Nilagang baboy

Nilaga is so simple and yet soooo good and nourishing. There's something comforting about it, whether you're being served the soup to relieve your fever, or enjoying it on a rainy afternoon, or just simply sharing it with your family over dinner. I guess it's because a lot more time is needed to make wonderful nilaga than the usual dishes to ensure that the meat is tender; the extra effort expended makes it a special dish.

Nilaga basically means "boiled", and the main meat ingredient is either beef or pork. For this recipe, we used pork with some bone in it. Nilagang baboy is also quite unique in its other ingredients because you can add corn on the cob and banana plantain! Too bad we did not have cooking bananas at this time, it would have been the most complete nilaga ever. But you can skip this or the corn on the cob if you do not have these.

This recipe takes around an hour to cook, and is good for 6 persons.

Earth Hour is on 27 March 2010

Visit the Earth Hour website to learn more.

The Wall Street Journal highlights Filipino food

When you mention Asian cuisine, most people think Chinese, Malaysian, or food from countries in this region other than that of the Philippiines. But our food is as varied as the over 7,100 islands that we have. We also have a diverse influence that we adapted into local versions which are truly unique in our country. It's like our own delightful secret, which at the same time amuses us when others discover the joy of Filipino food.

The Asian Wall Street Journal, through Kuala Lumpur-based writer Robyn Eckhardt wrote a piece about his adventures in Filipino food. Enjoy his article entitled Filipino Flavors!

Dinuguan for dinner!

Sure, we can cook Filipino dishes here like Pinakbet and Pancit because we have Asian stores where we can source the fish paste and noodles. But dinuguan? Now that's something that's difficult to replicate. That's why, when a friend emailed us that his wife will be making dinuguan and that we can order some to take home, we jumped at the chance.

Pickled ginger recipe

This post is dedicated to my friend Francis who shared my passion for pickled ginger; we managed to gobble a considerable amount before Yoshinoya took it off the tables and gave them in small sachets over the counter instead :-). Francis is getting married this month to Katz. Congratulations!


This may be an acquired taste, although it did not take me long to acquire it :-). Pickled ginger is a side dish in Japanese food. The spiciness helps neutralize any lingering flavour of the meal, such as sushi. But it also tastes great as part of beef gyudon.

Use young and fresh ginger if possible. The skin on young ginger is not dried out like its older counterpart. You can still use the ginger commonly found in supermarkets, though.