Bugan and Malinayu: Why Pork is Scarce and Has to be Hunted
(adapted from a story translated by Francis Lambrecht)

Hungry Bugan discovered a magical wild pig that directed her to his home where a piece of pork meat dripped blood. She was instructed to collect the blood in a jar and promised it would become delicious meat, but she was not to wring  the raw slab or the wild pig would die. Obedient Bugan returned home and feasted.

An envious Malinayu encountered the same wild pig, only she wrung the meat, killing the heavenly pig, making his descendants forever wary of people who suddenly had turned into hungry hunters.

But the pig was not unkind, even after Malinayu’s fatal mistake. Bugan discovered a rat where the wild pig died. She buried it, and up came a calabash. Not knowing what to do with it, she beat the fruit until a hole was made in its skin: inside was husked rice which she learned to cook into a delicious meal. But she missed the pig, it had provided a mysteriously ready-to-eat meal with the mess.

In the October issue of Saveur magazine breakfast is the main story and as usual the Filipino diet is not mentioned (but slowly we’ll get to them). Champorado is my addition to the issue. One word says it all… chocolate. What more can you ask for? Chocolate in the morning. Being the Filipino that I am I find comfort in rice. It is the warm embrace from someone you love. And rice is the canvas that makes the flavors of the food shine. What better way to start painting your day on a canvas of a chocolate embrace. Champorado may not be eaten with the daily morning news but it is that one tattered shirt in your closet that everytime you wear it you ask yourself why you don’t wear it more often. I may be waxing serious poetic over champorado but chocolate + rice = scrumptioulscence and you know you wanna try some.

Here’s how you can make it:
1 cup glutinous rice
3 cocoa tablets (tablea)
brown sugar - the more the better
milk

If you do not have the Philippine tablea available where you are, then 100% cocoa unsweetened baking chocolate will do the trick.

1. Boil the rice in 4 cups of water. Stir constantly so the rice won’t stick.
2. Once the rice has softened start to add the cocoa and continue stirring to incorporate the chocolate.
3. Add sugar to your desired sweetness
4. Serve it up in a bowl with some milk. For a true Filipino experience use evaporated milk.

Eat Filipino Food!

paoix: When you eat chicken you kill the chicken
The Girl: No, someone else kills the chicken
paoix: Yes, but you are the cause that the chicken is killed
The Girl: I will not eat the chicken that I kill. The chicken is already dead. Someone else killed it. If no one will kill the chicken I will not eat chicken.
paoix: The reason that the chicken gets killed it’s because you want to buy the chicken to eat it
The Girl: But I only want to buy the chicken that someone else killed
paoix: Which in essence you killed because they wouldn’t have killed if you did not have the desire to buy

This repeats several more times without any resolve. So here it is out there for everyone to continue the discussion and maybe come to a resolve. I am of the camp that because us consumers demand chicken we are the main reason that chickens get killed for food. Because of our need for chicken (the demand) someone will always kill a chicken (the supply). A market is created and because of the demand that’s the reason why chickens get killed. The Girl on the other hand is on the camp that she’s only buying the chicken because it’s already killed. And essentially she’s not the reason for the chickens death because it’s already dead.

Obviously, this can be substituted for any type of meat that we eat. To me this is an interesting discussion because we have been so distanced from our food supply that we have no idea where our food comes from or how it is made. The grocery store is as far back in the lifecycle as we go. We’ve become pretty complacent with accepting that the food in the grocery store is safe (including myself). This ignorance leads to dangerous food borne diseases and to some extent the obesity problem in the US.

Bringing it back to the discussion… are you a chicken killer? so, what say you?

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.

The change of weather got to me recently and I was feeling under the weather last week. The Girl, being the best girlfriend that she is, made me some pospas. Pospas is a rice porridge and very much a comfort food. It’s something that you get to eat when you’re sick. And that is the majority of the times that I’ve eaten pospas is when I’m sick or if it’s cold and rainy outside. But I would eat it any given day. It’s just that good.

What’s goes in it?
1 cup of white rice
4 boneless skinless chicken breast diced
1 cup chicken stock
2 cloves Garlic
1 inch Ginger
scallions for garnish

Saute garlic, add chicken stock, bring to a boil, add ginger and rice, turn heat to medium-low then simmer until the rice is slightly mushy, then add chicken, cook until chicken is tender, salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot and garnish with scallions.

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!

Friday night is a moment to celebrate every week. The Girl and I take a moment each Friday to celebrate and reflect on the triumphs and challenges of the week over a meal either at home or at a restaurant. It doesn’t have to be anything grand just a meal together to savor the moments of the past week and to just enjoy each other’s company. This week was dinner in and it was my turn to make dinner. Being the busy bees that we are there isn’t much time to make dinner even on a Friday. This meal that I whipped up doesn’t take much time at all.

