Nastasha's Blog

[nalliwrites-blog]

paghilom (healing)

This long weekend has proven to be quite therapeutic for me. Cliched as it is to say, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. People write routinely about the changing of the seasons for a reason. The sunlight encourages me to be outside, to bike around town, to cook, to spend time with the boys at home.

I really want to take a stab at writing this book that I so clearly envision myself making. The first step is to really take a close look at outlining what I want to do, in a documented form to show I’m not just made of ideas, with an execution plan. Second, to verbalize my thoughts and see what other people think of them, to speak with an agent and other writers. And from what I’ve read, the one thing I need to be absolutely sure of is the determination involved with a project of this scope. This is not going to be a weekend thing, I’m going to have to really devote a lot of time and give up quite a bit to want to do this – and whether I really want it that much is a question that can understandably linger in your mind.

I’m going to have to put career advancement – or jutting from one career path to another, at the very least – on hold if I really envision that book materializing. And I have to be happy doing it, happy with the job I spend much time in, serious about planning a research trip to the Philippines. I need to let go of the regret and blame I feel for fucking up the last year or so, of being naive and quitting a job (two jobs), and having the guts to see what I could do; failing, ultimately, and taking me to where I am right now – listening to music that reminds me of summers back home, smoking cigarettes in my bedroom and thinking about what life would be like in Canada, imagining doing the activities I do today would be the norm of every day.

Life throws curveballs often, and getting to the conclusion that you need to adapt – to sink, or to swim – becomes, you hope, inevitable.

Sing it, Jack.

[nalliwrites-blog]

paglingon (reflection)

“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.”

“He who does not know how to look back upon where he came from, will never reach his destination.”

– Jose Rizal

Talking to my family always provides much-needed perspective – sometimes, incredibly needed ones, on days when I feel like absolute shit, on a day like today where I was *thisclose* to buying a pack of cigarettes that I’ve managed to avoid for just over two years (well, I’ve lapsed on the smoking part a couple of times, but have not purchased an entire pack since).

I feel compelled to write about how I feel – about why my generation of globally-plugged in Filipinos love our food, but generally slide on the actual cooking part – but feel like I’ll want to cover so many points that I don’t even know where to begin. This week, an article from the Washington Post titled “At long last, Filipino food arrives. What took it so long?” made the rounds on all my social feeds, with lots of conversation around it. And I will admit that reading it earlier today, prior to meeting my lola for breakfast, hit me in so many ways – I nodded in agreement with acknowledging the ‘hiya’ factor on Filipinos’ acceptance of Filipino food as a whole, and bobbed my head with vigorous enthusiasm on Filipino food channeling “spice, sourness and pungency, three of the trendiest flavors in American dining.”

I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of the tagged Filipino Food Movement sweeping the globe, slowly but steadfast and sure in its pace, particularly when an article about four trendy Filipino restaurants opening in D.C. appears in my reading list next to a piece about “kaldereta a la pagpag” – kaldereta being a tomato-based meat stew, in this version made with chicken flaked off of previously consumed pieces of fast-food leftovers.

It breaks my heart, and the hard part is knowing that this middle ground where I feel like I’m straddled between two worlds, not knowing what to do, never seems to go away.

I’d love to write about what Filipino food means to me, from the perspective of someone who grew up loving it but always shelving that love beneath the pedestal of Western cuisine – and now realizing how robust the subject of Filipino food really is. The variety of ingredients and cooking methods across the Philippines could take decades to document in its scope; the cuisine’s history just as long to research; its cultural influences, regionality and seasonality leaving much room for discussion and study; its flavours and textures ready to be broken down and reconstructed not as trendy ‘fusion’ food, but in essence as a reflection of how Filipinos have adapted to their environment through time.

These stories could take years to understand, with countless stories to tell.

[nalliwrites-blog]

kasaysayan (a history)

As I mused about an appropriate title for the subject matter I wanted to write about – surrounding new chapters in life, my fledgling career and growing into the person I would like to be – the word kasaysayan, a Tagalog word for “history,” popped into my head. With the snap of a gnat sucked into an electric insect killer, I wondered, how have I not thought about this word before?

