How to Milk a Coconut: A TaytoRiCo Challenge
Purple Rice, Sweet Potato & Shrimps in Coconut Sauce You say potato, I say . . . how about adding some rice and coconut? That was pretty much the gist of the Twitter exchanges between an...
View ArticleAn International Incident: Cake Pups
A Pack of Cake Pups "Serve food and it's a meal; serve cake and it's a party." -- TN After my most recent posts featuring two rice recipes in a row, a long exposition on milking a giant seed, and an...
View ArticleThere's Always Room for Cake
Banana-Mango Yogurt Cake Let sleeping dogs lie - or in this case, dormant blogs. Sage bit of advice though it is, I'm about to completely ignore it. It's been quiet hereabouts for the past six weeks...
View ArticleSugar Pills: Pastillas de Leche
Cup of sugar: Pastillas de Leche à la Mila *Update: Read about the special paper-cutting art of pabalat, decorative candy wrappers for pastillas de leche here.* "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the...
View ArticleStarry, Starry Bento: A Twitter Challenge
Tangled Bento "Twinkle, twinkle, little star,How I wonder what you are." The answer to this innocent musing depends on one's preference: warmly sentimental or coolly factual. On the warm and fuzzy...
View ArticleFragile History and the Art of Pabalat
Candy wrapper art: Pabalat ng Pastillas de Leche Not long ago, I read with great interest an article about Tukluhan, an obscure festival unique to the village of Santa Cruz in Marinduque Province,...
View ArticleOf Freudian Tweets and Doughnut Plants
A doughnut plant Several years ago, I was working at a university library during a hectic midterm week. Faced with long lines of impatient, stressed-out students, I went into full autopilot mode,...
View ArticleMenudo Monday: A Guest Post
Monday Menudo Monday is rough. It's the morning when we're jolted awake by a blaring alarm rather than gentle sunlight. It's the day when we drag ourselves back to the nitty-gritty of the workweek,...
View ArticleStarstruck: A Michelin Meal in Mongkok
Red Clover in Honeyed Gulaman Perdue: "Let us make this easier. Suppose you get a reservation. And let us suppose you come down to the restaurant and we honor it. What do you think you might order?'...
View ArticleLuntiang Lunes: Filipino Meatless Mondays
Alugbati at Tokwa (Malabar Spinach & Tofu) Vegetables and I were not always friends. As a child, I disliked anything that might remotely be considered produce. Of course, this was decades before...
View ArticleOff the Shelf: Okashi by Keiko Ishida
Chocolate Almond Cookies Creatures of nature do not need a glossy calendar to tell them what time of year it is: Subtle changes in temperature, the positions of sun and moon, and pure animal instinct...
View Article'12 by the Dozen: New Year Eggs
Olive Oil-Poached Egg "Ex ovo omnia" (Everything from an egg) -- William Harvey (1578-1657) All I got for Christmas was a dozen eggs. Well, I did get a bit more than just eggs and nearly all of them...
View ArticleThe Full Montadito: Topped Up Tapas
Tres Montaditos de Tangled "Man does not live on bread alone." (Deuteronomy 8:3) You can't argue with the Old Testament, which is why this woman knows well enough to pile on other good stuff, too....
View ArticleWill Work with Food: The Business of Feeding Filipinos
French-toasted Monay with Ube Sorbetes Food is serious business here in the Philippines. In a country where the official minimum daily wage rate in the National Capital Region (NCR, aka Metro Manila)...
View ArticleWhat Would Batman Eat?
Dark Chocolate Soufflé This was a challenge unlike any I have faced as a food blogger. To celebrate the Manila visit of David Finch, writer and artist of DC Comics' Batman: The Dark Knight series,...
View ArticleLamb, Lentils and Moriones: Easter in Marinduque
Braised Lamb Shank with Lentils It's no Easter Parade. At the stroke of midnight, Mr. Noodle and I will join the annual paschal exodus from Metro Manila to the outlying provinces, beginning with...
View ArticleHouse Specialty: Chicken Ovary Adobo
Adobong Bahay Itlog ng Manok Cow's tongue and beef tripe? Yes and yes. Pig's face, intestines and blood? Mm-hmm, uh-huh and yup. Chicken feet, gizzards and ovaries? Check, check and triple che-- say...
View ArticleReturn of the Blog
White Chocolate Cashew Cookies Hello? [Sweeps away cobwebs and thick layer of dust.] Anyone still here? [Pauses, listening for a reply.] So sorry for taking off like that... [Wobbles from percussive...
View ArticleUnstuck: Template and Palate Revived
Bang Bang Chicken I finally managed to pull myself out of a rut. Actually, it was two ruts, when the first instance occurred with such force that it created momentum for a second. It began nearly 5...
View ArticleOff the Shelf: Hometown Appetites
Clementine Paddleford is not a name you'll often hear and that's a crying shame. The woman to whom this singular moniker belonged did as much for food journalism as M.F.K. Fisher, James Beard, Craig...
View Article'Tis the Season: Christmas in September and a Casserole
It was still only a skeleton of metal hoops and poles, but the cone shape was unmistakable. The mall Christmas tree was going up... in September. This will be our fourth Yuletide in the Philippines,...
View ArticleThe Invalid's Breakfast: Ginger-Scented Brown Rice Porridge
How easy is it to make oatmeal? If you can boil water, you can make it. Heck, if you can tear open a pouch, pour the contents into a bowl, mix it with water and pop it into a microwave oven, you'll...
View ArticleOff the Turkey Path: Panch Phoran Roasted Chicken
I spotted frozen Butterball turkeys at our supermarket and only the fact that my oven is just a glorified toaster kept me from hauling one home for Thanksgiving. Instead, as Mr. Noodle and I give...
View ArticleNifty by Nature: Food Packaging in the Philippines
Deforestation or urban landfill? I always hear this lesser-of-two-evils subtext when asked at the checkout line if I prefer paper or plastic bags to carry home my groceries. And yet, it's not even a...
View ArticleFrom Bayan to Bayou: A Filipino-Louisianan Connection
Creamy Cajun Shrimp Enchilada [Disclosure: I received the following product samples free of charge. I was not required to write a post and was not compensated in any way in exchange for this post.]...
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