Foot and Fire

Jackie chan: Never Grow Up With Zhu Mo Translated by Jeremy Tiang Gallery Books 2015 2018 Hardbound cover I'm so happy to have gotten hold of Jackie Chan's autobiography. I had so much fun reading it. As a child, I watched The Drunken Master with my siblings and enjoyed it very much. All his succeeding movies that we watched were all heartwarming, fun and we enjoyed the behind-the-scene cuts at the end of the credits. I laughed a lot and cried some. There were portions of his storytelling that I cried, like when he was left to the China Drama Academy at age 7 and his mother carried bucket of hotwater from home to the academy and on the 2nd year, he was teased as spolied and rejected his mother to impress or be acceptable as cool to his peers in the academy. His mother has to ride buses and walk many times to bring the water with her. I think he has been like that to the women in his life, a macho who wants to show off to his peers. I can't blame a child who lite...

Well  I'm not a bread person. But I love blank canvasses like french breads and pandesal.  I bought a big pandesal, made a hole in the center and removed the crumbs and mix with cheeses, chili, chives and bellpeppers. It was awesome bready breakfast I concocted. I used parmesan, cheddar and mozarella so it was just so tasty.  Please try this and have an awesome breasy breakfast too!!! 

Why fishcake? Well, I was asked by everyone who partook the popular Korean foodfare called fishcake. Well I told tgem that it's not in ball form but flat so it's fishcake like pancake, and not like our fishball. In addition, our usual fishball  may shape like a ball but I doubt if there's fish in it but this fishcake tastes like fish. Do you think I got away with this clever explanation? Hahaha So, on the left side of the picture above, I had fishcakes in a soup base I made from mushroom granules, bellpepper and chili garlic sauce.  On the right side is a sweet spicy saucy version. I added hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, and some liquid to let cook the fishcake from the soup on the left. It was a hit. There we go with our fishcake adventure. 

Please check my previous post on how to achieve a long mungbean sprout. Here, I enjoyed my mungbean sprout omellette with spring onions. Today is easy day with gardening ahead of me. Heres the recipe: Stirfry enough sprouts and spring onions in oil until tender, add seasoned two scrambled eggs and let cook on each side.  I wish I can have this sprout every day for my noodle soup, omellette, pan cake. 

Tau chiam for Pinoys refers to dry flat noodles with about 1/3 inch width. It accompanies molo soup balls or misua with sardines combination. Here is my quick supet soup. I used canned sweet corn but a fresh one is the best if it is in season. I used a handful of tau chiam so it won't absorb the soup base. I enjoyed this ala carte for my light supper. Oil Garlic, choped Onion, chopped Tomatoes, chopped Tofu, cubed Squash Italian Parsley (reserve some for garnish) Sweetcorn 25g Tau Chiam Salt and pepper Mushroom granules 2 pcs Chilis Malunggay aka moringa  Saute garlic, onions and tomatoes in oil. Add tofu, squash and parsley. Cover for 3 minutes in medium fire. Add sweetcorn and enough water for serving. Cover and bring to boil.  Add tau chiam and seasoning. Cover and boil for 3 minutes or until noodle is cooked. Break chilis into two and add to soup. Finalize the taste. Let boil for 1 minute and add malunggay. Cover and Remove from fire.  Serve ala carte garn...

I love chicken gizzards because they have this chewy texture while I also love chicken livers because they have melt-in-your-mouth texture. Cooking both with masala kari or mixed spices sauce, one can bring out thw taste of these chicken parts. For this one, I didn't use coconut milk. Oil Garlic onions 500g Chicken gizzard 500g Chicken liver Potatoes, cubed Turmeric powder Paprika powder Bayleaves Cracked Peppercorns Chili powder Chili peppers Salt In a wok, Saute gizzards and livers in oil, garlic and onions. Add water and bayleaves. Cover for 5 minutes in high heat.  Add water and potatoes. In a bowl, place all spices and mix well and add hot water. Add dissolved spices to the wok. Add the chilipeppers and Cover. Let cook for 10 minutes. Adjust taste with salt. Mash two livers to thicken the sauce. Serve hot with rice. 

