The reason for that is..

That sounded so serious huh!, my previous post, I mean  No, it is nothing profound, it was because it took me forever to create something out of a recipe.  Funny.. i know, i know, but I have been reading marketman and his posts on the pinoy cuisine, he talks about food, with side comments about culture and the pinoy ways.   Then there is Cafe Fernando in Turkey and a host of others that can divert me from the task at hand.  But there was a bake sale this morning for the church choir, so I had to participate.

That didn't come without some self examination. I had to look at myself (silly noh) to discover why it is so hard for me to create anything that is baked.  Once I was able to get over that hurdle, and figure out my fears he he, I was able to make a poppy seed lemon cake and  banana cookies not sure how it fared.  The exercise liberated me and I am now raring to make a red velvet cake.  My friend made butterfinger cookies, so good, it's amazing what you can do with a stick of butter, ha ha..

When I was undergoing PT for my tennis elbow, I had it conveniently scheduled around lunchtime, so that I can stop in Chinatown for good grubs. One time I went and just got some dimsum from the cart and was so suprised at the bill of what would normally be a less than 10.00 lunch.  Well, it turned out that the roast pork was actually a suckling pig.  I was not able to savor my food, I had an an attack of conscience like why am I eating a suckling pig, when it could have grown to it's full potential and fed more people.

Anyway, my forays with cooking has led me to less wastage, I made cherry compote, kiwi salad dressing, and lemon preserves.  Oh, just because marketman of marketmanila.com had this  a series on lechon making, I made my own version using the ronco rotiserie, it was pretty good, but of course I had to eat it in small doses lest my cholesterol give in to the surge. I also made paksiw na ulo ng salmon, to the non pinoys this is salmon head cooked in kamyas a sour fruit from the tropics.

Life is good... :)

Chapati by Theresa

These days, some of us congregate on Sunday evenings cook and watch movies.  I took pictures of some and will share, it was exciting to make flatbreads, at least it quickly in a pan to cook. Can't figure out how to add a link to the pix.

Anyway, it was a fun activity. Too much time spent on the pix drained my interest on the subject. Is that ADD or what..

The food that we eat, as Pinoy as we are..

In case you haven't noticed, half of my blogroll is on food, cooking, picture, taste, and color. I am particularly taken with this one, http://www.marketmanila.com/, he explores the old pinoy cooking, the way before it was obscured by claims of gourmet origins. please feast on the pictures, it is tame, tame in the sense that I have not seen a fish head or anything like that.  We are a little adventurous with our cuisine, having been influenced by the Spaniards, Japanese, American, and the neighboring regions, like Malay, Chinese, etc. after all there was already a bartering of spices before they came and claim.

Anyway, food will tell you a little bit of our culture. We are also good with our words, we tend to conjugate our own, if we are not speaking in a formal manner. For example in my Filipino class we learned words like, smagol meaning flip flops, I guess they were smuggled in the country from where I don't know, or syurpit, for surefit - the golf hat, more like a visor, I guess it is a perfect fit, here's the funny one, chair is silya, from spanish but in official pinoy lingo it is salungpuwit, literally translated it is catch butt or a... however you put it.  Isn't that rich, now you can stop wondering why my English does not sound like it should ha ha..

Magandang gabi po!

Reco-nize!

Ate Monie: On you it seems like you have more realistic emotions now than you can express before...or....maybe ...
Ate Monie: you are braver to express yourself now than before...

My cousin just visited this blog and that's what she said. Maturity does that, I think, things are better defined, as we mature we are able to grasp the reasons for our actions and make sense of ideas and thoughts.  I give credit to Lordy of course for making me see light.

But on to the more mundane, silly, my co-worker, decided that we have to dine at elways restaurant.  He was a ballplayer, not someone who follows sports, I asked if we are dining there because the place is good or just because it is owned by somebody famous.  Dine we did, it was expensive, being from the Bay Area, and who knows my way around the kitchen, I would say it is okay, but the service is good. The wait staff are attentive, but they don't seem to know what to do.  Discreet service is I guess not a part of the "now" culture anymore.

Then we have to have good Italian, found Maggiano's the spinach salad was good but the pasta dish was soupy.  Oh well, enough of this dining out, I should just stick to my adobo't - I make it differently, kanin (rice) or penoy and balut.