Tablea for Two.

After finishing some business activities yesterday, we hied off to Global City to check on some merchandise.

As we passed the Metro Supermarket at the lower level, we noticed a food stand selling "hot chocolate."  Earlier in the day, we missed the breakfast fare at ADB which always included hot cocoa.

So at Metro, we couldn't contain our longing for the hot chocolate and immediately bought a cup. Lo and behold, it tasted "watery."

And there I was pining for the "Pinoy tsokolate."

When we were growing up, our Mum and Aunt served piping hot "tsokolate" on New Year's eve and day. Walang palya, (no miss). Mum had the wooden "batidor," which she used to stir the pot of chocolate. And she served the hot drink with grounded peanuts in fancy and tiny cups and saucers.

Wooden stirrers or "batidor"

Tsokolateng Pinoy, tablea purchased at the recent Trade

 Fair in Megamall.

Batangas has the best cacao in the Philippines. In college, we used to ask our Batanguena friend to bring back cacao whenever she went home to the province.

While the first cacao plantations were established in Batangas, Davao ranks today as the number one producer of cacao in the Philippines.

Last Saturday, Toyz bought "tablea" at the Trade Fair at the Megamall.  It was from the Visayan region. Ordinarily, Toyz  stocks up on the Antonio de Fuego tablea, which we even use in cooking champorado. A niece from San Jose, California always asks her Mum for the cacao tablea as pasalubong.


So early morning I placed two tableas bought at the Trade Fair in a pot and presto, tsokolateng Pinoy, an early traditional Filipino Yuletide drink.

Yummy. Masarap.

Tsokolate with hot pan de sal.

 

Sweet but not taken.

Choco-flavoured Jello with fresh strawberries  to satisfy the sweet tooth.

If you're diabetic you know how hard it is to forgo of sweets.  Well if you're not diabetic but you're conscious of your waistline, you know how hard it is to give up on your favorite chocolate bar, ice cream, pastries and native kakanins especially halo halo.

I still have a big pack of hard chocolate in my mini ref that I steal from from time to time.

To satisfy the craving for sweets, diabetics have multiple food recourse: they're sweets without sugar.  Or simply, they're loaded not with natural sugar but with non sugar sweeteners.

Among the sugar sweeteners is Splenda.  Then there are the sugar substitutes that contain aspartame and saccharin.

The guide to these artificial sweeteners is in the package,  yellow packet (sucralose), blue packet (aspartame), or pink packet (saccharin).

Diabetics should be actively reading food labels of anything they buy.  The last time I was at the supermarket and examining peanut butter I found out that the SM house brand Bonus has two types of peanut butter - one with a higher sugar and sodium content which is cheaper and another with lesser sugar (3 gms) and no sodium but more expensive and with a label "for export."

My fave peanut butter smooth Kraft ( 1 kg. jar) has 1 g sugar and 70 mg sodium and 0 transfat. And the strawberry or grape preserve I use to top off my peanut butter sandwich, Smucker's, is sugar-free.

I still could not find any sugar-free pancake syrup.  At Pancake House where they serve delicious blueberry and banana pancakes, no sight of sugar-free syrup, either.

To cap off my sweet tooth, I prepare sugar free jello at home and top it off with fruits in season.  Or I fry saguing na saba rolled on alcohol sugar, or make guinatang halo halo, complete with saguing, bilo bilo, ube and gabi, langka, and sago but with Splenda or Nutra Sweet.

Picking Pickels.

I love munching on crunchy pickles; I love the big dill pickles.

In Canada, the refrigerator or cupboard always has jars of pickles, Miracle Whip, Old Fort Cheese, cans of tuna, beans, whole tomatoes, spaghetti, pancit bijon and canton, Kikkoman soy sauce, Extra Virgin Oil, Knorr mixing powder, fish fillets, boxes of frozen shrimp, frozen squid, red peppers, broccoli, bok choi, carrots, fruits, tins of coffee for brewing and herbs and more herbs.

Then I have my low -sugar biscuits, my chocolates and candies with no sugar added, my boxes of pancake mix, and my peanut butter and grape jelly. So when I cook and when I want to eat -
I have what I want.

