Corned beef!

Made corned beef from scratch today. Four hours of boiling meat kept me up. And I needed to stay awake. After three days of being in a quasi-zombie state of mind due to cough medicine, I needed to catch up on work. Slow food cooking helps keep me on my toes and my eyes open. It allows me to think, cook and write in the same time frame. I love slow food. I love my corned beef!

It's now 2 AM and I have corned beef made from scratch with boiled cabbage and baby potatoes.

Never got to measure the ingredients so will write the recipe up when I get to do it again.

Off Days and Pinoy Pizza

There are some days when things just don't seem to work for you. That day used to always be Monday for me. But now that I've gone freelance, it surprises me that Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and heck, even Sundays can be off-days.

It is  on such days that our tiny kitchen is filled with dirty dishes and leftovers are called lunch. One recent easy to cook snack on my off days is my recently discovered Pinoy Pizza. You can vary the ingredients, depending on what's available. I have put in my recommended alternatives below the recipe.

Pardon me if this intro is short. it is an off day, after all.

Pinoy Pizza

Ingredients:
2 small Frozen Pizza crust
250 gms or 4 packs of Kesong Puti (Cheese from Carabao's Milk), sliced
2 Itlog na Pula (Red Eggs), sliced
1 medium-sized boneless Tinapang Bangus (Smoked Milkfish), crumbled
4-6 pieces of medium-sized native tomatoes, sliced
150 gms Queso de Bola (Edam Cheese), grated

Procedure:

Thaw the frozen pizza crust.
Slice the Kesong Puti into 1/4 inch thick slices. Wipe away any liquid.
Place on top of the crust covering as much crust as possible.
Place the sliced tomatoes on top pf the kesong Puti.
Crumble the Tinapang Bangus and layer on top of the tomatoes.
Add another layer of sliced tomatoes
Sprinkle the grated Queso de Bola generously.

Pre-heat your oven toaster for 10 minutes at 250degrees. Bake the Pizza for 10-15 minutes or until the crust edges get that toasted look or turn dark brown.
Slice and serve.

Alternatives:
For Kesong Puti- Cream Cheese (but if you use this, use the Queso de Bola sparingly)

For Tinapang Bangus- Bottled Spanish Sardines or Tawilis (take out the bones and feel free to sprinkle a little of the oil on top of the Pizza

For Queso de Bola- Cheddar

For Itlog na Pula: Sorry I haven't found a suitable rd egg altenative. What you can do though, is to take out the pizza  5 minutes before it's fully cooked, crack a raw egg on top (you can use quail eggs, too)  and put back the pizza in the oven.

For the frozen Pizza crust- you can use white bread or pan de sal cut in half.

You can also add:
- onion rings (best if marinated in pineapple juice or honeyed calamansi juice for at least 30 minutes
- Pineapple tidbits
- Chili flakes (sprinkle after taking the Pizza out of the oven)

Maturialism and Melty Kisses

IceCreamists photo from  trendwatching.com 

I subscribe to a site that looks out for global trends and Maturialism is one of the trends they listed. for 2010. These marketing seers predict that "rawer, more opinionated, more risqué, more in your face than ever before" cyber folk will come (pun not intended) to the forefront of  online content. Some sort of online sexual revolution.

IceCreamists, is one of the entrepreneurs they featured in the article. I've never tasted their  naughty,  creamy delights and I am adamant about food that is all about the concept. But the store looks intriguing and their saucy website is definitely entertaining on its own.

Food and sex have always been intertwined. Humans have visceral reactions to  any kind nourishment and  reproductive activities. Combined, food and sex can cause spontaneous combustion.  I guess I only have to say 9 1/2 Weeks and you'd get what I mean.

My biggest food turn on has always been chocolate and the first chocolate that ever brought out the Maturialist in me was Melty Kiss.  Bloggers have waxed romantic about it and recently I waxed (pun intended) erotic about it.

I am not a poet and this is my most recent try at writing something other than prose. So please forgive me if I disappoint and I hope you will be gentle in your reviews. After all, this is me popping my maturialist cherry.

