Junblog

October 17, 2012

How to Make Filipino-Style Spaghetti with Meatballs

A quarter before four. The digits on the clock’s face glowed by my bedside. Something woke me up — a dream, a sudden chill in the room — I couldn’t remember but I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I was tired but helplessly awake. A million things raced through my mind. A million what to…

October 10, 2012

Food Magazine’s 50 Best and How to Make Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

The year has been good so far. The mention in the New York Times, however small, and the second Saveur nomination for Best Regional Cuisine Blog were thrilling news but nothing compares to an accolade that comes from fellow Filipinos back home. Food Magazine, the largest culinary magazine in the Philippines, just turned 17. Food,…

September 26, 2012

How to Make Paciencia Cookies (Filipino Meringue Cookies)

The whisk whirred wildly, brushing the bowl with sharp clinks. I watched it twirl and whip the whites into a soft meringue. I waited, lifting the balloon of wires every so often for a brief pause, for a brief check. Was the meringue thick enough? Was it lofty enough to stand tall with polished, proud…

September 19, 2012

How to Make Sinigang na Salmon sa Miso (Salmon Tamarind Miso Soup)

She looked the way I remembered her. A petite lady with big, tall hair. Her face beamed with a smile so familiar. Her son, Alvin, towered behind her. Alvin is a dear friend from way back, one of the very few people who knows me through and through. Everything in their home in Pickering felt…

September 12, 2012

How to Make Food for the Gods (Christmas Date and Walnut Bars)

Fourteen weeks and six days. Yes, you guessed right. Fourteen weeks and six days left until Christmas. This year, the big day falls on a Tuesday. Hold your horses, I can already hear some of you say. It’s only September! Isn’t it too soon to think about the Holidays? School has just started. Halloween is…

August 29, 2012

How to Make Aristocrat-Style Chicken Barbecue

I can picture the fiery sun fading behind the faint silhouette of the Mariveles Mountains. The sky is a blaze of color. Deep orange with dusky pink and purple hues. I can picture the water quivering quietly with the wind. The evening light, or what is left of it, gleaming on its jagged surface. I…

August 28, 2012

How to Make Java Rice

Can its origin be traced back to Spain, to Latin America? To arroz amarillo, Spanish for yellow rice? A staple of Hispanic households, from Cuba to Colombia. Or does it bear a tinge of Indonesian influence, judging from its name? Is it somehow related to the festive nasi kuning? The dish is nasi, Indonesian for…

August 22, 2012

U is for Ube and How to Make Ube Macapuno Empanadas

The only way to get on the bus, ahead of the mob that swarmed around its doors, was through the windows. My cousin Kit went first and I followed closely, nervously behind him. I held on to my brother-in-law’s shoulder, stepped on his cupped hands then propelled myself forward through the window, into the bus.…

August 15, 2012

How to Make Maiz con Hielo

The tall glass, filled to the brim with shaved ice and sweet corn, towered over the table. Perched regally atop was a lavish scoop of queso ice cream. I burrowed through the ice with a spoon, attempting to stir the corn and ice together. I hesitated at first, worrying about the likelihood of a mess.…

August 8, 2012

How to Make Bistek (Filipino-Style Pan-Fried Beef Steak)

The soy sauce and calamansi bubbled briskly in the hot pan as I browned the paper-thin slices of steaks. The fragrance, so familiar, lingered throughout the kitchen. It was the scent of home that evokes so many memories. The versatile marinade of soy and citrus was one of the first things I learned to make…

August 1, 2012

How to Lay an Egg

We all eat … eggs every day. It’s kind of absurd how blessed we are. — Tim Richards The twin yolks on the bed of cooked rice were a radiant yellow-orange. Their golden color reminded me of the ripe mangoes back home, those picked at the peak of sweetness, in the height of summertime. The white that embraced the two perfectly round yolks was so thick. It quivered so softly when I touched it with my finger. The yolks came from a single egg. It was Dorothy’s, the first layer of our motley flock. We were betting on motherly Rose, our Buff Orpington, to be our pioneer layer but it…

July 27, 2012

How to Make Chocolate Tablea Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I could not in good conscience let Jun-blog’s third pass without a proper birthday cake. Birthdays are never complete without cake. It is a fact of life. An unavoidable truth. Irrefutable, in my book. And so I made a cake. It wasn’t a sinful seven-layer or a meticulous meringue but a simple chocolate cake with…

July 25, 2012

Jun-blog Turns Three and a Calamansi Tree Giveaway

The kitchen was spotless once again. The dishwasher had been loaded and the clutter on the counters cleared. The pots and pans had been washed and laid out to dry on the wire rack next to the empty sink. The lamp and tripod, plates, napkins, and the heavy, white marble board had all been stowed away. I retreated to my room with a cocktail in hand — whiskey with calamansi and honey, shaken with ice. I settled in my chair at my desk and skimmed through the messages on my screen, searching for a letter I bookmarked the day before. It was a letter from a reader from Canada who…

July 18, 2012

How to Make Avocado Ice Pops

With one long, steady stroke I cut the pebbly-skinned avocado around its pit. I twisted the two pear-shaped halves with my hands and pulled them apart then tapped the sharp edge of my knife gently on the pit to remove it. I sliced its yellow and green flesh into thick half moons and placed them…

July 11, 2012

How to Make Mango Jam and Mango Raspberry Jam

I was daydreaming the other day. I dreamt I was back home feasting on mangoes. I was standing in a river that meandered for miles and miles. Stout mango trees heavy with fragrant fruit dotted the river bank. Above my head, birds freely frolicked on the gnarled, brawny branches, communicating in a language so melodic.…

June 27, 2012

T is for Tutong and How to Make Adobo Fried Rice

Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice. — Barbara Kingsolver It is no secret that I started to learn to cook only after I moved to California. It was out of necessity, out of my rootlessness. I was plagued with a terrible homesickness…