We all write our own histories, day to day, with the things we put conscious effort into doing. We learn to accept the decisions we make, because really, how are we supposed to know any better until we try something new? (And either fail miserably with our goals, succeed with determination, or just get plain lucky.)

I’ve just started reading Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food, which I also can’t believe I just picked up – it’s such an incredible resource. In the first chapter she asks, “What’s your reason to write about food?” and I found the following points spot-on:

You’re fascinated by the history of a certain food and want to research it.

You want to capture the cuisine of a country and people you love.

This is why I’ve treated myself to ordering topically-relevant books every other paycheque, and why I spend the precious quiet hours of 3 to 5 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday nights reading entries from Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking about things like budbud kabug, a sweet, steamed millet cake made with coconut milk traditionally wrapped in banana leaves.

I also finished reading Michaela Fenix’s Country Cooking this week; paired with watching Kyle Jennerman’s adventures in Mindanao, it’s making me want to set an alert for seat sales from YYZ to DVO!

Setting foot in the places I would love to visit, to explore the culinary histories and everyday foods of locals in incredibly diverse regions of the Philippines, would be fantastic and beyond exciting. It will involve a lot of work, and require a lot of help from anyone willing to lend a hand. But as Katherine Viner argues in this home-hitting piece on journalism in the age of the open web, this a ripe, wonderful age for storytelling – in whatever form best suits the story, for readers who care and want to be involved with how history plays out – in my corner of the Internet, for a better understanding (and documentation) of the history of regional foods in the Philippines.

[nalliwrites-blog]

Nastasha’s Lumpiang Shanghai Recipe

Finally, a recipe I can replicate. Adapted from an entry in Reynaldo Alejandro’s The Philippine Cookbook, these crisp lumpiang shanghai will now be a staple in my freezer, to accompany the atchara that shall always be in my fridge!

Ingredients Filling: 1 kg medium-ground pork (a little fat is essential in the mix) 1 package (500 g) frozen deveined shrimp, thawed, de-shelled and coarsely chopped 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup sliced green onions (about 1 bunch) 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots 1 can (500 g) whole water chestnuts, coarsely grated or minced 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp fish sauce Freshly cracked black pepper

2 packages (24 sheets each) frozen lumpia or spring roll wrappers 1/4 cup vegetable oil Bottled sweet and sour sauce, for dipping

1. Combine all ingredients for the filling in a large bowl; mix thoroughly, best done with your hands. Stick the bowl in the fridge for at least an hour; thaw frozen lumpia wrappers at room temperature while the filling sits to chill.

2. Prep the lumpia wrappers by carefully peeling each sheet off the thawed package, one by one (it takes a bit of patience with these thin sheets, but I promise it will be worth it!). Place loose sheets on a plate lined with a damp tea towel. Make sure to keep the topmost sheet covered if you plan to step away longer than five minutes, as they dry quickly!

3. Get your wrapping station set up – mise matters. Above your cutting board, set the covered wrappers in station one, the filling in station two, and a small bowl with cold tap water in station three. Have a baking sheet ready on the side to stack wrapped lumpia pieces in.

4. To assemble, place one wrapper at the centre of your board; scoop one heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the lower third of the wrapper. Spread the filling out with your fingers or a spoon to about an inch from the bottom edge, and 1/2-inch from the left and right edges.

5. Fold the bottom edge over the filling; patting it out to distribute the filling evenly if needed. Fold the left and right edges toward the centre.

6. Roll the lumpia as tightly and neatly as you can. I may never achieve the uniformity that my grandmother rolls her lumpiang shanghai with, but I imagine that comes with decades of prepping these delicious rolls for 10 children and over a dozen grandchildren!

7. Heat 1/4-inch of oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium. Tear a tiny piece of wrapper off one lumpia to test the oil’s temperature; drop it into the pan, and if it sizzles upon contact you are ready to go!

