Until further notice. I have to attend to several important personal matters. Will tell why. If I get to be back online, that is.
Till then. Wish me luck.
If you need to contact me, look for me in Facebook.
Monthly Archives: May 2008
19
May
Only Slightly Sinful Mandarin Oranges
Dessert is a problem, specially if you don’t want to gain too much weight. And if you don’t want to actually cook anything. Otherwise consuming a 1 pound bag of peanut M&M’s is the easiest solution to late night dessert requirements, but past the age of 19 no one can get away with consuming a pound of candy in one night.
Fruit’s always good for you but if you live alone, it’s difficult to store fruit. So the best solution is canned fruit.
Since weight is also a state of mind, if you buy things that say “Light,” ergo, they and you will be lighter, if not physically, then psychologically, and after all, maintaining morale is half the battle. This recipe is full of light ingredients -fruit in light syrup and light whipped cream (or whipped dairy product). I’d even say this is a health food recipe!
Ingredients are simple:
I don’t know if this brand’s better than any other canned Mandarin Oranges brand, but I enjoy reading what it says: “Mandarins from China, Enjoy y [date]”.
And
It says it’s light so it has to be healthy, non?
Spoon the Mandarin Oranges out of their container, trying not to include any syrup.
When you have placed the right amount, proceed to step two. Cover the Mandarin Oranges with whipped cream.
Artistic!
Enjoy.
Repeat.
Impressionistic!
Enjoy again.
You are way better off than having consumed one pound of Peanut M&M’s!
16
May
arbet + math = fail
I’m no good at Math. I have horrible memories of math within my lifetime as a student. There are those tears generated by trigonometry (and a teacher whose surname in English means “choosy”) to a failing grade because I forgot the date of the finals of my mathematical methods subject. There were instructors with terrible and terrifying reputations; Math teachers who inevitably gives failing marks to half of the class (or worst, 3/4 of the class); and those who love the blackboards so much, they don’t bother looking at their students.
There are two vivid memories that always comes to mind when I think of Math.
Grade VI. Our math teacher was holding a demonstration for some other teachers from the division. It was the application time of the lesson, after the lecture, where we were asked to answer several problems. If we were done, we had to go in front, and check our work; the answers were written on a movable blackboard, its back on us.
So there I was, pretending to be answering the problems, when this teacher was nosy enough to look at my work. And since I was just doodling, I was troubled enough to cover it, as if she was a desperate classmate who wanted to copy my answers. Embarrased, I stood up and went to the blackboard, pretending that I was done with the problems. So much for honesty.
A decade later, I was in college already, and I had this subject called statistics. We had this quiz about permutation, combination, and probability. So there was this problem involving the seven dwarves. Yeah, Snow White’s seven dwarves. Basically the problem was how much work would Sleepy do if the others were doing this and that number. I was stumped by the numbers, so I answered: “None, because he is too sleepy to do anything.”
Too bad the teacher did not even appreciate the humor. Unlike this one:
Do you have any memorable Math subject experience?
16
May
Is Oki Oki OK?
Yesterday, I met a friend at TriNoma (it was his birthday yesterday). As he was hungry, we decided to eat, and I thought revisiting Oki Oki would be nice. I had tried that restaurant months ago, and I was craving for ramen yesterday, so Oki Oki we went.
The restaurant is located on Level M1 (TriNoma’s floor configuration is very confusing), near Super Bowl of China. It has two entrances, one at the mall, the other at the garden area. The garden side has glass for a wall, and the mall entrance is quite wide open, with traditional Japanese eatery banners. There were padded seats at three sides of the resto, while there are benches and tables at the middle area. Funny thing was, yesterday, they were playing Filipino music; first time I visited, they were playing enka.
Now, to food.
My friend ordered this Gyudon for Php 185.
If you order this one, you would be asked if you want the egg raw, or scrambled together with the beef. My friend chose it raw; the heat of the food cooked it some. The beef were cut into strips. I couldn’t say anything on the taste since it was not the food I ordered. But he did gave me some beef strips. The beef wasn’t tough, but the texture was like bacon. No, it doesn’t taste like bacon.
