Food articles posted in Aug 2008

The Sunday burrito story

Sunday. At the house on a hill, that means it’s the man of the house’s turn to cook.

And my turn to play paparazzi.

I turned on the lights (Speedy’s such a cheapo he actually cooks without turning on any lights. Duh!) and started taking photos.

I was happy with the details I was getting, the lighting was [...]

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Korean japchae, spicy stir-fried noodles

… let’s talk about rice noodles, the most common noodles used in Asian cooking. There seems to be a disagreement about the nutritional value of rice noodles. Some say it has little nutritional value, is mostly starch with little dietary fiber, and mung bean noodles or vermicelli, sotanghon as we call it and the kind used in Korean japchae, is not much better.

Another site, however, practically declares rice noodles as the ultimate health food because it contains zero saturated fats, zero cholesterol and zero sugar.

If there is one thing that most people agree on, however, it’s the fact that rice noodles are gluten-free…

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Condiment saucers

As far as I know, condiment saucers are very Asian. We Asians have this penchant for dipping sauces like patis (fish sauce), the mixture of soy sauce and kalamansi, bagoong (shrimp sauce) and a dozen other different things which we do not like to get mixed in with the food on our plates until we’re [...]

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Citronella versus dengue

(Yesterday’s column)
When I read a couple of weeks ago that the incidence of dengue in Caloocan City had risen by 500 percent, I was shocked. That was were I grew up and, even back then, the mosquito situation was already bad. The story goes that when I was a toddler, my father required the nanny [...]

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Drunks don’t cook delicious meals?

British chef Jamie Oliver has hit the headlines again. He criticized his fellow Brits by saying the quality of British cuisine has deteriorated because the Britons prefer to get drunk rather than eat. Based on comments posted in The Telegraph, some of his countrymen agree while others are furious, one even calling Oliver a “self-opinionated [...]

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The cutest poem

It’s Alex’s poem, her entry to their school’s Linggo ng Wika (National Language Week) poetry contest. Everyone in her class was required to join and they all had three days to write their poems. But Alex waited until the last minute and very honestly said so. The result? Although only three winners were supposed to [...]

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Breakfast juice

When I say juice, powdered drinks don’t count. They’re not juices — they’re sugar-laden chemical mixes. “Juice” means the liquid derived from fruits, whether freshly squeezed or bottled.

Having low tolerance for acidic drinks, I have learned to stay away from cirtus fruit juices. Very rarely could I drink pure orange juice and not get stomach pains. So, I learned to like non-citric fruit juices. Apple juice, previously considered by my family as a cure for infant diarrhea, became a favorite.

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Solid wood dining table and chairs

Flashback: the magazine page with a photo of the dining chairs I wanted.

Thirty days later, the dining set was delivered together with the living room furniture and bar stools.

Why not a design with cushioned backrests? Ventilation, of course. This is the tropics where people sweat nine months out of every year. The cushioned seats are [...]

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Pride of the Philippines

(Today’s column)
The last time I watched the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics was in 1992. I was pregnant with my first child and bedridden. Those were pre-cable TV days and there was nothing much to choose from. It was the Olympics or those darn afternoon soap operas. I’m not a huge sports fan, [...]

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Environment-friendly placemats

Apart from the decor of the dining room, the table linen, the china, the glassware and the flatware set the dining mood as well. I have had an assortment of table cloths and placemats for as long as I can remember. I even had a Christmas set with appliqued poinsettias from The House of Ramie [...]

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