Foot and Fire

For lunch today, we had laswa. We mixed all solid vegetables available: papaya called kapayas here, squash or kalabasa, okra, takway (gabi roots) and saykwa or patola and the green leaves at hand: malunggay called balunggay here and saluyot called tugabang. The secret addition is the lemon grass known as tanglad here and some dried fish. .N.B. the ingredients are actually flexible; compare this laswa with my previous post.... Match this vegetable soup with fried fish and rice... Perfect!

By GERLIE M. UY We stayed at Doc J's Stop-over located just about two kilometers from entry to the municipality of Don Salvador Benedicto (aka DSB and don sal) located at 37 Brgy. Pandanon, DSB, Negros Occidental. DSB is a cool place but we dared to have halo halo as it is the place's best offering to those who stop over to the place... HALO HALO at DOC J's Stop Over, 37km Pandanon, Don Salvador Benedicto (DSB) Doc J's Halo Halo has vanilla ice cream, ube halaya, bits of colored kaong, sugared young buko or coconut shreds and sweetened with milk creamer and honey with dissolved mascuvado sugar LANZON (the yellow one) -- steamed grated cassava with young shredded coconut LINUPAK NGA KAMOTE KAHOY -- pounded cassava with shredded coconut LINUPAK NGA KAMOTE KAHOY, up close arroz con caldo passion fruit juice with buko shreds (young coconut) Don Sal women sell their camote and banana chips as well as their candied young coconut called BUKAYO.  LINUPAK NGA SAGING -- pounded ...

Like The cold cucumber salad... Be the first of your friends to like this. 3 pcs medium sized cucumbers Dressing 3 stalks of lemon grass (white portion only) 6 calamansi juice 1 tbsp Green Curry Paste  1tsp Cumin Powder  1 tsp Curry Powder  2 tbsp Refined Sugar,   3 tbsp Ground peanuts (reserve 1 tbsp for garnish) 1-2 tsp chili powder (use fresh green and red jalapeno pepper if available)  Salt and ground pepper Peel cucumbers alternately so as to leave green stripes. Cut into half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick. Chill. In a blender, put all the spices and blend. Adjust taste with salt and pepper as well as sugar. Pour dressing in the cucumber and mix well just before serving. Arrange in a serving platter with lemon grass, jalapeno or ground peanuts as garnish. Topped with peanuts, this cold cucumber salad is rich in flavor. Taste of Thailand. Left to right: Green Curry Paste, Cumin Powder, Curry Powder,  Refined Sugar, ...