To market to market, just around the corner! 17 June 2007

Another kick yourself in the butt moment. We recently discovered that there is a decent market in the Quezon City area. And it has been under our noses for years!

Who would’ve thought that every Sunday, the Lung Center transforms into a bustling wet market with a great selection of fruits and veggies (even organic produce), cooked foods, pastries and cakes, seafoods, antiques, herbs and more plants? We sure didn’t.

How did we find out? You may know of our little quest for herbs and spices. We bought some from the Manila Seedling Bank and were repeatedly referred to the Lung Center Sunday market. We got our much wanted herbs and spices courtesy of two Tagaytay-based herb gardens. There were some great rosemary plant, well-rooted and stable, and sure to survive our makeshift garden. Looking at the selection of plants (we snatched up some cactuses 4 for P100), flowers and fruit trees occupied a good part of the morning. There were also so much-needed garden supplies available too.

There was great variety and very affordable selection of seafoods, many crabs and shellfish I have seen only here (sorry no photos, my camera went dead!). We got a good deal on some lapu-lapu, very fresh, not a scent of fishiness, that we initially thought that gills might probably have been colored because they were so red - but it was the real deal and we’ll be back to buy some more from that particular dealer.

Interestingly, we chanced upon our friends from Muang Thai who were selling their Thai wares at a cheaper price than the resto. I loved that there were surplus Japanese dishes and teapots, and even antiques! The small antique stall was chock-full of copper etchings and bowls, unique glassware, old books, and an antique Italian stovetop coffeemaker. we needed to get a new teapot but the ones there were quite small so a promise that dealer would bring more stuff in the next weeks meant we would be back for sure …

D had a lot of fun in the pets section too! There were parrots and lovebirds galore! D even got to feed a parrot some corn that a man held on his arm!

Despite the heat, the people kept coming. The parking situation was terrible and they do charge P20. But the selection, variety, and convenience of a QC market is too tempting not to pass by … who would’ve thought that a Sunday morning could be such an adventure!

More about the Lung Center Sunday market courtesy MarketManila.

Honey from my honey 29 May 2007

 

 

 

 

 

I consider myself lucky that I’m able to sample freshly harvested forest honey from Palawan. Actually Y harvested this lovely honeycomb (and honey) in one of his recent work trips, and he brought it home all bottled up for us to enjoy with our breakfast bread.

It was my first time to try honeycomb - it’s chewy, and the honey inside squirts into your mouth! Yummy!

A leg, a shank, and how to communicate with your butcher 23 May 2007

Most recipes call for specific meat cuts. For example, porchetta calls for pork belly. Or you need brisket for your braised beef. But what if your butcher can’t for the life figure out what you mean by rump?

This is what happened last weekend. Y saw a recipe needing beef rump (a Carluccio recipe) but I could only imagine our butcher scratching his head on the other side of the line. What’s typical is you mention what you are cooking and the butcher knows exactly what part/s to recommend. Except this time.

So we turned to the handiest place to look for advice - yes, your mother-in-law - haha, no, the internet. And here’s what we found out: the British and the Americans call the same things different things. (We’re no stranger to this, wondering what rocket {British} was only to find out it’s also called arugula {American}).

According to the Free Dictionary:

American primal cuts of beef

Upper Half

• Chuck — one of the most common sources for hamburger.
• Rib — Short ribs, baby back ribs, rib eye steak.
• Short Loin — from which porterhouse steaks, and filet mignon, the most tender, are cut.
• Sirloin — less tender than short loin, but more flavorful.
• Round

Lower half

• Brisket — often associated with barbeque beef brisket.
• Shank — used primarily for stews and soups, but is not usually served another way, due to it being the toughest of the cuts.
• Plate
• Flank

20 minute (gasp) lunch break 10 November 2006

Yes, 20 minutes to wolf down her lunch! I think it is preposterous, that at 8 years old, D has to even endure such a thing. Even government offices have it better, they have at least an hour for lunch. Our kids spend about 8 hours in school, and food – goes without saying – is need to fuel their physical and mental selves. The lunch is supposed to carry her way into the afternoon, sometimes until 6 or 6:30 (or even later) in the evening.

