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Kalamay

How to Make Kalamay na Pinipig (Pinipig Rice Cake)

 The rice cake is stunningly green. As green as young shoots burgeoning in spring. As green as rice fields in the bucolic countryside back home. The sticky cake’s remarkable greenness becomes even more palpable against the dark verdant banana leaves on which it is nestled. It’s not everyday that I make kalamay na pinipig [kah-lah-mahy…

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Canton

How to Make Pancit Canton

 With one snip a pair of plump pods fell into my bowl. They were as round and as long as my ring finger. Skins were spotless. Unblemished. The sugar snap peas that we planted from seeds in February had grown heftily into a bush in the garden. It was heavy with fruit, standing just over…

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Hen Houses and Strawberry Sorbets

 It wasn’t a worm, that’s for sure. A spider, maybe? But it looked too big for a spider. Perhaps, a slug? Dorothy discovered the mystery meat from the pile of dirt behind the hen house the other day. Blanche quickly noticed it dangling from her beak and a rumpus ensued. Whatever it was that Dorothy caught, Blanche wanted a piece of it, too. She chased her relentlessly. Wherever Dorothy went, Blanche went. Back inside their run then across the yard toward the fence. She followed her closely, watching her every move. The pair pranced in a dizzying waltz. Inseparable for a moment until Dorothy frantically swallowed her loot. I was…

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Fried-Chicken

How to Make Toyomansi Fried Chicken

 I couldn’t help but admire the chicken’s rich ruddy color. I fished out the drumsticks carefully, one by one, and laid them neatly on a platter lined with paper towels. The browned and blistered skin had pulled back, revealing the moist meat underneath. The fried chicken had a handsome hue of dark reddish brown. It…

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Sawsawan

S is for Sawsawan

 In Filipino cooking, the dining table is a virtual extension of the kitchen. Cooking doesn’t end when the fish has been grilled, when its skin has charred. It doesn’t end when the pork has simmered, when the stew has been ladled into bowls. Cooking extends beyond the kitchen and into the dining table where everyone…

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Buko-Pandan

How to Make Buko Pandan Salad

 I’ve been staring at a blank screen for the past few days, trying to compose in my mind what to write for this post.  I thought I had it all figured out: a tribute to my mother and her favorite buko pandan. A tribute to the strikingly green gulaman and the fragrant pandan. A tribute…

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Calamansi

How to Make Calamansi Sorbet

 I felt so defeated as I skimmed through my to-do-list. How could I possibly do what I had planned to do with very little time? I quickly scribbled “Check emails” so I could cross it out and feel better about myself. I turned to the clutter at my desk and felt even more stumped. The…

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Cassava-Cake

How to Make Cassava Cake

 There’s cake in the kitchen, cooling on a rack on the blue-tiled counter next to a pot of brewed Barako. Cassava with strips of sweet macapuno topped with caramelized coconut milk, baked in fragrant banana leaves. There’s cake because we’re celebrating. That’s how things are around here, in case you haven’t noticed. Jun-blog is a…

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Calamansi-Scones

How to Make Honey Calamansi Scones

 The sun must have felt really good. Neither the rustling of spoons and bowls nor the scent of scones baking in the oven made him budge. Not even an inch. Stanford remained glued to his spot in the kitchen flooded with morning light. He looked content. Peaceful. He held his handsome face high and closed…

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