My Manila Food Adventure & A "Warm" Welcome

Tell me what does "a warm welcome" mean to you? An friendly handshakes? An affectionate embrace? Air kisses? A french kiss? Or even an azz kiss? Oh, those are sooooo OUT!

The moment I arrived our Manila office, I was welcomed by my worst nightmare. That's right! A terrifying nightmare! Nono, I wasn't presented with a basket of baluts (the one day chick eggs) nor a heaping bowl of jiggly woodworms....but I was confronted by.....

A MEASURING TAPE!!!

...and a BATHROOM SCALE!!! ARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

I was absolutely terrified. I fear them. I tried to avoid them the best I could my whole life..and they were right there in front of me! A colleague held out a list of waist line records, another circled the tape around my ever expanding waist, and then another asked me to step onto the scale. Oh gosh, I was trembling inside, I tried to maintain a nonchalant facade, and I think it was pretty damn convincing. LOL!!!! I've faced my fear, and I realized that I NEED to do something about my weight. Denial is over. So, with a newfound strength, I've decided to eat all I could during my trip, enjoy each and every meal and every pound I gain. HAHA!!!

I think my workmates in Manila has successfully given the term "a warm welcome" a bad name. LOL

A dear friend of mine, Suzette, will be a guest writer for my Manila food posts. She is a food fanatic, just like the rest of us, her knowledge about food is simply unbelievable, and she is a fantastic cook! I was so lucky to have gone around with her and tasted her food. It was one of the best trips in my life, I almost forgot that it was a business trip. ^_*

Rita's Manila Food Diary
(by Suzette Mendoza, Suzette's picture by Peewee & PS. I added my comments in italic)

Day 1 Lunch - Max's Restaurant
Sinigang Prawns - Tamarind based soup with prawns, long beans, okra, sliced raddish

It tastes refreshingly sour, a perfect accompaniment for rich & deep fried dishes

Kare kare - Beef and vegetables in peanut sauce - eaten with shrimp paste (it's creamy because its mixed with either flour or ground rice (powder); a typical filipino viand eaten with rice during family occassions or during festivals

Rich and creamy...the meat is gelatinous and rich in collagen. I might get fat, but I'll have great skin. HAHA. Plus, I simply loved the shrimp paste condiment that comes with it

Crispy Pata - Pig knuckles boiled til tender, then frozen, then deep fried - popping the skin (dipped in vinegar, soy sauce, chilis mix)

Warning: highly addictive! I had to stop after this one though, I couldn't afford to have sore throat on my first day, so much talking awaits ^_^


Screw forks and knives (which I tried to use in the beginning, "pretending" to be polite HAHA)! The best way to eat and clean crispy pata is by getting down and dirty. Use your hands, your teeth, even your face when needed

Peewee, my other partner in food-related crimes, joined the crispy pata fun. She is a fellow food lover who has a penchant for photography. Many of my Manila food adventure pictures were taken by Peewee. Great pictures! Oh, sometimes, this soprano just bursts into songs.

Dinner - North Pier (Manila)

A gorgeous place lit with fairy lights by the sea


My fresh calamansi (local lime) juice. Super refreshing!

Baked Tahong - baked mussels with melted grated cheese and garlic

Sisig - Minced crispy pork (meat and parts of the cheeks) served in hot plate - with chilis (with poured local lime called calamansi)


Grilled Squid - Squid stuffed with tomatoes, ginger, onion - served with leeks and carrot strings


Kinilaw na puso ng saging - Sliced banana flower cooked sauted in garlic, onion and with vinegar


The Food Fanatics

Roy, our other food fanatic friend, was amazed by how much we could eat! We thought we ordered too much, but we finished it effortlessly anyway hehe. Thanks for making my trip memorable, guys!

I was really worried about the end of the trip, though...when I'd be faced by another session of waist and weight measuring yet again. Oh Gowd, let the scale be broken...and I will work on hiding the tape myself....

Lemon Cookies - Hong Kong's Meaning of Eat Lemon

The first thing you learn when you are learning a new language is...the bad language. Hehehe.

