Prawns in Tamarind Soup (Sinigang na Sugpo)

On cold and rainy nights when the warmth of the kitchen fire is so welcoming, a hot and steamy bowl of soup makes everything just right. Tamarind soup is used as a base for sinigang, a dish so popular in the Philippines that it is present in every little canteen that you come into. It has a lot of varieties, but my favorite one is large prawns (sugpo) and vegetables cooked in tamarind soup.

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Spicy Tuna Sisig

A lot of times I really miss eating an authentic pork sisig. The sisig most restaurants serve nowadays, be it chicken, pork, or tuna, are nowhere near authentic. They taste like a lot of MSG went into them. Anyway, this is an update to my old recipe of making tuna sisig using canned tuna. Right now, that old recipe made me realize that it is salty, not for the tastebuds, but for the kidneys. For

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Trevally Steaks in Sweet Chili Sauce (Talakitok)

My brothers have been going on and on about their week-long homework regarding Nutrition Week. They have to bring packed lunches featuring healthy, balanced meals every day to school. Alex, on the other hand, is complaining of not getting to eat healthier foods, which he refers to as vegetables. I can't cook vegetables for our lunch mainly for the reason that my dad is the one doing the grocery

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Sassy's Special Spicy Chicken Sisig

Recently I went into a state of mental mayhem. My mind was so messed up that I can commit the same mistake three times in a row without realizing that I should have avoided the same mistake all over again. It's a relief, though, that I didn't make any mistakes in providing nursing care as it would be very much as life-threatening as cancer, or so we have been taught. It may have been the lack

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Daing na Bangus Recipe (Butterfly Milkfish)

When I was a kid, commercially prepared daing na bangus was expensive and people only get to enjoy them home-cooked. Luckily for me, my mom supplies premium daing na bangus to Rustan's and Toyota Coop Supermarkets. Every week I get to watch my mom and cousins make lots of daing na bangus by carefully washing the fish, deboning them using equipment that look like forceps, then soaking them in a

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Three-Herb Delicious Lechon Kawali Recipe

Okay, I have to admit that I'm not entirely a lechon fan. In fact, I hated the extremely heart-attack inducing pork for years, with the motto that they are almost tasteless, greasy cuts of pork that are slathered richly with the lechon sauce for it to have some taste. And I don't like food that don't have their own flavor and needs a sauce or dip for salvation. But when we went to Gonzaga,

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Ensaladang Manga (Green Mango Salad Recipe)

Whenever I eat too much meat, or any fatty dish whether it may be deep fried or pan fried in butter, I always feel guilty about having too much junk inside my digestive system. I try to compensate by adding greens and fruits to my diet, thinking that it would help me recover from the layers of bad cholesterol sticking to my belly as I eat mouthwatering sinful slabs of pork such as lechon kawali

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The Famous Lucban Longganisa Recipe

What's so special about the Pahiyas Festival is the showcase of houses adorned with thousands of kiping, fruits, and vegetables all arranged so beautifully that you want to stop and take a picture at every house you pass by. It is also a great opportunity to buy lots of the famous Lucban Longganisa and kesong puti (white cheese). The streets are so busy with vendors calling out for you to buy

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Razon's Halo-Halo Recipe: Perfectly Simple!

The summer heat is so intense that my gluttonous boyfriend has decided to try Razon's famous halo-halo. I have taken down a lot of Razon's halo-halo in the past, and I know how good it tastes. It didn't take me 2 seconds to say yes to his most recent whim.I was never a fan of the traditional halo-halo which has as many ingredients and colors as you can possibly imagine. I hate tapioca balls, also

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La Resurrecion Hot Cocoa ala Swiss Miss

I may have been very excited when I found those colorfully wrapped premium cocoa tableas in Ongpin Street in Manila's very own Chinatown. La Resurrecion has been around for decades, supplying Manila with high quality pure cocoa tableas for so long already. Now you may think that the Batangas Pure Cacao Tableas are the best, but for me, nothing beats the bittersweet natural taste of La

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Lumpiang Sili Recipe with Sweet Dip

I have been a lover of spicy things ever since I was a child. I love mixing hot sauce with my barbecue marinades. I include chili-garlic sauce in my stir fried vegetables, and I absolutely enjoy crushing red bird's eye chili (siling labuyo) in my white vinegar in which I used to dip grilled meat and vegetables. I also have Thai peppers in my herb garden, and I am currently attempting to grow my

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Baon Idea: Beef Steak (bistek)

When I'm cramming for baon ideas on a school day, I rummage the fridge for any ideas on what to cook. Since it's almost weekend when I cooked this bistek for my baon, the fridge is all out except for a few packs of beef and chicken. The vegetable crisper is empty, and the dry rack contains only garlic, potatoes, and a lot of white onions.What's different with this recipe is that I marinated the

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Philippine Guava Jelly: Very Scrumptious!

If you have grown tired of your other fruit jellies, then try the Philippine guava jelly. Even I ate it, and I am a sworn guava hater. I never liked them, but I absolutely love this! It's what's in your American PB&J's, only a more Asian and native one. You can buy Mountain Fresh Guava Jelly at roadside stores where I bought one of my special spices, the dried kamias. That's where we bought them

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Special Spice: Dried Kamias

Me and my family have gone to Gonzaga, Cagayan for our grand family reunion which was held last April 13, 2010, at the splendid Baua Beach Resort. On the way home we took our time to shop at the famed roadside market where you can stop and eat, buy special furniture, and shop for very unique finds that can only be bought there. One of the few things I have bought was the dried kamias, which was

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Tuna Sisig, the Easy Way!

On mornings when my duty shift is scheduled in the morning, I always cram for what to cook so that I won't run late for my duty which starts at 6 in the morning. This time, my eyes fell on two flat and round cans of Century Tuna flakes in oil. If I open the cans and just transfer them to my lunchbox together with some freshly cooked rice, then my meal would be plain and very boring. I always like

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Really Tasty Ampalaya Egg Scramble

Our household helper has certainly made things interesting in our quiet home when she went AWOL for three days, with a cash advance of her next month's pay, courtesy of my very generous dad, and with a text message that she would only go to church for the Easter Sunday Mass. God bless her wary soul as she has lied to us, despite our treatment to her as part of the family. Now while she is away,

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Coconut Yema Balls

I made these very scrumptious yema or custard balls a month ago using pinoycook's recipe. The coconut addition was her very delicious idea, and I loved the change it made to the taste of those regular yema you can buy at pasalubong stores. I'm a very avid reader of hers, by the way. Due to the excitement I experienced when making my first batch of yema balls, I made too much and had to bring

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