Lomi and Japanese Siomai

I was hoping to enjoy some sunshine in Cebu last week but the rain seemed to follow me down south.  Late afternoon rains got me craving for something hot.  These were my snack-cum-dinner at Big Mao in Ayala---Japanese siomai and steaming hot Lomi.

Lomi is a hot, sticky soup made of egg noodles, a medley of veggies (carrots and cabbage), slivers of meat, shrimps and kikiam (a mixture of ground pork, shrimps and vegetables wrapped in bean curd wrapper), topped with fried garlic and slices of spring onions.

Anything warm and flavorful on a wet, rainy afternoon is a comfort food for me.

Linking to Food Friday and Food Trip Friday
Monday Mellow Yellows

Sorbetero/Our World Tuesday

Childhood memories rushed in when I saw this sorbetero near Quirino Grandstand a few weeks ago.  A sorbetero was a street fixture of my childhood, a street vendor who sold home-made ice cream we call sorbetes.  He would announce his presence by ringing a handheld bell that usually roused us from our afternoon siesta.   We rushed to the ice cream cart like children from the desert.

Sorbetes is a traditional variation of ice cream in the Philippines.  It is now more popularly known as "dirty ice cream".  Peddled by street hawkers (or sorbeteros), it is usually served with small wafer or sugar cones, and more recently, bread buns.  Sorbetes is uniquely made from coconut milk and cassava flour.  Flavors vary from the usual natural fruits such as mango, jack fruit, avocado, melon, coconut and strawberry to flavors imitating commercial ice cream such as chocolate, cheese, vanilla, mocha and ube (purple yam).  Source: Wiki

My mother predicted trips to the emergency room every time my siblings and I ate dirty ice cream.  It was frowned upon by our elders as the sorbetero was himself purportedly not exactly a model of hygiene.  What water was used?  And why did he not wash his hands after he handled our peso coins?  I even taunted my little sister that the sorbetero didn't wash his hands after using the bathroom---it was after she ate the sugar cone!  Sorbetes became a guilty pleasure  we devoured behind our mother's back.

Sorbetes is peddled in colorful carts which usually can accommodate three flavors, each in large tin canisters.  The cart is stuffed with crushed ice sprinkled with salt to produce a lower temperature around the tin canisters and keep the ice cream frozen.  

Sorbeteros walk the streets the whole day, or they're parked near schools, parks and churches, calling customers by ringing a small handheld bell.  Children gathered around the ice cream cart in the middle of the street is  a common sight especially in the summer.

The sorbetes industry competes with commercially available ice cream from giant companies such as Nestle, Magnolia and Selecta which have also started peddling their frozen products in the streets in more sanitized carts.

Dirty or not, ice cream remains my ultimate comfort food.

Linking to Our World-Tuesday

Classic Pancakes

@ mirandablue
Classic Country Medley - Classic Pancakes with country sausage from Pancake House

I didn't know physical therapy can make me hungry.  Or maybe I was rewarding myself after a backbreaking session with a physical therapist.  It's nothing serious, really...I slipped in the parking lot last week, landed on my butt, strained some back and arm muscles.  But that is beside the point---the point is, I had carbo overload which is not good for my back at all (I get backaches when I gain weight :().

Why do they have to put Pancake House at the hospital lobby?  Talk about temptation!

More treats at Food Trip Friday

Mango Crepe

@ mirandablue

Let's take a break from the cholesterol-laden foods we have eaten during the holidays and enjoy something simple and sweet.  I am not much of a dessert person, and a perfect ending of a good meal for me is simply coffee.  If there's a dessert menu, I'd go for fresh fruits or ice cream.  So how can I say no to mango crepe?  It has all my favorite---fresh ripe mango, mango ice cream and chocolate sauce served on a bed of mango puree.  A delightfully sweet and comforting dessert.

Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

In the mood for Steak

@ mirandablue

I had a long day at work and was in the mood for self-indulgence.  Setting aside some health considerations, I let myself be tempted by this juicy flat iron steak.  It was slow cooked on high-heat charcoal, tender and lean, and cooked the way I wanted it--medium rare.  On the side are mashed potato and corn kernels.  I had mangoes n' cream for dessert.  It was a great meal to reward myself after a hard day's work.  Have you rewarded yourself lately?

Wishing you the warmest Christmas in the company of friends and family.

Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Biko with latik

@ mirandablue

My family doesn't celebrate All Souls' Day but like most Filipino families, we cook some native delicacies on or before November 1st.  When we were kids, my aunts and I had fun experimenting on kalamay (rice cake), espasol (we call it bayi-bayi), but-ong (glutinous rice wrapped in cone-shaped banana leaf and cooked in coconut milk), ibos (glutinous rice wrapped in woven coconut leaves and cooked in coconut milk), muasi (or palitaw--steamed ground glutinous rice topped with roasted sesame seeds and muscuvado).  Those were the days when glutinous rice was inexpensive and we had free supply from my grandfather.