8. Fry lumpia for 3-4 minutes on each side, until the wrappers are a beautifully crisp golden brown.

9. Drain on paper towels. Dip in sweet and sour sauce and enjoy!

[nalliwrites-blog]

A Cuisine of Freshness

So this is what happens with working overnight shifts. You find yourself wide awake at 5 a.m. on your days off, with your brain ready to run at full capacity and your senses and faculties completely tuned into whatever it is you decide to do. Also, it’s wonderfully quiet. I certainly don’t come across these situations often.

I received two Filipino food books in the mail yesterday – one about the Philippines’ interpretation of ceviche, Kinilaw: A Philippine Cuisine of Freshness by Edilberto Alegre and Doreen Fernandez, and a book called Coconut Cookery of Bicol by Honesto General, shipped by the good folks at KabayanCentral.com.

Here is an excerpt from the preface of Kinilaw:

“When this book began, we only had our meagre experience of kinilaw to guide us – stealing shrimp from fish pens in Victoria, Tarlac, and having them with salt and kalamansi right close to the baklad (traps); crunching brown seaweed with vinegar, tomatoes and onions in Silay, Negros Occidental; serving deboned raw dilis in celadon shrimp cups as an aperitif; partaking of four kinds of kinilaw in one sitting at a Dagupan bar; being offered by a Maranaw market vendor the kinilaw she had made in plastic bags while using a pile of soft drink cases as a table; watching in surprise as a favourite carinderia vendor in Cagayan de Oro’s Cogon market suddenly darted out to persuade a passerby carrying a bag of barilis (yellowfin tuna) slices to have her prepare his kinilaw; and hearing Vic Fuentes, Dumaguete restaurant owner and food philosopher, explain about vinegar ‘cooking’ raw fish and changing its texture from translucence to opacity.

From these we identified the distinctive qualities of the kinilaw itself – the freshness, the sweetness of the raw – and of the process – cooking not in fire, but in liquid fire.”

I am so excited to dig in!

Absolutely LOVING this book!

[nalliwrites-blog]

Atchara and Biding My Time

I know I’m not alone in saying that none of the things I do feel like they make any sense, and I feel lost in general. There are goals I would like to reach, but anticipating the work it will take to get there makes me feel incredibly overwhelmed – and I’m certainly not a superhero who can tackle every challenge head-on, because most days, I just don’t have enough energy to do more than heat leftovers for dinner and unwind after 8-1/2 hours of answering phones and responding to guests’ needs.

I bought a papaya the other day, determined to make one batch of atchara from scratch. I had no idea whether the papaya was overripe (I think it was), have never made fridge pickles before, and like other cooking projects I’ve started to document for this blog, I have no clue what to expect when these pickled papaya, carrot, shallot and ginger strips come out of their cure in a week.

A morning for atchara. #Filipinofood

They were relatively easy to make, following a recipe from Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine; mostly involved a lot of grating and measuring, though everything can be done and ready to jar in about an hour.

People have pointed out that I can be a little harsh on myself when things start to go wrong. Right now, for instance, I think I really just have 5 hours to complete a list of tasks I wanted to do today – because I need time to sleep, recover and clear my head. I still don’t know whether all these little changes to adapt to my overnight schedule are worth it, and whether all this legwork to research and write about Filipino food – something that seems to consume my waking hours -will lead anywhere. As before, forward seems to be the only way to go.

[nalliwrites-blog]

Filipino Country Cooking

Filipinos are nothing short of astounding at utilizing local resources to meet their daily needs. Shelter, clothing and food translate to nipa hut (palm tree) houses built with lumber from fallen trees, garments woven with textiles produced by local craftsmen, breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared using ingredients local to each community.

It’s an idyllic, ideal description of what life in the Philippine countryside portrays, reported through essays in newspapers and magazines, and told through stories from people who recall what their hometown, or their parents’ hometown, was like.