Despite my Chinese heritage, I don't speak Chinese. I know, I know. Shame on me. I find learning to speak a foreign language is not easy. For me, especially Chinese, where with every single tonal mishap I risk insulting the person I was talking to (and possibly including his/her mother or even the whole family. LOL). I've been living in countries where Chinese is widely used, such as Singapore, and now Hong Kong....and I still don't speak the language fluently. I've been living in Hong Kong for more than 6 years, for Dim Sum's sake!!!

I love Hong Kong and its culture to the bone, but my lack of courage and my lack of exposure to the language (my friends and my workmates are all English speakers and they feel more comfortable speaking to me in English) contributed in the slow progress my learning. Funnily, I can speak English in Hong Kong accent and fluently use some expressions such as "lar, lor, lei..aiya, and wor" every now and then, plus literally translating Cantonese slangs to English. When the locals listen to my Canto-influenced-English, they would either laugh their azz off, or think of me as a pretentious azz (why can't she just speak in Cantonese instead of this freaked up Canto-English?) and I can't blame 'em.

Naturally, I know quite a lot of Cantonese bad words *grin*. Those were the very first things my friends taught me. Hehe. I could expertly orchestrated an elaborate phrase consists of seven bad words or more, aimed solely for my friend's amusement. My good friend taught me her principals regarding bad language, which I think is very profound "I don't have to use it, but I need to know it, in case people use it against me" and mine was more like "Before someone else say it to me, I'd better say it to them first" LOL! Profound, eh? Anyway, I had a good time learning Cantonese bad words. Although they might be offensive to others (sorry about that), they sound really funny to my foreign ears. I bet you start to wonder what kind of good friends I have here...hehe...I can assure you that they don't only teach me bad words, they teach me so much more than that. They teach me some super-practical, always-used-outside-the-office slangs...and one of my favorites is: "Eat Lemon" (sik ling mung), which roughly means being rejected.
For example:
I like a guy, I asked him out for a date, he said no = he treats me to eat lemon
"Eat lemon" conveys the feeling of sourness from being rejected, for a gesture (asking someone for a date) that normally comes with deeper motives (I like the guy and hope he'd go on a date with me and like me too)

Although the phrase means something negative, funny thing is, Hong Kongers love their lemons. Lemon tea (hot or iced) is one of the most popular drink in local coffee shops. They don't just scent their tea with a tinge of lemon, they "kill the lemon" in their tea, as if stabbing the sliced lemon pieces in their tea fiercely as if it is their biggest enemy...making sure that their tea is heavily infused with lemon's sour taste. It is probably because most people believe that drinking sour stuff makes you slim. Yeah, right. I am snorting high sugar, highly lemoned iced tea outta my nose. HAHA!

Honoring my favorite Hong Kong slang, I've decided to bake my first cookies....
Lemon Cookies

The recipe is adapted from Jen Yu's Lime Meltaways and about.com. I switched the lime to lemon (lemons are easier to find at the market just downstairs my flat ^_^)

- 1 & 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
- 2/3 cup caster sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1&3/4 cups, plus 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- zest of 1 lemon
- a dash of vanilla essence
- a pinch of salt

Using a hand mixer, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla, beat until mixed well. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, cornstarch and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and beat with a hand mixer on low speed until mixed well. I don't have parchment paper, so I rolled 2 logs with 3 cm diameter (1 round and 1 square-ish). Chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 175C. I lined my baking tray with foil, buttered slightly. Slice cookie log into 5mm slices, place rounds on buttered foil, spaced 2 cm apart. Bake until slightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes. Store cookies in airtight containers.

I baked just half a log and keep the rest chilled. Baked cookies can be stored up to two weeks, frozen dough can be kept up to 3 months.

The original recipe calls for coating the warm cookies with confectioner's sugar...but I didn't bother. They were already fabulously buttery and lemony. My friends, the Hong Kongers, looooooved them.

Just this time, they were happy about being treated to eat lemons ^_^

I'm off to Manila for a few days for work, boys and girls. Hope I'll have some time to fatten my Manila colleagues up and report back with some deliciousness. See ya!

