E cooked dinner!!!

After several claims of wanting to do it . . . and procrastinating . . and planning . . . E finally did it. He cooked not just one, not just two but three dishes last Saturday. And take note! It was his first time to cook something which was not fried or did not come straight from the can. We actually planned last Saturday to be a cooking day but we only intended to cook one dish. Sudden turn of events made E cook three dishes as out of the blue we had visitors at home . And those visitors were the trabahador types who were really hungry. I think we fed about ten to fifteen people. What a feat!

T: (L) adobong atay at balun-balunan (chicken liver and gizzard)
(R)sinigang na baboy
B: ginisang ampalaya

Perhaps, I can start my own cooking school now. LOL.

Brothers & Sisters

. . . is my latest addiction!!!


E bought me the dvds for Season 1 and 2 last Friday. I finished the entire Season 1 (with 23 episodes) on Sunday night and had just started on two episodes on Season 2. I really love the show and I haven't felt this way about a TV show since the first season of Grey's Anatomy.

For the summary, you can read on this link.

I cooked Beef Mechado!

. . . And this dish was inspired by the recipe shared by MarketMan.

I actually followed the recipe with some variations. I added a small pack of tomato sauce and I wasn’t able to roast the bell peppers so I just cut them in strips.

I bought three-fourths kilo of beef chunks from Monterey. I cut them in bite size pieces. I sprinkled the beef with salt and pepper and then browned them in olive oil. In the same oil, I sautéed garlic then added the tomatoes from a can of Hunts stewed tomatoes. I brought the beef back, added 4 tablespoons of soy sauce and vinegar; as well as four pieces of dried bay leaf. I allowed the mixture to simmer a few minutes so that the acidity of the vinegar would dissolve (or evaporate). I added the rest of the liquid from the can of Hunts, added a small pack of tomato sauce and a piece of Knorr beef cube. I then added water that was just enough to simmer the beef into. I cooked the entire mixture over low heat in about one-and-a-half hours with occasional stirring as to avoid burning the bottom of the pan. I then added the potatoes, bell peppers and sliced onion. For additional taste, I added about half a teaspoon of Spanish paprika and more pepper. After 15 minutes, it was done. The result was delicious. This was our lunch which lasted until dinner. My brother said it was even more delicious at dinner. As for stews, it gets really good over time.

yum, yum!

Abe at Serendra

As a grand finale to Michelle’s visit, we decided to have dinner at Serendra. Michelle Tan is our senior analyst from Canada and basically in charge of mostly everything when in comes to research in Canadian market. You can try googling her name adding ‘iss canada’ with the search and read further about her.

Serendra was the right place to bring her because of the variety of restaurants in the area as well because FullyBooked was nearby. Given that she’s a lover of books, it’ll surely be a hit for her. Our first choice was to eat at Chelsea. When we got there, we were told that we still have to wait at about one and a half hour to be seated. We had our names listed but we still looked around the area. Right across Chelsea is Abe. The place serves Filipino food cooked in Capampangan style. Again we were on a waiting list but if we wanted to eat outside, there were already available seats. We agreed to that setting but halfway while they were fixing the table, another table became available inside and so we were lucky that we got inside.

Crispy Shrimp Binondo: fried small salted shrimps
Nothing impressive about this dish. But at least it wasn’t oily and the shrimps were fried just right.

Spicy Kapampangan Sisig: wasn’t that spicy.
The dish was a mixture of the pork’s face and liver. I prefer the sisig at Masas.

Lamb Adobo: This one I really enjoyed. I am not a fan of lamb and so I was quite hesitant to try this dish but I’m thankful that I indeed tasted this. The lamb was tender and moist. I love how Abe cooked the adobo. The dish had plenty of garlic. The mixture of bay leaf, soy sauce and chili, which added a spike to the dish, brought a wonderful combination. This dish is a reason to go back to Abe.

Pastel de Lengua: Honestly, I didn’t have that much of this dish to judge it. But Michelle was so surprised that it actually was made of ox tongue. She swore it tasted just like ordinary meat.

We also ordered gising-gising, which I found out was really just kangkong stems cooked with chili fingers and coconut milk. It was supposed to be spicy thus the name, to wake you up. We also had Lechon Cubano, which tasted like any other lechon.

I was excited to try Abe’s bamboo rice as I’ve read about it in other blogs. As described, Abe’s bamboo rice is mountain rice cooked with shrimps, wood ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots steamed in a bamboo shell. I wasn’t able to take a picture of it as the rice was immediately distributed to each plate when it was served. I wasn’t able to taste much flavor in the rice. It seemed it was just rice in a mixture of some sort and not much flavor.

We were all excited with one dish though. It was fried frog (palaka), served with a filling of minced pork. I must admit that being scared of frogs, I wasn’t brave enough to have too much of this dish. I actually only tasted a piece of leg because I knew it was the safest part to eat.

Overall, I find Abe’s food not that spectacular, too pricey and with small servings. Though, I am willing to go there again and try other dishes. A one-time experience is not enough to shun this Filipino restaurant.

Kinky Cakes!

The guys would find this amusing!

If only there is a female version. LOL.

Praises though would be worthy only on what can be seen outside.
The actual cake was quite tough and not as moist and tasty compared to that of other bakeshops. I can't same the same thing though with the 'thing' as I wasn't able to taste it. Hahaha!