U-belt Food Trek

Yesterday I walked my way to the University Belt area thinking of food and cuisines and what life really has to offer me. My food walk started in the morning after Andres requested Fried Chicken for breakfast so I prepared a simple mix of fish sauce, soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and calamansi for marinade. Then I dipped the chicken parts in egg and seasoned flour for that crunchy southern style fried chicken. Andres enjoyed it and I enjoyed it too.

Then in the office, I ate early lunch in preparation for my planned long walk to everywhere. I ordered Menudo and lechon kawali with rice combo and the taste was very homely. It was quite expensive however for seventy pesos. But in a bourgeois school setting, the price is peanuts.

Then I rode the LRT from Katipunan and upon existing the train, entered a new world. I walked inside a mall full of clearance sale and checked out the second hand bookstores along the streets while people watching, thinking what goes on in their minds as they walk. Then I got hungry again and ate at Mang Inasal Recto branch digging their 49 pesos one piece chicken inasal and rice. It was meditative eating of sort as I enjoyed thinking of life giving me the chance to experience most of what it can offer a person. From the fume ravaged Recto kiosks to the Bourgeois Hotel restaurants, I can walk and eat and breathe in these places. There must really be luck.

Then I walked and again rummaged through the books for sale and arrived in Sampaloc area and saw a school with a big wanted poster of people they find as trouble makers and they actually look like former stockholders of the school. Then I checked another school and was impressed with the marked improvement and upgrading of facilities. Feeling hungry again, I chanced upon a Kambingan store but goat meat was expensive so I settled for a Pork ribs adobo for 35 pesos. It was succulently soft to the palate in an adobo sort of way. Then I walked again towards Dapitan area and picked up Thelma in her work. Feeling tired and sapped with energy, she suggested that we go to Banawe and eat comfort food. I happily agreed and went to Mandarin Sky for a sumptuous serving of Shabu-shabu.

It was a whole day of feasting for the mind, body, and soul.

Malunggay Chicken Balls

Thelma and Andres, representing III Variara (Andres' section), won the Don Bosco Grade School Healthy Food challenge last year with their healthy Malunggay Rice and chicken Balls in Carrot sauce and Buttered Vegetables.

MALUNGGAY CHICKEN BALLS

Ingredients

Ground Chicken
Malunggay Leaves
Carrots
Bellpepper
Potatoes
Onion
Garlic
Egg
Salt
Pepper
Flour

Procedure:

1. Mince the vegetables
2. Combine all ingredients. Add Salt & pepper
3. Form small balls
4. Heat oil & fry
5. Once cooked, put in a plate with paper tissue to absorb excess oil
6. Serve with carrot sauce

CARROT SAUCE

Ingredients

Carrots, Bellpepper, Chili, Vinegar, Sugar, Flour, Salt, Water

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients except flour
2. Dilute flour in water then combine with mixed ingredients

MALUNGGAY RICE

1. Pakuluan lang ang malunggay leaves at gamitin ang pinagpakuluang tubig sa pagluto sa kanin.

BUTTERED VEGETABLES

Just get vegetables and put butter. Thats it.

Mandarin Sky

Mandarin Sky is one restaurant that we so fondly visit for its sumptuous Shabu-shabu meal that borders on becoming an all-time favorite with the satay soup taking centerstage in the whole mix-match of watercress, thin slices of beef and pork, and other stuff that I forget when I start sipping and eating the magic soup. One can choose from the thousands of ingredients offered to perk up the already magical satay soup.

Their house fried chicken is just great with the crisp skin that melts in your mouth. The Oyster in XO sauce is to die for. But it is the Shabu-shabu that matters most in the Mandarin Sky scheme of things.

Mandarin Sky

Banawe St., Quezon City

(in front of St. Theresa's College)

Comfort Tinola

I saw a recipe two weeks ago called “Pinatisang Manok” or translated in English would sound like “Chicken cooked in Fish Sauce”, I think. The author mentioned its close resemblance with “Tinolang Manok” or Chicken boiled in ginger and fish sauce a.k.a Patis, I think, again.

Tinolang Manok is my comfort food since I learned to sip my soup from a spoon. I could sip its soup using a straw for all I care as long as I can slurp that gingerly hot broth reminding me of everything that comfort me. Since I got married though, that chicken in the Tinola was replaced by pork spare ribs as it was my wife’s preferred meat. It still taste splendidly and comforting but it is not chicken. She calls it “Tinolang Buto-buto” and it sure sounds very local. Like a typical Filipino name when one repeats a name to make it sound cute like “Jing-jing”, “Bing-bing”, or “Ket-ket.”

I have to admit that I also like this version but it is not chicken. There are no Kentucky Fried Buto-buto (KFB), or Max’s Fried Buto-buto. It is hard to struggle eating hard to reach meat stuck in the middle of the bone joints. Yes, the bone marrow is an extra treat but rather my heart misses it or its sure hard core cholesterol blocking my veins. I have to admit that I eat my favorite chicken’s skin and was informed of its consequences so I just indulge in denying whatever consequence it will bring.

I cooked Tinolang Manok last week and while it was not that typical healthy boiled chicken due to salt and sugar and some magic powder, it was just perfect for my taste.

Tinolang Manok

Ingredients

½ kilo Chicken (preferably Thigh and wing part, or as long as it has skin on it)
1 clove Garlic
1 bulb Onion
1 Ginger
1 cube Chicken Bouillon
3-4 tbs. Fish Sauce
A pinch of Sugar
Papaya
Chili Leaves
Cooking Oil

How to do it

1. In a pan, sauté ginger, garlic then onion.
2. Put chicken pieces and cook until a bit brown
3. Add chicken Bouillon
4. Put the fish sauce and water.
5. Put Papaya.
6. Let it boil for 15 minutes under medium heat.
7. Taste and add Sugar, and fish sauce depending on your required taste.
8. Lower the flame to low heat and add Chili Leaves.
9. Turn off the stove and serve with steamed rice.

longganisa

Longganisa, or native or local or pork sausage, whatever, is a fascinating food as it transforms its looks, composition, and taste depending on its point of origin in the Philippines. Nueva Ecija's Cabanatuan Longganisa, Quezon's Longganisa Lucban, Vigan Longganisa, Tuguegarao Longganisa, and the Longganisa list just goes on and on.

Its a miss and hit trick in finding the best longganisa for each one. We have our taste preferences and it takes a lot of patience, trial and error, and lots of trust built and trust reneged (for sellers claiming to have the best longganisa).

I am for the garlicky longganisa with ground pork stuffed with lots of garlic and maybe, other mysterious ingredients health buffs are known to barf about. I like the Nueva Ecija Cabanatuan longganisa with its tighter than a nun's ass garlic packed sausage.

Longganisa with garlic rice and sunny side up eggs, with vinegar dip and the not so healthy orange juice mixed from a sachet powder, makes a good breakfast morning.

chicken

chicken is an attempt to tell stories about food, cooking, eating, drinking. Or show pictures of food, cooking, eating, drinking. Whatever is available. Its an attempt, anyway. No one can do anything about it. Its my shit. So be it.