Yesterday, after an exhaustive search for a filing cabinet at Edsa Central, we headed to Shangri La Mandaluyong to shop at Rustan's but there was no parking spot available. So, instead of going back to Mega Mall where we were earlier, we headed to Mariwasa to pick up a replacement faucet. Beside the warehouse was a small mart.

I only needed one item: coffee. But alas, the shelves didn't have a single tin of coffee for brewing. All that there was: lots and lots of instant coffee - decaf, granulated, the fine ones, and the coffee of the moment - those with sugar and cream already added in the coffee.

I've discovered that I can only buy Folger's or Maxwell at SM Megamall. I haven't tried Cash and Carry, though. That's why whenever I go home to Canada, I always make it a point to bring to Manila, tins of coffee, Splenda, Miracle Whip, lotion and men's toiletries, vitamins and calcium, and my medicines.

Not having the right ingredients and vegetables that I want has dissipated my interest in cooking. The few times that I cook, I make do with what the household has. At least there's Extra Virgin Oil (the only oil I would use), Kikkoman, and broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.

Of course the household refrigerator holds the staple food of Manila: chicken, pork and beef, and bangus. But I want squid and shrimp, my staple food in Canada.

Que, Banana?

A couple plus weeks ago, I harvested a bunch of bananas, "saguing na saba," from the backyard tree.

The individual bananas were of varying stages of ripeness; some were ready for the eating, some were still greenish. And then there were whitish stuff on some.

So I soaked the big bunch into a basin-full of water to cleanse it. Then I boiled the ripe ones which turned out to be sweet. Few days after, more bananas ripened, but the rest I had to throw out.

Then sis Jo from QC gave the household a humongous "langka" fruit, one of the few hanging from her front yard. Henz and his Mom did the gruesome peeling of the sticky fruit, but were dismayed to discover that it was already spoiled. Toyz was disheartened; she had been "eyeing" the fruit for weeks, and planning on making it a "postre." Now, she's nagging sis for the one remaining "langka" from the tree.

Lesson learned from these two experiences is to harvest the fruit in a timely manner; dapat eksakto sa oras.

I love "saguing na saba" - boiled, minatamis or sweetened, as "turon" (banana fritters), banana-cued, and especially fried.

Breakfast is the best time for fried bananas, dipped in sugar. Morning merienda is the best time for boiled bananas, afternoon snack is the best time for "turon" and banana cue, and after dinner is the best time for "sweetened" bananas, taken as dessert.



When my sis and I were small and living with our aunt, we had playmates, the tenants' kids, who plied the neighbourhood hawking banana cues. They were hired "manlalako," or street sellers.

Behind our aunt's back, we went with these kids, and we even crossed the big street into the other side of town, the so-called slum area, to peddle the sticked-bananas. Oh, those were the fun days, and me and my sis didn't even get a cent nor a free banana cue for doing this.

"Saguing na saba" comes from the Plantain banana family. In Canada and the U.S., Pinoys who want to have a "turon" or fried bananas, would use the Plantain variety, the elongated ones, popular also in Jamaica. But in Washington State, "saguing na saba" as we know it in the Philippines, is commonly available in groceries.



These days, I have enough potassium supply, thanks to the "saguing na saba"/bananas.

Sushi.

I want my sushi, and I want it now,
Dip or no dip
Dip it in my mouth,
Swirl it between my chopsticks
Grab it in my hands,
Chomp down with miso
Savour the pearly roe.

Sushi, sashimi
Tempura, teriyaki
Udon, calamari
Iwashi y kani
Ebi, ika, kaki
Shitake and moyashi
A bowl of sake to equal my wasabe.

The Japan tsunami got us down on our knees,
The nuclear reactors chilled our senses new,
The returning OFWs lessened the nation's crew,
The Philippine remittances dipped
Way way below.

My grandpa was branded pro-Jap
In last WW II,
When all he did was befriend a Nip
Years before the conflict whipped,
He was tortured, left for dead
Yet he regained his spirit and pride,
He lobbied for a school in our place
Now he lay in a simple man's grave.

I once had a classmate
He was half Jap and half Pinoy,
He was second in class
He was short in height,
He towered with humour
He glanced at pretty girls,
He hailed from Okinawa
Now he lives in Guam.

