Junblog

September 11, 2013

How to Make Beef Tapa

I sat silently at the last row of hard plastic seats, flanked on both sides by strangers who spoke what sounded like Mandarin. I pulled out my boarding pass for my connecting flight and examined it under the dim, yellow lights. China Airlines Flight CI0008. Taipei to Los Angeles. September 7. It hit me. It…

September 4, 2013

Miss Blanche

“Thank you for being a friend. Traveled down the road and back again. Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant.” — Theme from the Golden Girls The hen house feels hollow. Blanche, our dear Silver Laced Wyandotte, has passed away. She fell ill and within a day she was gone. Too soon. Too young. She passed away peacefully. Without too much pain, I hope. She passed away in the garden, with Dennis by her side. Rest in peace, Miss Blanche. You’re a dear friend and you’re terribly missed. Meet Our Golden Girls The day-old chicks came in the post office yesterday, all twenty-five of them…

August 21, 2013

Y is for Yelo and How to Make Saba con Hielo

There was no other place I would rather be than in the kitchen, in front of the fridge with its door wide open. I could stand there all day if I could with yelo [yeh-loh] — with ice — pressed against my forehead, against the back of my neck, against my sun-soaked skin. The heat…

August 14, 2013

How to Make Mocha Chiffon Roll with Mocha Buttercream Frosting

There’s cake in the kitchen. Mocha chiffon cake all rolled up with mocha buttercream frosting, dusted on top with powdered sugar. Light chiffon cake rolled with the richness of buttercream. There’s cake in the kitchen because there’s a new corgi in the house. Yes, that’s how we roll around here, no pun intended. Our family…

July 31, 2013

Four Years

I’ve been wrestling with words lately, thinking of what to write, of what to tell you today. This happens when I get too sentimental. My blog just turned four. Yes, it’s been four years since I started writing. Two hundred seventy nine posts. Hundreds of recipes. Over three thousand email subscribers. My blog means a lot to me, obviously. It is more than a cooking blog, more than a collection of recipes. It is a journal, a very personal one. It is a place where I go to write about what matters to me. About my mom whom I love dearly. About my late dad whom I wish I had…

July 24, 2013

How to Make Fresh Corn Soup

Sixty-eight days, the small white seed packet reads. It may sound like a long time to wait for something we’ve never grown before but it is for sweet corn — we have all the time to wait! There’s something about growing corn at home that intrigues and fascinates me. Dennis, who grew up in the…

July 17, 2013

How to Make Home-Cured Bacon

Handfuls of red, ripe New Girl tomatoes and Black Krims just picked from the kitchen garden. Along with a motley mix of red and green leafy mesclun. Soft, plump pan de sal rolls just out of the oven. Made from scratch. Crisp strips of bacon. Cured with the sweetness of maple and bourbon. Cured at…

July 3, 2013

How to Make Inihaw na Baboy (Grilled Pork Chops)

Sand in my pockets. In between my toes. On my legs and my knees, clinging like fine sugar. My fingers wrinkled. My skin stinging from the sun. I barely remember that summer. I remember glimpses of it here and there but a proper picture escapes me. I remember watermelons sliced into thick wedges that look…

June 26, 2013

How to Make Mango Blackberry Ice Pops

Dear Blackberry Bush, I hate you. I really do. You take over the garden like it’s yours. You are everywhere. Along the deer fence, along the driveway. Under the fig tree, under the oak. Side by side with the overgrown oleander. You are tenacious. You are too difficult to prune. I’ve scratched my arms and…

June 19, 2013

How to Make Mango Bread

My thumb left a dimple on its cheek. I must have held it too tightly. You really couldn’t blame me. I get delirious when I am around mangoes. A whiff of its scent is enough to send me into fits of uncontrollable happiness. Fits of uncontrollable nostalgia, too. Mangoes have this compelling effect on me.…

June 12, 2013

How to Make Beef Salpicao

I dreamed of my dad last night. He looked so different from the last time I saw him. His face wasn’t frail. His cheeks weren’t hollow. He looked fit as a fiddle. He was sitting on the couch watching television with Dennis. Baseball was on. Bottles of San Miguel were sweating on the coffee table…

June 5, 2013

How to Make Sinangag (Garlic Fried Rice)

The day is fresh and hopeful; the spirit is upbeat, the food tastes good, life is beginning again. — Doreen Fernandez Where do I begin? With a meal, of course. With agahan [ah-gah-han]. The first meal of the day. My favorite meal of the day. With sinangag [see-nah-ngahg]. The hiss of day-old grains in a…

April 3, 2013

How to Make Coconut Jam Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies

Good things come to those who wait. I mouthed these words over and over like a mantra while I slowly stirred the milk and sugar together in the pot, while I awaited their magical transformation into my beloved buttery confection. Letting coconut milk simmer sounds simple enough but, truth is, making matamis na bao —…

March 27, 2013

How to Make Sago and Gulaman Coolers

The summer sun burned my face. It burned my small nose and my big cheeks. Its heat clung onto the concrete curb and burned my bare feet. I stepped outside hoping for a respite, however fleeting, from the heat that swam around the house. I was a bored kid with nothing to do. No school…

March 13, 2013

How to Make Bagoong Fried Rice

“It’s just the two of us,” I told him. Next to me, Stanford stood stumped. Puzzled at what I meant. He tilted his head charmingly and gave me the look — the “I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about-but-that-carrot-you’re-holding-looks-pretty-darn-tasty” look. The chap loves his carrots. Stanford’s a smart snacker that way. I wish I could say the same about myself. I hurled…

March 6, 2013

How to Make Chop Suey

On the northeast corner of our lot sits our kitchen garden. A big fig tree, twice as tall as I, spreads out like a long espalier on its west side. The garden, roomier than a modest but nevertheless pricey one-bedroom apartment in the city, has two raised beds made of cinder blocks, strawberry troughs, and…