ilocano cuisine at the back of UST

At the back of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas sits a pure unadulterated Ilocano restaurant that serves slam bang ilocano food that is right to the taste and pocket. M & M's Eatery is Ilocano through and through (I guess M & M's stands for Manong & Manang's).

I personally love their grilled pork mixed with spices that bring out the grilled porkiness of pork. Served with rice and their side soup, it is Ilocos sur and Norte combined in good old Dapitan Street. It is a pure ilocano delight because the staff speaks ilocano and the store is fronting the Maria De Leon Bus Transit that services the guess what, the fucking Ilocos route. How Ilocano can you get with that proximities to the Ilocos culture? They also cook the killer Papaitan with the soup thickened by pork entrails. M & M's Eatery is an unassuming restaurant that can give the big ones a run for their money.

Lost at the Eton Centris Sunday Market

Paco lost at the Eton Centris Sunday Market.

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)

Stock em with Beef

picture stolen from

http://www.comedinein.info/2010/06/bistek-filipino-beef-steak.html

Lucky for me to have the opportunity to have a freezer well stocked with Beef this week. I salivate just thinking of the beef possibilities in store in the over freezing refrigerator freezer. Thelma bought beef in Tagaytay City, a place fighting the claim as the beef capital of the Philippines. Then a beef sale in our community supermarket added a couple more beef meat in our freezer. Last Saturday, it was a simple Beef stew garnished with tomatoes that brought the house down. Slow cooking at its finest as the flavory smell floats through the living room. The tomatoes gave that natural sour taste balanced by a perfect dash of sugar. Then Sunday evening, we tried another traditional beef recipe, the Bistek Filipino, or beefsteak. Like Bistek = beefsteak, digs? Its beef swimming in a combination marinate of soy sauce, calamansi, a dash of sugar, and garlic. After a few minutes of marinating the beef, boil it in water until tender then put in fresh shallots to counter the salty taste coming from the soy sauce. Good for eating!

toothaches

i hate toothaches. It kills my taste buds and appetite.

LCP Sunday Market Food Parade

Top 10 Oldest Restaurants in Manila

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/spot/20100903/tel-top-10-oldest-restaurants-in-manila-5a3fdeb.html


A very interesting article I read that I want to share for reference in your next Manila adventure. Ive tried all the restaurants except New Toho and I still come back to all of them for more surprises.

Savory Restaurant is now in the mainstream again with branches sprouting all over SM malls. But I cannot forget the times past when my family would eat out in Savory Restaurant Cubao or Escolta.

Ramon Lee Restaurant reminds me of dated Chinese movies and would expect Bruce Lee to come out of the kitchen to chase Abdul Jabbar and Chuck Norris away.

Ma mon Luk, well, it is as present as my present disposition. I still eat their Asado Siopao with gusto and learned to mix their magic sauce in the siomai soup.

Ambos Mundos (though we frequent its sister restaurant Wah Sun more often) with its Lengua Estofada and world dishes would make me classify it as way ahead of its time when it was established in 1888. A good place to take photographs for its interior ambiance.

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.

Easy on the Gravy

I found this photo at 
http://tunaynalalake.blogspot.com

Sobrang nakakatawa itong shit na ito Bwahahaha!!!!