My Kare kare
For me, weekend will always be a delight because it means a chance for me to fulfill my title as chef-chef-an. Cooking is now a regular thing for me (at least for, as i said, weekends) but I am yet to share some of my adventures. This will be my first.
Kare kare is one that I took picture of mainly because of the level of difficulty. Not everyone can pull this dish off. The list now includes me.
Kare kare is not something I'am very familiar with. I grew up not having this menu in our household. There was a back story which is as basic as our cook does not eat kare-kare. As I remember, first taste that I had with it was when I was in grade 6. Our neighborhood had an arrangement to cook kare-kare for several households, since cooking it is a tedious task. Following that were having kare kare on several ocassions I have attended.
This very day with the ingredients around, I decided to try with the help of the menu at the back of Kare-kare mix pack. I am cutting the story short. The cooking time was around 1 hour and 15 minutes. My wife had a lukewarm reception and insisted she could have done it better. Yaya had no response other than her several meals she endured my kare kare.
Still, this is not counted on my legitimate accomplishments. I intend to do the hard way. Nagsasangang ng bigas, nagbabayo ng mani at nagkukulay gamit ang atsuwete.
Describing how it fared? With the entire mentioned duration I could no longer take the dish by the time it was done. It is not because it had an awful taste. It's just I'm sawang sawa na katitikim.
I don't know. I just hope there would come a point that I don't cook that long. I just want to see to it that in the end they can bear with what I came up with and positively end up liking it. It's no longer about devoting time or exerting effort. It's about showing love to them.
Now I know.
Pizza Hut on Mom's Death Anniversary and Cooked food on her Birthday
The day after my post, we are celebrating my mom's 11th Death Anniversary. The list of my pizza hut experience has added another day to remember.
I, together with my wife and son came late to the venue so we gave my sister the freedom to have the order. There were pizzas, spaghetti, soup, salad and different kinds of bread. Anyways, we also left earlier so I was not able to know how much our bill was.
Sharing to you are the food we ordered, taken in not-so professional shot by a built-in camera of my modest phone. (The moment after I finish this post, I'll search for food photography sites for much needed lessons).
Check out the food we had..
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| kutsinta (or to others, cuchinta), I remember seeing a recipe of this. I just can't believe that it's only made of flour and brown sugar. I'll check if it also has jelly. I'll try to cook (or bake) this in the future. |
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| spaghetti, puto at dinuguan from Denbel's Fastfood. I remember in one of my classes, there was an instance that one item that I have to write on the board is spaghetti. That's when I realized that it's one word that I disregard to take note of the spelling. |
Denbel's is one of the established restaurants in Balanga, specializing on lutong bahay.
Pork Chop, Caesar Salad and my other 99 Value Meal Pizza Hut Experience
Ginagawa pa ang kitchen na paglulutuan ko..
Again this blog would not be a food review blog. I'm just an ordinary person who has ordinary taste bud. one more thing, I only have few adjectives so there might not be much difference among my posts. You might think that all of the food taste alike. It's delicious, its not delicious.
My format would be, I would eat out and later try to cook my version of the dish or whatever food I ate. The next line up would be a porkchop similar with what I had in Pizza Hut earlier.
Anecdote about Pizza Hut.
There are few things I need to share about the restaurant from my frequent (from my standard once every six months is frequent) visit with them.
1. Around a week before Ondoy hit Manila, my wife and I were enrolled in our respective review schools. After surviving the flooded Recto, we had lunch in Pizza Hut.
2. I accompanied my father on his eye check up in San Fernando Pampanga. This was my brother's first few remittances from his abroad. My father was thinking about somewhere else to have lunch (somewhere mas mura, probably in food court), I surprised and took him there. He enjoyed the meal despite the apprehension we might get overbudget.
3. I had my dark period of my life. What saved me was my current job. From my salary in my first few months, my first treat for my son out was a brunch in Pizza Hut in Trinoma. It was just a joy seeing him enjoy as he thought he's attending a birthday party because of the free party hat. My son even received a free crayon from that branch.
Thus, I got excited learning the a branch opened in our area, Balanga. I made it clear that this is not a food review blog therefore I'm not going to bash any food establishment or their food. However, I might ocassionally share not so pleasant experiences which ( I hope) would not entitle me to be legally charged.
In our hometown branch, I just got disappointed on two instances:
1. On my first visit, I gladly took my seat around the time of when there is not much customer, only to find out the primary reason I'm a patron is not yet available - their P99 meal. I was informed that the value meal would intially not available until a go signal be given to them. To save me from embarrassment of sitting there, I tried to look for regular meal that's within my P100-budget, but to no avail.
2. While on my second visit which is about few hours ago, I found out that they now offer the value meal. I expected to receive complimentary garlic bread since my order was taking that long to be served. My definition of "taking that long" is that long after I took my order, there were new customers who arrived after me. They are on the next table so i heard that they have the same order. Their order was served within a reasonable time. There were things happened in between which I would no longer share.Let's just say my order was served around the time the customers on the next table finished their meal and left.
Nonetheless, I will still hold good memories of the restaurant as I shared above. Had I been requested to fill up their customer survey form, I would still give positive response. What I experienced was just minor lapses. I also make mistake at work. And basically, when cooking.
Lumpiang Sariwa
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| I intend to feature lumpia on this blog, but I forgot to take picture of it before eating. I just took the picture of the display when i remembered. this was in Susie's Balanga. |
As a child, our elders would take pride that I eat vegetables.
Apparently, I had a change of heart. I turned to dislike vegetable as years go by. there's just one thing that did not change, I SUPER-like lumpiang sariwa. For clarity purpose, it shall be a rule that it is fine to mention brands. Particularly, it will always be a chilhood memory having Lumpiang Sariwa in Goldilock's. No wonder, my son loves it too.
Other things I have to say about lumpia is I loved how it evolved. The lumpia available in restaurants or served in caterings were now wrapped by own-made wrapper - and not the ready made ones. I even remember having it as part of menu of Elmo's baptismal reception.
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| Like father, like son, Elmo also loves Goldilock's Lumpiang Sariwa. |
One of these days, I will be trying to cook it on my own. The vegetable dish is quite simple. There may have been a trick about the sauce but I'm sure, with right instructions I can do it. The hardest part will be the wrapper.
I hope to find time - and budget for it. I'll be sharing it here for all of you.
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