My all-time All Souls' Day comfort food is Biko with latik (a residue of coconut milk).  About a week before All Souls' Day, I start having Biko cravings.  The aroma of boiling coconut cream gives me warm, fuzzy feelings---it brings me back to childhood with my grandfather slaving away in the kitchen cooking his favorite rice cake.  We seldom find my grandfather in the kitchen, it was my grandmother's domain. The only day Lolo was in the kitchen was during kalag-kalag, or All Souls' Day.  His ratio was 1:1 and his biko could stay fresh for a week without refrigeration. It is easy to cook but one needs powerful biceps to mix it.

@ mirandablue

I wanted to do my grandfather's biko and I needed sung-sung rice, an aromatic, glutinous rice.  And the price was shocking!  A few months ago, sung-sung was P72 a kilo---now it's P110 a kilo!  A tip from my mother:  malagkit rice should be new, laon is not good. But how should I know if it's new or not?  Leave it to the experts. So far, with sung-sung, I was never disappointed with quality and texture.  I also got muscovado sugar and mature coconut.  

Cook glutinous rice and set aside.  Cook undiluted coconut cream in low heat to extract oil and latik.  Latik should be golden brown.

@ mirandablue

@ mirandablue

Mix in the cooked glutinous rice, mix well.  Blend the muscovado sugar into the mixture.  Calamansi leaves were added to balance the sweetness and add a bit of zest.  Cooking biko on All Souls' Day somehow connects me to members of my family who already passed on. And it's my way of remembering Lolo, a foodie and a kind gentleman with a big heart.

@ mirandablue

Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Aniseed Beef Tendon

@ mirandablue

One of my favorite dishes at North Park is the Nanking Beef and Aniseed Beef Tendon.  I love beef tendon, especially when it's tender and melts in your mouth.  And the distinctive flavor of aniseed was just perfect, not overwhelming.  I would buy beef tendon every week if not for my mom's uric acid level.:p

I was in San Juan last week and made a wrong turn at a one-way street.  I almost made a U-turn at a gas station when I noticed a North Park along P. Guevarra.  As usual, it was way past lunchtime and the place was almost empty (which I prefer to a lunchtime crowd).

I got these shrimp dumplings (hakao) for appetizer.  It was a delightful lunch.

@ mirandablue

More mouth-watering servings at Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Fruti di Mare - Panini

Fruti di Mare means Fruit of the Sea.  I got a panini of warm ciabatta (Italian white bread) with mozzarella, white cheese, tomato, anchovies and basil served with potato chips, or shall I say, patatine fritte (forgive my trying-hard Italian accent!:p).  This was my lunch-cum-snack at Cibo in Greenbelt 5 one Wednesday afternoon.  I was rushing from one meeting to the next that I skipped lunch.  When I got to Cibo, I was ready to chew on the paper placemat!  Good thing the service was prompt.

I've always enjoyed food at Cibo.  Love their antipasti, salads, meat, salmon and vegetarian dishes. I usually bring diet-conscious friends and clients here. 

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Kiwi and Mango con Hielo

kiwi and mango con hielo

I have been trying many different ways to beat the summer heat, and anything with ice is on top of my list. My fridge is half-filled with chocolate-flavored iced-candy, I made an apple fruit shake on Saturday and had halo-halo this evening. I also rediscovered Icebergs at Metrowalk and tried their Kiwi and Mango con Hielo and Mango con Hielo on two consecutive nights, while Franzia had Saba and Langka con Hielo. I love fresh fruits mixed with milk and shaved ice, it's simply heaven in this hellish weather. The combination of kiwi and mango is new to me but I love kiwi and mango is an all-time favorite---the flavor is quite interesting and delicious!

These are perfect for dessert or a snack on hot, lazy afternoons.

shaved ice with mango, nata de coco, topped with mango ice cream

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Hot Beef Bulalo

The cool weather in Tagaytay is enough to make one crave for a hot bowl of Bulalo, a stew made from beef shanks and marrow bones. My favorite parts, aside from the soup, are the marrow that is tapped from the bone and the soft cartilage (litid). I know they're high in fat and protein, but what the heck, life is short!

We had this delightfully rich and hot Bulalo at Antonio's Grill in Tagaytay on Labor Day weekend.

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Pancakes cheer me up...

