Domestic Goddess

Boiled ear of corn. No salt, no butter, just plain ol corn... *burp*

Charcoal grilled is the way to go!!!! Let the smoke fire up too and that would add greatly to the flavor. This recipe is from the common street food found in the streets of Manila. A stick of grilled chicken hearts go for about 50 cents. Enjoy and I am drooling now at the thought of you enjoying those crispy, crunchy hearts.

Oooh Majra, those bentos are so pretty and colorful!

Our monochromatic yet tasty supper tonight... Homemade chicken burgers with gravy, mashed taters and sauteed onions.

Here's spicy adobo marinated grilled chicken hearts.. Mix 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/8 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, I tablespoon hot sauce (Tabasco) and a bay leaf in a bowl. Add washed/drained chicken hearts, cover and chill in the fridge for an hour. Fire up the grill and skewer the hearts in tiny bamboo sticks and grill for about 15-20 minutes until the hearts are golden-brown.

Petite - the link is not working. Plus, I have no credit card that's why I wanted to send the money through a bank transfer.

Meredith - MOG you made that Cinderella cake? That is awesome! I wish I was 3 again. LOL That is one beautiful cake! I love it!

Hiroyuki - you're so cute and handsome in that picture! I am truly enjoying the pics of your refrigerator, that neat stack of empty milk cartons. I'm thinking about switching to buying milk cartons instead of gallon jugs so I can use/recycle it like you do.

Hiroyuki, my prayers and thoughts are with you and your wife. I am really looking forward to your blog, your posts, your thoughts... everything.

Street market eats in Janghowon... Braised pig trotters... Spicy tripe and chicken feet trays.... And what I ate today ... Haejangguk - Beef Blood Stew...

Okay, found the same truck and took a closer look. Here's a sample of his "explosion" products... You can see the puffed rice in the middle sacks. It costs about $3 per huge bag. Puffed corn bags and rice crackers.... The sacks at the back of the truck that catches all the exploded goodies...

Found fresh clams in the weekly street market in my town today. I decided to fix half of it as a soup (with ginger, onions and leeks) and the other half as a banchan (korean side dish) that I saw in a local restaurant. The clams are simmered in spicy sauce with chopped onions, carrots, zucchini and potatoes. I served it with rice, crispy fried pork belly and steamed rice...

I've baked about 2 dozens of these chicken curry pies.... I've been grabbing a couple and snacking on it while browsing eGullet at night.

Peter - reading about your snake meal has reminded when I went to China on a business trip for a medical internet company. I was pregnant with our youngest and the doctors that I met in Xiamen insisted that I eat fried cave mountain snake. I have used my pregnancy to deter them from plying me with too much liquor/alcohol (common business practice to get an upper hand with bargaining with business deals). But my pregnant state did not save me from a plate of wild mountain snake. The doctors told me "Good for the BABY! Give lots of energy and vitality!", beaming as I tentatively took a bite of the crispy, succulent fried snake meat. I was hooked. IT was FREAKIN' GOOD! I was afraid I actually hogged the platter in front of me and ate most of it while my fellow dining mates subsisted with the razor clams, chili crab and other seafood platters on the table. I still dream about that dish until today. Needless to say, my youngest son is a very energetic, frenetic 6-year action-machine.

There are two different puffed rice varieties that I have seen here in Korea - the extremely, dry crunchy kind which is basically the leftover rice stuck at the bottom of the rice cooker or rice pot. This Koreans would leave in the pot until the whote bottom gets hard, brown and crusty. Most of the times, they will take this out and dry it under the sun. I have seen these oval, dry disks of dried crusted rice sold in the weekly street market and people actually breaking off pieces and crunch them noisily while they go about the market. As for them actually cooking them either for soup or rice puffs, I haven't seen the technique yet. There is a sweet puff rice snack sold in the groceries here that is the light, fluffy puffed kind. This is white kernels of rice shaped into a square-block, about 2 inches thick. I am guessing this is mass-produced in a factory. Sorry for not really knowing what variety of rice they use. In the Philippines, we make puff rice out of PINIPIG - young, glutinous rice harvested before maturity and pounded flat. MarketManila has featured it in his blog - Pinipig puffs. Today is market day here in Janghowon. Lemme see if I can snap pics of the crusty, dry rice disks and the square rice puff snack that I mentioned earlier - so you'll get a better idea of what I am talking about.

