Ma Mon Luk Memories

Weekend food trips with papa were highlights of my first years in Manila. Weekends were spent sampling frogs legs at the Estero or sharing burgers at Dayrit's. On days when money was tighter than usual, he would still take me out to eat at Ma Mon Luk's Aurora Boulevard branch.

We would share a bowl  of hot mami and split an asado siopao. I remember the ceiling fans whirring above us, working hard to evaporate the sweat on our brows as we partook of the hot soup and noodles that made me forget all my worries. 

Papa would take the paper covering of the siopao and split the steaming bun to reveal delicate ly shredded meat with fatty bits and dark amber sauce. It would be my job to pour on each of our portions the sweet, salty and sticky brown siopao sauce. Papa would always wait for me to take my first bite before he would ask, "Masarap ba?" To which I would always reply in the affirmative. 

Last weekend, I had the chance to share a Ma Mon Luk experience with A. 

The place more or less looked the same as it did several decades back. I didn't mind it much as it gave the eatery a nostalgic feel. And Mr. Luk staring down at you from the wall his portrait was perched provided that museum-like vibe.  And true to its form, the place reeked of something old. A. colorfully describes the pungent smell that permeated the place, "Amoy-asong di naligo ng isang buwan pero gumulong-gulong sa patis."

 As we sat ourselves down, I was so looking forward to experience a glimpse of my childhood., I dind't mind the smell. We ordered my standard fare- The Original Mami and Asado siopao.

But no happy childhood memories in a a bowl was served. What came instead were two lukewarm noodle bowls and  dry siopao buns. And it was all downhill from there. After his first spoonfuls of the soup, Augie, went all Kung Fu Panda with his review of what he was eating, "Bland ang siopao at lasang paa ang mami." Even the siopao sauce was not sticky, nor sweet. Just plain salty.

Out of respect for my good childhood memories, I tried my best to finish my meal. A. however, couldn't be appeased and declared that even Chowking was better than what he was served.

We drove away from the place, sad and disappointed, with parts of my happy childhood memories drowned in bland, watery soup.

Corned beef update

Just finished boiling version 2 of my home made corned beef for 6 hours... It looks more like the tinned can variety... and looks good. hopefully, my next post will be the corned beef recipe.

Cheerio!

Almost There

I'm almost there with my crabcakes recipe and my home made corned beef recipe (both the organic and the tinned recipe).

Corned beef just takes a really long time to cure so patience is needed.

The crabcakes however need to be experimented on... I think handling the crabmeat, the  bread crumbs and the type of mustard to be used are the key factors to making great crabcakes.

I will get it.

Soon.

Friday Nights and Strawberry-infused Vodka

It's Friday night and I'm kicking my multicolored gladiator heels back...sipping my successful experiment- strawberry infused vodka.

Just get a boxful of strawberries (about 600 grams), take out the leaves and stems. Wash.  

Slice strawberries using a ceramic knife, so you don't affect the acidity of the fruit. 

Place inside an airtight jar. Pour 1 cup of unflavored vodka. Close and seal. Put in the chiller for about eight weeks.

The strawberries will discolour (into something ashen and purplish, somewhat like what I imagined zombie flesh to be) and some of its flesh will fall off but don't mind it. After eight weeks, take it out of the chiller and pour the red liquid into a decanter through a strainer.

Chill. Serve with small ice cubes or pour over shaved ice in a cocktail glass.

New Home and corned beef time

Moved houses over the weekend.

As I write, Ate Linda, our dustbusting cleaning lady, is figuring out where to put the kitchen stuff and is doing a better job than me. Moving has got me drained but it's exciting as I now have a new space for a new stove.

I am experimenting on how to make corned beef without saltpeter (salitre) as it is very hard to procure. I am figuring out which supermarket ingredients I can substitute. Hopefully, my experiments won't end as a major disaster. I will know in 3 weeks time as the curing takes about that long.

I hope, too, that by then, I would have settled in my new kitchen and will be able to share my alternative corned beef recipe :)

Summer and Smooth Yellow Mango Salsa

Like a juvenile lover, summer, it seems,  came early this year. And so,  sweaty and lethargic, here I sit writing about how I spent my summers.

My childhood summers were always spent playing cops and robbers with my cousins using aratiles* trees as our base where, if we were the cops, we "incarcerated" the robbers. If you saw me climbing up an aratiles tree, you'd easily agree with Darwin that humans came from monkeys. 

My cousins and I put my grandparents' aratiles tree to good use every summer. We would re-fabricate the palo china New Year noisemakers shaped like guns into aratiles launchers by fashioning rubber bands into slingshot-like contraptions . The sturdy aratiles stem would be clipped, and the rubber band would hold back the fruit and launch it  to the target. 