I think about why these stories have taken such a hold on me, someone who spent the first 19 years of her life living in the cloisters of Manila. I think about why, amongst everyone I grew up with as a middle-class kid who dreamt like many others of travelling, I envied people from Europe and North America for having a passport that could take them anywhere they wished. I imagined whisking off to ancient walled cities with towering Grecian architecture and sitting in a piazza in northern Italy, sipping a robust espresso, pages open to a favourite book.

I never really dreamed about visiting other places in the Philippines, my home country – and I feel strongly about wanting to change that. I long to travel the Philippine islands and share my enthusiasm with what I learn about – products and foods I come across that reflect an intense understanding of regionalism, and with the people and communities I look forward to meeting, more than anything.

Last week, my shipment of books from Anvil Publishing arrived (they are fantastic with international orders!). I was ecstatic at finally getting my hands on a book called “Country Cooking: Philippine Regional Cuisines” by Michaela Fenix, noted food writer and journalist. The book is a collection of essays from her weekly column with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

#Filipinofood books I am delighted to have on my shelf. #onehappybookworm

In the span of 62 pages, I have travelled to Aklan, Angono, Baler, Bataan, Batanes, Batangas, Bicol, Binondo, Bohol, Bulacan, Cagayan de Oro and Cagayan Valley – learning about the culinary specialities of each region, a little bit about the history of each town, living through Fenix’s words to plop myself right in the middle of a lechon-fueled fiesta, or by the sea netting crabs with rich talangka (crab fat) that melds beautifully with coconut cream – think of deep, intensely orange roe melting right into a milky white sauce spiked with chilies and shallots, redolent of floral notes from the coconut’s first press.

It makes me shiver just thinking about it. Somehow, these foods will make their way from a printed page into my mouth, and back out onto a screen to convince at least five other people that embracing your Filipino-ness a little more can start with appreciating the diversity of regional Philippine cuisine.

[nalliwrites-blog]

Lumpiang Shanghai: Building Layers to Get to the Good Stuff

A plethora of crisp, party-tray ready lumpiang shanghai. Gobble! Photo by AppleGuy / CC BY-NC

"It's like being trapped in between layers of crisp lumpia sheets (paper-thin flour and egg crepes).."

This particular line of thought prompted the idea that, somehow, I’ve found myself in yet another ‘middle ground’ - the proverbial land of being someplace where you’re in between opposing goals you’d like to reach, or in between two relatively distinct factions of your personality that you find you’re forced encouraged to grow, or risk drowning in that perilous sea of uncertainty.

In concrete terms, this means that I currently find myself with three clear goals - two of which matter far more than the third. (My top priority involves spending time with two boys whose conversation I’m currently part of is about how a Minecraft element called “dorite” can be turned into virtual Doritos.)

My second priority revolves around this project, which as should be put to type, is something I would really like to see happen in the next year or two. I would love to begin working on a book about regional Philippine cooking - and I gather that working in the evenings for good pay, and setting aside time to write in the mornings, would be a good place to start making that happen.

On the recipe front, I’ve been trying to find out more about the history of lumpia…of a documented source to its first published reference in print, perhaps from an old newspaper clipping, marketing campaign, or diary from an American or Japanese ex-pat living in the Philippines at its estimated time of birth. Filipinos love lumpia to incredulous extremes - taking the lowly lumping shanghai (which incidentally, has nothing to do with the Chinese city of Shanghai) to every corner of the world they live and celebrate sharing meals with people in.

Lumpiang shanghai, in its essence, is a fried egg roll filled with meat and minced vegetables. Nothing fancy with the ground meat filling - often comprised of ground pork, sometimes beef, with minced carrots, onions, garlic and a variety of vegetables, from cabbage, water chestnuts, green onions, and irreplaceable to cooks from my lola’s generation, kinchay - which, depending on your source, could be either Chinese celery or parsley. 

I’ll have to spend an afternoon making lumpia with my grandmother soon.

[nalliwrites-blog]

Clarity in Tinolang Manok with Kale, and Organized Chaos

At 10:30 am on a Saturday, my brain is currently performing at half its capacity - a state which could be construed as not very good, but in its own way is preferable and, to me at least, better for my overall well-being in the long run.

