Quick spinach

Spinach is known as a rich source of iron and calcium. According to Zach Smit a leading researcher, a 180 gram serving of boiled spinach contains 6.43 mg of iron, whereas one 6 oz. (170 gram) ground hamburger patty contains at most 4.42 mg. Thus spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron, compared to other vegetable and meat sources.

Popeye the Sailor Man has a strong affinity for spinach, becoming physically stronger after consuming it. This is partially due to the iron content being mistakenly reported ten times the actual value, a value that was rechecked during the 1930s, where it was revealed that the original German scientist, Dr. E von Wolf, had misplaced a decimal point in his calculations. In truth, spinach actually has about the same iron content as a lot of other vegetables, and even less than others. Cooked broccoli and cauliflower, for example, have almost double the iron content of spinach.

The above excerpts are from Wikipedia. If you may have noticed, the two paragraphs describe conflicting messages about the iron content of Spinach. One thing I know though, that Popeye's affinity for the strengthening properties of spinach was hugely misplaced by an erring decimal point. It still was a popular cartoon in my childhood days though, and is still an identifiable character in today's generation. But I digress.

I visited Glenn a few days ago with some print and scan requests. I ended up going home with some of his garden produce. It was wonderful seeing his patch of greens growing very well. Lettuce, broccoli, pechay, spinach, potatoes! I hope I can do that also soon. He gave me some pechay, spinach, and fish from their recent fishing expedition.

Admittedly, I haven't tried spinach before. Sure, it's available in the local market in Baguio City but as far as I can remember, we haven't had spinach at home. So I Googled for a simple spinach recipe and came across one at Simply Recipes. A lot of commenters in there declared that this is a tasty way to prepare spinach, so I tried it for myself. Here is the recipe.

121 in Salcedo Village, Makati

Back when I was working in Makati, we would always head for 121 for lunch especially if it was a salary day. 121 is an open air restaurant, so named because it was located at the Adamson Center, 121 L.P. Leviste Street in Salcedo Village. Originally, their pork chop was also priced at P121.00 but has since increased. No matter, we still had more than our share of lunch there.


Their house specialty, the pork chop, is soooo good. Tastily marinated slices that's fried to perfection. And the dip... it complements the pork chop so perfectly! It's a mixture of soy sauce and garlic and there must be some other spices in there. We can't get enough of the pork chop and the dip.

Care for a crumpet?

A crumpet is a savoury/sweet bread snack made from flour and yeast. It is eaten mainly in the United Kingdom, but also in the nations of the Commonwealth.

Crumpets are generally circular though rectangular varieties also exist. They have a distinctive flat top covered in small pores and a resilient, slightly spongy texture, being very porous. Crumpets alone are bland and generally eaten hot with a topping (usually butter). Other popular accompaniments include cheese when melted on top of the crumpet, poached egg, jam, Marmite, marmalade, honey, peanut butter, cheese spread, golden syrup, lemon curd, and maple syrup.

Source: Wikipedia

Eggs Incredible!

These are eggs sold here in New Zealand. Notice something different about them?


There are also white eggs here, but it's not a common sight.

Eggs though, are one of the things we see almost everyday that we take it as an ordinary food items. But it was eggciting to learn that eggs actually have a thin protective coating outside the shell which protects the inside from contaminants and that washing the egg dramatically reduces its shelf life. And that the shell is porous (this we learned actually in grade school through an osmosis experiment). And that there are actually "veins" that help the yolk stay suspended in the white matter.

The Raisin Bread mystery

A couple of Christmases ago, I received a gift from a colleague the day before I was going home to Baguio for the holidays. It was bread rolled in colored plastic and tied with a festive ribbon. Being a perishable item, I unwrapped it upon reaching the apartment to try it out.

Ooooh! It was the most delicious raisin bread I ever tasted! The sweetness is just right, the bread soft and tender, and the raisins were so abundant, they were falling off the bread!

Sunburst Chicken

Sunburst Chicken is a restaurant found only in the Visayas and Mindanao region of the Philippines. Like many food shops, it established its specialty in chicken. But it offers a lot more than fast food fare; you actually have a selection of good Filipino dishes here.


A couple of my favorites: beef ampalaya and lumpiang shanghai!


The fried chicken is the basic coated chicken recipe, and so are the other items in the menu. So what exactly makes Sunburst chicken unique? Well, they have this utterly irresistible but cholesterol-laden item in the menu. Guess what it is.

Eat only clean food!

Speaking of Asian stores, we were at one previously and we included sotanghon in our list. Distinguishing this by appearance, my wife took a pack of vermicelli. But then something was wrong. She approached me and showed the instructions on how to prepare it.


"Huh?" I was just as puzzled. And then I got a flash of recognition: it might have meant "soak!". Giggling, we made our way to the counter. We did not include soap with our purchase, though.

[cross-posted at watson.online/]
Technorati tags: food trip

Bag of Beans

In my last week in Manila, I got together with my trekking friends. We visited Tagaytay one early morning with the intention of visiting a nearby waterfalls. It was a spur-of-the-minute idea actually, because if you will notice in the final photograph, we were not in our proper trekking attire. We dropped off at Bag of Beans for a much-needed breakfast.