prasantrin

My next big trip will be to the Philippines. This time, my mother will be meeting me in Manila and we'll be traipsing around there for a couple of weeks. We'll also be taking a highway bus up to Baguio (where she lived for part of her teenage-hood) for a few days, and then stopping off for a couple of nights in the Pampanga area on the way back to Manila. Any suggestions for eats in those places? In Baguio, we'll be staying near all the action i.e. near SM Mall. I'm hoping not to have to venture into the mall at all, but if we get stuck, at least we'll be near the food court. I'm a little confused about Pampanga. I had always thought Pampanga was a city, but I've discovered it's an area. Where do most people visit in that area? Is there a particular city or town with the best food, or where we can get a sampling of all the specialties of the area? (any advice about a hotel or b&b would also be welcome) I've been going through a few blogs (Market Manila, Eating Asia), but other recs would be great!

percyn--what recipe did you use to make your corned beef? I'm toying with the idea of making my own (but then will have to put together my own pickling spices, too).

Mayo! Awww crap! Now I might actually have to go out and buy some tater tots! Tater tots with mayo...why didn't I ever think of that? I'm out of mayo, too, though, so I'll have to pick up some of that, too.

Ooooohhhhh! Tater Tots! They weren't something we ever bought in my family (or very rarely), but I did love them when I was young. And I must admit, I still do. Whenever I'm at a breakfast buffet, and there are tater tots, I always have some (though I still never buy them myself). Sprinkled with salt and dabbed with a bit of ketchup, they're perfect!

Interesting. Do you remember what the stem thing is sticking out of the first one, too? It looks like some kind of fruit stem (a really long cherry stem?). Chinese sausage in a dessert-like item? Too bad there aren't any pictures of innards. I love pics of innards! I need to go to LV again. To think I missed those places (we did have fairly good take-out Chinese, and some good dim sum at a place in the same strip mall as a 99 Ranch Market, though)!

What are these two things? They seem to fit into my mantra (anything fried is good), but don't look familiar (the first one looks like it has a curry-puff-type pastry, and the second one looks like a pumped up version of hum sui gok, but what's that thing sticking out of it?).

If you already do pierogi, add gyoza/potstickers to the mix. You can vary the fillings--use ground lamb or chicken instead of pork, and you can also do mushrooms for vegetarians. Like PtE and Margo, I'd make more meat pies. When I was in junior high and high school, my after-school snacks were usually Schneider's meat pies or Schneider's sausage rolls (I'd add those to your list, too, but again, sub ground chicken or lamb for the pork). Lamb is kosher, isn't it? For higher-end stuff, could you do osso bucco and freeze it? I'd buy frozen osso bucco if you had it in single servings. Or any kind of braised thing like stews, because though I don't mind spending the time to make them, I can never eat the whole pot. I'd also stick a few more items from other cuisines in there, like frozen Japanese items (you can buy frozen donburi in Japan, so maybe you could experiment with something with rice and a meat topping, like gyudon), Greek (spanakopita), etc. It's nice to have variety.

Caramel brownies--swirl some heated caramel into brownie batter. When I've made it, it called for caramels melted with more cream (but not so much that it became sauce-y), so I think your caramels would do well.

When it comes time for them to balance your budget, make sure to mention the co-ordinator brought home some food. That should count for a few "eaten" meals, so it won't look like you're over for that meal.

Okonomiyaki should be noodle-free. If it's topped with yakisoba, then it's called something else (in Kansai it's called modern-yaki).

I hold a lot of fat, too. . . I'll look into them next time I'm in Canada, and in the meantime, I'll start hoarding barf bags (they don't make 'em like they used to, though. They're awfully thin now!). Even if they don't end up working out, barf bags are always useful!

I looked up fat trappers, and I think I want one. How similar are the bags to airplane barf bags? The replacement bags are about $1 each, but if I were to store up barf bags, I could just use those in the container!

This topic has been covered a couple of times here and here. I use a Japanese product called katameru tempuru which is powder that you add to oil to solidify it. I prefer it to pouring oil in milk cartons or jars because those things can be recycled, and I like to recycle as much as I can. I've never seen it available in Canada, but I've never looked, either. I might have to bring some back with me when I move back.

My chickpea ragout was pretty good the first two meals, but after that, it got boring...couldn't bring myself to finish it today. I decided to make roasted chickpeas with the remaining cooked chickpeas. For those of you who have made roasted chickpeas, do you peel or not peel? I peeled, but I'm hoping I can avoid that part next time...(still have 1 1/2 large bags of chickpeas, so there will definitely be a next time)

Have you ever had the Hazelnut Tart from Bistro Dansk? I bet it would be excellent as a macadamia tart.

Pork hock--look up Filipino recipes for pata. Crispy pata would be great if you could do it.

Thanks! They're going onto the stove as soon as I get home from work. They're old beans, so I'm planning to start checking them after an hour or so. Hopefully I'll be able to pull them before they're too soft (and if I miss the mark, a little more hummous won't be such a bad thing!).