These last three months have gone by in a flurry - of snow, activity, directional thinking and psychological consultation (with the doctor who made this in my head). Through the day-to-day changes of starting another new job, switching professions to go back into the world of luxury hotels, adjusting to overnight shift work (and more importantly, sorting, packing and moving in with the boyfriend!) - it’s taking me awhile to adapt. 

It's no surprise, however, as I’m perennially in a state of organized chaos, made evident by the perilously stacked jars, reusable takeout containers and lunch bowls that have taken over an entire kitchen cabinet. I imagine it was this particular fact that prompted my adorably crazy partner to order a book called “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, a book written by a former Japanese shrine maiden, as he says, “for the both of us.”

Anyhow, I spent most of this week feeling pretty awful with a bad cough and cold, and desperately wanted some good, down home chicken soup. With the Asian market well out of the way, and my local grocery not stocked with chayotes, out came the kale from the crisper..to great results. A cruciferous vegetable to be added to further pots of tinola.

Liking the sweetness of kale with that cold-snuffing gingery broth.

[nalliwrites-blog]

Adobo, Let Me Count the Ways

Photo by Shira Bea Cawaling / CC BY-NC-SA

To Crisp Adobo Flakes,

I love you for all your complex glory, for the flavour that permeates through literally every shred and fiber of your being. 

To Apple Cider Chicken Adobo,

You genuinely warm my heart with the idea of coming home to a pot. 

To Twice-Fried Pork Belly Adobo,

Your sticky soy covered chunks, fat rendering through each cut, slowly frying in a pan tickles my taste buds like no other. 

[nalliwrites-blog]

Kamayan dinner feast!

I had a wonderful, FANTASTIC time this week at a Filipino kamayan (to eat with hands) dinner feast organized by Rey Pan over at his awesome Meetup Group. 

What a spread! Happiness on banana leaves, shared with an amazing group of people - all while Toronto was covered with snow.

Check out this sweet menu, prepared by Diona Joyce and her wonderful team at Kanto (whose retrofitted shipping container storefront was one block away from our hosts for the evening at Pact Bar):

Ulam | Mains

Lechon Kawali (Crisp-Fried Pork Belly)  Grilled Pork Skewers  Chicken Inasal (Grilled Citrus, Vinegar and Annatto Seed Marinated Chicken)  Beef Tapa (Beef Marinated in Soy Sauce and Calamansi)  Bangus Belly (Garlicky Cured Milkfish Belly) 

Sides

Garlic Fried Rice  Atchara (Papaya Slaw) Tomato and Cucumber Salad Mango Slaw Chicharon and Kropek 

Dessert

Turon (Caramelized Banana Spring Rolls)

I wish I had a photo that showed how crazy I was grinning ear to ear.

I was also incredibly glad to have made it out for the evening. There's been a lot going on - including preparing for a move (!) - that the past few weeks, much like the last six months, have felt like such an unstable whirlwind of activity. I definitely feel like I've had to keep pace with this business of growing up, which sometimes just isn't the easiest thing to do.

We talked to some guys who recommended a number of South Korean, Norwegian and good ol' American thriller movies, and I chatted quite a bit with someone about the history of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, spurred by the tomatoes I was shovelling into my mouth. With a Newfoundlander new to Filipino food and a recent college grad from Winnipeg I talked char sui and the difference between Chinese vs Filipino-style pork belly - comparing marinade, parboiling and cooking methods - while munching on delectably crisp nuggets of lechon kawali. 

I love talking about food, and eating it with gusto. (Incidentally, gusto translates to 'want' in Tagalog.) And I loved, LOVED being able to stand in a room full of people I've just met, enjoying the food that gives me comfort standing next to the person I feel most myself with, scooping delicious morsels of fragrant garlic rice topped with everything from silky milkfish belly to zesty mango salsa up kamayan-style.

Lesson of the week: When life throws you lemons, take the damn fruit and find an opportunity to work it into something you love. 

