A Cuisine from the Philippines

I spent a month and a half in the Philippines some years ago and learned to love almost every food I tried. I was in Manila for the entire time so the food I tried was limited to what was available in restaurants and from street vendors in the Makati section of Manila.

I came across a mention of a cuisine that I have not tried yet and it makes me want to hop a plane and go back just to try the food.

It is Ilonggo cuisine and my research has shown a number of things that I would just love I am sure.

There is a festival where the cuisine is going to be featured and I will likely not be able to get there in time.

2013 will be the 21st year of Dinagyang Food Festival, Information on the festival can be found here.

Some examples of Ilonggo cuisine can be found here.

Some day I hope to be able to visit during the festival.

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Great Food From Discount Grocers.

My wife, like so many people today, does most of her shopping at discount stores and at stores that sell overstocks from other stores.

You can always get nutritious food for a very good price but in many cases it tends to be rather plain or bland.

This last time she has outdone herself. She found a package of frozen haddock filets with an artichoke and capers cream sauce that is just absolutely knock your socks of good.

Do not ever look down on the discount stores. What they have varies and it is not always wonderful but there are times that you can find an absolute gem when shopping there and stocking up on necessities that are cheaper than elsewhere is certainly not a bad thing at all in todays economy.

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How Not to Cook Food for a Buffet!

My wife's birthday is coming up and I took her out for dinner this evening. She loves Prime Rib and I have been driving past a restaurant that has a Prime Rib and Seafood buffet every Friday and Saturday.

With the Prime Rib there was a choice between medium rare and well done. Medium rare was raw and cold. Well done was like shoe leather.

The coconut shrimp was cooked to the point where is was almost burnt and tough.

The Crab Legs had a thick crust of Old Bay seasoning on them.

Apparently they used all the Old Bay on the crab legs because the Maryland Crab Soup had none in it.

The breaded and fried clam strips were actually quite good.

Perhaps the made to order items on the menu are wonderful and maybe this was just a bad night but I will not be back to The Pike Restaurant in Gettysburg anytime soon.

For 30 dollars a person I expect to have a meal that is at least reasonably good and enjoyable. In my opinion I am owed about 45 dollars of the 60 I spent since this meal was somewhat less than mediocre.

Technorati Tags: maryland crab soup,old bay seasoning,coconut shrimp,clam strips,crab legs,target blank,thick crust,seafood buffet,shoe leather,prime rib,gettysburg area

Corn Meal

It is the time of year that foods made from corn meal are wonderful. There is nothing better in my mind than to get up on a cold snowy or rainy day and sit down to a large bowl of corn meal mush. When fresh out of the pot with a little butter and some sugar or molasses it is absolutely fabulous. Hot, sticks to your ribs and stays with you for a while. Another thing that is good about it is after you cook the mush and have your fill in a bowl, you take the rest, put it in loaf pans and refrigerate. In theory it solidifies and can be sliced and then fried another morning.

This is something that was quite common when I was a child. My father made this on a regular basis and it is really good. I have no problem with the initial part of cooking it and having bowls of it. I have not yet mastered the solidifying part. The liquid is wonderful and I cook it exactly as I learned to but it will just not solidify. I am wondering if something has changed about the way corn meal is processed from the way it was 35 or 40 years ago.

Should anyone have a possible solution to this please feel free to let me know.

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Making Do With What You Have

There are entirely too many folks that have absolutely no adventure in their soul when it comes to food.

Do not be afraid to experiment. I will be the first to admit that that I have on occasion had some spectacular disasters when experimenting with food while cooking but not too many and they become fewer and further between as you get some experience.

I would be quite comfortable in saying that I can walk into anyone's kitchen anywhere and with a few questions about likes and dislikes, with some kind of meat and a decent supply of assorted canned goods and spices or seasonings, I can cook up a pretty damned good meal that they will be quite happy with.

You need to listen to the folks you are cooking for. My wife for instance does not like pepper or peppers so I will generally cook with no pepper unless the dish is one that requires it as a main ingredient. Pepper steak for example is rather difficult to do without peppers.

