prasantrin

OoooohhhhH!! I want to know what you end up doing with the vinegars! It might give me some ideas of what I can do with them aside from drink them. . .

How large were your sardines? (Sorry, at work now and blogs are blocked, so I can't take a look). I don't think sardines need to be almost crispy, and they certainly don't need to be fried. They are usually best grilled, in my opinion. I made the sardine recipe (escabeche?) on Abra's blog, and it was perfect! My sardines were on the small side (not as small as Portuguese canned ones, but about the same size as Filipino canned ones). I would imagine larger sardines might need to be cooked differently.

I think you should pay the woman $5, and then write to The Food Network and report that she's selling their recipes.

I love lighter and crispier tempura, too, but I was told the best tempura isn't like that. Really crispy tempura isn't made with traditional tempura batter, and also to get it really crispy, you'd be cooking it a little longer which means your ingredients aren't really top-notch. Either way, Tsunahachi isn't really top-notch tempura, but more of a mid-range place. It's good a value for what it is, but it's not the best you'll find in terms of ingredients. But I'd go back or try one of their higher-end places to compare with my favourite tempura place in Kyoto. For super crispy light tempura, Omen in Kyoto has a really great version, at least at the shop near Teramachi. It's really really crispy and light, but not greasy. I don't remember seeing Sebastian Bouillet when I was last at Isetan, but maybe it's new! I've been meaning to look for the Tokyu Food Show, anyway, so if I don't find it at Isetan, it'll be a good excuse for me to find Tokyu!

Great minds think alike! How did you like Tsunahachi? I thought it was good for its price point, but I've definitely had better tempura. Your Kani Doraku meal reminded me of a crab fiesta I went to in Northern Kyoto. I couldn't eat crab again for more than a year after that! Where is Sebastien Bouillet? I've got a trip to Tokyo coming up in a few weeks, and I need to try his salted caramel macaron!

Aside from Coco Bolos, anything else in Manhattan or between Manhattan and KC, MO that's worth trying? The Mexican place in Salina sounds great, but it's farther than we'd like to travel. Just doing a quick trip out to the university and back to KC the same day, so lunch or breakfast suggestions for a Monday would be appreciated!

Is it porotta or paratha/parantha/paratta/etc. bread? If it's it's the latter, is should be soft, not hard. The only Indian bread I've ever had that's hard is papadum (and other spellings) which is crispy but not flakey.

Is she giving you measurements, or only ingredients? If did she get it from a magazine, it would be pretty easy to google measurements plus ingredients to find the same recipe.

Do you by chance know which Japanese brand it's retailed under? I'm curious, and wouldn't mind trying it if I could get my hands on some. If it's not a supermarket brand, my guess would be Lupicia Tea, but their website doesn't show any organic assam teas.

Not from personal experience, but a friend of the family that raises lechon pigs (pigs intended to be roasted on a spit) in the Philippines says anything more than 60kg (or maybe it was 75kg) is too big and won't be as tasty (or have as crispy skin). I've never investigated in myself, however, but generally, lechon pigs I've seen definitely weren't 300-pounders.

Can you get catfish over there? I'd vote for yum pla dook foo (transliteration varies). According to chez pim you can also use sole or haddock. http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2003/07/yum_pladookfoo.html Just a note, my friend told us the fish has to be fresh to puff up properly. If it's frozen, it doesn't get as fluffy.

What? No second lunch at Star Beer? I'm shocked! Disappointed! Stunned at your lack of fortitude! I want Korean fried chicken. I've never had it, but I think I'd like it. Could I have it without going to a hockey game first? I hate hockey. And are those fries frozen, or do they use a special machine to cut them all wrinkley like? I'd hate to think they waste tallow on frozen McCain's fries! BTW, I'm done.