[nalliwrites-blog]

Thinking About Dinner, and Philippine Condiments

I have been, quite literally, thinking about dinner for a long time; from distinct memories I remember attributing to about fifth grade, I have thought about dinner whilst on my commute home, riding in suspension-challenged tricycles, crowded jeepneys, open-air buses, planes, streetcars and still-crowded subways. Dinner has always held a special place in my heart, cheesy as it is to say. When we lived in my grandmother’s house in the Philippines, people at home would often eat dinner together. In the dining room we had a large, round wooden table lined with cloth and a glass top; that table, which I loved, did not leave much room for passing through to the kitchen when all six spots (easily extendible to eight) at the table were taken.

On these various ways home, the idea of thinking about what I would soon have the pleasure of sitting to eat sustained me through what often were long, arduous commutes.

Philippine condiments, on the other hand, I’ve thought of more intensely over the last two days than I’ve ever accorded them. As I sat to eat another bowl of sinigang with sweet bagoong (sauteed fermented shrimp paste), I thought about the types of bagoong I’ve had the chance to eat - and quickly realized that I didn’t really know much about the process of making bagoong, a condiment I unabashedly love and cannot live without.

So off I took to research - and found some excellent sources.

• Philippine Fermented Foods: Principles and Technology By Priscilla C. Sanchez, published by University of the Philippines Press (I am currently working on getting a print copy - if anyone has leads to point my way, I would gladly appreciate it!)

• Episodes from an excellent GMA TV series called 100% Pinoy. Filmed and presented in Tagalog, two particular episodes of interest were “Tinapa, Buro at Sangkutsa: Pagkaing Pinasarap ng Panahon” (Smoked Shortfin Scad, Milkfish Fermented in Cultured Rice and Preserved Meats: Foods Made Delicious with Time) and one about common pairings of Filipino dishes. This awesome hour-long video has so much interesting stuff that I think it merits a longer post (and a topical outline)!

[nalliwrites-blog]

Chicken Pastel / Pot Pie: Historically, We’re All the Same

I’ve been having to plan and prepare all my lunches at my new place of work, which isn’t much more effort than what I’ve accorded lunch-making in the past; as long as I stay on top of groceries (fresh fruit and yogurt, in particular) I can leave my emergency stash of instant cupped ramen tucked away in a drawer. 

On Saturday I made a large batch of Chicken Pastel, or what you may consider the Filipino take on Chicken Pot Pie - its structural difference being a pastry crust covering just the top of the pie (not encasing the bottom and sides of the filling), and flavour-wise having its cream-based sauce spiked with the zing of hot chorizo sausages. One pie for dinner, one for the freezer and lots left over to pack as a chunky stew for the week. Efficiency!

Sweet (savoury) pie! I'll have to work on mine looking presentable as these. Photo by Dave 77459 / CC BY-NC-SA

Chicken Pastel is another dish certainly worthy of commanding a food lover/historian’s piqued interest. When did this unassuming dish, comprised of ingredients which can all be classified as ‘commonplace’ (in modern kitchens, at least) make its way into the repertoire of Filipino cooking?

I love delving into this stuff. Let’s take a quick analysis of the components of Chicken Pastel. Many recipes abound - setting aside the pastry, core ingredients include chicken thighs or breasts, heavy cream, carrots, potatoes and a green vegetable, often peas or sweet peppers. On the Internet today, most Chicken Pastel recipes come from the blogs of home cooks - of which ingredients such as Vienna sausages, canned cream of mushroom soup, evaporated milk and chopped hotdogs make the cut. 

Culinary traditionalists may look away at this point - discounting this type of Filipino recipe as ‘one of those’ that may not really count as ‘Filipino’, either because it is full of shortcuts that undermine the making of a proper stew-like filling with salt-laden canned goods (and bright-red hotdogs), or because, to venture down a historical perspective, mushrooms and cream and even the sausages characteristic to Pastel aren’t native ingredients of the Philippines to begin with. 