Appetizers are appetizing. I really wanted to make a pomelo salad but either I have no othet ingredients around when pomelo is in, or we all devoured it by just pairing it with salt. But I got a chance one time and I did it. Fresh tuna to go with this is my other goal.... Canned Spicy Tuna flakes, reserve oil Cucumber, cubed Pomelo, peeled and separated Salt  Pepper Mint leaves Mix first three ingredients in a bowl. Mix lightly. In a jar, place the reserved oil, salt and pepper. Shake well. Add to the mixture. Garnish with mint leaves and served chilled. 

Dalandan is my most favorite citrus. It has this particular pleasant fruity fragrance that I love and it has a subtle acidity. Some wanted to eat dalandan like oranges but I liked mine as juice base. Last time, I have 9 kilos and I squeezed all of it and saved the juice in an airtight pitcher. We slowly drank and use all up. I used it to sour my fish or aas addition to dipping sauces. We had a gusto of fresh smoothies using fresh pineapples too. My honey is the last batch of summer picks in my community, procey but they sure tastes and smells like the local pollens which I have a memory of because my mother gave us a spoonful of honey evwry day when I was a child on top of our other vitamins.  Pineapple slices Dalandan freshly squeezed juice Cucumber slices Small fresh ginger Honey Blender all ingredients until smooth. Add water to adjust consistency and taste. Serve in glasses with ice cubes. 

Here is my first crunch of my first ever successful sprout. I had been trying to do sprouting of mongo but I just can't get it long enough to my liking. So when I successfully grew it into 2 inches long, I stir-fried it the next day.  Oil Garlic Onion Mungbean sprout Button mushroom in can, reserve water Mushroom broth granules Salt Spring onions Saute garlic and onions, add the mungbean sprout. Add reserved water and cover for 5 minutes. Add mushroom, broth granules and salt and stir for 2 minutes. Add spring onions. 

Constant practice makes perfect. Hunger is the mother of kitchen innovations. Try and try and eat all you tried. These are some kitchen wisdom one can wield while doing some expwriments. We sprout mongo here but it is not as long as two inches as those used by the Vietnamese in their Pho. We only have a day or two of soaked mongo and we remove the outer skin one by one. Ours is what we put in our fried lumpia. I love sprouted mongo because it has high Vitamin C content and I want to prove a point among people who bwlittle our humble bean because it causes their arthritis. Well, this protein rich bean do mot have skin anymore, so arthritis is not going to work here even after eating it for three meals. We can add this to our pansit, stirfried beef or chicken, omellette, ukoy, soup and many more. I can also eat it as is as its taste and crispness remind me of singkamas.  Well, my secret in achieving the length is in the basket I used and the allowance for the roots to go ...

Salt is abundant in our seas so naturally, we preserve food through sea salt not just our dried fish or fermented shrimps we call ginamos but actually we also buro or gamos the vegetables. When I was younger, I saw my father perserving iba or kamias using salt or my mother preserving spring onions wirh salt too.  Sauerkraut is what Germans call their ginburo or gingamos nga repolyo. Since we have a word for this fermenting through salt, I believe we have been doing this too for a long time. Since we need some extra strong guts these days, I decided to lacto-ferment cabbage when I found some beautiful picks in the market. Last week, lacto fermented some long and slender carrots and this week, I worked on the pretty cabbages. 1 kilo cabbage 25g salt Glass Jar I bought a kilo, actually 1.1kg, of cabbage. Choose a cabbage which is heavier and a little greener than the usual, they are what I was looking for to use. I got two heads for 1.1kg. Then I use 25g salt or about 1 1/...