I don't have much room left in ImageGullet, and am too poor to become a donor, so I'll put up as many pics as I can, but my picture days are coming to an end! Day 14 My last day! After my disappointing dinner the night before, I was hoping to leave Manila on a positive note. It was Saturday, so we were going to drop by Salcedo Market on our way to the airport. We left my great-aunt's house bright and early (around 7:30), and after getting just a little lost, we found it! Salcedo Market is a weekend market held only on Saturdays, and it's like an American or Canadian-style farmer's market, but even better because of the food! I wanted to make sure to post a picture of one of my ensaimada taste test winners. This HUGE ensaimada (the equivalent to 3 or 4 regular-sized ones) was from the Pamangan stall and made by the Des Torres family. It was more like a new-style ensaimada--sweet and rich--so it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but as a sweet bread, it was very very good. When I arrived home in Japan, I ended up eating half of it before going to bed. Then the next morning, I awoke looking forward to eating the other half, only to find that I had actually eaten 2/3 of it the night before! Poor me! In its moist and tender goodness. I couldn't believe it was still so moist the next day--I had expected it to dry out. And you can see the layers of the bread--yum! The Des Torres family ensaimada tied for first place. The one from Star Cafe in Baguio was the other winner. Star Cafe's was more like the traditional ensaimada I was looking for, and it probably would have won had it had real butter and more sugar. But the Des Torres one was very good. The SC one was only P10, though, and the DT one was a whopping P180!!! (or around that price) Other stuff: French stall selling crepes and galettes. I had a galette with gruyere. It was buttery cheesy goodness. My mother had a butter and sugar crepe, but now that I think about it, she didn't share any with me! The first lechon stall I came across. I think this must have been the most popular stall--it was only 8:30 when we arrived, and there was none left! The second lechon stall. Poor little baby has no butt! These people were selling Thai food, and it actually looked really good! Fish and stuff. Another French stall. This guy had all sorts of sweet and savoury goodies. Had I been staying longer, I'd have bought quite a bit, I'm sure. I think he mentioned most of the dishes were from Alsace, but I could be wrong. These are the famous Medina Family ensaimada. They were featured in an article in Saveur that featured Pampanga (the author is/was an eG member). I really wanted one for my taste test, but it was P195 and my carry-on bags were already stuffed. I bought a homemade spicy sausage. It was perfect. I miss non-Japanese sausages. Cotton candy!! I stopped to take a picture, but I wasn't going to buy any. It was only P20, though, so how could I resist! It was my favourite kind--not too poofy, but a little hard and more caramelized. It was so perfect I didn't need to use my patented cotton candy eating method. Duck innards and unfertilized eggs. I'm sure I could have done something interesting with these. Or at least the maid could have. . . They sell the ducks with the heads still on here. Poor ducky. I bet he'd have given some really crispy skin, though! I have so many more pictures, but that's all that will fit (I'm at 49.99MB and 100% of storage used!). I may upload the rest to Flickr one day. . . or not. I mentioned before that I'd had bad experiences in the Philippines in the past. I'd never really been interested in the country since then, but I felt it necessary to return. The night before I left, my aunt (real aunt) called and asked if I'd ever recommend the Philippines to people, and I said, "Yes, definitely, but I'd tell them to get out of Manila as fast as possible." Manila is great for food, but to get any of it, you'll have to sit in traffic for a minimum of half an hour, more likely more. And the city is like many other big cities--crowded, polluted, and dirty (I can't even count the number of men I saw peeing on the side of the street--they outnumbered the stray dogs). But once you go outside Manila, or any other city in the Philippines, you see a completely different country. It's so lush and the air is crisper (though not always cleaner), and you can get good food outside of Manila, too. So yes, I'd recommend the Philippines as a destination. I had a great time, though being there with my mother and meeting people from her past made it even more meaningful for me. If you go, make sure you hire a car and driver, though. I'd not drive through Manila on my own, that's for sure!

