HIGHLIGHTS OF A RECENT MANILA TRIP

Crab at Fook Yuen in Banawe

Mixed vegetables

Home made fishball soup

Supreme comfort drink: Sago't gulaman

Pata tim: We took this home, we just could not fit it into our tummies

My huge crab claw

Fried frog's legs

And the dish I always eat in Manila, no matter what: oyster omelet

Dulcinea's churros con chocolate: no equal

While I wasn't impressed with most of Cue's food, the chili monggo I thought brilliant.

Chez Karine. Lovingly made French pastries and macarons by my high school seatmate Chef Karen Yang.

Soft shell crab salad. An average choice.

                                          

Nomama's tuna appetizer. Beautifully presented.

Nomama's braised ox tongue ramen. I inhaled this one.

Stuffed squash flowers with prawn and pork. Would love to try making this at home. Clever.

Twice cooked pork belly teriyaki. Similar to my mom's humba. Sticky and delicious.

Chez Karine
Serendra Mall, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

http://www.chezkarine.com/
https://www.facebook.com/chezkarinebakery 
Nomama
G/F FSS Bldg 2, Scout Tuason cor Scout Castor St.,
Quezon City, Philippines 542-2558

"GLUTTONING" WITH MY FAMILY

Sometimes, you beat 'em. Other times, you join 'em. I'm in the middle of a serious diet this month, to lose all the excess fat I gained from giving birth....three and a half years ago. Yes, it's been a constant uphill struggle since that day. Thing is, my family is visiting Hong Kong, and that can only mean one thing. It means war on diets and calorie counts. Eating is serious business according to my dad. So serious on our first day we had breakfast at 9 am (Law Fu Kee for their flavorful, msg-laden congee and al dente wonton noodles) , a snack at 10am (Wai Kee's crisp you tiao fresh from a bath in boiling hot oil, gooey steamed turnip pudding with soy sauce), coffee at 10:30am (Holly Brown with you tiao on the side), a visit to a Shanghainese store to buy dried plums to help with digestion (we needed it, most definitely) and lunch at 12:30pm (roast goose rice at Yung Kee, skip their cha siu and cuttlefish though- not worth it).

You Tiao, Chinese style crullers perfect when eaten with
congee, or dipped in hot chocolate like churros, or dipped in coffee.
Unfortunately the ones at Law Fu Kee are pre-cut, stale and cold.

Papa's congee with fish slices

My mom and sister's wonton noodles

My wonton soup

Ginger and Century Egg

They make hundreds of shrimp dumplings every morning

Their hands are so deft and quick

Yummy filling

Steamed turnip pudding

We attacked the turnip pudding

This is where they portion it out from

The best you tiao--fried in front of you

Stanley Street dai pai dongs, or streetside stalls similar
 to hawker stalls in Singapore. We plan to eat lunch here soon.

Yung Kee's display. Only their roast goose and
famous century egg with ginger are decent.
Otherwise, there are so many better roast specialists out there.

Law Fu Kee 
G/F, 142 Queen's Road Central, 2543 3881
Wai Kee
G/F, 82 Stanley St, Central
Yung Kee
32 Wellington Street, Central, 2522 1624

MY FAVORITES! (M for Masarap, Madami, Magulo, Maingay at Mura)

Tung Bo is not for the squeamish. Located atop a wet market, you eat knowing that beneath you are  rows of stalls selling all manner of freshly caught, plucked, dressed and butchered animals. The floors are wet, the permeating odor fishy and gamey.

Upstairs at the restaurant walk with your head held high, not out of pride but so you don't have to see what's making the floor sticky. Ignore how the dinnerware is being washed and dried, welcome the raucous noise caused by a lot of semi and fully-drunk clients. Sidestep those tables where there are card and drinking games going on, lest you get hit by stray flying dice being thrown by an overly eager participant. Sit at your table, proceed to order, then attack your meal with gusto. Chitchat for a bit until your voice can't be heard above the din, ask for the bill, and happily pay. The food here is tasty, plentiful, and, for something not located on an outlying island, reasonable (not exactly chump change, but not hard on the wallet either).

Anthony Bourdain has featured it, HK locals love it, tourists flock to it. It's a bit hyped up, but sometimes you want the hype and hoopla. Sometimes you want to eat where the floors are gooey, the chopsticks need to be immersed in boiling hot tea, the light is harsh and the diners are devout gluttons.

Prawn Coated in Salted Egg Yolk: Cholesterol heaven

Fried chicken with garlic bits on top, the skin gleaming dark copper,
and you see the yellow bits of fat underneath.
This chicken will never undergo liposuction.

