dominattyrix tredux

pichi-pichi fix

Got this foodie tip from Cool Camote.  :: waves at ya!!! ::

I had been craving for pichi-pichi for the longest time.

Not to mention Pancit Malabon. Mmmm... I like 'em salty, with lots of shrimp and tinapa (or is it daing now?), and a good sprinkling of chicharon.

Good thing I remembered this place called Amber's. Cool Camote brought some take-away pichi-pichi in one of our famous dyke potluck parties some years ago. I'd been meaning to visit their restaurant located in the corner of Filmore and Emilia Streets (near cash and Carry) in Makati City... and today, Gab and I decided to pay them a visit. The place is clean even without air-conditioning, and the tacky native background (see photo on the right) is forgivable, given that they do serve native goodies.

Their Pancit Malabon is good though it tasted a bit overwhelming. It's supposed to serve one only but two can share (if you eat moderately, that is). The pichi pichi is so soft, it almost melts in your mouth. Yummy!

Oh and the calamansi pictured on top (left) is dedicated to my dear pal Balbonics. I know you don't have 'em in Canada, which explain why you didn't have one your citrus family photo. He he he.

sunday luncheon

My pal Darna is a damn good cook.

And I feel really privileged to be included in the select few that she invites for special dinners. This time however, she prepared lunch for all of us--by "us" I would like to think--her favorite "lasies and lezzies" he he he.

On the photo, from left to right, you'll find Jewel, Shobe, Darna (our hostess), moi, Lola Dan, and Gab. We sure had a fine time feasting on Darna's  cooking.

We were treated to hummus with pate for appetizers. And then there was the  exotic salad with mangoes and peppers t. As you can see it was very colorful too. For the main course, there was the chicken tandoori with yogurt dip, and the Cambodian beef dish which goes very well with brown rice. Yum, yum, yum!

And for dessert, of course we couldn't do without Darna's traditional chocolate cake served with Magnolia's best-selling vanilla ice cream. Darna was a bit apologetic about the cake as five minutes overcooked. We couldn't tell the difference anyway... it was very very good. The same can be said about the bread pudding. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

I had seconds, and even thirds, actually. And because of all that eating, I couldn't help myself really. I fell asleep on Darna's couch. Without me knowing it, Gab took this photo. Well, this photo's title really says it all... busog, therefore, tulog -- I won't translate that anymore. Suffice it to say that my stomach was very happy. I don't think I am being presumptuous if I say that we were all happily busog... and I dare speak for everybody who was actually there.

Now who wasn't? Hmmm...

Cool Camote, we're all so  sorry you couldn't make it. We tried to eat for you, honest.

We (especially the dyke coven, see our cutie pic on the left) were all thinking about you as we were merrily munching along... hoping that the three of us could actually give justice to eating for you.

Vicarious feasting, why not? But I don't think there's any way that you can make up for what you had missed. Sayang talaga!

We even had doggie bags too. Darna is so nice. Gotta love her! :-)

 

on winging it

who doesn't like buffalo wings?

not me. i love 'em! gab too. :-D

though i'd always wondered why they're called that. buffaloes don't have wings do they? hmmm...

Buffalo wings have nothing particularly to do with the buffalo or American bison. This misconception was made famous when Jesica Simpson told a friend "I don't eat buffalo" when asked why she didn't order them on an episode of Newlyweds.

ha ha ha! like, d'uh? but thanks to wikipedia for providing the answers. i know now that it doesn't have anything to do with the animal, but rather that place in New York where the recipe originated.

gab and i stumbled upon this resto called Flaming Wings along Aguirre Street in BF Paranaque. they have the yummiest wings available in orders of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 50.

we also tried the dips and so far we like the blue cheese the most. the honey mustard mayo and ranch are good as well. the wings go with either fries, mashed potatoes or as the pinoys would have it, white rice.

there's me and gab, and friend tetet, feasting on them wings as we were waiting for angel, who arrived minutes later. too bad she's not with us in the photo, since she's not, uhrm... "out" mwhahahaha! :-))

impromptu dinner

I was all set to attend a party thrown by our students Saturday evening. It was in my area (I live in the South) anyway, so I was all set to go even though I don't quite fancy drinking. No dinner was promised, just a lot of booze. A dozen bottles of Absolut vodka, minimum daw.

Then I get a call from Darna. She's holding an "impromptu dinner" at her place in far away QC.

Yay!!!

This is one invitation that I wish I had gotten earlier. Better late than never, eh?

Darna is quite an accomplished cook. I can attest to this fact, for I had been fortunate to sample her exotic cooking in the past. She uses only the finest ingredients and the niftiest utensils.  But then I remembered the promise I made to attend the booze party. Now what's a hungry girl to do? :-(

It was a no-brainer.

Between booze and Darna's cooking, even the very parched would go for the latter. So I really couldn't pass up this chance. To hell with promises made and prior social commitments. So who cares if I had to take the bus, the jeepney and the train to get to Ortigas, where Gab was waiting for me? It took us another 15 minutes or so to finally get to Darna's at 830pm. Gab and I were really hungry but it was well worth the wait.

Yes. It was that good. And there's my special smiley face to show my appreciation! That's a carrot stick, a strip of red pepper and candied chorizo with wrapper, all from Darna's treasure trove of a fridge.

A great thing too that Darna's other set of friends (for whom the food had originally been prepared) were all indisposed and couldn't make it. Hence, we were the beneficiary of their un/fortunate illness.