I saw Chef's Table featuring Chef Gaggan Anand who had a successful Indian menu tasting restaurant in Thailand. From that feature, I learned that "curry" is not Indian. Further reading led me to understand that the term curry is of British origin as it was coined to refer to Indian spices, and the term must come from the Tamil word, "kari" which means sauce. I cooked my fish last weekend using turmeric powder and fresh ginger and dashes of paprika. My mother asked me what's the difference between curry and turmeric. Thanks to my earlier education on this that I was able to explain that CURRY refers to a blend of spices, usually turmeric, coriander, chili, ginger, and black pepper while TURMERIC refers to a single spice. I also learned that "masala" is the correct Indian term for the "mixed spices." Actually, what I love about my curried fish is the coconut milk. I feel rich in savoring goodness in life through coconut milk. Pr...

One of our guilty pleasures is grabbing salted nuts and those whole grain thingies from the grocery aisle but what I really can't accept is that it is laden with msg, nature-identical flavors and artificial flavor. But out of sheer laziness and often, out of mere conveniece of just grabbing it, I buy.  If I am in my element, I order toasted nuts and dried fruits online and make my own trailmix. From the times I do this up to now, I got some preferences. I am sharing to you my favorites that I am having now: Almonds, toasted whole or slivered (choose unbleached please) Cashew nuts Golden raisins (dark ones tend to moisten) Cranberries, nice sour tones and good to add to stirfries and chao fan Apricot, love it in my moroccan dish and as snacks as it is so filling Some others which I tried with my notes: Walnut (not much as the peel has aftertaste and the Chinese use this as their brainfood. Look at the shape of wanut, it sure looks like brain) Hazelnut (pricey and overrat...

The secret to the milk tea is actually the cardamom seeds which has to be pounded first inorder to bring out its aroma. Of course, a fine black tea is the soul of it. Milk is another story for me as I seldom use it and as little as possible.So for my Mik Tea, I use: Cardamom seeds Loose Black Tea (preferably Indian origin) Evaporated milk Mascuvado sugar Boil water. Add the black tea and the pounded cardamom seeds. Bring to constant boil until desired tea strength. Strain.  Add milk to the tea and mascuvado sugar. The caramel and organic smel of mascuvado adds a layer of pleasant taste to the tea milk. Serve warm and refrigerate the remaining to be served cold.  *** If you are tired of your usual hot teabag, infuse your fridge water with a bag or two of teas and you will love it too. Add lemon, or simply honey to taste. But I like mine as is.  If you are so concerned with the caffeine content of teas, try looking rooibois as it tastes like black te...

In this recipe, we are hitting two birds with one stone. It's fun and simple to do. I left som tips at the closing of this blog, don't miss it. Common Ingredients: 500g linguine Sunflower oil 1 head garlic, chopped 4 chilis, sliced thinly For Garlic and Oil parmesan  Slivered Almonds himalayan salt For Tomato and Parmesan tomatoes 3 T tomato ketchup basil leaves parmesan Make a superficial cross cut at the bottom of each tomato. Add to boiling water and let it stay for 2 minutes. Remove from water and place in ice-cold water. Remove the outer peeling of the tomatoes by pulling off the peel starting at the cut bottom part of the tomato. Chop each tomato or halve or quarter or let stay it whole. In same water used to parboil the tomatoes, cook linguine according to package direction. Reserve the water. In a wok, saute garlic until transluscent, add the chilis then add a little pasta water, then the pasta, add more oil and parmesan. When the cheese melts and mixes with...

I  saw the movie because I was into food films recently but there was no food in the film, though orders of Margarita were made. At any rate, the movie has a beat of my heart because of the ending and quote from Rumi in the credits and the seemingly personal dedication by the director to a son who died, and of course, I seem to get myself to commit to write something using the prompts given by the creative writing professor. I saw my notes and did it today. Here is what I churned out: New year's eve Boat Cello Taste of orange Someone wearing blue Tell a loved one a very personal secret After all these years, I hated new year's resolution. Actually, we both do because the moment we set things to resolve in the coming year we tend to break them. It's like an additional but unnecessary clothing on this cold night. We rather make each day a new day to resolve something, to live one day at a time. No resolutions on this new year's eve, we declare now on t...