I used to drive a Volks, an Escort
And an Isuzu,
I bought a Voyager
And now wheel a Montero,
I pine for a Rover and also a Pathfinder,
In between my sushis
I dream,
That's all I'd been.

Oy Soy.

I have constant craving for "taho." While in Baguio last week, at the Grotto, I simply had to taste that "taho," from the street vendor. He was selling strawberry-flavoured "taho," but I opted for the regular one. Why should I ruin the taste of "taho?" If I wanted strawberry, I would eat it sans soy.

In Canada, I whet my appetite for "taho," by going to big Chinese groceries. They sell "taho" as dessert, in plastic containers, but without the sugary syrup. So at home, I would heat maple syrup and pour it over my "taho." Of course, this Toronto version of "taho," is no match to the Manila "taho."

My eldest sister is just like me. Whenever in Manila, she'd drop her umbrella or bag if she saw a "taho" vendor on the street.

After mass on Fridays at the Quiapo Church, I would buy "taho" before making the rounds of Villalobos and Echague streets to purchase fresh vegetables and fruits.

Why don't I have any qualms buying "taho" from street vendors? Because what my aunt told me years ago stuck in my mind. She said that soy would not gel or harden up if it were dirty. I don't know if what she said had any scientific basis, but eating "taho" from street vendors over the years had not given me any stomach problems.

The lowly "taho" has now become franchise food at leading malls in Manila. At Megamall, you can see a cart of "Taho Boy." A regular cup sells for twenty pesos; the street-type "taho" sells for ten pesos.

While I was growing up, "taho" was part of my day. Those days, if you'd like "taho," you'd have to bring your own mug or cup, and "sago" or those tapioca beads were not part of the usual fare.

What I'd want to have is "taho" without the regular sugar; I wish they'd make syrup out of Splenda, or sugar substitute. I don't know if it would alter the taste, but as a person with high blood sugar, I'm willing to compromise.

This is true when I eat pancakes in the U.S. or Canada; I have the option of sugar-free syrup. Pancake House in Manila does not serve sugar-free syrup, yet.

Missing.

I miss my own cooking. I know this is being egotistical.  But I really miss eating the food I used to cook.

I miss having the ingredients I used to use, like Knorr powder mix as breading for a lot of food I prepare such as calamari, fish fillet, veggie and shrimp tempura.

I miss having red and white wine for dinners.  Yes, I have occasional beer and some cocktails, but it doesn't taste like red or white wine.

I miss my Japanese, Chinese and Thai utensils, and my chopsticks.  I miss my tea cup.

I miss my favorite restaurants - Red Lobsters, and Golden Thai and the Vietnamese restaurant across Future Shop. I miss the Vietnamese fried roll and pork dumpling.  I miss the authentic Pad Thai at Golden Thai and the authentic Japanese miso soup and sushi at Memories and Bloor Sushi. 

I miss the Mediterranean Pizza at Pizza Hut, and the samosas at the Pakistani grocer.

I miss Nabob, Second Cup and Timothy's coffee.

I miss the yellow mangoes sold by " Juan Valdez," at the corner truck.  I miss the sweet, seedless pakwan and globule grapes. 

I miss bagel and cream cheese and oatmeal.

I miss Canadian sweet corn, Canadian ham and Molsen beer.

Merienda Cena.

My favorite time of the day is merienda.  

I'm like a kid whose favorite subject in school is recess.

I crave for Pinoy merienda now that I'm home.  At the mall earlier this evening, I ordered puto with cheese and a cup of coffee. 

Later in the evening at home, I had guinatan complete with ube bilo bilo, sweet langka and pandan.  The other day in Bulacan, I had the 

special neighbourhood halo halo and putong puti. 

I love pastillas de leche, pulvoron, chicharon, chocnut, an assortment of local chichiria, and fried peanuts.  

My mid morning merienda usually consists of taho and buko juice, and of course, my all time favorite afternoon merienda is turon. 

Once in a while, I crave for goto or arroz caldo with lumpiang prito. 

Back in Toronto, I cook my own pancit palabok, pancit guisado and pancit canton. I also cook guinatan, puto, bibingka, palitaw, suman sa lihiya, and cassava.

