Domestic Goddess

For me it would be leftover stews: Beef Mechado Afritada Beef stew (American version) Leftover pesto pasta. YUM Hubby's Kentucky barbequed baby back ribs. *swoon*

That is soo cool FG. I am excited to read your report and please don't hesitate to ask questions or post comments to us Filipinos in here.

I've never encountered a bitter eggplant in the Philippines and here in Korea. Maybe it's a regional thing?

There you go Peter. You should find it in the Korean stores there in Canada. All these talk about this squid snack is making me hanker for it. Damn! I knew I should have bought it yesterday. I'll go out and grab a couple of packs later when I talk our dog out for walkies.

Peter - I finally got a picture of that squid snack. Here it is.

Why not wrap it up with spring roll wrapper (lumpia wrapper) and then deep-fry it? When it's almost done, throw in a handful of brown sugar, let the caramel thoroughly coat the rolls. Drain and let cool before biting into one - heaven! PS. we call this banana turon.

I love brain omelettes and if tofu brains are like that, I would appreciate a copy of the recipe and better with pics!

Loki - I'll try to get this from my best friend this weekend. Her mother usually makes great rice cakes but I'm now sure if there's a ricecake made out of black rice. Most of the sticky ricecakes I've encountered here in Korea are made of the white glutinous rice and covered with some balck powder (-> those are my favorites)

Peter - I know I have a picture of that squid snack somewhere. Lemme search my disks (have several back-up disks) for the picture of the squid snack. Let me just say sometimes that snack hits it when you're in a binge-eating, salty-sweet kind of food craving.

What do you call natto in Korean? I'd like to try out the chongukjang that Sheena has described since I have a lot of sour kimchi in my fridge.

Sheena - there's a crunchy snack here that is a pack of round, marble size crunchy balls filled with squid essense. The outside wafer/cookie tastes of peanut while the inside filling screams of squid. It's weird but it works. Heck I even saw Rain eating it between his MTV rehearsal outtakes.

I see Melonpan's already got it. I actually forgot to ask my student about it. Will try to help you in your next weird vegetable.

Thanks Taubear. It does seem to spread better on toast rather than on regular bread. I could imagine it getting hard in the fridge. Just had another Vegemite cheese toast sandwich for brekkies today.

Bumping this thread up since I have been gifted with a large jar of Vegemite by a grateful Aussie who I've been gifting baked foodie items from my kitchen. I love the stuff! Now I'm off to seach for recipes for it at its website -vegemite.com.au How does one store Vegemite? Do I stick it in the fridge or what? *Off to make another Vegemite-cheese toast sandwich.

Sheena - I'll ask my friends about this tomorrow (it's past midnight here).

Diana, try this link: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi...ch.php?q=%B5%B0There are 2 ways to pronounce the character for "jook". Listen to the sound file against the zuk1 pronunciation. ← I've heard Koreans say it like "juke" but with a shorter "oo" sound.

Diana - in the chinese restaurants that I've been to in the Philippines, the fish is lightly deep fried so that it takes a slightly crispy coating. Then again, some just steam the fish.

If I had to request a last meal, I'd like the same courses served to me before I die. Yes, all of them. Thanks for the great coverage, Johnny! You and the DM chefs rock!

Pretty, pretty, pretty! The leaves look so brilliant plus the salmon roe, like a bejewelled feast. I can imagine how wonderful it must have tasted with all the different textures.

Aaargh! You guys are killing me. I'd give an arm and a leg, ok maybe an arm for one of those mangoes, even if they're not the Guimaras kind. Rona - tell your mom she's very, very, very lucky that I am not in the same city/country where she is right now.

Rona - Indian mangoes are not better than Guimaras mangoes. Indian mangoes have a weird aftertaste especially when they are ripe. And they are not as sweet. Guimaras mangoes are very sweet, succulent and even better than the best peaches in the world. A lot of my foreigner buddies who have tried it agree on the description of the Guimaras mangoes. My husband longs for it now.

The turtle one could be a coconut grater.

And our intrepid traveller is off to another culinary/gastronomic adventure.

For some reason I thought I read dried squid testicles not tentacles. Now I have a hankering for dried squid. Damn you Peter (off to search the pantry for dried squid to fry).

Bruce of the eternal cucumbers - the trick to get most of the bitterness off the bitter gourd melon is to toss the cut slices with rock salt. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and watch green juice leach out. Dump the bitter melon slices in a colander, rinse with cold water and then squeeze to get rid of more juice. The bitter melon is now ready for cooking (or for making into a salad). The thinner the slices, the less bitter it is, too.