It breaks my heart that D comes home with her lunch only half eaten. She has become more vocal about her predicament these days, complaining that the teacher says to eat faster because they have class.

And it has been breaking my heart for a year now. During the parent-teacher conference, this has become a nagging concern. Granted that the teachers listen and even bring it up to the school management. I feel I’ve hit a brick wall at challenging this: lunch remains a solid 20 minutes in the schedule.

Individual teachers have their own coping mechanisms. Seeing that the kids have difficulty in finishing off their lunches, like last year, one teacher let the lunch break eat up into her class time. But this year … a question mark and more unfinished lunches.

Our way of coping is training D to eat quickly. We also make sure she has eaten a good breakfast before leaving for school. We make sure she has a banana or a little something for the ride back home. We make sure that dinner is more or less ready when she arrives.

We put much effort in to getting D to eat right. At home, things are under our control, but school is another story. We take good eating quite seriously and hope that her classmates (and parents) forfeit the convenience of prepacked foods and make conscious choices for freshly cooked, and nutritious meals. But a meal is only as good as the environment in which it is eaten. What are we implicitly telling our kids with a 20-minute lunch? That eating is an annoyance to getting a good education? That eating is equivalent to just filling our bellies, and not something to be enjoyed?

The school is intent on developing great students who have a love for learning. The school prides itself in respecting individuality and allowing it to flourish. But they are seriously shortchanging D on a basic need: food and the ability to enjoy it in a school setting. I think the school should just be equally intent on developing students who not only respect the food that they must feed their bodies, but also enjoy the act of eating. Moreso because we are setting up lifelong eating habits for our kids (with dieting mentality, and eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia, it makes the prospect even scarier).

Need I reiterate that 20 minutes to eat a full meal is insane?

On a coaster rampage 6 June 2006

Not quite satisfied with my virtual coaster shopping, I’ve been digging around at and have come up with two more great coaster options. All are great conversation pieces and bound to last ages.

The ceramic coasters would liven up an otherwise drab table. The glass photo coasters would make drinking up so much more fun on a full family table - with cousins and other relatives around. And of course, my favorite is still those classy agate coasters!

Click on th images or text for the full description. Happy shopping!

On a coaster rampage 6 May 2006

Not quite satisfied with my virtual coaster shopping, I’ve been digging around at and have come up with two more great coaster options. All are great conversation pieces and bound to last ages.

The ceramic coasters would liven up an otherwise drab table. The glass photo coasters would make drinking up so much more fun on a full family table - with cousins and other relatives around. And of course, my favorite is still those classy agate coasters!

Click on th images or text for the full description. Happy shopping!

Virtual India cuisine! 12 March 2006

I’m just so happy to find great resources for Indian cooking that I had to share them here.

•  Sailu’s Food - Indian Food | Andhra Recipes | Herbs - Spices | Ayurveda Home Remedies. That Sailu’s pic up there of a majjiga or lassi (yoghurt drink) … perfect for summer! Comprehensive listing of recipes, easy to navigate, and loads and loads of infomation on the unfamiliar spices and ingredients. I’ve been poring through her recipes and if finding ingredients here in the Philippines weren’t so difficult, I would try quite a few of them as soon as I could. So it’s ingredient hunting for me for the moment.

  Thanks Sailu, I love your site!

• Indian Food Kitchen Blog I’m not sure if this is a blog, but the way everything is arranged makes it easy for a wannabe Indian cooking dabbler like me. I’m keeping a lookout for their redesign.

I’ve put these two links my foodies galore section so I can easily get to them when I want to.

Feeling adventurous? Go visit these sites and try something new!