ODE TO MELTY KISS

There you sit

In a pretty little box

Pouting

Waiting to be plucked

Here I stand

Reaching out for your

Bittersweet promise

Trembling fingers

Unwrap you

Thirsty

I bring you closer to my parched mouth

The heat of my breath

Melts you

My lips touch your velvet skin

A sigh.

Our kiss is nothing but a prelude

Between my fingers and my mouth

You lie naked

Willing me to take you

 

I part my lips

To let you in

Gliding, sliding

Your smoothness creating friction

Against the roughness of my tongue

 

You melt

Like my lover’s back

Aching

Wanting

My wet pink flesh on your skin

A river wells inside my mouth

Flooding my body with passion

Sweeping me to the shores of Paradise

I taste sweet

salt and sugar

Bitter brown

Sweet bitter salt

 

I moan your name

And press my tongue to my palate

Your nectar flows

Filing me with dreams

Of wine and fruits

Of leaves in meadows

A prayer escapes my lips

I bathe

In your goodness

I close my eyes

And take all of you in

One last time

Before you become

A memory.

Johnny Rockets New Eastwood Mall, Libis

Last night was a date night with A. We watched the brilliant  Joseph Gordon-Levitt  swap spit  with the wide-eyed Zoey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer.

Then we strolled around and A.  let me  slobber over the window displays of the shoe stores within the mall. Before we called it a night, we decided  to snack at Johnny Rockets, a 50s-style  Diner.

The server, Jeng, was a darling-- attentive and all syrupy smiles. The place was well-lit and the music, powered by a jukebox in the center of the resto, appealed to my old soul. And if, like us, you got seated in a booth with a mini jukebox, you can key in your song request via the contraption. And it costs only a peso! The Johnny Rockets franchise has the nostalgic ambience blueprinted well. It reminded us of  similar food joints that were considered a novelty in our heydays...Sam's Diner  at Quezon Ave and Rosie's Diner in Malate.

The food, however, sent us tumbling down cafeteria memory lane. As it was a midnight snack we decided not to order any of the burgers which were the specialty of the house.

A. got the egg salad sandwich which he found bland.

I shared his side salad which I found boring.

The snack was getting depressing.

And the  melamine dishes on which they were served only reminded us how much the resto was overcharging us for food that was fit to be served in a hospital cafeteria.

It was truly a sad moment when my onion rings and fries combo was served. Jeng's seemingly sincere smile couldn't wipe away my disappointment with the six pieces of dry onion rings and one dozen sticks of fries she placed in front of me. It was a sorry, overpriced excuse of a snack. Tsk... tsk.. tsk... 

Maybe we should've just shared a burger. Maybe we should've just stuck to the fastfood joint across the street. Maybe there will be no next time for us at Johnny Rockets.

I am not one to usually complain. But  really, these international franchises should know better! Good ambience and service will not make up for lousy food (unless it's served on top of a naked Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

I'm not angry, just disappointed. I do hope their burgers taste better than the sucky stuff we got served because it would be doubly disappointing for Jeng to lose her job because the owners didn't do theirs.

Boys! Boys! or How to Make a Meal Out of Martian Brains

Halloween was never an occassion celebrated by my family as I was growing up.

My first and only Halloween Trick or Treat experience was around ten years back when my then ten-year old baby bro' Angelo and his friend Bernard decided they would try their hand at amassing sweet treats from Bernard's neighbors in a gated community in Marikina. 

   Angelo and Bernard then...

Bernard's dad, Chito, and myself played costume master and mistress, borrowing Roman soldier costumes ---complete with toga, helmets and sandals--- from another friend,. When the boys went out in their costumes, Chito and I realized that we had just dressed two boys in flimsy white skirts, something that they'd probably never forgive us for when the pictures resurface via Facebook.

A few hours later, the boys returned with a bagful of candies, plastic toys and unhappy faces. Apparently, they realized that the homes they visited towards the end of their Hallow's Eve jaunt were already having supper.  And when they were handed their treats, they were disappointed  because the tired and hungry boys wanted to be gifted with rice and adobo instead of sweets!

They are now both in the cusp of adulthood and are on the brink of facing the truths of life that turn boys into men. But Angelo and Bernard will probably always be those pre-pubescent boys in my eyes.

   ...Angelo and Bernard today.

Here's a Halloween recipe for the boys...