I ordered Tonkatsu Ramen for Php 225. The last time, I ordered Oki Oki Chicken Teriyaki Ramen. Maybe I should have ordered it yesterday instead of this one.
If you will notice, the presentation appeared to be disturbed. Because it was. I already ate few pieces of pork, put the egg on the side, and stirred the noodles when I remembered to take a picture. (You see, this is what Juned always says about food blogging: sometimes the food appears so inviting you devour it immediately.) The breading of the pork tasted a bit salty. The vegetables were crisp, not overcooked, which is nice. There were two pieces of what I think was the Japanese version of squid balls, except that these don’t have distinctive tastes, as if they were just pastes. The soup had a hint of shrimp stock, which surprised me, but I think it worked well.
I also ordered Mushi Gyoza for Php 125. Basically, it was just five pieces of steamed dumplings.
I’m not sure what’s in them, but they were tasty, with a hint of vegetables in them. There’s a dipping sauce of soy sauce with a bit of vinegar. The vegetable leaf is edible, but we did not eat it.
If you are a light eater, avoid Oki Oki. Their servings are huge. Otherwise, if you really need to eat large and craving for Japanese food, you may want to try Oki Oki. And no, this is not a good day-to-day eat – it will burn a hole in your pocket, and it will make you obese. Is it a good date place? Depends on your date – if she’s a light eater, avoid Oki Oki, or try their hot pot, which might be good for two. Next time I should try that out with friends.
Maybe next time I will do a Oki Oki v. Teriyaki Boy post. Any sponsors? =P
15
May
oKKK lang
(this is posted as a separate entry as apparently recipes are supposed to be separate from restaurant reviews. ktnxbai.)
The other night I took visiting friends from Europe to K.K.K. Pinoy Food Revolution Restaurant at 74 West Avenue (tel. 371-9099), and they liked the Filipino food very much. I think the best thing about the place is the menu, lots of pretty historical pictures.
I discovered that a cellphone camera isn’t exactly ideal as far as taking photos of food in a dimly-lit place is concerned.
Our consumption, for four people:
1 Sinuglaw KKK style 145.00
The peculiar thing is that the Crispy Pata and Kare-Kare were served first, then the rice and Talong, then the Sinuglaw and the Laing. This sort of haphazard delivery of courses isn’t appealing.
Anyway, Sinuglaw is their version of Kilawin, except it’s made of diced tuna chunks, with coconut milk and bits of pork liempo. They use a sweet kind of vinegar which was a bit cloying, but the whole thing was fairly pleasant.
1 Laing 125.00
Nondescript.
1 Krisping Krispy Knuckles 440.00
Zero points for presentation, it looked like the pork knuckle was part of a victim of the Glorietta bombing. Tasty though, and for once, this seems to have come from a pig that was actually fat and not suffering from anorexia. Well-cooked skin, evenly crunchy and not oily at all. The sauce was conservative and that’s just to my liking, garlic, onions, vinegar and soy sauce, period.
1 Pinakbet 155.00
I have an irrational horror of Pinakbet so didn’t bother to try it. My European guests are, however, passionately addicted to it and proclaimed it some of the best they’ve ever tasted (this is their third visit to the country).
1 Ensalada Inihaw na Talong 100.00
This time, the sweetish vinegar the restaurant seems to prefer went well with the naked eggplants and the diced vegetables heaped on them: nothing fancy, or nouveau, about the dish, lots of onions and a discreet amount of red chili.
1 Kare-Kare 330.00
Pluses: made with fatty beef. Good sauce, not runny, lots of vegetables and they weren’t cooked to death; good quality tripe, well done and with no suspicious aftertaste. Minuses: the restaurant likes to use the kind of semisweet bagoong that has the consistency of bird poop. This tends to ooze around the plate. But as kare-kare’s go, while modest in serving size, it was obviously a dish made of good, wholesome ingredients and while runny, the bagoong was tasty.
4 Plain Jasmine Rice 120.00
Not the biggest measuring cups were used.
