Pinoy Food at Last!

My left arm feels a little sore from the flu shot I got yesterday… and yes, I still get shots at my age. If you must know, my mom is very diligent when it comes to getting her kids vaccinated. Regardless of how old her kids may be.

The government of Ontario provides its residents with a free flu shot each year and all you really need to bring with you is your Ontario Health card. The health card is also free… you just apply for it at the Ministry of Health and they mail it to you after a couple of weeks. I think it’s a privilege that people should take advantage of.. I mean, other provinces in Canada charge you for a flu shot.. you might as well take advantage of something that is being given to you for free.

After getting the flu shot, we went to a Filipino Restaurant called Jesse Jr. I’ve never been there before, although I’ve heard of it, and I don’t really know a lot of Filipino restaurants in town so I was a little excited to see what they had. I was really craving for sisig! I can’t even remember the last time I had it back home!

So off we went and Steve came with us. The place was decent and they had a big menu to choose from. It was quite cheap considering how much food they give you. To be honest, I don’t know a lot of Filipino foods by name so most of the time I just point at whatever looks good. Poor Steve was relying on me to tell him what they were and all I could do was ask the server because I had no idea what they were either! The food was great and I was surprised that Steve liked it too since it’s his first time trying Filipino food. It’s definitely going into our list of good places to eat at.

Kitchen Duty

We have kitchen duty at work. Our small company provides us with lunch and so we come to work everyday without having to spend lunch money. It is pretty convenient and the food is always good. The one downside to it is that we all take turns doing kitchen duty. Normally, we’re grouped together into smaller teams and each team gets a week of kitchen duty every month. It rotates so we often find ourselves in different weeks of the month and in different teams. It’s not the idea of kitchen duty that bugs me. It is the fact that some people are plain lazy. I don’t understand why some people leave their dirty dishes and utensils on the sink when the dish washer is right beside it. How hard could it possibly be to put your dirty dishes away?

Another thing that bothers me is the fact that not all team members do their part. We all don’t like it but we still gotta do it… We get free lunch everyday and not just any food but really good food and our kitchen is always full of snacks and fruits. The least we can do is to help keep the place clean.

Just because it isn’t your week to do kitchen duty doesn’t mean you have to be a slob.

Top 10 Most Bizarre Foods

Yey Friday!!

I came across another interesting article on MSN this morning. Click here to read it.

I’m familiar with some of them although the only one I’ve ever eaten out of the 10 as it is, is Durian. A couple of them I think I’ve also eaten although not exactly with the same ingredients.

1. Durian
Location – Pinang, Malaysia
An extremely odoriferous (some would say noxious) fruit with custard-like flesh. Native to Malaysia, the oblong, thorny fruit can be deep fried, formed into cake and candy, or made into flavorings for ice cream, beverages, and other food items. Durian is considered a delicacy in some parts of Malaysia, and has been known to sell for $50 (U.S.) for one fruit. Many people love the taste of durian, but its powerful aroma is so offensive to some that airplanes, trains, and buses often prohibit the fruit in passenger areas.

I had no idea Durian originated in Malaysia. We have it in the Philippines too although I only eat it as a fruit and I don’t really like it as an ice cream flavor or anything else. I have to agree, it does smell bad but man, it tastes good!

2. K’lia
Location – Marrakech, MoroccoAlso spelled khlea, this meat (usually lamb) is salted, dried, and preserved in its own fat. A traditional specialty of Morocco, k’lia is often served with lentils and spices at the outdoor market, Djemma al Fna in Marrakech, Morocco.

I don’t think I’ll like it. I’m not so huge on Lamb.

3. Mangrove Worms
Location – Palawan, Philippines
Worms that live off dead wood pulp. Eaten raw. Popular in Sabang Beach in the Philippines, these long, slimy worms are said to be high in iron and taste similar to oysters.

I have to ask, WHY? Why oh why? I wouldn’t eat it even if it did taste like Oysters. I wouldn’t eat it if my life depended on it! They’re worms that live off dead wood pulp people! The first person to ever try it must have been extremely desperate.

4. Callos
Location – Taberna de Antonio Sanchez in Madrid, Spain
A casserole made with blood sausage and tripe, which comes from the intestines of various domestic animals. This dish is popular in Taberna de Antonio Sanchez in Madrid, Spain, where it is often served as tapas, small dishes designed for sharing.

My grandma makes this although slightly different. Not too sure if she makes it with blood sausage (whatever that is). Would I eat it? I think I already have… I knew it, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

5. Coconut Grubs
Location – Coca, Ecuador
Larvae that live in dead palm trees. Zimmern tried the dish in the home of a member of the Pilche community in the Amazon rain forest.

One word: Larvae. Can I just say yuck?

6. Menudo
Location – Motes de la Magdalena in Quito, EcuadorSoup made with tripe and beef hearts. This soup is also popular in Mexico, where it began as a peasant dish. Menudo in Mexico can refer to “raw stomach meat” as well as the stew. The recipe for menudo varies in different regions of Latin America.

My mum makes this at home although differently. Mum makes it with pork instead so no harm there! No strange, disgusting ingredients either.. just pork, green peppers, potatoes and green peas i think. Whew!

7. Goose Intestines on Bean Sprouts – Goose guts.
Location – New York’s Chinatown
Served at Congee, a restaurant in New York City’s Chinatown. Goose intestines are not uncommon fare in China, but then again, neither are duck feet or frogs.

Stick with chicken. I personally don’t eat goose, duck nor frogs. I’ve heard it tastes really good but I just can’t. eat. it.