The green, unripe aratiles fruit which is hard and small like an airsoft pellet, was for scaring off any attackers. They hurt like hell. The red-orange ripe fruits were ammunition reserved for pelting the enemy until they were covered in the sweet, gooey flesh of the fruit. I can't really recall how one wins the game anymore. I just remember always being hosed down after each game.

 

We  would also make aratiles shake and aratiles ice candy using condensed milk and water. Aratiles has never been sold commercially because of its abundance and a seemingly common dislike for the  texture of the fruit. I like eating them fresh when they are manibalang (half-ripe), like a pearl-sized glossy Fuji apple and firm yet sweet and soft enough to pop in your mouth. The skin would be a bit tough but I swallowed them anyway.

Aside from the aratiles, summer fruits that bring good memories of summer are the caimito, macopa, siniguelas, balimbing  and chico (Please see below for other common names of these fruits) . 

It was always during summer, too, that we would get baskets of ripe mangoes from relatives in the province. Though I  haven't tasted all mango varieties, I think many will agree when I say that there is nothing like Philippine mangoes. 

The saccharine fragrance and the syrupy golden yellow juice that trickles from the plump cheeks when you bite into it always remind me of happy summers past. 

When you've tasted Philippine mangoes, you will understand the meaning of sun-ripened sweetness.

So here is my mango recipe. It doesn't sound like much but it is great with tortilla chips, blanched vegetables (okra and eggplant), grilled meat, poultry and fish and adobo.  It keeps for about two weeks if refrigerated.

Smooth Yellow Mango Salsa (Sweet and Spicy)

1 1/2 cups ripe tomatoes
1  cup ripe mango
1/2 cup onions
1/2 cup cucumber
2 cloves garlic
5 tbsps yellow mango puree
2 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
a sprig of fresh coriander
a sprig of green onion leaves
1/8 teaspoon sun-dried and crushed chili pepper
3 tablespoons honey

Just blend in everything in a fruit processor. If you don't have one chop and mix in everything. This should be mildly hot. Keep refrigerated.

☼
FRUIT NAMES:

*ARATILES Muntingia calabura. Common names include (English) Jamaican cherry, Panama berry, Singapore cherry, Strawberry tree; (Spanish) bolaina yamanaza, cacaniqua, capulín blanco, nigua, niguito, memizo or memiso; and (Filipino) aratilis, aratiles, manzanitas.

CAIMITO Chrysophyllum cainito. Common names include caimito or estrella (Spanish);  cainito or ajara (Portuguese); caimite or caimitier, pied caimite or caimitier a feuilles d'or, pomme surette (French); cainit (Virgin Islands); caimite or kaimit (Trinidad & Tobago); star-plum (Barbados);  caimo, caimo morado or caimito maduraverde (Colombia); guayabillo (El Salvador); aguay or olivoa (Argentina); Golden Leaf or Star Apple (USA) and "chicle durian" (Singapore).

MACOPA Syzygium samarangense. Common names include wax apple, love apple, java apple, chomphuMận (in Vietnam), bellfruit (Taiwan), Jamaican Apple ( Jamaica),jambu air (in Indonesia), water apple, mountain apple, jambu air or"water guava" (Malaysia), wax jambu, rose apple, bell fruit (USA),  jamrul (India), and jumbu (Sri Lanka).

SINIGUELAS Spondias purpurea. Common names include  it is called jobo, yellow mombin or hog plum (Caribbean and Mexico); Spanish plum or gully plum (Jamaica); .hog plum or Ashanti plum (Ghana); iyeye (Nigeria) golden apple or Java plum, cajá (Brazil) and makawk (Thai.)

BALIMBING Averrhoa carambola. Common names are carambola, Chinese gooseberry and star fruit.

CHICO Manilkara achras. Common names include,  chikoo, chiku , sobeda or sapota (India and Pakistan); Sabudheli (Maldives), sawo (Indonesia); hồng xiêm, lồng mứt, xa pô chê or  Siamese persimmon (Vietnam)); lamoot (Thailand, Laos and Cambodia); Sapodilla (Guayana, Trinindad & Tobago);  naseberry (Jamaica);  sapathilla or rata-mi (Sir Lanka); zapote (Colombia, El Salvador, Dominican republic); níspero (Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Dominican Republic); dilly or nasberry (Bahamas);  chico sapote (Mexico and USA); ciku or sawo nilo (Malaysia)

MEMORIES OF BOHOL

This is more of a photo diary of my trip to Bohol with A. a few months back. 

I only take photos with my celphone camera for this blog, so no dissing please :)

Though I'm  quite happy with my Sony Ericsson phone camera, I do  hope to replace it soon.