Breakfast Daily

The pandemomium over melamine is making me nuts. Prior to the discovery of melamine in milk, I didn’t even know what it was. In fact, weeks after the scandal broke out, I was still mispronouncing the word, sometimes saying “melanin” instead of melamine, and Sam would snicker and say, “Mommy, melanin is in the skin.” [...]

Continue reading 'Melamine in Sunflower crackers?' →

EVEN if you’re very hungry… say, you haven’t eaten in two days… or say that, for medical reasons, you were prohibited from eating red meat for years and you’re just craving… Or, let’s just say you have a huge appetite… Can you finish a sandwich this big?

The photo above was an attachment in an e-mail sent by my brother-in-law, Sonny. It’s real, I tell you. It’s called the Quadruple Bypass Burger and you’ll find it in the menu of a restaurant in Chandler, Arizona, a hospital-themed joint where the waitresses are dressed like nurses. Well, kinda…

Continue reading 'If you’re very hungry' →

Variations of the fish, squid and shrimp balls are all over the supermarkets. They come in so many shapes and flavors and you can buy as little as 100 grams so you don’t need to worry about buying more than you can consume. It’s especially useful if you just want to try a particular item. I first saw them in SM Hypermarket (see the mushroom balls entry); now, Shopwise has them too. I bought a hundred grams of sharksfin balls on trial…

Continue reading 'Unlabeled and unbranded food: how safe are they?' →

If you’ve eaten at Jipan and tried their house tea, you might have noticed that it is a bit different from house teas in other Chinese and Japanese restaurants. It is pale gold and has this distinct nutty flavor. Speedy and I would scour supermarkets and oriental stores for something similar and after experimenting with several boxes of tea, we finally discovered what it was — genmaicha or brown rice tea.

Continue reading 'Genmaicha (brown rice tea)' →

Milk is on the news again as the China milk crisis continues to unfold. A statement by the Chinese health ministry says that as early as August that manufacturer Sanlu Group was aware of the presence of melamine, a banned chemical, in the baby milk powder that has caused kidney stones in at least 32 babies yet delayed its recall from the market. The Sanlu milk was sold in mainland China and Taiwan but was not exported elsewhere.

Personally, I prefer not to buy any dairy product that boasts of “added” vitamins and minerals.

Continue reading 'A glass of milk' →

I had lot of fresh sweet yellow corn after last night’s trip to the supermarket but no yellow cornmeal. According to Aunt Jemina, white and yellow cornmeal are interchangeable in baking. So, I tried substituting. I baked a dozen corn muffins using white cornmeal. In terms of texture, there is not much difference.

White cornmeal is made from white corn; yellow cornmeal is made from yellow corn. In terms of color, the difference is marked. In terms of nutrient, is there a difference? According to one site, yellow corn has a higher Vitamin A content.

Continue reading 'White or yellow corn(meal)?' →

… 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…

Continue reading 'Korean japchae, spicy stir-fried noodles' →

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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Longganisa and tocino (native breakfast ham), often served with eggs and garlic fried rice, are among the most loved traditional Filipino breakfast items. Depending on which region the longganisa originates, it can be spicy, garlicky, sweet, colored or uncolored. Longganisa for breakfast is popularly Pinoy that it is served in the humblest carinderia and five-star hotels.

But modern-day health gurus warn the public against them. Much like fast food fare has brought on an obesity epidemic in the West, the rising incidence of high blood pressure among Filipinos is said to be directly related to the consumption of these fat-rich breakfasts…

Continue reading 'Longganisa (native sausages) and rice' →

Where did I buy the rice cakes? In the market, like I said. There is a section outside the market where long tables are laid out and vendors of rice cakes and native delicacies tempt shoppers with the goods. The cakes are laid out in large bilao (shallow baskets) and covered loosely with plastic. Considering the location and the setup, the rice cakes are actually sold as street food.

Are they hygienic? I must admit that they were quite exposed. Many foreigners balk at the setup of street food vendors but, in Asia, they’re part of the streets. Of course, the hygiene issue has raised some controversy.

Continue reading 'Puto (rice cakes)' →