The important point is, do not be afraid to experiment. You learn from mistakes and over time you can make some incredibly good things with just what you have on hand, which in this economy can be a very good thing.

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Don’t Be Afraid to Play With Your Food.

Just got home from work a bit ago and was hungry. My wife had gotten a bag of pretty good breaded Chicken Patties and I wanted those but perhaps a bit more exotic.

Mayonnaise, a little soy sauce, some Tabasco sauce, a little sesame oil and a bit of parmesan cheese makes for a seriously good spread for the roll on a chicken patty sandwich.

Never, ever be afraid to experiment in the kitchen. I will admit that I have on occasion made some absolutely spectacular disasters but the winners far exceed the ones that crashed and burned.

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Christmas Breakfast is Coming

Christmas is almost here and I will be continuing a tradition that I learned many years ago from my father.

Fried ham, home fried potatoes with onions and eggs poached in ham milk gravy. This is a great breakfast and I would encourage all to try it.

My father is gone now. He passed on Christmas Day in 2009 but this is one of the many things I will never forget.

You need to start out with a ham that has been very well brined and heavily smoked. You slice however much you will need to feed everyone that will be at the table and you get a pan that can be used for making gravy (no nonstick).

The pan gets set to medium high heat and once at temperature you put a liberal amount of butter in the pan plus just a touch of oil to help raise the smoke point of the butter. you lay the ham slices in and proceed to fry them until they are very well browned. Do not worry about things sticking to the pan. You need those wonderful brown and burned bits.

Once the ham has been completed you leave the pan on and deglaze it with milk. Enough milk that you can poach eggs in. Stir it around and make sure you get all those wonderful bits off the bottom. Once the milk has taken on all the flavoring you then proceed to crack eggs into the milk mixture and use a spoon to make sure you ladle the mixture over the top of the eggs to get them poached properly.

In another pan you have been frying potatoes with onions to a fairly brown and crisp consistency. When plated you will have a nice slab of browned ham, 2-3 poached eggs and a pile of home fried potatoes along with whatever kind of toast you prefer.

I don’t know exactly when this started. I remember it as far back as I can remember and we have been having that every Christmas. I only make this once a year but this is my favorite holiday meal.

Enjoy!!

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Thanksgiving the Day After

Thanksgiving has come and gone yet again with enormous quantities of amazing food made all over the country. I truly feel bad for those that were required to work on Thanksgiving. There are those that are needed even on holidays. Police, First Responders, Medical Personnel all are all needed no matter the day of the year.

For those of you that had to work at large department and grocery stores I am sorry. There really was no need. Look at what happens, at least where I live, whenever it snows. All we need is a hint of snow and the grocery store shelves are empty in hours which proves that we can damn well get what we need ahead of time.

That being said, thank you so much to all those that were forced to work whether in a critical function or not. Your efforts do not go unappreciated. At least by me.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful day for the first post of a food blog. I will be blogging primarily about food that I have made at home along with the occasional trip out to eat when it is affordable.

I absolutely love to experiment in the kitchen and most people tell me I am an excellent cook. That being said I have certainly had a few spectacular disasters and I will have no problem posting about them as they happen.

For today my wife made a discovery in baking her pumpkin pies. There a little of the filling left over after the pies were filled so we just put it in a backing dish and made some pumpkin custard. When it was done she tasted it and seemed a bit disappointed and said it was a little too spicy. I tried it and found that she had put a good bit of extra clove in it. I believe the extra clove is actually awesome and unless you do not like clove I would certainly advise trying a bit extra in your pie.

My wife and I have some differences of opinion on spices and seasoning. My wife is an absolutely wonderful cook and tends to stay very light with seasoning of any kind. I on the other hand have allergies and sometimes am not able to smell very well and smell is a big part of eating and of your tasting so when I can not smell I tend to go very strong with spices and seasoning to compensate for the lack of smell and that tends be too overboard for her.

I completely respect her thoughts on food seasoning although I do not always agree with them so I do try to not go too terribly overboard but I do make things that she will not eat. I do not do it purposely but it does happen.

That all being said Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the food and the day.

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