Ok, this was a weird mistake. We ordered mantis shrimp
because they ran out of the yummy razor clams
 in black bean sauce. We wondered why we got a
basket of toasted white bread squares.

We were too cheap to get the fried mantis shrimp
so we ordered the one cooked with eggwhite instead
and this mound appeared. Apparently you eat it
on the toast. Hmmm. Takes some
getting used to. Tastes healthy. Weird.

Good thing we got fried rice to balance off
the healthy egg white dish. This was a certified winner.

Tung Po Seafood Restaurant

Java Road Cooked Food Centre, 2/F, 99 Java Road, North Point

2880-9399

CRISPY TADYANG NG BAKA

Once, a long, long time ago, in a kingdom not so far away called Libis, newcomer Lokal Restaurant and Bar stood proud. It was fresh and fun, served Pinoy food with irreverent names and catchy descriptions, was staffed by enthusiastic and youthful chefs, and made the aligue pasta a household name.

The iconic Ms. Doreen Fernandez wrote a heart-fattening (pampataba ng puso), review of Lokal's food. My co-recipe developer, now an Executive Chef at an upscale, ultra-chic resort (Prince William and Princess Kate were guests) and I swooned in happiness and kilig when we first read it. More than a decade has passed, and the write-up, with its yellowing edges, still make us grin broadly--my friend is very accomplished yet you never really forget who gave you your first big break.

Here's a recipe from Lokal that was a runaway bestseller, crispy beef shortribs gently boiled in a savoury broth until tender then chilled and deep fried to blissful beefy heaven. My husband thought I would cook Lokal food for him everyday which is why he proposed, so you have an idea just how  appetizing this is.

Boil 2 kg. cubed beef ribs in water (enough to over the ribs in the pot), 3/4 cup soy sauce (you may add more to taste), 3 tbsps. brown sugar, 5 pieces star anise, 1 bay leaf, 10 pcs. pepercorns, 1/2 pc. white onion, salt to taste.

Remove the scum that floats on top as soon as the water boils. Lower the heat and simmer the ribs until fork-tender and the bones are easily separated from the meat, around 2-3 hours.

Drain the ribs well. Let it cool. Reserve the boiling liquid and freeze this once it cools. It can be used for Chinese-style braised beef brisket.

Chill the ribs overnight.

Before cooking, set out the ribs 30 minutes beforehand. Heat enough oil in a deep pot for frying. Deep-fry the ribs until crisp. Be sure to cover the pot as this will surely splatter.

Serve the ribs with a dip of soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and chopped onions with optional bird's-eye chili.

COOKING INSPIRATION

Where do I get inspiration on what dishes to make, day in and day out?

I'm not really a cookbook or recipe sort of amateur cook (but I have tons of cookbooks and magazines and filed recipes). I dislike baking because you have to be precise in your ingredients, measurements, temperature and time. Patience is truly the virtue of a baker, and I'm not THAT virtuous (insert wink here). What I enjoy most is scrounging for ingredients in the fridge, chopping madly then throwing everything in a hot pan and praying to the cooking gods the results will not poison my family or end up in the bin. Or I could find a recipe in a magazine, blog or cookbook, then have an a-ha! moment and proceed to tinker with it like mad. Perhaps it's late onset selective attention span, or my mommy-fied neurons, but I just have this compulsion to not follow directions to the letter. Manuals that state "you must follow instructions to the nth degree" are my worst frenemy.

My family enjoys food as much as I do, and we don't like eating the same type of cuisine over and over again. Sundays could be Western, Mondays Thai, Tuesdays Filipino, Wednesdays Chinese, Thursdays Italian and Fridays (TGIF), now that's for my beloved pastime: eating out. This means I need to sit down every week to plan a menu, which I always change at the last minute. Why I drive myself crazy in this manner, I will never know.

What I do know is that inspiration plays a big role in what we eat everyday. Given my dislike for proper procedures, taking out a cookbook and following a recipe just doesn't cut it. I suppose the 'spark' comes from having a most delicious childhood, reading one too many food blogs, burying my face in magazines, watching too much Asian Food Channel and Master Chef,  blowing what little money I have on kitchen doodads and making restaurant owners richer. All the flavors, information, essence and bits and bobs somehow form a cohesive whole when I'm in a market, or in front of the fridge or stove. I just know what to cook and how to cook it. I think.

The cooking gods have been mighty kind as well. So far my sons are having as delicious a childhood as I did.