Inay's Guinataan

Guinataan always invokes happy childhood memories. The ingredients are quite simple and can be readily bought from the stalls in the market where coconut is grate fresh. When we're looking for something to do on weekend afternoons, our eldest sister would take a visit to the nearby market, and soon we'd be busy making white balls out of the galapong. Ah, the smell of the guinataan as the coconut milk is poured into the pot! It's comfort food for me.

These days, I rarely get my share of homemade guinataan, save for the nearby food store in the office. So one weekend, we decided to have one. This time, it's my mother-in-law (we call her Inay) who cooked for us as we helped prepare the ingredients.

Masas: a restaurant review

I had a meeting with one of our clients at 11AM. But since it was already so near lunchtime, we invited him for lunch instead. Pauline suggested Masas. I was pleased to learn that it was a restaurant specializing in Filipino cuisine because what popped first into my mind was to make this a feature in adobongblog.com! Sadly, I did not have my camera with me so I used my phone instead.

Masas is a restaurant located on the Ground floor of the restaurant row at Greenbelt 2 in Makati. The dining area has 2 floors, with the ground floor easily seating 25 pax. The waiters were very accommodating and always had a ready smile.

For our lunch, we chose nilasing na hipon, steamed tilapia, baked tahong, Bicol express, and grilled squid. We did not have to wait long for our orders to arrive.

All were yummy! The squid retained its tenderness even after it has cooled down. The Bicol express, which has a notorious reputation for spiciness, as just right. The shrimps were crunchy, and the tilapia was heavenly soft. It was a wonderful meal, with bottomless iced tea and lemonade on the side. Even the lemonade was a joy to sip, given that lemonade is either too sour or too sweet in other food shops.

Our meeting went rather nicely, and extended well after we've had our fill of brewed coffee and cappuccino. Between four of us, our bill was 1,500 pesos.




























Masas comes highly recommend for its ambience, hospitality, and sumptous food!

Technorati tags: review

Earth Hour: 8:00-9:00pm March 29, 2008

On 29 March 2008 the Philippines will join countries around the world as we literally "turn the lights out" for Earth Hour - an event that will fuel awareness on climate change and prove that when the people of the world work together, they can make a difference in the fight against global warming.

Earth Hour will take place throughout the Philippines from 8 to 9 in the evening on Saturday, 29 March 2008. WWF invites you to participate by shutting off lights for 60 minutes, organizing your own "lights-out" event or by forwarding this mail to your friends, workmates and family.

Launched in Australia on the 31st of March 2007, Earth Hour moved 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses in Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour. This massive collective effort reduced the city's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour. With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

YOUR participation will go a long way in spreading the message that we, as individual droplets working collectively - can create an impetus far more powerful than the mightiest of rivers. For more information, log on to the WWF Earth Hour page at: www.earthhour.org.

If you want to learn more about how else you can help make Earth Hour in the Philippines a success, reply to this email or drop us a line at (632) 920-7931, (632) 920-7923, or (632)920-7926

Technorati tags: advocacy, Earth Hour

En garde!

Now here is fish that I can't get enough of. Locally, it's called Espada (or swordfish in English. Not to be mistaken with the sport fish). If you look at it closely, the Espada looks really wierd. Its rows of pointed teeth are showing, and with its eyes staring at you, you'd think this fish came from the depths where fish have their own luminescence because it's so dark, and where marine life looks out of this world. But this is one of my favorites. Fried is my preference.

Janice's Mean Adobo

Colleague and fellow mountaineer Janice has always been great company in our treks because of her enthusiasm. Plus, she makes a mean adobo! She usually cooks this the day before, because we expect everyone to be quite tired by lunchtime after walking most of the morning, so rice is cooked and the adobo heated.

Adobo is a mountaineering staple because meat cooked this way lasts longer, and retains its yummy taste even after reheating. Janice shares her recipe in making her mean adobo.


JANICE'S MEAN ADOBO

Ingredients
Pangsakutsa (for saute'):
1 medium onion, chopped not minced
1 bulb crushed garlic
1 ginger, sliced into thin strips
olive oil

half a kilo chicken meat (Janice recommends any part except breast, which has the least taste)
half a kilo liempo (pork belly), with a generous amount of fat

Vinegar
Soy Sauce
whole peppercorns, 1 sachet
Water
Laurel leaves, 1 sachet

Procedure:
(1) In a pan, saute ginger in olive oil until golden brown
(2) Add the garlic and onions
(3) When the onions become partly translucent, add the chicken meat and mix. The chicken will then be releasing its water content. Mix til the water evaporates and the chicken starts to fry.
(4) Add pork. Mix again until pork releases its oils and meat starts to fry.
(5) Pour in vinegar and soy sauce. The ratio is 1:1. The quantity depends on your taste, but for a simple guideline about half a cup of each will do.
(6) Add the peppercorns
(7) Cover and bring to a boil over medium fire for about 10 to 15 minutes. Do not stir. At this stage, the soy sauce and vinegar will be absorbed by the meat.
(8) Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, depending on how "wet" or "dry" you want your adobo to be.
(9) Cover and bring to a boil under medium heat and occasionally check until meat is tender using a fork pierced through the pork.
(10) Add salt to taste.
(11) Put in laurel leaf.
(12) Remove from fire and it's ready to serve!

If you want your adobo to be sticky, simply turn up the fire to its maximum level for about 5 minutes after putting in the laurel leaf. Remove from fire and serve!



Technorati tags: recipe, adobo

The simplest salad ever

It's nice to add some salad to a meal as starters. And it's really quite easy to make!

This recipe calls for:
Lettuce, torn to bite-size pieces by hand
2 eggs, hard boiled and chopped into 4's
bacon, fried to a crisp and broken up into small pieces
bread
olive oil

Procedure:
Tear apart the bread by hand into small pieces like croutons. Well, we'll actually be making something like croutons so if you have these already, then that's one step less.


















Pour some olive oil onto a pan and spread thinly. Place the broken pieces onto the pan and cook in oven til crispy. In my case, I simply used an oven toaster. Same result.


















In a bowl, place lettuce, bacon bits, and bread pieces and toss. Add in egg chunks and toss lightly. Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil.

Voila! you're done.


















This simple salad recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home TV show, which I watch in Discovery Travel and Living when I catch it. The recipe's so easy I did not have to write it down!


Technorati tags: recipe, veggies

Ate Cathy's Dinengdeng

Dinengdeng is an Ilocano veggie dish similar to the Pinakbet. The more prominent difference is that Dinengdeng tends to have lesser vegetable items in it, and it uses fish sauce (bagoong), while pinakbet uses shrimp paste (alamang).

My older sister Cathy once invited us over for lunch and it was my good fortune that preparations for the meal was just starting when we arrived. Yep, I think we arrived a bit too early (were we obviously eager for the lunch? hahaha!), so we made ourselves useful by helping out with the chopping while they were amused with my taking photos of the procedure.

This particular version - which is popular with the locals in Baguio - uses only three types of veggies. In our case, we used eggplant, bitter gourd (ampalaya), and okra. Kalabasa (squash) and Sitaw (string beans) are also popular choices so these can be used in place of the other veggies; just stick to three kinds.