Day 13 My second last day! I was getting tired of Filipino food and my mother wanted to try something different, so we went to Bizu, a French place near where we were staying. I started with the soup of the day, pumpkin. It was simple, but tasty. My mother had the osso buco. OMG this was good! The meat was so tender, and the sauce was perfectly seasoned. The potatoes were a little boxed-tasting, but I'm sure they weren't. The asparagus was just lightly cooked, so it was crisp. Then my croque monsieur came. I'm always wary of ordering cm anywhere except Burdigala Cafe, but the menu made it sound so good--it had meuniere! But I should have listened to my instincts. It was made with supermarket-type black forest ham and the bread was very Filipino (slightly sweet and too soft to stand up to the ham, sauce and cheese). My fries were good, though! I love Filipino potatoes! I also got two macarons to go. Mango on the left, butterscotch on the right. I didn't want to try their macarons because they looked a bit dry, but the waiter gave us one to try and it was really good (even though it was chocolate, and I don't even like chocolate macaron). The shells were fine, not coarse, and the amount of filling was perfectly balanced with the shell. The butterscotch one was really awesome. I'd have bought more, but the one I bought was the last one. It was filled with salted caramel--my favourite! I never got to try the mango one. Immediately after lunch, my mother went to mass (they have mass at almost every single mall in Manila!) and I went to Cafe Xocolat. It's known for their hot chocolate, most of which are french variations, but they also have native tsokolate. I ordered the native. It was probably my second favourite tsokolate--my favourite was the one from Choco-late de Batirol in Baguio. The little cookie was really good, too. After meeting up with my mother, we went to buy some goodies at a supermarket. I got dried mangos--lots of them! They won't last long, I'm sure! Then her cousin picked us up and we went to another mall/market-type place called Tiendesitas for more food shopping. Like at Market! Market!, they have stalls representing different areas in the Philippines, and they sell goods from those areas, but it's a rather sad mall, and they don't have too many stalls anymore. Oh well. I came for tsokolate de tablea and some pastillas de leche in a jar! Pastillas de Leche is usually a candy, but you can also get a version similar to dulce de leche, except it's white and not as sticky as dulce de leche. I'm going to put mine in brownies or something. I haven't decided, yet. Since we were there, my mom's cousin and his wife decided we should have merienda. We readily agreed. I had a mango shake (in the Philippines, a fruit shake is just fruit, simple syrup, and ice blended), and half my mother's suman with mango. Suman is just sweetened sticky rice. This was nice and warm, and the mango was perfectly ripe. It was my last mango during this trip. My mother's suman also came with tsokolate. One can never have too much tsokolate! Well, maybe you can, because this version wasn't that great. It wasn't bad, but it was too watery. I liked the cup though! My last dinner in the Philippines was horrible! For some reason, Filipinos have a tendency to believe anything "stateside" is good. I can understand why people who have had limited access to foreign goods might think so, but my great-aunt's husband was a diplomat based in Washington, DC for many years. It's not like she's never tried the stuff before, so shouldn't she know better? We were served "American food" for dinner--quite an honour, it seems. What did we have? One of those chicken seasoning things in a packet that comes with a plastic bag, and you put everything in the plastic bag and bake it. It was so awful! But at least I had bought some ensaimada for dessert! I wanted to do an ensaimada taste test, but for some reason, we didn't get to try many types. I bought two of the supposedly best commercial ensaimadas around--Mary Grace and Hizon's. YUCK!! They both tasted artificial, and there was no substance to the bread--it was like air. The cheese on the Hizon's (on the far right) tasted artificial, and the Mary Grace cheese (middle) was strangely sharp. I think it might have been Kraft Parmesan. On the far left is mamon, which is a type of sponge cake. It was from Hizon's, too, and it was also pretty bad. What a lousy end to a lousy meal! Talk about going out with a whimper!

The things you learn every day! I didn't know rum was made from molasses. Do you think it could still be used? Or should I let it ferment a little more and use it as some kind of alcohol-base? (just kidding)

They eat dog in the Baguio area, too. I'm not sure of their political affiliations, though. I'd have tried it had I been offered some (and probably would have enjoyed it more than I enjoyed that little tiny cricket). One of my mother's cousins is married to an Igorot (native from that area), so they eat dog relatively often. I'm just organizing my pictures from my last couple of days, and I'll finish up my posts and be done! Be afraid, be very afraid, Peter!

I bought some molasses when I was in the Philippines, and the lid popped off shortly after I put it in my suitcase. Luckily, I had wrapped it in a plastic bag, but I'm wondering. . . Does molasses ferment? When the lid popped off, there was a very audible pop like a champagne cork, and it wasn't (I don't think) precipitated by any major event like being dropped. It didn't smell bad, but I'm not so familiar with the taste of molasses to know if it has fermented or not.