One thing that I look forward to when I need to see a doctor at The Medical City is pancakes. You don't see the connection? Well, there's a Pancake House at the ground floor of the Medical Arts Tower, and it's my favorite hangout after a doctor's appointment.

I'm not the world's biggest pancake lover. Waffles, yes. But pancakes, not so much. Then I recently discovered that pancakes, especially the thick ones and hot off the griddle, cheer me up after a stressful time at the clinic. I had these pancakes with walnuts for added flavor and crunch, topped with whipped cream and sweetened with honey. Country sausage and brewed coffee on the side.

A perfect brunch to cheer me up.

Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Better than Ice Cream

Mango, Pistachio and Lemoncello from Gelatone

I am sharing these tasty flavors with you before they melt! Yes, I am back to my ice cream-eating days. Like any woman of substance, I resisted the call of ice cream for so long. But when I started exercising, I realize that "everything in moderation" is actually working for me. No more binge eating of ice cream and chocolates at 2 am.

I read that ice cream, when eaten as part of a healthy diet, may actually melt fat, helping you lose extra pounds faster than you have abstained. The secret is the calcium. Experts say calcium helps people lose weight because when your body doesn't get enough calcium, it triggers fat cells to store fat and get bigger.

After "inspecting" the scene of the crime in Greenbelt 5 on early Sunday evening, we walked to Greenbelt 3 and passed by Gelatone. Naturally, I didn't resist. Gelatone's heavenly gelato is pricey at P100 per scoop---and a scoop wouldn't do it for me. After trying their Mascarpone and Panna Cotta, my sister and I decided to bring home 1/2 kilo (P550) with 3 flavors---mango, pistachio and lemoncello. Gosh, I've never tasted ice cream this good!

Gelatone's gelati are made with healthy skimmed milk imported from Australia and the flavors are all imported from Italy.

Pistachio from Fruits in Ice Cream

Another favorite ice cream stand that I usually go to after exercising is Fruits in Ice Cream at The Fort Strip. I love their Mangoes and Cream and French Vanilla flavors from the FIC Lite line (P55 a scoop). FIC Lite ice cream has no added sugar and only 50% of the fat content in regular ice cream. Yes, FIC Lite is diet ice cream, and it's delicious!

And when I need some energy-giving calorie, I go for their gourmet ice cream---an avalanche of chopped, toasted pistachio in rich pistachio ice cream base. And I'm on cloud 9!

All along, I thought that gelato is simply ice cream in Italian. I was wrong. Gelato is made with some of the same ingredients as most ice-creams around the world---milk (and cream), sugar (and other sweeteners), flavorings (fruits, nuts, essences, etc.) and air are the main ingredients. But unlike many types of ice cream, gelato often does not contain eggs. And like high-end ice cream, gelato generally has less than 55% air, resulting in a denser product.

So don't despair, diet ice cream does exist.

Life is short, let's eat lots of ice cream!

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Comfort eating

Food was the last thing on my mind on Monday afternoon. Franzia and I met to discuss where we should go to volunteer for the relief operations. I had coffee and two bibingka (rice cake) before meeting her at Starbucks. But as we talked about what happened and what was still happening---the tragic death of people, the devastation of properties, the gut-wrenching scenes on TV with victims helplessly watching their homes destroyed by overwhelming flood water and mud, of children hanging on to their mothers' neck, the unspeakable grief of a father as he talked about the family he lost in the flood, of friends who spent all night walking in flood water to get home, I started craving for food.

Comfort food---to somehow ease the guilt I was feeling because my home was warm and dry, and my family is alright. Franzia told me about Cafe Juanita, a cozy resto in Brgy. Kapitolyo, where she had her birthday dinner.

Cafe Juanita has an extensive menu---it was difficult to decide what to order. We had the all-too familiar Molo Soup for starters, with lots of fried garlic. After the soup, I wasn't hungry anymore but decided to try a Vietnamese appetizer, Chao Tom, or grilled shrimps on sugarcane stick. A mixture of garlicky shrimp paste wrapped around a sugarcane stick then grilled. It was light and aromatic, and I loved the flavor. Served with vermicelli noddles and fresh lettuce and basil, it is eaten wrapped in crisp lettuce and basil then dipped into the addicting nouc cham (dipping sauce).

I love the idea of fresh sugarcane as a skewer with it's refreshingly sweet flavor seeps into the shrimp mixture while being grilled.

Franzia ordered Callos and steamed rice which we also shared (did I say I wasn't hungry?). The serving was generous and it was good but I still prefer Casa Armas'.

The conversation was getting interesting so we ordered Crepe Samurai for dessert. Layers of cream and mango to complete a delightful meal at Cafe Juanita.

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday