Domestic Goddess

If you like mouthwatering pics and Filipino food, check out... Market Manila

I've had sea urchin roe for the first time when I was a little girl. We were at the beach in a city called Bacolod in the Philippines. I was walking and found a fisherman harvesting sea urchins. He proceeded to tell me that you can eat them and showed me how to safely crunch the spines first. Then he opened a hole at the bottom of the sea urchin by banging the bottom at the edge of a sharp rock and washed the shell pieces with the sea water. He then told me to scrape the roe with my thumbnail and pop into my mouth. It tasted like slightly salty soft scrambled eggs. It was heaven!

For goat recipes, try the kalderetang kambing (Goat Caldereta Stew) from the Philippines. Its a savory stew made out of cubes of goat meat, potatoes, carrots, spices and tomato sauce. We also have a goat dish called Papaitan (goat chitterlings lightly flavored with goat bile).

I love PORK - belly (crispy), the bony spine (column in soups), pig ears, chitterlings, and the tail. CHICKEN - the thighs and the butt. BEEF - T-bone, tenderloin and FAT

Thank you for a wonderful story and for sharing the recipes. I will try the cornbread and the beans later this week. It's a good thing I have both items in my pantry now. Again, maraming salamat.

Can somebody post a recipe for peppercorn-sauce? I would like to fix this and slather over grilled burgers. Maraming salamat in advance.

Shinbone - just let it go in one ear and out of the other. I bet they never had baked bacon-wrapped chicken livers.

Thanks for posting the site Andie! For a Terry Pratchett fan, it looks like a perfect birthday cake for me. Of course, my kids would fight over which animals to eat first. My hubby would just look at it in disbelief and ask what the h3ll is that? LOL

Peter Green - Hmm... I wouldn't know how to classify Balut (Duck egg embryo) since it is a whole chick you are eating. I love Balut. I could eat 6 if I could. I love the 2-3 day Balut (the chick/embryo is about thumb-sized) and I made my hubby (whose American) go out in the middle of the night to buy some when I was pregnant with our youngest. Aaaah, balut.. the hot juices that come out when you crack the top og the egg. My comfort food....

Richard/Tristar - Here you go... Chicken Longganisa 1 kg ground chicken 2.5 tbsp salt 1.5 tbsp sugar 1.5 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp vinegar 2 tbsp wine 2 tsp pepper 2 tbsp garlic sausage casing Mix everything, case (or shape into patties or fingers for skinless longganisa), and cure for 5 to 6 days.

Thank you so much, Kim. I have bookmarked the site. Now I need to find heavy cream substitute as I cannot find it here in my part of Korea.

I wish I was there. I love longganisa! Especially the garlicky ones (made from carabao [water buffalo] meat. I prefer it to the other favorite Filipino breakfast meat - tocino (sweetened pork)

The Philippines eat a lot of offal too. In my province of Cavite, we have spanish-influenced dishes like menuda (contains liver, heart, kidneys apart from beef cubes and pork cubes), callos (tripe in tomato sauce), pork brains torta (brain mixed with toasted garlic and egg and then fried into a patty). Even street food has a lot of offal. There are weird and fun names for it too. ADIDAS" - chicken's feet "KURBATA" (necktie in Filipino) - either just chicken's neck, or "neck and thigh" "WALKMAN" - pigs ears "PAL" (Philippine Airlines - planes) -chicken wings "HELMET" - chicken head "IUD" - chicken intestines "BETAMAX" - video-cassette-like blocks of animal blood Oh we also grill chicken asses on a stick (about 5 or 6 small chicken butts roasted until golden brown). Yum! But I don't know the nickname for it.

I absolutely love Po Boy sandwiches - the Oyster Po Boys are the best! Fresh oysters dredged in cornmeal and fried until crispy on the outside and tender/juicy in the inside. These piled on a bed of lettuce, tomatoes and thinly-sliced onions in a baguette. Mustard and mayonaise dressing optional. I love cheese-pimiento sandwiches too. Any good recipe out there for cheese-pimiento spread?

I also adore eggplant. A lot of Filipino dishes include eggplant in the recipe. My faves include: Grilled eggplant with fresh tomato wedges and sliced onions with shrimp paste vinagrette. Grilled eggplant torta - grilled eggplant with meat stuffing mixed with egg and then fried Eggplant and Squash salad - Boiled eggplant and squash mixed with raw garlic, pounded into a paste with some vinegar mixed in.

Kim Shook - I would threaten somebody with death if I didn't get to sample that wonderful dessert. I'm dying over here. Any chance to send a slice to me in Janghowon, Korea. That absolutely looks scrumptious!

I would agree, it doesn't taste like butter. It tastes like jackfruit. Durian taste like heavenly custard cream.

Sally, I didn't know cobblers were so easy to make. I'm making another one for this weekend for my son's birthday.

My korean friends actually had a family friend who died eating one of these baby octopus. He was so drunk while swallowing the live octopus that it got its revenge by hanging on to his throat. And yes, my friends still eat live octopi every chance they get... with los of soju.

Ludja - you got that right! I've got a box of those grape-sized beauties from a pastor's wife (whose a close friend). Now, my plans include making peach pies and peach slump.

I grew up eating this fruit in the Philippines. My father was an auditor for the country's biggest drug company - United Labs. He would travel everywhere including Mindanao where they grow the durian trees. Everytime he'd go there, he'd bring a (sealed) crate of those heavenly fruits. My sisters and I would fight over it with my parents, my only brother would try to stay in another room when we would open a fruit. I could still eat a single fruit by myself. My hubby has bought me durian here in Korea and watches in fascinated horror as I devour everything in a matter of minutes. I particularly don't like the candy, tastes too processed for me. Although, I'd kill for one of those durian fruit shakes that I had at a beach resort in Davao City (Mindanao), Philippines.

I baked Peach Cobbler for the first time for dessert today. My husband, who insists he doesn't like peaches, had two servings. My Peach Cobbler:

LOL, if there was a bunch of pics that I forgot to take, it was of thegrape-size peaches that about 50 stalls were selling. Sorry. My family and I stayed in the carnival section of the riverside fair. The peach produce section was on the other part of the river, near the concert-area. To sum it up, yes, there were tons of peaches being sold - I just didn't take any pics. Sorry. I've tried New Zealad oysters, Philippine oysters and these humungous korean oysters. The big ones are pretty good, briny with a hint of sweetness. But they're blown away by the succulent freshness and taste of Visayan sisi (tiny plump oysters) from the central part of the Philippines. Those suckers are a murder to open (believe me, I've got scars to prove it) but oh so worth it. I'm gonna try to find a picture of those delectable sisi morsels.

Shaloop - I got my semi-ripe persimmons with just a tiny hint of sweetness. I love having these as a midnight snack. Very healthy, too!

Peeled semi-ripe persimmons... so crunchy and sooo good!