one filipino dish a week

In a recent trip to the Asian store The Girl and I came across this  rather large melon. It looked like a huge elongated cantaloupe. It’s called a Hami melon. I was pretty excited to try it. Once I cut into it, it looked and smelled very much like a cantaloupe. It tasted very similar to a cantaloupe as well. There was only a slight difference in texture. It’s worth a try but there’s nothing too special about it.

Fried bananas the snack of champions! In my opinion, this is the ultimate Filipino snack. It’s hard to get the saba bananas here in NYC area (or maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough), however, the readily available plantain is a good substitute. It’s very simple to make and a very delicious snack. I have very vivid memories of eating fried bananas for snacks. If you’re in the Philippines this is just something that you eat, no questions asked. The Girl made a good point that the best bananas to use for this are the ones that are really ripe (almost overripe). The flavors are more pronounced and it doesn’t get lost when it gets cooked.

What’s in it?
3 Plantains, sliced to make a fan
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

Dissolve the flour and sugar in the water and mix thoroughly.  Dip the banana in the flour to coat.

The more flour you use the thicker the coating will be on the banana. Adjust to your preference.

Fry until the sugar caramelizes and turns dark brown. Transfer to a service plate and dust with sugar. Simple!

Eat Filipino Food!

The Girl brought home one very nice surprise the other day. Mangosteens! It has been over a decade since I’ve had mangosteen. It has only been in 2007 when the FDA lifted its ban on the import of mangosteen. There has been a ban on import of mangosteen to the US because of the fruit flies they attract. The Asian fruit flies are feared to wreak havoc on the crops, especially without natural predators. The ban was lifted with the condition that the fruit is irradiated. Great! I wish I knew that before I ate some.

These mangosteens came from Thailand same as the large amount of mangosteens that you get in the Philippines. But from this CNN article it seems like we might soon be getting mangosteens from Puerto Rico.

These came from Thailand and bought in NYC’s Chinatown. That’s quite a ways and with today’s energy costs it was a pretty penny to buy this small bunch of mangosteens. These were $7/lb and this 2lb bunch only had 11 mangosteens. I savored every last bit of the luscious white meat.

What does it taste like? It’s sweet with a little bit of a sour tone. The white meat is creamy and smooth. It’s just heavenly. The thick outer skin however is very bitter and when you’re not looking and you accidntally bite into them… not a pleasant situation. So only eat the meat. Irradiated or not I devoured them. This was truly a little taste of luxury.

Eat Filipino Food!

A trip to the farmer’s market always yields some amazing stuff. Case in point… milk! I’ve heard great things about Ronny Brook Farms milk but I’ve actually never had it. It comes in old school bottles. The cows roam free and eat grass! It’s funny how that’s pseudo-revolutionary. I have to say that this milk is leagues above any milk you can get at the grocery store. The taste is pure, creamy, and silky smooth. It has that wow effect when you drink it. So definitely seek out your small dairy farms close by you and get some grass feed, hormone free milk. Next stop I’ll have to seek out some raw milk. This however was a major upgrade to the milk that I’ve been buying and I will try to get Ronny Brook Farms milk whenever I can.

To spice up the normal Sunday breakfast, I bought some wild turkey eggs from the farmer’s market. Once I saw it there was no way I was going to leave there without buying some. The eggs are bigger than the chicken eggs (quite understandably) and the shells almost look like marble or some kind of stone.  I forgot to make note of the farm which these came from but I’ll update the next time I see them.

Continuing with the farmer’s market theme. The Girl and I passed the stall that had a sign that said ‘Seriously Good Bacon.’ Well, if the sign said so I had to try it. Who doesn’t love bacon? There are some baco-vegetarians out there (vegetarians who have exceptions for bacon). Now that’s serious bacon eating. This bacon is from Violet Hill Farms in upstate NY.

Of course being Filipino a meal isn’t complete without rice. So I made some garlic fried rice (sinangag). I know I should’ve probably made tapsilog (tapa (filipino beef jerky) +  sinangag (garlic fried rice) + itlog (egg)). Wow that looked like a math equation of a full stomach! har har har! As for now…the verdict: This was one amazing Sunday breakfast! The eggs were great although I didn’t taste much of a difference from chicken eggs. The bacon was simply yummy. I would get that bacon again and again. Tasted nothing like store bought bacon at least 10x better.

To finish one big asian pear chilled and sliced. What a wonderful start to a Sunday.

Eat Filipino Food!

For dessert to finish up our Saturday lunch the Girl prepared some grilled pears. We got the pears from the farmer’s market from one of the organic farmers and they looked just scrumptious. Here’s how it was made:

2 Pears
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp brown sugar
1 drop of vanilla extract
1 dash of cinnamon

The Girl sliced up the pears in half lengthwise, dipped it in the pinot grigio that we were drinking and placed them on the stovetop grill pan. While that was grilling she combined the rest of the ingredients and reduced it for about 5 minutes. Poured it on top of the pears and served warm. It tasted really really great! Perfect way to end a Saturday lunch.

Eat Filipino Food!