Soto Daging Babat - Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup

What did you wanna be when you grow up? What was your dream job? Are you doing it?
These questions reminded me of my primary school days. We were always asked this question and the most popular answers were:
- For boys: a doctor, an engineer, or a pilot (I think at that time lawyers didn't make as much money as now, especially in Indonesia hehe)
- For girls: a flight attendant (uh huh!), a nurse (see how we grew up positioning ourselves as the assistance to men?), or a good mom
- A general answer which will get you an A in exams: I want to be someone who will glorify my country's name (Orang yang berguna bagi nusa dan bangsa). Yeah, baby, yeah!

I've never really been through the stage of wanting to be a flight attendant (that time I didn't realize how sexy and attractive this occupation sounds to guys hehe) or a nurse (I can't stand seeing people in pain, and I am wayyy too self centered to take care of others), but I always had good grades stating that I wanted to be someone who's useful for my country. Hahaha!

I've always wanted a creative job. First, I wanted to be an architect. There was a huge misconception that if you could draw a decent picture of a house by the mountains with flowers, a rising sun, some birds and a couple clusters of cloud, then you'll grow up being an architect. Yeah, right. Later on, I realized that there are many other jobs creative people could do, other than architecture. Everything needs creativity.

Although I am all grown up now (borderline old, only young at heart hehe), I still have my dreams. My current list of dream jobs are:
1. Taking pictures of fashion bloopers and bitching about it (I'd need a camera with a tele lens and camouflage outfits in colors of Hong Kong train station walls/Hong Kong skyscrapers)
2. Drawing & writing funny comics about life in Hong Kong
3. A good mom with a successful career
4. An immigration officer, so that I could be as rude as I like, and it will be considered a great performance. Hehe.

I am not sure if the dreams will ever come true, but this morning I spotted something interesting...and I didn't have my camera with me. So I'll just have to draw it down. Hehe...hope this isn't you, walking towards Hong Kong's most famous landmark office building, Bank of China Tower ^_^

Shoot. I almost forgot to talk about food.

I am a big fan of instant spice mixes. I wanted Soto, but I never have the wide array of fresh spices needed to make the paste from scratch. So I went for the short cut (as always. hehe) and the result was every bit as tasty as something made from scratch.

Soto Daging Babat (Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup)

Recipe
- 2 packets of Indofood Soto Ayam Instant Spice Mix (you can buy it online here)
- half pound beef brisket
- half pound beef tripe (I bought a frozen pack, so it's been cleaned)
- half pound beansprouts (I bought HK$5 worth of it, and I think the guy gave me more than half pound. Add as much as you like)
- a sprig of corriander (chopped)
- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 4 cloves of shallot (thinly sliced)
- 5 cm ginger (peeled and bruised)
- hot water, salt, pepper, kecap manis, olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 2 small red chilli (chopped)
- 1 tomato
- fried shallot for garnish

Boil frozen beef brisket and beef tripe with half the ginger and shallot, 1 tsp salt and a dash of pepper for about 15 minutes, drain, cut into bite sized chunks. In hot oil, saute garlic, shallot and ginger, add brisket and tripe chunks, add hot water, add instant spice mixes, bring to boil then lower the heat, cook for 2.5 hours. Blanch beansprouts in hot water, drain. Add beansprouts, tomato, and a bit of corriander, cook for 15 more minutes, squeeze lemon juice and cook for 15 more minutes. Garnish with chopped corriander and crispy shallot, drizzle some kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and serve with steamed rice, fresh sliced tomatoes, wedges of lemon and the chopped chilli on the side.

You can use other kinds of meat, such as chicken or lamb, and you can add boiled eggs and crackers. Feel free to jazz it up.

Dream job #5. Is there any job which involves enjoying deep fried food and/or bacon all the time?

Asian Franks and Beans - Halloween Costume Ideas?