My Saturday morning breakfast in Toronto usually consists of fried rice with meat or fish, and pancakes or waffle with fruits (kiwi, strawberry, banana) and Activia yogurt.

Back when I was growing up, my aunt used to prepare hotcakes for merienda.  And my old man (father) cooked champorado with tuyo, boiled sweet corn or putong malagkit on Sunday afternoons, after his siesta. 

My mother ordered nilugaw and fried lumpia or tokwa from the neighbourhood carinderia for our morning merienda. 

And during the month of December, we had puto bumbong or bibingka as afternoon merienda back in Mandaluyong in the 60's.  In the late 70's, hot pandesal made its debut in corner bakeries, and became a part of midnight snack of many. 

During my college years in U.P,  I snacked on Milo and Skyflakes with Chiz Wiz while studying late evenings at the dorm. 

Ti amo. Little Italy.

In Toronto, one of my favorite places is the Little Italy.  It is a section in the St. Clair West area (between the Dufferin and Bathurst streets).  

Here, you will find Italian restaurants, bakeries, shops, convenience stores, churches, banks and even furniture stores ensconced among other ethnic businesses like Portuguese , Hungarian  and even Filipino stores.

During the months of FIFA, Italian delis and sports bars overflow with Italian-Canadians rooting for their Italian team, and cars displaying the Italian flag weaving through the narrow and busy St. Clair West street where the TTC street car is an ever present sight.

I miss Little Italy.  My old office is located in this area and one favourite restaurant frequented by me and my office mates is called Ferro's, where Julie, a lovely Italian caters to our gang's whims.  My favorite panini is called Charles, and another fave is called Mushroom Magic.  

If you walk further west, you will hit Dufferin where there are numerous little shops selling Italian shoes and shirts.

I thought about Little Italy while here in Manila because I learned that there's an Italian Film Festival taking place at the Shangri la cinema complex.  A film entitled Caravaggio looks interesting enough that I plan to see it on Sunday afternoon. It's a good time to catch a glimpse of some other interesting sight. As I will leave soon, it may be a last chance to indulge my eyes on some rare delicacy. Siete bei!

The other day I bought ingredients for some spaghetti which I plan to cook; the spaghetti in Manila is too sweet for my palate.  Even the one in Marciano's at Greenbelt, while okay, was not to my liking. It was too creamy.

Other Italian restaurants in TO which I frequent are East Side Mario's for their Calamari diablo, Olive Garden and Frankie Tomatto, for their Italian buffet. 

Pizza

Like most Pinoy I know, if I don't eat rice in three days, I feel strange. Let me correct that, if I don't eat any Pinoy food or something similar in three days, I feel incomplete.

Most weekdays, I eat irregular hours and irregular food. Morning toast or bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter, a cup of cold cereal and coffee. Then I sometimes forget lunch or go by a sandwich. Dinner will be rice or something else.

When going on long driving, I make it a point to stop at a Chinese restaurant, and it seems there are Chinese eateries in the farthest nooks of Canada and in even the remotest of US states.

In the small city of Steubenville, Ohio where most of the populace is still white, there are at least
four Chinese restaurants. As far back as 1985, there were two.

Driving to the Outlet Mall in Buffalo, you'd have one Chinese restaurant inside, and an eat-all-you-can buffet outside.

Even in Europe, you cannot miss Chinese restaurants. In one big Paris mall, the Chinese restaurant was full to the brim when we ate.

Chinese cuisine is the closest food to Filipino. Rice, noodles, sweet and sour chicken, stir fry beef and veggies, soup, even their spring rolls.

Yesterday, the household had pizza for lunch. Shadow, the mini pinscher, had a bite of it with crushed white banana as dessert, eaten from my palm.

Pizza Hut is one of the pizza brands I like; I also like Domino's. In the Philippines, I used to eat at Shakey's a lot.

Pizza is one of the foods I haven't tried preparing. Although there are frozen pizza crusts sold at the groceries, I prefer to just buy rather than do it myself. Two weeks ago, I tried my hand in making a quiche - I had a bite, then threw the rest.

But my spaghetti is prepared from scratch. I don't use the can or bottled sauce. And some nieces and nephew who visited one time really liked my recipe.