This branches off into more topics of interest that I have yet to research on, and I will certainly keep track of these ingredient-history questions specific to set timeframes in Philippine history. In this context, for instance, my guess is that the popularity of Chicken Pastel as a special occasion dish may have begun in the years of Spanish occupation, finding its way into the mainstream (and everyday budgets) of most Filipinos during American governance, coinciding with the availability and affordability of tinned sausages, milk and concentrated mushroom soup. In the 70s onwards - made popular and enjoyed by a generation of Filipinos whose diets are greatly influenced by supermarket prices, plus those now scattered across the globe, writing food blogs to counter a longing for home - Chicken Pastel became an everyday dish.

I eagerly await my copy of Alan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food arriving at my doorstep. Easily a lot more to read and learn about!

[nalliwrites-blog]

Rolling with the Punches (and Skinless Longganisa)

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur. Tonight, I made a pot of Nora Daza’s Chicken and Pork Adobo - a dish to reliably call on for comfort.

I also mixed up a batch of sweet, garlicky longganisa - simple pork sausages studded with minced Ontario garlic, the last of the season; cured with apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon of spiced chili vinegar, a quarter cup of brown sugar, a tablespoon of salt, generous cracks of pepper, a tablespoon of achuete oil - really, something everyone needs to make once, for a solid year of enjoyment. Allowing for skinless homemade longganisa in a snap.

Now doesn't that just make you YEARN for breakfast? Photo by kitakitts / CC BY-NC

[nalliwrites-blog]

Siopao (Steamed Pork Buns) from Scratch, or An Exercise in Patience

On Saturday I decided to tackle making siopao asado.

It took awhile to get the twisty top done correctly, but quite happy with how these turned out!

True to what inevitably has become my cooking style, the filling was an amalgam of several recipes, which I hope to tweak for the next batch so the shredded pork doesn't turn out as dry, and the asado sauce becomes a little more pronounced. (Mostly worked with what our pantry had stocked over the weekend, as well as what was available at the grocer. Another thing I've embraced: missing/unavailable ingredients isn't getting in the way of making Filipino food at home! We're nothing if not tenacious.)

Thanks to Jun-blog and Adora's Box for the informative posts and inspiration! 

[nalliwrites-blog]

How adorable is this?! VST & Co. were the Philippines' take on the disco wave of the 70s. Dance party!

[nalliwrites-blog]

Pancit, and Acceptance

In the grand scheme of things, what I write and think about doesn’t matter. But often, writing has proven to be the strongest ally I have with communicating ideas, frustration, and the emotional states I find myself in.

I have a tendency to beat myself up over the outcome of things both within and beyond my control; something I’m aware of, and learning to get better at handling. I regret that I quit a well-paying job in a field I love, because of principle, and because I was confused and needed to pursue what I knew I could professionally achieve.

The real world hits you back hard, though, and after almost six months of trying, consistently, to gain equitable employment, I’m close to chucking my career aspirations out the window. I need to talk about how much I love content, and great writing, and passionate people, but I also need a job that puts a roof over my head and makes me feel validated, if even in the basic ways I need to feel now.

I’ve read countless articles, blog posts, and updates from people online who talk about pursuing your goals - which I still intend on going for, given the opportunity. 

Noodley goodness loaded with succulent pork, shrimp and tender-crisp vegetables, tossed with the savoury depth of soy and oyster sauce. Photo via pulaw on Flickr.

I made pancit guisado on Saturday - a staple of the Filipino cooking cannon that I’ve never prepared myself. It was fun, and produced a deliciously large plate eagerly consumed by three. I blanched the pancit’s veg components separately - matchstick carrots, snow peas, and crisp green beans - for a minute, dunked them in an ice bath, then set aside for tossing with the noodles and shrimp in the last minute of cooking. A great technique to prevent soggy, sad vegetables in the final dish.

My dinner companions have been incredibly patient with me throughout this period of self-doubt, work-searching and general deflation of personal worth and confidence. I’ve considered these weekly recipe projects a welcome respite to the arduousness of job hunting - hopefully, to result in a greater good.