food

We had pork and chicken adobo for dinner a few nights ago. When I took a piece of pork from the serving bowl, Alex commented that I shouldn’t eat the fatty pork belly because I do not have a gall bladder anymore. I said nothing and she continued in a slightly louder voice and higher [...]

Continue reading 'The day I stop enjoying life is the day I start to grow old' →

It was not an extraordinarily long weekend but it felt that way because Speedy was home on a Saturday. He never is unless it’s a holiday. Where he works, Saturday is a working day. I wish it weren’t so, it has so ruined our old habit of driving north or south of Metro Manila during [...]

Continue reading 'So, how did you spend the Halloween weekend?' →

Health buffs used to draw one list of food to stick to and another list of food to avoid. Under the first list are fresh food including vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy products. Under the second list are processed food including canned meat, frozen processed meat (chicken nuggets and the like) and cured meat (ham, [...]

Continue reading 'Is fresh food safe?' →

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' →

(Yesterday’s column)
I found it strange that officials of the Health Department started checking if babies confined in hospitals with kidney ailments could be victims of the contaminated Sanlu milk from China. Sanlu milk was not exported to the Philippines. The accompanying statement of health officials clarified the issue with the admission that Sanlu milk could [...]

Continue reading 'Fixation with milk' →

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)' →

You’ve probably heard it said that the proper way to eat soup is to scoop it with the spoon away from you. In the West that’s what the spoon is for. It is not for scooping up the rice off the plate. If you remember the controversy in Canada two years ago, that was what [...]

Continue reading 'How to eat a sandwich with style' →

Speedy set the bread on the kitchen island then sat down two chairs away from me. I asked him if he wanted a mid-afternoon snack. “A sandwich?” I asked. “What kind?” he said.

“Meat loaf. Here,” and I pushed towards him the plate that you see in the photo.

“Oh,” he exclaimed, “I thought that was a cake for tonight’s dessert.”

Continue reading 'I said it’s not a cake!' →

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 [...]

Continue reading 'The Sunday burrito story' →