Martian Brain Noodles

Ingredients:

1.5 kg Malunggay pansit

1 cup pork,  sliced into thin 1 inch lengths

1 cup Pork or chicken liver, cut into ¼ inch cubes

1 cup Chinese sausage, cut into ¼ inch circles

1 cup Shrimp, shelled, deveined and halved

1 cup tenga ng daga, softened and cut into 1 inch long strips

1 ½  cups Squash, cut into 1 inch high triangles

250 grams tofu

500 grams wombok

4 ½  cups water

3 tbsps soy sauce

1 tbsp Kutchai, minced

1 tbsp garlic, finely minced

1 cup onion, finely minced

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 shrimp bouillon cube

Salt and pepper to taste

Place pork in ½ cup water and add a dash of salt. Allow water to boil and the pork to become tender. When about 1 tbsp of water is left, add the Chinese sausage. Turn fire to low. Allow the remaining water to cook the sausage and bring out the oil of the pork to brown the meats.  Add cooking oil, garlic and onion. Then add the liver and tofu. Sautee until brown.

Dissolve the shrimp bouillon cube in 4 cups of water and add to the mixture when the liver is almost cooked. Add in the tenga ng daga, and squash. When the squash is slightly tender, add the shrimp and soy sauce to taste.

When the shrimp changes color, add the malunggay noodles and mix gently. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix gently for five minutes, making sure to evenly distribute the ingredients and keep the noodles moist.

To serve,put a helping of the noodles in a bowl and mold. turn over to a plate and garnish with vegetables.

ha

Wine and STD

I just discovered five minutes ago that doing research on sexually transmitted diseases  (STDs) is best done while imbibing something with alcohol in it.

The research is for work and the white wine, a Freixenet Cava, is for the sanity.

According to the CureResearch.com website there are an estimated 1.25 million Filipinos affected by Chalmydia, one of the more common sexually transmitted diseases in populations where men are circumcised. In the Philippines, this disease was popularized by Kris Aquino, when she decided to do  her bacterium-infested laundry in public during her controversial split with  ex-basketball player slash actor slash politician Joey Marquez in 2003. Though many of us do not appreciate her predisposition for the dramatics, she may  just have  single-handedly caused the  decline  of the disease's  incidence by half over a period of 5 years. Finally, something we may have to thank her for. Maybe.

Enough of the icky stuff.

I am no sommelier but I can appreciate the chilled white Spanish wine I have been drinking straight out of the bottle. The Australian Trade Commission's export market study for Australian wine-makers  gives an indication of my taste for wine- it is as common  as Chlamydia. I am like any average Filipino wine drinker: I like my Jesus juice white, chilled and fruity. 

The Cava, or the Spanish equivalent of champagne is made in the "méthode champenoise" or “Champagne method,” which is the same method that is used to make Champagne, France. In 1872, Josep Raventós Fatjó of the Codorníu estate had supposedly produced the first Cava in Cataluña, Spain. He liked what he made so much that he had a cava  or cellar dug up to store the wine. Thus, the name.

It is also cheaper  (or more accessible, if you want to be polite about it) than the real French Champagne. What I am having now is the semi-seco grade which has about 33-50 grams of sugar per liter. It is sweet, fruity and pedestrian. In the wonderful world  of wine lovers,  it is not sosyal at all. But this bottle I have just topped off does not need to be sosyal  to be special. I had won it in a singalong contest at Taumbayan, a QC resto owned by friends. This bottle is a testament to both the  declining entertainment standards of my friends and the strength of our friendship, since they haven't denounced me after the unabashed display of my (non-existent) singing skills.

And before sobriety catches up with me,  on this night of alcohol and STDs, to my friends at Taumbayan, I raise my bottle of  Cava. Salud!

DREAMING OF OVENS

Our kitchen is very small. A writer had once described it as "only a few paces wide". I want to buy a better stove with a built in oven slash rotisserie. But before I do that I have to:

1. Save up for baking lessons
2. Take up baking lessons
3. Reconfigure the kitchen space
4. Earn enough money for the purchase of a dccent oven
5. Decide on which stove/oven to buy

When I do get the chance to get that piece of kitchen equipment, I will cuddle it and love it and use it and give it a pretty name. In the meantime, I will dream of ovens tonight.