Cooked chickpeas--can I freeze them? I've done the google thing, and have gotten mixed answers. All say you can freeze, but some say the texture changes, while some say there's no difference. I'm hoping to cook up a lot of chickpeas, freeze them, and then add them to soup when needed (so texture is relatively important). I might make hummous with some (in which case the texture is not so important).

I'm still all phlegmy after a week of being sick, so I decided to make use of the national holiday to make soup. I made more chicken stock yesterday. Some will be used to make chicken soup (poached some chicken breast in the stock to add more flavour to it), and some I used today to make leek and potato soup. No leeks to be found, so I used Japanese negi. I know potato doesn't freeze too well, so I saved half the sauteed negi for a future soup. Added sliced potatoes, then covered with chicken stock and boiled until potatoes were tender. Pureed with my stick blender (only the second time I've used it in the 5 years I've been here). It's almost perfect! More of the chicken stock will be used to make kabocha soup a little later. Hopefully it will turn out better than my last attempt.

Tamales is not quite in the same league, because you can't just take a bag of cornmeal and get masa for the tamales. It's a lot more involved than that. Maybe polenta, cheese grits, and cornbread would be a better threesome. I poached a chicken breast yesterday (on sale for Y79/100g--I paid about Y190 for one breast). Will use half for a chicken salad sandwich, and half for soup. Most of the broth from the poaching will be used for the soup, but a little will be used to add flavour to some steamed hakusai.

I love that sugar caddy! I think I need one...I just have to think of a reason to go to Chicago, so I can get one (which restaurant, and do they sell online?). And the crumb catcher--where is it from? My mother fell in love with crumb catchers when we were in Kuala Lumpur. I might have to buy her one some day.

She wants out, too? That's a bad, bad sign! She knows there is a very small minority that always complains--nothing will ever be good enough for them. Why doesn't isn't she willing to take a stand against them? She's going to have to learn how to twist the negatives--if they say, "The soup is too cold," then she could say, "It's difficult to serve it piping hot in these circumstances, but it's kept as hot as possible," and then she could ask, "Do you have any suggestions for how to keep it hotter?" At least it will make them think about if their complaints are reasonable or not (by reasonable, I mean if something could actually be done about them). But for some people, nothing will ever be good enough. I've said it before, but I still think you should give them exactly what they want, then when they start really enjoying your meals (as much as they could possibly enjoy anything), then stick it to them and quit. Then they'll realize what a good thing they had (actually, they probably won't, but they'll probably complain even more about the next person).

But for many of the seniors, it just may be. It's already been established that they prefer rather bland food (pepper is too spicy for them ), and sauerkraut can be very jarring to the taste buds of those who like bland. It's not spicy, but the tartness can be overwhelming (I hate sauerkraut and most tart foods). I thought her e-mail was quite courteous, actually. She tried to handle the situation delicately without putting blame on anyone (note the lack of "you" in her e-mail, as in no "you didn't" or "you should". She merely stated what the perceived problems were without laying blame). As for the complaints, themselves, not liking sauerkraut is the only complaint that I wouldn't take seriously, and probably would not have even mentioned were I the co-ordinator. Not everyone likes everything, too bad if you don't like one dish that was being served that day. The sausage not being browned may be another stupid point--that's mostly about aesthetics, not about the food, itself (but I admit grey sausage turns me off, and browned sausage may taste a little better, but would it really make that much of a difference?). The other things mentioned, however, were pretty valid--food's not hot, tomatoes are flavourless...those are reasonable, in my opinion. Were I the co-ordinator, however, I'd be keeping track of who is making the complaints. They say for everyone one verbalized complaint, there are a hundred more non-verbalized ones, so even one complaint has be investigated and be taken seriously. That being said, if it's the same people complaining all the time, then as a co-ordinator, I would start to discount them at least a little, and at some point, I'd probably just tell them off (in a nice way, of course). That could be something to suggest to her. She does have to listen to them, though. It's not like she's listening to them just to pass the time (or to give them something to do to help pass their time). It's part of her job. I like annabelle's (and Arey's) idea of serving the same 6-7 meals in rotation. It's what most of them want, so give it to them. Or have 6 basic meat preparations, and six basic starch preparations, with the same number of side dishes and desserts. Then mix and match as you see fit, based on what's in your freezer and what's on sale that week. By mixing and matching you won't have the exact same meal every time, but you'll be giving them the consistency they seem to want. It's all about wants and needs--as the clients, they can dictate what they want and need, and it's up to you (or the co-ordinator) to try to meet those wants and needs.

Another question regarding miso quality--does it ever go bad? Last year my grandfather gave some of the "farm people" some miso with which to make soup, but they claimed they felt drunk after having some. It made my grandfather think the miso had "gone bad" and fermented (but it's fermented, anyway, isn't it?). I didn't know what to say, so if someone else can put the correct words in my mouth, I'd be grateful.