My sister in Ohio whose married to an American only gets to eat Pinoy food occasionally. So when I visit her, I bring various mixes like "sinigang, palabok, kare kare," and the "kakanins -
polvuron, puto and sometimes, bibingka," and she would praise to high heavens my "sinigang" because she has not had it in a long while.

Years ago, if you go to the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, you'd see a Chinese Restaurant on the way. Now, there's a Chinese buffet inside.

Most Pinoy restaurants here in Toronto are the take- out types. In the area where I live, there are two of this kind.

Now that summer is in full blast, picnic or barbecue is the most fun thing to do. And when you go to Filipino picnics, it's like you're eating in your house or a restaurant - table full of "pot luck" dishes - pancit, adobong pusit, barbecue, menudo, white and fried rice, balot, lumpiang shanghai, alimango, even a whole lechon. Plus the dessert - turon, puto, pichi pichi, palitaw, etc.

Then, when you look at the next picnic table, you see an Anglo family, barbecuing no frills hot dog or hamburger with side potato chips and pickles.

Then further down, you see other Asian families, Chinese or Japanese, and the aroma of kimchi, stir fry and tempura will float in the air.

I haven't noticed what the Italians bring at the picnic. I suppose it'd be pizza, Italian sausage and spaghetti.

Hope You Like This. My Comfort Food.

'Twas several days ago that I felt a bit low and so I prepared a comfort food. An early evening spring snack/dinner.

It's healthy, actually. Consists of bruschetta, fruits of the season and .... chocolate cookies.

NO FRILLS - BRUSCHETTA

Cut several slices of Italian bread. For a one-person dinner, I cut three slices. Spread with butter or margarine.

Meanwhile:

Slice and cut to small pieces one (1) large plump red tomato. You can take out the seeds and most of the juice, if you like, and include only the fleshy part.

Personally, I include everything. Put in bowl.

Add 1 tbsp Olive oil, a dash of pepper into bowl. Mix everything.

Put slices of bread into oven toaster or regular toaster, and set into light. If you prefer crunchy bruschetta , then put setting to medium.

When bread is toasted, take out from oven. Layer the bread with the tomato mix.

You should cover the bread with tomatoes.

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella or pieces of Havarti cheese on top of tomatoes.

Put back slices of bread into toaster and toast again in low. Take it out once cheese is melted.

Serve with red or white wine.

FRUITS

Slice half-a-cantaloupe into horizontal pieces. Wash strawberries. Scoop several chocolate cookies.

ENJOY!

Here I am. Craving for Flip Food. Not Sushi.

I love Japanese food. Sushi, sashimi, teriyaki, tempura, udon, sake.

At home, when entertaining and even eating ala-carte, the Japanese cutleries and plates, including chopsticks are ever present.

But I was at a Jap restaurant just recently, so today, I am opting out of a sushi dinner.

Now, I am craving for Flip food. Big time.

When we had crabs in Seattle, we set up newspapers as tablecloth, so it was easier to clean up after dinner.

Starved.

If you're looking for some more veggie goodies, here's my simple recipe for mushroom hors d'oeuvre. I consider it mushroom ukoy, for Filipinos out there.

Ingredients

1 package of Enoki mushroom (cleaned)

3 stalks of green Chinese garlic

1 egg (beaten)

1 tsp corn starch

Olive oil for frying

How to:

Cut mushroom into small pieces. Cut Chinese green garlic into small pieces, as well.

Beat egg. Add corn starch and mix well. Pour into bowl containing mushroom and green garlic.

Mix everything.

Medium heat olive oil in a frying pan.

Scoop several teaspoonfuls of the mushroom-garlic-egg mixture into frying pan. You can line them at the side of the pan, so it would be easy to turn them. Make each scoop into rounded appetizer or ukoy.

Once browned, turn the hors d'oeuvre onto the other side. Then, put into a plate with paper towel or into a strainer to drain excess oil.

Serve in a platter and put either green garlic or lettuce leaf for a pleasing look.

For dip, you can use regular soy sauce (Kikkoman for me) with squeezed lemon, or soy sauce with a little vinegar.

Makes about 30 - 35 pieces.

Bon Apetit!