Foot and Fire

For this beef soup, use beef with bones which carry the marrow. This is a no-sweat beef soup. The trick is to quickly boil the beef and remove the froths and sediments forming above the water. Put more water and bring to boil until the meat is tender (This is the waiting part especially if there is no pressure cooker in the house). While boiling, put the Chinese Five Spice (Please see earlier post ). I have Cinnamon sticks and star anise in the house, so aside from the powder, I put some of it as I love the woody and earthy aroma of these two spices.  If the meat is tender, adjust taste with pepper and salt. When done with the taste, put the trimmed native pechay  and let vegetable cook covered for one to two minutes . Serve piping hot.   

By GERLIE M. UY My First serving of Pho Ga... The coriander leaves should have been left in the stock while it boils and should not be served.... *Stock 1 native dressed chicken 4 liters water 3 cinnamon sticks 1 stalk Coriander with roots 1 thumb-sized ginger,crushed 3 cube Pho Ga stock (use 1-2 chicken stock) fish sauce 2 liters hot water *Noodles Rice noodles Hot water *Garnish: Chopped spring onions mongo sprouts celery leaves coriander leaves quail eggs calamansi or any citrus (I used dalandan) chili sauce fish sauce How To: Clean whole or sliced chicken and add in 4 liters water in a pot. Add cinnamon sticks, coriander roots and stem with some leaves, and crushed ginger. Let boil until chicken is tender and water is reduced to about half. Remove the chicken and set aside in a bowl. Separate the flesh from bones and sliced into strips, if preferred. Chicken may be served as is. Remove other solids (or leave it with the stock). In a large bowl, place the dried rice noodles. Put ho...

This is the cappuccino my friend ordered in NO Joke Cofee, a coffeeshop in Tianjin, China. Please note the cigar-like cinnamon stick on the side...  We don’t use cinnamon at home for daily cooking, and so I believed that cinnamon is only for glazing breads. This belief remained had I not bought Chinese Five Spice in Thailand. And so, I learned that cinnamon is one of the five ingredients and the five-spice can throw one’s braised beef in a whole new light considering we only use the usual salt and pepper. I rub five-spice in my chicken, fish and favorite vegetables before grilling or frying. I fell in love with five-spice and its fragrant component, cinnamon. Long after that and long before I headed to China for a vacation, I read an interesting note on cinnamon in the book of compiled columns of Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo entitled, Chulalongkorn’s Elephants (The Philippines in Asian History, Looking Back 4). In one column entitled Walang Cuenta (No Value), Miguel Lopez de Le...