We had the spinach quiche, but I finished the last slice even before Gab could take photos, sorry!

We also had the moussaka, with eggplant and ground beef. Heavy stuff! I was greedily eyeing the two remaining slices (see photo above) but was already too busog to dare. Besides, I knew that dessert was coming soon and we weren't disappointed. Baked from scratch, Darna's chocolate cake is the yummiest. Very moist, super chololatey and really melts in your mouth. Goes great with vanilla flavored Magnolia ice cream, with an extra helping of whipped cream.

Needless to say we were all busog and very happy. :-)

I, on the other hand was BUNDAT! Post-dinner photos showed all of us blissful, especially moi. :-)

Since it looked like I was the one who truly helped (with seconds and thirds, ha ha!) herself, I did the right thing by volunteering to wash the dishes.

Gab helped me rinse and dry while DB also cleared the glasses after we were done with all the chica. Inday aka Cool Camote gets off the hook this time, no chores for her, he he he.

Dinner started at as soon as we arrived, but we weren't done with the story-telling until way past 1am. I finally got home past 2 am.

Weirdly enough, even as we were feasting on Darna's wonderful dinner preparation, we were still talking about food. We even planned on holding fondue parties in the near future! Chocolate fondue, cheese fondue... I can't wait!

christmas cooking, a chronicle

I'm what you'd call a novice at cooking.

Interest, check.

Inclination, check.

Time, big X.

Since my mom and her twin sister, Aunt Circle were short-staffed this year, and they were expecting the whole clan for lunch Christmas day, I was coerced into pitching in. Cooking started days ago. It was crazy. There's a saying that only one queen could rule in a kitchen. This time we set up two kitchens, with three queens: mom, Aunt Cirlcle and myself.

Dec 23, 10 pm: Aunt Circle asked me to prepare the stuffing for morcon. I love this dish but I had no idea it was stuffed with lard and liver (yechhh!! I hate lard, I hate liver more!), as well as cheese, pickles and sausages. After rolling 5 kilos of beef, it was all neatly tied with a string Aunt used for crocheting. Fascinating!

Dec 24, 1am: Mom asked me to preheat the oven, put pineapple syrup over the ham and bake it til it's golden brown. How much time, I asked? Tantiyahan lang yan, she says. I watch the ham, and it's like watching paint dry. Meanwhile mom is busy eith the embutido. Tedious work, both the embutido and morcon.

Dec 24, 2am: The ham is done, mom needs cheese pronto for the baked spaghetti. So I get the cheese and start shredding. Baked spaghetti for Christmas? Ahhh, that's for the kids, mom says. You can't expect kids to like morcon and similar cholesterrific offerings? Siya nga naman. Meanwhile Aunt Circle, fresh from her nap, starts working on the fruit salad. I save some left-over cream for my cats.

Dec 24, 4am: Potatoes all done, we start peeling, cutting and getting em ready. Potato salad, anyone? The towels are all ready, peanuts, cashew nuts grounded too so Aunt Circle starts to work on the kare.

I head for bed at around 5am. Hibernattying. Zzzzz....

Noche buena was still about cooking. The leche flan is traditionally made by another aunt, Anit. But she decided to stay home this year, as she is still recovering from illness. They all wanted to eat but no one was willing to do it. I took the challenge, and followed the recipe. It looked simple back then. Three dozen eggs beaten, mixed with water, milk, sugar. Sugar caramelized, the mixture poured into llaneras. The whole thing steamed. I later find out that it's not easy! I was sweating like a pig.

This cooking business sure ain't easy. :-(

Dec 25, 2am: Mom says we steam the flan for 30-40 minutes. Fine. I decided to rest for a bit. I was reading Jennifer Egan's book called Look at Me. Aboat a model who got into a car accident. Her face is wrecked, and the reconstructive surgeon puts 80 titanium screws in her face and skull. Man, that's gotta hurt! My reading is interrupted though, more cooking up ahead for poor me.

Dec 25, 4am: Aunt Circle wakes up. She needs my assistance. Time to cut up vegetables for her veggie dish. I do just that. But oh, wait, she has to work on another beef dish as well. So I am tasked to cook the veggies in the other stove. two kitchens, remember?

Dec 25, 7am: The ox tongue is all ready now, I open the cans of mushroom. Lengua is what they call it. The veggie dish tuned out okay. I must be getting the hang of it. Finally I was ready to hit the sack.

But wait. Since mom's still in bed and there's just Aunt C and moi, would I mind doing the prawns as well? There's just 4 kilos anyway. Fine, I said, where's the Sprite?

Dec 25, 9am: Turns out that the prawns are still frozen, so after quick-thawing it, I was all set. I slathered a whole bar of butter, put some oyster sauce. Mom is awake, she's busy cleaning the fish, marinading the squid and the porkchops for inihaw.

Dec 25, 1130am: It's a wrap. Photo-finish. Everything except the inihaw is done, guests start arriving. You wouldn't believe how many relatives I've got. And that's just from the mother's side.

Time to hibernate again. I hope there's no repeat of this frenzied cooking anytime soon. Next year I'd rather be in Siberia than go through all this again. What is it about Pinoys and cooking so much? Yeah, I love to eat too but I kinda lost my appetite after going through all that. The clan was busog, and I guess that's what matters most to mom and Aunt.

I still don't get it though. :-(