finally give some justice to the Filipino veterans who served the United States during World War II. These men are 80-90 years old now and their numbers have dwindled from the original 400,000+ Filipinos who fought alongside Americans. Regardless, it brought smiles (and ok, a few tears) to learn that the JFAV (Justice for Filipino American Veterans) provision finally made it. 

This post is dedicated to my Amang Ponso who also served with the Americans, my Uncle Lito who had a phatty bahay kubo, and my Uncle Romy who I paid my last respects to this past weekend in Baliuag.  

More food pics and lighter fare to come… Thanks for indulging me in non-food ramblings.

Atbp is one of my favorite abbreviations. It’s the Filipino version of  ’etc’ and is short for ‘at iba pa’ which translated means ‘and other stuff.’

When it comes to the Filipino joints at La Pau Sat, I’ve been pretty loyal to Panyeros which gives you two ulams (viands aka things to pair with your rice) and rice for an easy SGD5. Sadly, their dinner menu is pretty sparse so on a recent dinner trip with Jay, I opted to try out Mack’s.

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Unless you’re a major NSync fan, the post title is strictly informative and not funny.

I had a fantastic 2 1/2 weeks at home in California. Two of those weeks I spent in Hanford with the family vegging out, eating lots, and hanging out with the brothers. Not too many new meals but lots of old favorites.

I spent 3 days in the Bay Area catching up with good friends. The grand finale there was a meal at Pho Vi Hoa. I ordered the sliced pork meal. It was as good as I remember it. (Thanks to Jane and Jlin for housing me while I was in the Bay!)

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If you haven’t figured it out yet Pasko is Filipino for Christmas. There’s a lot of Filipino in this post. You might want to have Google Translate on standby.

It’s become a tradition to have Pasko Lunch every year at work. It’s the one time of the year where all of the Filipino kids get together and share a meal. For some reason, we’re terrible at getting together otherwise. Still, when we do meet up it’s a big gorge-fest of all of the Christmas treats that Goldilocks on Rengstorff has to offer. Inevitably, we are all supremely full and sleepy after Pasko Lunch.

No Goldilocks for me this year. I had Pasko Lunch Singapore style. Ang saya, diba?

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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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If you say this out loud in Mandarin it sounds like my full name.

I found this out Friday night at the 2nd Mahjong night. I was wondering why I heard the fobicized version of my name a few times (juw-ahn!). The first mahjong night was a few weeks ago. It involved a lot of tiles and a lot of snacks and a lot of shouting in Mandarin. I also had to learn Taiwanese style mahjong which is a tad different from Filipino mahjong.

The overflow of Chinese-ness made me long for my Filipino roots. The next day I Yelped ‘filipino food’ until I found Tipanan in Newark.

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I headed home to Hanford this weekend for the first time since the holidays. Since my middle brother started college, it’s been harder to get the whole family together. Whenever we are in the same place at the same time, fun and hilarity ensue. I have an awesome family. My mom feeds me until I burst and still lets me be a baby when I’m too lazy to take care of myself, my dad pretty much knows everything in the whole world and can fix/do/make anything, my three brothers are slightly crazy but in a good way.

The food portion of this post is about ginisang corned beef (ginisang = sauteed // corned beef = from the can). My mom asked me what I wanted to eat and I don’t know what possessed me but I picked this. It’s garlic, onions, and potatoes sauteed with canned corned beef. Comfort food for sure. It’s a dish that we had all the time growing up (very cost effective for a big family plus easy leftovers that can be made into torta).

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What a terrible weekend. Work + rain + sore throat = bad, gloomy days. Definitely not one of those textbook sunny California weekends. Instead of partying it up at Boss with the rest of the gang for Cindy and Klee’s February Birthday Spectacular (ok, they don’t really call it that), I’m stuck at home in my jammies watching the Disney Channel with my blankie like a 12 year old. Except 12 year olds probably don’t have blankies.

I’ve been contemplating a possible change to my blog template. None of the ones that WordPress has posted really catch my eye. Plus the one I have up is no longer listed which means once I pick a new one… I can’t go back! Fear of commitment. What if the grass isn’t greener on the other side?

Anyhow what do I have to do on this wet and wild Saturday night but to blog? No choice really. Good thing I have loads of pictures that have yet to be posted. For this series, we’re going way back into the picture archives to October and my Philippines adventures.

First of all, those are not my hands. I do not have man hands. I have dainty girl hands. Those are my Pop’s hands. The alien brain looking biznaz is the awesome fruit known as mangosteen. On this side of the globe, they are often juiced and made the object of infomercials toting weight loss and super vitamin status. Fresh mangosteen is sweet, sour, and delicious. The juice version just doesn’t compare. I’m not gonna hate though since my Dad says that it helps him control his blood sugar.

Unopened, mangosteen is smaller than a baseball with a deep red almost purple skin. Inside are white pulpy sections with big ass seeds. Pop one of the sections in your mouth and enjoy the juices. Careful when chewing because you don’t want to bite into the seed. When there’s nothing left but seed and white pulpy mass, spit it out.

Not a good time to wear a white shirt, the red skin will turn your fingers the same color. Trader Joe’s sells dehydrated mangosteen. It’s just alright.

My all time favorite fruit from the Philippines is atis aka custard apple. Atis is a cousin of the cherimoya and the guyabano, the former of which you can find in some Asian markets.

Green and black with bumpy rinds. They aren’t exactly pretty from the outside (or the inside). When I pick out atis from the market I inspect the bumps to make sure that there are no major cracks. You see, people like atis. Worms also like atis. Big cracks = more likelihood for janky worms. Ew. Apparently, they’re ok to eat and they’ll make you sing better. Uh. I’ll keep my mediocre voice.

When the atis is ripe you can squeeze it lightly and pull it apart to expose the cream-colored flesh.

Apparently, the seeds are poisonous and are sometimes used for pesticide. Thanks, Wikipedia. Pull off one of the soft sections with your teeth and enjoy. If there’s a seed, spit it out. Continue until you are bursting at the seams with custard apple goodness. Tastes nothing like custard or apple. Good atis are sweet and bad ones are bland. There’s a slight hint of sourness but the overall taste is hard to describe.

I’ve graduated (since I started writing this post) from the Disney Channel to VH1’s Rock of Love 2. Quality TV for all. Hope your weekend is going funner and drier than mine.

PS. I’ve started using Google Reader since the number of blogs I frequent is growing and figured I’d make it easier for folks to add my blog to their Reader if they want. The link is in the upper right hand corner – in pink, of course.