Cooking in exile

Some people were born with an instinct for cooking, like my Tita Gigi who can cook just about anything and make it taste SO GOOD (hotdogs! kare-kare! sinigang!), my Auntie Nita with her delightful Hokkien meals (i.e. fried lumpias, sweet & sour pork, and the like), or Turtle, for whom baking is a birthright (we're a fan of her scones, Shepherd's pies, brownies).

Unlike them, I wasn't born clasping a spatula in my hand. In the kitchen, I've always had to exert a little more effort and practice a bit more caution. But I can't be kept away: cooking is everyday magic- you mix different ingredients of various compositions over low/medium/high heat, and, voila, those things fuse and become a plate of something! These days, post-Sem2 deadlines, I find myself poring over cooking blogs like my favorite, Casa Veneracion, and selecting recipes to try. The things I'm planning to make will be nothing fancy. Just simple, healthy stuff.

Sem 2 Meals
One of the best gifts of leaving home and living on my own is that it forced me to cook. No more just imagining how to make recipes work; living alone forced me to move beyond epic cooking failures (the horror of charcoal-ed kropeks) and just try again. This sem, my kitchen experiences have involved figuring out ways to vary cooking a specific ingredient, how to incorporate cupboard items to not let them go to waste, and how to appropriate local products/ choose substitutes.

In the spirit of documenting some cooking milestones of the sem, I made...

1. Chicken adobo -- nothing that will change anyone's world by any means, but edible! Edible and decent enough to tide me through bouts of homesickness.
2. Sinigang -- let me emphasize that Filipino dishes are very intimidating. I remember trying out sinigang in Japan and it was just too bland! Since I didn't want to waste the mixes I brought in KL, I decided to give it another try. It wasn't as hard as I thought, whew. Being able to produce not bad bowls of sinigang and adobo amounts to personal feats to me.
3. Ginataang tilapia w/ chili -- memorable because it taught me the how tos of cooking with gata and chili

4. Curry Chicken, Malaysian-style -- what I will make in the Philippines when I start missing Malaysia (it's bound to happen, it is)
5. Steamed fish, resto-style-- the most important part being, I learned how to make a steamer work. It sounds dumb that I had no clue how to steamer work so thankgod, I learned. Cooking steamed fish is like hitting two goals in one: learning to steam and finding healthier ways of preparing food.
6. Korean pea sprouts-- cooking for one is indeed an approach and pea sprouts are especially appropriate for this purpose.

Cooking is tiring. At some point (the whole of May), I released myself from the burden of prepping meals to have time to read for and write my papers. Now that I'm relatively deadline-free, it's back to the kitchen, folks.

I probably save half the amount I spend when I buy, so that's great for my limited budget. But the most important reason to cook is so I end up like a Murakami character (kidding! haha! his protagonists always cook); the most important thing is that cooking lets me eat healthier. One can only eat the same hawker-plied foods (or fastfoods) a few times in one month.

On to more cooking adventures and going after those kitchen aspirations! =)

U Bein Bridge at Sunset

Taken while crossing the Taungthaman Lake in Amarapura, Mandalay in Myanmar

It's time to miss other cities. Saying goodbye to the Japan posts, for now. :)

Hey Foodventurer!

“Good food makes people happy,” sabi ng title character sa pelikulang Chef of South Polar. Mapa-Antarctica man ang paroroonan, mapa-Japan, o mapa-Timog Silangang Asya, sino ang ayaw sa pagkaing masarap? At bilang bibiyahe ka, isama mo na ang iyong masuwerteng panlasa sa paglilibot at makabuluhang paglalakbay. :)

Here's a rundown of things you might want to eat, with some descriptions thrown in:

Chiang Mai

1. Crispy catfish (Yam Pla Duk Foo) - very light, airy, crispy batter of flour and minced hito, usually served with green mango salad (YUM).