The restaurant has a pleasant outdoor area, and we actually moved there after initially settling in the airconditioned area, which is more brightly lit. However, the airconditioned area was full and the noises being made by the other customers made pleasant conversation impossible. If there’s a near-universal defect of Philippine eating places, it’s that absolutely no thought is given to accoustics.
15
May
Poaching Eggs Is Easy
We’re used to two ways of having our eggs – boiled (either soft or hard-boiled) or fried (whether scrambled or sunny-side-up). Taste-wise, people usually prefer fried eggs, but due to the relatively unhealthy preparation, most people actually hesitate to have it as often as they want. There is one way where one could get a consistency close to fried egg and it is through poaching. Poaching is not really big outside of the culinary world and is virtually unheard of in the Philippines. Poaching combines the best of both worlds, you get the light and delicate feel of an egg that has been while keeping your breakfast relatively oil-free.
Here’s how you poach eggs:
1. Prepare about 400-500 mL of water in a deep sauce pan. Put it on a stove set to medium.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar.
3. Crack one egg and place it in a small bowl.
4. Once the water is almost boiling lower the setting slightly and ever so gently drop the egg as near to the water’s surface as you can. Let it simmer.
5. You’ll know that your poached egg is done when all the white has sort of solidified (fancy term: congealed).
6. Season with salt and pepper.
Your main concern would be the vinegar, right? The vinegar does not lend anything to the dish flavor-wise. The acidic properties of vinegar simply ensures that the egg won’t break apart and just diffuse in the water. Boiling water might create a similar effect of breaking apart the eggs so it’s important to keep it at a particular temperature just below boiling.
You may also poach eggs using a microwave. Simply use a microwaveable container and estimate when the water is about to boil. Then in one quick go, open the oven door, drop the eggs and wait for it to cook! The result may not be as pretty as the ones you’ll make on a stove but your palate won’t really be able to tell the difference.
There you go, guys. Poached Eggs! That was easy, right?
15
May
Festive Cheesedogs
Later that night I had Festive Cheesedogs.
The cheesedog is all about faith. Faith in its really being made out of meat (you just don’t want to think too hard about what kind of meat, or if you do, not to discuss too thoroughly what offal consists of), and that it also has cheese. However, the cheesedog is handy, and can be consumed without the benefit of bread.
You must consume cheesedogs two at a time. Eating only one leads to feelings of deprivation which will only make you want to eat something else, leading to a dangerous food spiral which may result in you becoming morbidly obese by the next morning. Eating three or more cheesedogs in one sitting, however, is overdoing it and will not result in a food spiral but possible late-evening indigestion.
Being a processed meat product, and one priced to appeal to the quantity over quality market, the cheesedog has to go through various procedures to look like a real sausage, which it isn’t -not quite, anyway. For example, the type of cheesedog illustrated above, is encased in a kind of industrial plastic condom, which should be eased off the cheesdog prior to cooking. It is quite possible to cook the cheesedog while it’s still in its industrial condom, but it makes removing the condom more difficult prior to consumption. It is also possible, theoretically, to eat the industrial plastic sheathing but I don’t see why you’d want to do that. The cheesedogs, post de-sheathing, and the discarded plastic sheaths, are illustrated above. It’s a good idea to pierce the cheesedogs several times with a fork, if only to prevent their becoming deformed during cooking.
Microwave on High for 1 minute. Remove from the Microwave. Marvel at the oily goo that has leaked out of the cheesedogs during cooking. The fussy consumer, at this point, could add to the pile of dishes waiting to be rinsed, by moving the cheesedogs to a plate, to divorce them from the oily goo. But the goo’s actually tasty and at 2 a.m., it’s not worth doing the degooing.
And so, apply liberal amounts of tomato ketchup and Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise*, for that festive look and added flavor! Enjoy by piercing one cheesedog with your fork and swirling it around your festive sauce. Repeat until everything’s consumed.
*Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise is a basic bachelor food group, in the league of essentials such as tomato ketchup and hot sauce.