Day 12 Another pictureless food day. Today's only interesting adventure was lunch. We went to the echo store to look at their offerings. It's a store that specializes in Fair Trade goods, and also handicrafts made by disadvantaged women (including those in prison). Their prices are a little high by Philippine standards, but still very reasonable by Western standards, plus it supports a good cause. I ended up with some native chocolate, native coffee, and something else. . . but I can't remember what. Then I met up with an old classmate while my mother and Tita Lita went off for lunch on their own. I mentioned earlier that I had lived in Bacolod when I was 10, and I went to school there. I had a miserable time, and after I left, A was the only classmate with whom I kept in touch. We lost touch more than 20 years, and only reconnected just before (literally) my trip here. Our meeting was so strange--I never thought I'd see her again, but yet it was completely comfortable. We had Brazilian for lunch. It was one of those all-you-can eat places with meat on skewers. The meat was actually really good. It was much more flavourful than the same type of meal I had in BKK, and for a non-Filipino meal, it's the only place I would (so far) recommend. After lunch A went back to work, and I went over to Market! Market! The actual mall is rather boring, but what's nice about Market! Market! is that there are kiosks representing areas from all over the Philippines, so you can buy food-products that are specialties of those area. I just got some carabao cheese--a feta style and a fresh (mozzarella) style. I'll see how it is when I return to Japan. Just two more days here--time has flown so quickly! Dinner at home, nothing interesting to report.

Cheater! Perhaps you set the bee-keeper guy up for life with your purchase. I've been trying to buy local honeys in the Philippines, but people keep telling me they're not pure, and I'm a little afraid of the looks of the stuff in re-used beer and soft drink bottles. It's hard being a scaredy cat!

Day 11 I’m inching my way forward, and I had butter with my pan de sal today! How exciting! I also had some papaya, because I just couldn’t resist. No pictures of lunch because it was unexciting. Another cousin picked us up and took us to Makati for lunch. I was supposed to visit his wife’s yoga shala (she teaches the style of yoga I do), but we ended up just having lunch—Italian today. I’m getting tired of having Filipino food at every meal, and just wanted something simple. We went to a restaurant called Italianni’s at Greenbelt 3 (or 4—Greenbelt is a large shopping complex in Makati—very nice place). It was OK, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it again unless I could just have another mango shake. The mango used was perfectly ripe, and the shake (just ice and mango blended) was so cool and refreshing. Hopefully my stomach won’t argue with it later. Dinner was more interesting. We went to S and H’s house to have a cooking lesson! My mother loves a Spanish-influenced dish called “callos”. It’s a tomato-based stew with sausage (real Spanish chorizo), pork, tendon (maybe), garbanzo beans, and she’s not sure what else. Too bad we got stuck in traffic, and missed the actual cooking part! We had spaghetti with clam sauce (the clam sauce was from Costco), clam chowder (not from Costco, but Campbell’s), and the callos. All the American stuff was a little on the salty side, but it was fine. The callos was exactly what my mother wanted. H boils pork, pata (thigh of the pig), tripe, and sometimes tendon for a long time. Then she stir fries garlic, onions, and the meat plus chorizo bilbao (?). She adds the tomato sauce, some spices, and her secret ingredient (habanero sauce from Louisiana). I’m not a big fan of tripe, but I liked it enough. It was a little rich for my stomach. My mother really loved it, though, and she ate two or three servings, plus got a container to take back to Bacolod! H had ordered a special dessert for us, but it hadn’t arrived, so we settled for macapuno ice cream. Mmmmmm. . . I couldn’t help myself, and I ate half my bowl! I might be paying for it later, but I’m hoping not. Finally, shortly before we left for home, our special dessert came! H gave us the entire box! Betty’s Sans Rival is famous in Manila, having been around since the 1950’s. Sans Rival is layers of cashew (or some other nut) meringue with buttercream, and it’s one of my favourite Filipino desserts! We took it home, then quickly cut it into pieces, wrapped them, and put them in the freezer. That way we both get to take some to our respective homes! (That's my shadow in the first picture ) We also got three tins of leche flan, but we insisted they take one, so we only took home two. I think my mother is going to take them back to Bacolod, though I’m not sure how she’s going to do it (since puddings over 100mL in size aren’t allowed in carry-ons). T’s wife (whom we had dinner with the previous night) owns a catering company and we had talked about leche flan at dinner, so she had them made for us. It looks so non-descript, and perhaps even yucky, but it’s not. You can’t see it, but there’s some beautiful caramelized sugar under there. That’s the best part! Aside from the rich creamy goodness of the flan, that is. Maybe I’ll sneak some for breakfast tomorrow, so you can have a better picture of it! The things I do for y’all!