I tried lacto fermenting these slender carrots I bought from the wet market last week and I am enjoyong them after about a week, 3 days in the cool room temperature with partially opened lid, and 3 days in the fridge. It's still crunchy with a mild tanginess, not sourness there. I added it as my side dish on top of my kimchi in my lunchbox today. I was so happy. I love slender carrots for its taste and I avoid the big ones though everyone loves those for being so big and there's an economy in the effort of peeling them. But not me. For this lacto fermentation, here are the highlights: Sterilize glass jars and use clean water Weight of carrots multiplied by 2.5% for the weight of salt then add water. That is 25g for every 1000g carrots.  Water should be beyond the carrot's level in the glass jar.  Bubbles appear and they are carbon dioxide and just a natural formation. Only healthy bacteria thrives in the solution and that is what we need for a healthier food. Sh...

BIG NIGHT (1996) is what I had been looking for: a balance visual exposures of the food and the story. Everyone will love Italian brothers Primo and Secondo who have deep respect for Italian cooking but in crisis as there seems to be a need to compromise it for the business side of it. They need to prepare a dinner party for a guest who will help make their restaurant a success and their American dream come true. There are two scenes that sent me burstinf with laughter. At the beginning, Primo refuses to make the order of the woman. She ordered seafood risotto then she was looking for the seafoods, then she asked whether her order comes with a sides of Spaghetti. Primo explained that they don't go together and so she order spaghetti with meatballs. Primo explained that sometimes the spaghetti wants to be left alone, and the man suggested she order meatballs. Secondo relayed the starchy orders and Primo declined and shouted, she's a criminal. I laughed hard. I ...

10.10.20 TODAY, I GOT Rauram or vietnamese coriander, dill, chives, genovese basil, oregano.  TOMORROW, Rauram will be in a Pho Bo, dill in my tuna sandwich, chives in eggroll, basil in toast, oregano in my olive oil. Hope nothing changes after I sleep. 🤣🤣🤣 10.11.20 10.11.20 PHOTO DIARY of how my garden picks turned out today. Oregano-infused sunflower oil, attempted Pho Bo for the vietnamese coriander, egg roll with chives (no photo), tuna-dill mayo sandwich,  basil is still in the fridge.  THE STORY: Here's our Pho Bo to make you feel that we are in Vietnam, or somewhere just beside Vietnam. The boy shouted that the soup has "tyangaw" while sis chewed the rauram leaves accidentally and grimaced. Oh I liked the peppery and lemony taste of that, i said.  Conclusion after his two bowls: Tita G, it's just batchoy so we never reached Vietnam. I said, well, we may have just reached the Ninoy Aquino Int'l Airport afterall with this one. I smiled, thinkin...

Sweet Bean (2015) is a Japanese film that is a joy to watch as it slowly unfolds before us. I miss this kind of pacing and I thank Director Naomi Kawase for directing it so well that I found one Japanese film that is so filling, not only visually but also story-wise. Of course, it is an intended pun because An is the soul, the sweet bean filling, of the dorayaki, a spongy pancake. This movie invites us to see possibilties beyond our limitations and do our best in our life through the friendship of a teenager with inconsiderate mother, a middle age man who hates Dorayaki and an old woman who makes the perfect An. Almost every scene is a poetry in motion for me. *** Eat Drink Man Woman Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 Ang Lee film that gave us a visual treat of some chinese cooking as backdrop to a story that delights us with all the twist. But as much as I loved the long exposure of kitchen techniques at the start, I doubly loved the scene where the father and daughter had fina...

Babette's Feast (1987) is a classic Danish film featuring French dishes after a long wait for that feast to happen. I was not able to snap some lines I liked ( just quoting as I remembered): "No artist is poor." "I will leave forever and will not return. I learned that in this world, there are things that are impossible" he spoke of pursuing his love  Then 25 years after, the man returned and on his way asked "Will the rows of all victories in the past become a sum of defeat now?" While eating in the feast, he declared that we make choices, we risk, we fear but in the end our choices is unimportant because grace is infinite, unconditional." "Righteousness and bliss shall kiss each other." Before leaving again, he said "You are with me every day, I hope you know that, and you will be with me for the rest of my waking hours." In this film, one sees that food can be a vehicle for renewing relationship, asse...