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stef_foodie

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Everything posted by stef_foodie

  1. Interesting that you should mention this. There's a parallel discussion going on right now on the yahoogroups "Filipino Food Lovers". Is it the season for binatog right now?
  2. I'll add one more and hope people are not getting more confused . I've heard of "Buga" in the Philippines, Dioscorea fasciculata, but I don't recall ever having seen it. Any ideas?
  3. Thanks Karen! The "Tugui" I'm not familiar with. What exactly is it used for? As for nami, my mom and I were shopping recently here (in the boondocks where I live and where there's hardly ever any ethnic food, though it has steadily been improving the past few years) and she was shocked to find Nami! (The display said "name" though.) She said that she used to eat that as a child. I asked her if we could get some so I could learn how to prepare it, but she said that it makes some people's mouths itch, and she wasn't sure what to do with it to ensure that that doesn't happen. I would LOVE to learn how to use it, if you could share a recipe.
  4. Hi all, resurrecting this thread.... since I referred to this post in the one on Filipino cuisine, I thought I might as well add that "Ube" is not the Tagalog word for "Taro". "Taro" in Tagalog is "Gabi". "Ube" is our word for the purple yam (Dioscorea alata, or is it trifida? This one still confuses me.).
  5. Man, everytime I see that picture, Karen, my mouth waters. I think it's because your buro is so much more appealing visually than the other buro I've seen haha! The ube/taro is a common mistake, I think. I've seen it all too often in cookbooks, internet forums, etc. I distinctly remember seeing a discussion of it too right here on eGullet.... (looking for a minute here....) -- ah, here it is: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=51617 As for the "unusual combination" that raised eyebrows, it has to be the spaghetti with hotdogs that I serve to Americans at my children's birthday parties. I make traditional (read "authentic Italian") spaghetti to my family and fellow Pinoys, but when we have Americans over I feel I need to introduce them to our version, made with fish sauce (not that unusual since Italians put anchovies in their pasta, right?), and hotdogs (they use sausages!), and sometimes -- though I dislike this bit personally -- banana ketchup. I quite enjoyed their skepticism, and their eventual approval. Having gotten over that hurdle (the yum factor), my health-conscious mommy friends then asked -- okay, so it tastes good, now how do we make it healthy?
  6. Thanks for the tip, Karen, my uncle has tried the apple cider cure but isn't convinced, though he hasn't tried it with honey. I'll certainly recommend this next time I talk to them! Re tinumis, Apicio, in Laguna, my relatives call it TINUNIS or TINUNES, with an "n" instead of an "m". And yes, it's like dinuguan, but without the blood, and there are also versions that are more similar to Kilawin, with vinegar and sliced daikon.
  7. ah, you're right, Karen. my relatives (and other Pinoys we know) are gout-sufferers, so they need to stay away from uric acid. i feel bad for them though (and probably for myself, one day, LOL) because so many of the things they love, and i'm not even talking about meat here, are culprits, e.g., mushrooms, asparagus, etc. but that topic's for another forum, i guess.
  8. I've had dinuguan with chicken! Some do it because the requisite ingredients are unavailable (like intestines) or for health reasons (e.g., my relatives, who are trying to consume more poultry instead of red meat). Although I don't understand the reasoning much since you're still using the blood of the animal. I've even had dinuguan with tofu. Not what you'd want to eat if you haven't had dinuguan in years and are missing the real thing.... but acceptable.
  9. i've seen many different versions of the French dacquoise, some flavored with nuts, some with chocolate, or coffee. Very similar to our Sans Rival except the combination, of cashews and buttercream seems to be our own. Although, here in the US, I've seen Sans Rival in various Filipino bakeshops and menus altered, e.g., "Chocolate Sans Rival" using French buttercream flavored with chocolate and topped with crushed almonds -- making it closer to the French marjolaine -- and "Apricot Sans Rival" with chopped up apricots in the filling, etc.
  10. I've actually found two versions of Brazo de Reina: one is similar to the Gitano, and one is the tamal that you mention. Yes, perhaps the folks at the Latin Am section could help enlighten us about this.