Pork Chop
2-4 center cut pork chops (about 0.5 to 1 inch thick)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp olive oil

In a 1 gallon ziploc plastic bag fill it 3/4 with water and dissolve the kosher salt and white sugar. Add the pork chops and brine for 1 hour. Brining the pork chops make a tremendous difference and makes the pork chops juicy. Pork in the US has gotten leaner over the last 20 years and with less fat it makes tougher pork.

After brining, pat dry each of the pork chops with a paper towel. On one side of each of the pork chops, coat with brown sugar. With the sugar side down, place the chops in a cold pan. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chops. Heat up the pan and within a couple of minutes the pork chops should start to sizzle. Once browned (about 5-7 minutes) turn the chops over and put the heat on low and cover. Cook the chops until it reads 150 degrees in an instant read thermometer. Let it rest covered for about 5 minutes before serving.

Garlic Fried Rice
lots of garlic minced
1 scallion chopped 1 inch long
left over white rice
salt to taste

Garlic fried rice is the perfect way to jazz up leftover rice. The key is to have a generous amount of garlic. Simply saute the garlic until light brown add the rice. Salt to taste. Don’t forget to salt! I’ve had lots of garlic rice that just lacks seasoning. Garnish with scallions.

What’s a meal without a drink? To round out this Friday night affair we had a bottle of Albarino, which is a white wine from Spain. I’ve become big fan of Albarino all thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk. I just like how this wine pairs up with a lot of different food and not to mention Filipino food. Lastly, Albarino is pretty reasonably priced so I can’t complain about that.

All in all it was another successful Friday night dinner. And I hope you take some time this week to spend a few minutes with someone you love over a good meal.

Eat Filipino Food!

My cousin, the hunter/fisherman (if you have wildlife problems you can contact him http://nuisanceremoval.com), caught some bluefish in a recent fishing trip. Catching your own fish is so rewarding and makes the cooking part more enjoyable. Knowing the back story of where the fish was caught and knowing that it’s fresh and not frozen for several days is also an added bonus. The Girl suggested that we use the fish to make tinowa! What a brilliant idea!! Tinowa is a Cebuano variant of sinigang. The soup is not as sour as the normal sinigang.

(the banana was a picture crasher he’s not part of the tinowa crew)

What goes in it?
1 inch piece of ginger, pounded
1 chayote, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 green bell pepper (or a hybrid like in the picture haha)
1 bunch scallions
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 bunch baby spinach
1 onion, julienned
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fish sauce
4 tbsp vinegar
1 bluefish cut into steaks (you can use any fish you like)

“Chayote? what is that paoix?” you might ask. So, what is chayote?  It’s a vegetable that’s in the squash family (upper left hand corner in the picture above).  It doesn’t really have much of flavor but it is starchy and adds a texture dimension to a dish. This can be found in Hispanic or Asian stores (some major grocery stores might even carry it).

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot. Add about 3 cups of water and bring to a rapid boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and add the chayote, ginger and bell peppers, fish sauce and vinegar. Let it simmer until the chayote is halfway tender then add the fish.Cook for a few minutes until the fish cooked through add the tomatoes simmer for another minute. Turn off the heat and add the spinach. Season with salt and pepper to taste along the way.

Serve hot, enjoy on a nice rainy fall day!

Eat Filipino Food!

As summer takes a bow, we all hope for an encore and we all are wondering where did the summer go? Summer went by so fast that I feel like I haven’t done everything to fully enjoy it. For some reason the last remaining gasps of summer is making me nostalgic about street food. How I wish to get a whiff of the amazing smell from the BBQ stands of Cebu. Or get a taste of that special sauce of the shrimp tempura cart. Be it New York City, Beijing or Cebu City street food is a must try. But seriously, what’s in that sauce that everyone dips the tempura cart?

Eat Filipino Food!

This is my ideal summer salad. It’s refreshing, simple yet complex, balanced, and most importantly delicious. I’m not quite sure where it got its name but this is the recipe from my aunt and that’s what she calls it. She makes this for parties and it’s the one that’s always gone first.  It’s really quite hard to get too excited over a salad but this is good. I suppose that’s where the ‘jolly’ part of the name came from. The ‘jiffy’ part is a little bit of a misnomer because this isn’t so quick to make. Maybe it’s just that this salad makes you so happy that you eat it quickly — jolly jiffy. Even better!

Here’s how I made it (serves 20 ppl):
4 cucumbers julienne
2 jars pickles julienne
3 carrots julienne
3/4 lb cooked ham strips
1 can pineapple tidbits
2 fuji apples julienne
sharp cheddar cheese strips
1 cup mayo

If you’ve never julienned anything in your life and you make this salad you’ll be an expert by the end of it. Julienne all ingredients make sure they all look uniform Combine ingredients, dress with mayo, salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. The sourness, sweetness and saltiness all play together very very nicely. The balance of flavors takes the edge off of the summer heat.  I made this for a church picnic and it had a good response. The next party you have try something different.

Eat Filipino Food!