Another canned food creation. This is what happens when I need to serve something, other than a nice, candle-lit, romantic atmosphere, myself and a pair of raggedy old (albeit) Jimmy Choos for dinner. There was no time to procure any fresh ingredients, so I had to do my kind of dumb-n-dumber-but-smart math equation, which is:

Whatever you have in your pantry/fridge + Garlic + Onion + Ginger + Kecap manis = YUMMY

Using the formula, I came up with my version of...
Asian Franks and Beans
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- half onion, sliced
- 1 cm of ginger, crushed
- 8 chicken franks (chopped into bite sized chunks)
- 1 can of kidney beans, drained
- 1 small can of tomato paste, dissolve with a bit of hot water
- kecap manis, salt, pepper, olive oil, fried shallots (optional as garnish)

Brown chicken frank pieces in olive oil, add garlic, onion and ginger, add tomato paste with a bit of hot water, add beans, add kecap manis, salt, and pepper. Garnish with fried shallot. Serve with steamed rice or mix with pasta/noodles or with bread as a sloppy sandwich.

Gosh, it even made ME delicious ;) hehe

Moving on...believe it or not...I, the self proclaimed party animal, haven't been to a real Halloween costume party. The only one I went to was a karaoke party, and I went as a cross between an omnivore, a big eater and a greedy bitch, which was pretty much myself...downing plates after plates of crappy cheap buffet food...singing my out-of-tune, inaccurately-pronounced version of Chinese songs, on top of my lungs. That could not be counted as a real Halloween costume party, as plenty of people were in slutty attire, but no one was in any scary costume hehe, although I certainly accomplished my mission of scaring some people off the buffet table. LOL

The idea of a costume party made me wonder...what kinda costume would be perfect for me?
Could I be...
- a sexy witch?
- a slutty nurse?
- a naughty devil?
....or a creepy handless chef?

Extra Moist Banana Raisin Cake

Sometimes I describe my stuff like they are people. Because that's how I think of them. It's creepy, but I feel it. I swear.

...and I am not even the type of person who can talk (out loud) to the thin air/the sun/the rain/myself/pets/babies/plants/stuff around me. I noticed that many people can, and I truly envy them.

I would normally end up sitting at a corner with frustration...watching others playing and "talking" to babies or pets. The "chi goo chi goo" and the "you like that, dontcha? you adorable lil' angel. yes you are, yes you are!" seem to charm the heck outta the concerned babies/pets. It's not that I didn't try...I did! but it just won't come outta me. The maximum I could do is..."hey...ehm...errr...cute? ehm...err...cute." Appalled by my desperate attempts, the babies/pets in question would just cry or go away. Sigh.

It must be a great release just to say everything out, even if it is to someone/something who can't really respond. We just wanna be "heard", right?
- I've witnessed friends who talk to their stuff. Some friends talk to their plants, ranging from authoritative commands to desperate pleas, begging them to flower, or asking them not to die..
- or some who scream out "Faster! Faster! FASTER!!!" in their room (sounds familiar? LOL!) to their..........computers...hoping they will download, well, faster (hehe)
- Not to mention those who love heart-to-teddy bear talks about everything...including financial matters (during economic crisis just like this) or love/heart breaks (he/she loves me/loves me not kinda thing)

All are great! and I am so jealous for not being able to do it...cos I know it helps. Things/babies/pets hear us out. My most recent experience was with my sis' car. It's old, and I was suggesting to replace it with a new one. We were discussing which potential cars she might like...and there and then, right in front of my sis' apartment, the car stopped cold. I think he's (yes, it is a he) pissed.

Same thing goes for my kitchen appliances. Although I don't talk to them, I feel them. I feel my oven's jealousy when I kept using the stove, and vice versa. I think the blender absolutely hates me now, as I almost never use it...and the hand mixer probably feels like a VIP, as I only pulls it out during special occasions when I need to bake fancy schmancy baked goods.

First thing's first, let me fix my relationship with my loaf pan. It doesn't look very happy being used as a storage of spice mixes. Let me utilise it before it gets completely pissed and decides to go rusty on me or something ^_^

Extra Moist Banana Raisin Cake

Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour (sifted)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- a dash of vanilla essence
- 5 small ripe bananas or 3 regular bananas (mashed)
- a couple handfuls of raisins

Preheat oven to 175C. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the middle. In another bowl, mix eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla essence. Pour liquid into the well in the middle of the flour, mix well, fold in bananas and raisins, pour into a greased loaf pan or muffin/cupcake mold or lined with paper liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The cake was super moist, and it's perfect with a cup of earl grey.

Now I'll need to do something about that blender. Damage control. Maybe some goo-chi goo-chi you're so cute will do?