  11. The closest thing I've seen to our Brazo de Mercedes is Brazo de Gitano -- found in Spanish, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Portuguese, etc. cuisines... although the outside is more cake than meringue -- the filling is custard, similar to ours. Macapuno/mutant coconut/freak coconut is much loved here in the US, PPPans, I've seen it in different desserts in various cities. A really good one I remember was in a California bakeshop patronized by Pinoys and Americans alike -- chocolate cake topped with macapuno ice cream. Infinitely better (for me at least) than the German chocolate cake with coconut topping. Apparently the PCA (Philippine Coconut Authority) has developed trees that yield 80% mutant coconut? Perhaps their website has more info on this -- tried to access it earlier but couldn't. Hi Pan, we have Malaysian friends in St. Louis and we're always comparing notes on terminology and such -- as in your example here, we've found that we have LOTS of words that we both use, but with different meanings. Ulam is a collective term we use to signify anything that we eat with rice, or at least that's how it is in the Tagalog region where I grew up -- it could be meat, fish, veggies, etc., even soup. It's the practice of eating rice with it that makes it ulam. Soup can be called ulam if it's eaten with rice. Otherwise it would just be called sopas. "Anong ulam n'yo?" means "What are you eating with rice?"
  12. my fave was the Lindt as well but like you i have trouble now finding it. i don't make a recipe if i can't find the Lindt. the other options i have available locally just aren't worth the trouble. perhaps someone could suggest a good mail-order source? i haven't tried to find one as i'm still trying to use up my dark chocs that i got on a chocolate-buying binge LOL.
  13. eggs please, if we're making classic American potato salad. i do like the French and German versions too though.
  14. disliked mooncakes intensely as a kid. acquired the taste as an adult. i now love filipino mooncakes (hopia) as well as the chinese/other asian ones. my favorite is the one made with yellow mung beans and with a duck egg yolk in the center, from a bakery in NYC Chinatown (sorry, i forget the name). decadent and oh so good. oh, and i prefer the white flaky pastry to the golden brown cakey one, though i wouldn't turn up my nose at the latter if offered:) i just bought a big box of mooncakes when i was in st. louis in preparation for autumn festival -- first time we're celebrating it this year, just because
  15. chicken soup is my cure-all and then there's hot tea with honey and lemon for tummyaches and sore throats flat 7-up and crackers for tummy upsets and diarrhea LOTS of water for everything and i have several books on "foods that heal" which i consult every now and then i'm more interested in "foods that prevent" though. steven pratt's superfoods rx is a great book that covers this.
  16. yes (changed from a no to a yes somewhere between my 20th and 21st year)
  17. for hand-mixing, i LOVE stainless steel bowls, though i'll use my glass ones in a pinch. i'd love to use pottery bowls but i've kinked too many of them doing stuff that i only use them now for serveware. i HATE plastic. BUT, having said that, my DLX mixer whips awesome egg whites *just like that* -- in a plastic bowl.
  18. hi pppans and apicio, interesting discussion you've got going on here. my parents, who are both Tagalog, use <i>minindal</i> and <i>merienda</i> interchangeably. on the humba-paksiw na pata, i'll add something else that's confusing -- my hubby's family, who are also tagalog (they're from bulacan, cavite and makati) -- calls the dish "estofado" as well. my mom tells a different story -- paksiw na pata is an everyday dish, as opposed to the one used for entertaining which is estofado (the latter perhaps made more "special" by the addition of more ingredients considered optional in the everyday dish). no more time right now, but you can be sure i'll be back to read and add to this discussion later:).
  19. Hi BettyK, The cookbook by Gerry Gelle comes well-recommended. But if you want a background on Filipino food culture, check out the ones written by the late Doreen Fernandez. They're not cookbooks but they put almost everything into perspective. ← Gerry Gelle's cookbook is a wonderful resource, as is Reynaldo Alejandro's. IMHO some of Gelle's recipes though are rewrites of Alejandro's (nothing wrong with that, just thought you might be interested in that information). There are several smaller cookbooks that also provide a good primer to Filipino cooking. In the Philippines there have also been an improvement in the quality of cookooks written, and there have been a number of cookbooks written in recent years -- I've seen the best selections at myayala.com and here: http://www.kabayancentral.com/book/cookbook.html Charmaine Solomon's Asian cookbook is also quite good and includes several (authentic enough) recipes. I have to say I'm kinda disappointed that most Asian cookbooks don't really cover Filipino cuisine very well, most are Thai-focused, at least the most recent ones published. I'd love to see Alford/Duguid do one on Filipino cuisine. OTOH, I'm working on a Filipino cookbook (shameless plug) that I hope will fill some of the gaps:)
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