Foot and Fire

Easy steps to follow for this one.  Soak in warm water the dried pancit canton and the dried vermicelli. In a wok, saute in olive oil the garlic and onion.  Add a handful of cashew nuts and chicken or canned tuna. When cooked, add vegetables and let cook for two minutes before adding the drained noodles.  Season with salt and pepper as well as soy sauce. Let cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot!

This is the five-color vegetables we ordered. We got a beautiful line up of stir-fried sweet peas, napa cabbage, young corn, cauliflower and carrots. We had this in Mandalay, but as in anywhere in Myanmar, vegetables are a side dish or a complimentary dish aside from the soup and mango chutney and fermented fish/prawns. *** This is one tasty fish which is first wrapped with chopped leaves which preserved the fish fat (see bottom layer) and spices before the banana leaves. This must be steamed and the fish meat (see the second layer) is very tasty while the skin is delicately smooth. I want to replicate this cooking. We had this in a Shan Restaurant in Mandalay near our hotel. *** Fish hot clay pot. Chunks of fried fish with vegetables and spices and visibly garnished with onion rings and pineapple slices. This is one nice rice partner. It is served in a small wok with a burner underneath. We had this in Bagan. *** Speaking of snacks, I like this deep-fried potato chips at 500 to 1000 k...

I used the Pho Ga to make soup base for noodle soup. "Pho" means soup, "Ga" means Chicken.  The Kanokwan is a Pad Thai Paste, I already used it up. It is not good. It has no peanut in it and it is very much loaded with sugar. The Tom Yum soup base (another Thai specialty) is still lying in the cabinet for some days of kitchen experiment.  Thank you to my Saigon-based friend Anna Wang for the generous gift. We enrolled together in a cooking class in Ho Chi Minh City and we passed the cooking test together!

By GERLIE M. UY I tried one Chao Long (P45 for regular and P50 for with egg) and I wished to have tried other stalls selling the same to see to it I have had the representative Chao Long, a Vietnamese dish popular in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The taste is lightly sweet and it has no chili in it despite the red color. I cannot also get the taste of real meat stock in the soup....  But incidentally, I love the french bread which sells for ten pesos and can be ordered with meat sandwich at an extra cost.   This is the beef stew.  Chao Long with the condiments... Trying out Chao long with my travel buddy Cooky... eating the take home chao long... just passed by here and had my photo taken... We ate here and the signboard of the menu is below...

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...