Sandy - what a fascinating trip/food report! Thanks for sharing and letting us experience your day in Seattle.

XiaoLing - that's my kinda tummy!!!! To quote Peter (Quote:) Serena did her mandatory pictures with the models (we have a large collection of Serena getting tourist pictures taken….I’ll spare you) (Unquote). We want more Serena pics too!

Sounds in the background, while I hunker down to shoot the pics... "Are you done yet? "Can we eat now?" "Mom, it's gonna get cold!" That pork belly is making me drool now.... (wipes chin)

Here's a quick Filipino way to prepare it: Trim the leaves and new branches of the sweet potato stalks into 2 inch pieces. In a pot, boil some water and cook the greens for about 5 minutes. Drain, pat dry and reserve in a large bowl. In a mixing bowl add 2 tbsps. rice or cane vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon white sugar, a sprinkling of salt and pepper - mix well. Slice up some red onions thinly and mix with cooked greens. Drizzle with the vinarette, cover and let the flavors blend together in the refrigerator for about 15 to 30 minutes. Serve as a side dish to curry or fried, oily dishes (essp. fried fish).

Peter - I would describe eating it as very light and somewhat sticky rice. It has a mild fragrance and the aftertaste is very pleasing. The addition of soy beans, legumes and ginko nuts adds more to the texture and the flavor. I could eat two bowls of it if I can. Oh, and I also found out that even if it is that sticky, it makes a heck of a plate of garlic fried rice.

LOL... sorry for being short with my descriptions but here are more details to our lunch. Docs - as far as I know, this sliding table arrangement is unique to this restaurant. Believe me, we enjoyed seeing other meals slotted into place and see diners just dig in and enjoy the spread. Peter - with apologies to Jason, I have lifted some of his pics from his blog and linked it here... Here's a picture of the Icheon rice... The different leaves for wrapping the pork ssam packages... Steamed cabbage, lettuce, sesame leaves... And to quote Jason's blog... gratuitous kimchi porn... Some pickled cucumbers... Cabbage in miso soup... Peter - I know that Sal means "Uncooked rice". Bap means "Cooked rice." Hmmm... does that mean Salbap restaurant is Uncooked/cooked rice restaurant? I have no idea... LOL

Sunday Dinner was hubby's forte: Pork barbeque slabs & ribs + homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken (Hubby's a Ky Wildcat!). Fall off the bones Kentucky Pork Barbeque Fingerlickin's Fried Chicken... Sides.... Tater salad Braised Sprouts with Bacon in Red Wine Vinegar sauce Buttered corn and carrots... Foot-long sausages for the kiddies... Also included were tossed salad, garlic fried rice, assorted cookies and dessert was fruit berry cobbler (not pictured but was oh-so-good!)...

I met up with Jason and his lovely Hiromi for an authentic Icheon Salbap Restaurant experience... Icheon rice is cooked by putting rice with ginseng, jujube, pine nuts and other cereals into a stone pot. Rice in restaurants approved by Icheon City has a different look and fragrance. It is clean and transparent in color, and very sticky. The dining table, on which oily rice emitting hot steam along with dongchime (watery kimchi), japchae (noodles), saury, soy bean sauce soup and various greens, is fit for a king. At a local's suggestion, I took Jason and Hiromi to the Cheongmok Salbap Restaurant When you enter the restaurant, you don't say anything except how many members of your dining group. I held up three fingers. This restaurant is very efficient... everything is wheeled onto this table-sized tray... And everything is.... ... slid into place... Our feast... Close-ups of some of our dishes... There's seasoned fermented soybean curd sauce beside steamed pork ssam wraps, shredded soy beef, various greens... And for SheenaGreena... her beloved soy crabs.... Jason and Hiromi, happy and full...

Peter - the label at the back says it is A PRODUCT OF THAILAND. My friend picked it up when he vacationed there earlier this year. Phuket I think. Takadi - it says that the main ingredient is fish sauce.

<SMACKS FOREHEAD> Of course, please add cubes of calabasa to the pinakbet recipe. It has to be added along with the eggplant, bitter melon, etc....