(Photo source: wikipedia)

2. Pad Thai- going to Thailand and not having Pad Thai merits a sin of omission, i.e. "Hindi ka nag-Pad Thai? Hindi ka talaga nanggaling ng Thailand! Nagsinungaling ka lang. :p"

3. Shrimp Paste Rice (Khao khluk kapi) - rice stir-fried with shrimp paste, served with sweetened pork and vegetables.

This plate was from a hawker across the Thammasat University in Bangkok

4. Oyster patties - oyster and egg omelette; can be bought off the street.

5. Fish cakes (Thot man pla krai) or Shrimp cakes (Tod Mun Goong) - I don't think we can have it this herby, healthy and just really yummy, except in Thailand

(Photo source: wikipedia)

6. Chiang Mai sausage (Sai Ua) - always rears its fatty head in the menu, so might as well try it. Masarap naman, make sure you have this with the sauces – vinegar/ patis dips (kung ano man ang iyong dig). I bet this goes well with beer.

(Photo source: wikipedia)

7. Chiang mai chicharon - Another popular Chiang Mai product. The Chiang Mai variant seems less oilier than its Pinoy brother.
8. Northern Thai Noodles (Chiang Mai Noodles/ Khao Soi) - a blend of sour coconut curry, boiled and fried noodles, topped with pickled mustard greens, chili sauce, mung bean sprouts, lime, and shallots. Coriander and cumin spices, borrowed from Burmese and Indian cuisine, give this a non-Thai twist. Other spellings: "Kao soy" or "Kow soi"

(Photo source: wikipedia)

9. Cha Yen/ Charon – strongly brewed black tea, sweetened with sugar and condensed milk(ooops, milk means bawal – well you can always watch your friends enjoy this. May cold at hot version. :D)

10. San Miguel Beer. Singha. Oh yeah. :D

HaNoi

Be warned about the food servings (for growing boys, girls, and boygirls!)

1. Spring Rolls – have both the fried and fresh variants.
   We tried this resto called “Smile Restaurant,” at the street across the Fine Arts Museum. Smile is a not-for-profit center that trains disadvantaged kids. Ang sarap ng fried spring rolls; it did not taste oily at all.

2. Pho with thick noodles, Vietnamese pansit, etc. around the Temple of Literature - this area is literally teeming with Pho houses.We randomly chose one that's on the left side of the Temple. Here's the modest feast:

Your Pho could come with different-sized noodles. The fat and flat noodles is gooood!

3. Skewered meat/ seafood in sugarcane - how I imagine this dish would taste like: grilled seafood/meat with hints of juicy, succulent sugarcane.

4. Sugarcane juice- Perfect for long walks; with lime. (I miss, miss, miss this. Drink glassES for me! :p)

5. Pulled sandwich - Sweet and peppery. Similar to a hero sandwich, with shredded and caramelized meat, toasted with onions and herbs.

6. Eel with vermicelli - I really have no words to describe it, other than to say I have never tasted anything like it // that it's really, really, really good. The dry one, where the soup is on a separate bowl, is actually better. See photo below:

7. This dessert (they're really balls of happiness disguised as sticky white 3-dimensional dots):

8. Iced coffee with yoghurt - sounds strange, but it works. Kung hindi pwede dahil lactose intolerant, opt for the espresso servings of coffee.

Laos

• Have a meal by the Mekong.
• Try those restos on the other side, the ones near the narrower river, like Tamarind Restaurant, where we had these:
  

• Those rolls wrapped in leaves (that plate on the upper left of the lower photos), the Lao version of the roll without the wrap, is a MUST-TRY. Prepare for the heavenly peanut sauce they use in the Lao rolls!
• We had this sampler plate at the Tamarind Resto. There's a hawker stall that sells this roll on the main road, where the night market is. May dalawang ateng nagbabantay. They're only there between 3-5pm, I think.
• Compared to other SEA food we tried, Lao cuisine is more garlicky. 
• At night, try the hawker stalls at the food alley. Opens at the same time the night market does (Th Sisivangvong, I think). There are plenty of grilled dishes (fish caught from the Mekong), Lao dishes, etc.
• Have a cuppa Lao coffee. If you're lactose intolerant, remember to ask them not to put milk. ;)

Enjoy your trip! Mag-uwi ka ng maraming-maraming kwento. =)