Day 10 I’d been limiting my food intake to test things out. Breakfast was pan de sal (used to be just a simple roll made with flour, yeast, and salt, but is now more like a sweet butter roll—I prefer the old-style) and Cipro. I was a little more adventurous for lunch, and I had tasteless stewed beef with Chinese cabbage. By dinner, I was really hungry! Dinner tonight was with Mom’s friends S & H again. S’s cousin, T, and his wife also joined us. T was supposedly interested in my mother at one time, and when he first met me, his handshake was a little limp, but when he realized who I was, his grip tightened and his smile grew wider. It was funny (for me). Quezon City Sports Club was another one of those members’ only places. It was not terribly posh, but it was a nice casual place to dine and the food was better than I had expected. Too bad I couldn’t eat much of it. The others ordered pinakbet which is an Ilocano (province in the northern part of Luzon) dish with mixed vegetables (eggplant, green beans, okra, squash, bagoong (that condiment thing I showed in an earlier dish)) and shrimp. It usually has slices of pork in it, but in this case, it was topped with lechon kawali (fried lechon, as opposed to roasted, I think). My mother thought it was the best version she had tried, but later someone told her it wasn’t actually a very good example of the dish. They also had grilled liempo (pork belly with the skin). It’s the same type I had at my Tiay Tita’s, but marinated in different things. I asked my mother if she liked it, and she said, “Oh yeah.” She said usually it’s just marinated in calamansi, soy sauce, and garlic, but this version had a sweetness to it—maybe orange juice or honey or both. For dessert my mother had a mango crepe. It took forever, and we joked that they had sent the workers out to climb a tree to get the mangos. I tried a little, and thought the mango was not quite ripe enough, but I’d have ordered it again if I were to go back (with a healthy stomach). Mom enjoyed it. She said the crepe was really tender, and not tough like hers (few people can make crepes as tough as hers, though). What did I have? I ordered wonton soup, but was unceremoniously corrected. It’s “wan-TON soup,” said the waiter. It reminded me of when my sister corrected her 6th grade English teacher in Bacolod (“It’s ae-pple!” “No, it’s not. It’s a-pple!”). It turned out to be wonton mee. The soup itself was fine, but the wontons (excuse me, wan-TON) tasted funny. At first I thought the meat was spoiled, but I think maybe it just had more non-shrimp seafood in it than I was used to. No picture of the soup, but I do have a picture of the spelling! I wonder if you really are what you eat. . .

Doddie--I was just about to post the name! We were at Unimart (grocery store) yesterday and we found a jar of the fish in olive oil made by "Connie's Gourmet Kitchen" or something like that. It was relatively expensive--P180 for maybe 300mL? Pan--I asked my mother and she said it was pechay, as Doddie said. Kare kare is usually served with banana blossoms, but no banana blossoms right now, I guess. Faine--Filipino cookbooks are a difficult lot. Many of them were written by homecooks and suffer from poor editing/proofreading, so the recipes sometimes don't turn out, even if you follow the recipes exactly. My aunt was telling me that she just uses them as a guideline. That being said, she recommended a cookbook to me, but I've forgotten the name. I think it might be this one. I'm going to a bookstore today, and will do some research (and hopefully not walk out with too many books, because I'm only allowed 20kg!). PtE--Every Filipino loves a good lechon (even people from Mindanao, the predominantly Muslim area!), but I'm not sure it could be considered the national dish. That was one of the difficulties mentioned on NR: Philippines--because the regions are so diverse, it's difficult to pin down a national dish. Personally, I'd go with adobo. And I haven't even had it, yet! Before I forget, a much better write-up of my lunch on Sunday can be found on Our Awesome Planet. Really great pictures, too (if there are any discrepencies between what Anton wrote and what I wrote, you should believe Anton ).

How about a cookie? In Winnipeg, Tall Grass Prairie's Folk Festival Cookies is a big seller every year, and they sell it at their stores now. http://www.ciaowinnipeg.com/recipes/13_folkfest_cookie.php

I was at McNalley-Robinson (Grant Park branch) one day, and found a book of travel essays, all of which were written about food. I can't remember the name off-hand, but it was a pretty easy find. (ETA--how was MSP?)

Of course I had skin! Just a little, though. I didn't want to eat anything to rich, because I knew the ride back to Manila would be long. You need to try a fresh Filipino lechon. I'm sure it will out-class any Cuban roast pig!