14
May
Palace: Attack v. Meralco a diversion =P
There are a few things we can learn from the Fortress’ reactions to the pictures and the new witness-of-sorts in the NBN-ZTE deal. There are two deputy spokespersons who goes by the names Anthony Golez and Lorelei Fajardo, and their shenanigans always show a semblance of truth, even if that word is not in the official Fortress dictionary.
As a background, this supposed witness supposedly saw Gloria Arroyo, her husband Mike, and her Comelec chair Ben Abalos playing golf with officials of ZTE at a golf club in Szenzhen, China. The said golf course was near the ZTE headquarters, and the trio went there after a golf game.
The first salvo came from Golez, who said that the witness should charge Gloria Arroyo in the courts. Of course, let us pardon Golez’ ignorance of the law (even if ignorance is not an excuse, as per Civil Code), and tell him gently that we cannot sue Gloria criminally since his amo enjoys immunity from any suit. And to remove that immunity, she has to be impeached first. But, the House of Reprehensibles will never do that, however substantial the impeachment complaint is. Golez tries to be cute, but he instead insults every consciously-thinking (there are those who chose not to think) Filipinos.
Oh, he continued trying to be cute, first by stating that the meeting with ZTE officials were official. Mr. Golez, if it was official, how come it was not reported in the media? How come there was no press release? Second, he said that the picture hasn’t prove anything malicious, that there was nothing wrong with Gloria playing golf with her husband. Well, this proves that delicadeza is dead, a Filipino value that is left forgotten, for it hinders corruption. Mr. Golez, there is nothing wrong with a president of a country courting foreign investors. But to do so in secret is not right. And who paid for the golf game? Can you show us some receipts, please?
The second salvo came from Fajardo, the most effective spokeswoman that Gloria has ever hired. First, she admitted that her amo met with ZTE officials, confirming part of what that witness had said: that Gloria did had a meeting with ZTE officials, and insisted that it was not a secret. Ms. Fajardo, please read my comments to your colleague’s failed attempts to be cute, you might learn a thing or two.
And what she had said next implicitly stated the rationale for the Fortress’ attack against Meralco: it is a diversion, plain and simple. She said that the public should not be diverted from the true issue at hand, which is high power rates. Kaboom! There you go!
Gloria Arroyo must be paying top bucks for these two. She gets what she pays for. We are paying for them? We are f*cked!
14
May
Question of the Day: On vienna sausages
Inspired by MLQ3‘s Beantastic South of the Border Vienna Sausages:
What do you do to the broth of vienna sausages?
Leave your answer at the comments.
14
May
Beantastic South of the Border Vienna Sausages
The advantage of anything canned is that if you maintain a minimal level of vigilance (if the top’s bulging, you know there’s a risk of Botulism, so don’t consume the contents of that can), you can derive a maximum of eating convenience. Back in 1995 I had fun writing Canned adobo and other S&T adventures, showing how before the war, being able to can Adobo was considered a highlight of Filipino scientific achievement.
The problem with something canned, though, is that it’s a set recipe. You could turn the canned item into something else by making it part of a recipe, but that defeats the purpose of having handy, canned food, doesn’t it? The point of bachelor living is you have better things to do than actually fuss around the kitchen.
So, the easiest thing to do, requiring minimal effort, is to combine one canned thing, with another canned thing, and warm it up in the Microwave.
Last night’s piece de resistance was Beantastic South of the Border Vienna Sausages. Amazingly easy!
All you need are:
A can of Chili Beans with Beef. Usually, this is too spicy to eat on its own, unless you have it with rice, but if you don’t have any rice to eat it with, then you need something to cut the spice.
And a can of Chicken Vienna Sausages. Actually, I prefer normal Vienna Sausages but these were on sale.
Open each can. Pour the Chili Beans with Beef into a microwave-safe bowl.
Pour out the broth from the can of Vienna Sausages, then plop the sausages over the Chili and Beans.
Heat on high in the Microwave for 30 seconds.
Sprinkle some Kraft Parmesan Cheese (grated Cheddar would be better, but since it doesn’t come pre-grated in a can, it’s too much of a bother to be grating at midnight) over the whole thing. Let it sit happily for a couple of minutes so the sausages absorb some of the sauce, and consume!