8. Nutria in Sauce Piquant – a large semiaquatic rodent.
Location – Morgan City, Lousiana
Eaten in the home of a trapper in the bayou in Morgan City, Lousiana. Dining on nutria is not for the faint of heart. The rodents resemble large rats with bright orange incisors. Still, the nutria is probably safer on your plate than alive in your yard—the animals are a host for a nematode parasite that can infect human skin. Yummy!

Um… yeah.. sure.. excuse me while I go vomit.

9. Soup No. 5 (Yes, that’s the real name)
Location – Balaw Balaw in Luzon, Philippines
Soup made from the back and testicles of a cow is eaten at Balaw Balaw in Luzon, Philippines. In the United States, cow testicles are also sometimes referred to as “Rocky Mountain oysters” and can be prepared in a batter and then fried in oil and eaten with hot sauce.

“Rocky Mountain Oysters”… funny. No thanks!

10. Haggis – Assorted sheep parts mixed with oatmeal and stuffed into a sheep stomach.
Location – Edinburgh, Scotland
This traditional Scottish dish was originally a common peasant meal, but can now be found in grocery stores year round all over Scotland and other areas of the United Kingdom.

Let’s go take out some Chinese instead..

Maybe the foods mentioned above aren’t as bad as they seem. I mean, it’s different when the recipe is written down as opposed to seeing the finished product. Although I have to ask, the people who first tried/made these dishes… why? Was there a lack of food that they started eating whatever they could find??

Yum!

3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups oatmeal
1-1/2 cups mango jam

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Mix butter, sugar, flour, baking soda, and oatmeal in a bowl. Blend well using your hands. Press half of mixture onto a 13-by-9-inch rectangular pan.
3. Spread mango jam on top of crust.
4. Sprinkle the remaining half of the mixture on top of jam.
5. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden.
6. Cool and cut into squares.

Chef’s Tips: You can also use strawberry jam, pineapple jam, guava jelly, langka jam, or orange marmalade instead of mango jam.

I found this recipe on a website and it looks so yummy! I will give this a try one day…

Cooking and I

In case you didn’t know, I can’t cook. I mean, I can but I’m not very good at it. I can probably cook an estimated 10 dishes or less and that’s about it. I used to brush it off like I didn’t need to learn how to cook because I figured I’ll survive (somehow). I grew up with a maid to do all the cooking in the house so I didn’t feel the need for it as much as I do now.

Now, I’m in my early twenties and I really feel the need to be good at it (especially since I have a BF who insists on me learning and being a good cook). No more maids to do the cooking and sooner or later I will have to cook for myself and my family. My great aunt was kind enough to lend me some of her recipes which I wrote down in a notebook and brought with me. I just need some hands-on practice and I know I’ll eventually be able to do it really well. I just have to get over the fear of being burned. Have you ever seen me cook? There’s a very obvious distance between me and the stove.

Jerry’s been pushing me to cook… oh sorry babe, I meant to say “encouraging” me. LOL! And so far, I have managed to cook him 3 different dishes all by myself. –GRIN- I’ve been looking at recipes I come across in magazines and websites but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here. I should probably start with the basics… learn how to cook the dishes my mom and grandma prepares at home. My dad has always hoped I’d be a great cook but I think it’s my brother Miguel who is more keen on it than me. The other day Miguel said he wanted to become a chef someday. I don’t have to be a chef… I don’t want to be one either… I just really need to learn how to cook good food!

on the subject of cooking…

Friday (finally!) and I’m off to the watch MI 3 tonight with Jerry =)

It’s almost noon and I’m on a 45 minute break from a training session. My boss had decided that I should probably handle all training for this company so I am learning the other system from the tech manager. I kind of like this other system better than the one I am currently assigned to because I think it is more intuitive, easier to use and in a sense built to be more logical. In any case, it is still training and being a trainer can be draining and occasionally sucks. I wasn’t even hired to be a trainer but it is somethig that was designated to me as part of my job (-sigh-) since one trainer quit 2 weeks after I started and another was let go.

Moving on, the birthday dinner we had last night for lola was good. She prepared so much food and being the excellent cook that she is, you can’t help but eat a portion of everything. Tito had bought a birthday cake for her as well from a Filipino bakery and it was good too. Unfortunately we didn’t have any birthday candles but we still sang happy birthday for her and she pretended to blow out candles afterwards. I remember when we were still young and back when we all lived in the Philippines, she would bake a cake for every birthday celebrant. My family lived in a different city and we lived about an hour away but she would bake a cake and have the maid deliver it to us. I remember she would call my mom a few days before and ask me what cake I preferred. I loved it when she made sansrival. It’s the best! (-sigh-)

Here is a brief list of the food that she makes that I like:

· Cakes
· Embutido
· Fruit salad
· Garden salad
· Turbo-broiled chicken
· Soups
· Arozcaldo
· Pansit
· Kare-kare

And a whole lot more! Too bad I didn’t inherit her love of cooking. Sadly, I have always been afraid of getting burned while cooking. I don’t like it when hot oil starts flying everywhere. I do cook but very seldom and I can’t really say how well I cook. I do help out once in awhile when I’m home though. Growing up, I’ve never really had the need to cook since we had a maid when we were still living in the Philippines and when we moved here to Canada, we stayed with lola and tito for over a year so lola did all the cooking. Since we no longer live with lola and tito, mama does the cooking since she’s home well before me. I know I should really get into it. I think I need to be exposed more into the world of cooking. Jerry cooks better than I do! He cooks all the time and he actually experiments and his food is amazing! It’s embarassing enough that my mom asked him to teach me some of his cooking skills. Lolz!

I miss restaurants and fast food places in the Philippines…going to these places will definitely be on my agenda when I do get the chance to visit. =)