Thai Chicken

Our should I say, our version of Thai chicken. We got a free sauce to cook with and voila, here goes our experiment. And of all things I forgot to take a picture of it before I threw it out!

The ingredients included: Coconut milk and leeks

The leeks cut into 1 inch pieces and 1 medium Onion cut length wise

Chicken
The sauce sachet sauteed in oil

Added the chicken in the sauce and the onions after Then the spring onions
Served with rice

Moroccan calamari in tomato sauce

As S keeps catching squid, we decided now might be right time to try some squid recipes. S found a recipe for Moroccan calamari in tomato sauce

Ingredients all lined up

• 1 pound of calamari (squid) - cut into rings
• 2 tomatoes - peeled and pureed

• 1/2 onion - chopped
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped parsley
• 1 can of tomato sauce (8 oz)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 teaspoons of paprika

calamari (squid) that was cut into rings
2 tomatoes we pureed in the blender

1. Add the olive oil, tomatoes, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and paprika in your cooking pan. Cover the cooking pan and let all the ingredients cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.

2. After few minutes, add the calamari to the sauce. Cover your pan and let the calamari cook for 45 minutes - 1 hour. Stir from time to time.

We used Basmati rice which I rinsed around 3 times in cold water then boiled stove top with a little salt and oil
For more Moroccan recipe ideas, check out Cooking with Alia.

Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat"

Reading this morsel of a cook book, Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat".

It is not your regular cookbook with recipes laid out in every page. Instead, Nigella talks about what the dish is about, how to prepare, how to develop and what it evokes. And of course, as the title suggests, how to eat.

Something to chew on. (forgive the pun!)

Breaded Tommy and garden salad lunch

Or should I say Brunch?

Slept in after feeding the dogs this morning and woke up at a respectable weekend time - 1130a.m. I couldn't think about cereal at this time so S decided to cook the batch of Tommy GG caught off the jetty yesterday. We decided on a simple breaded fish and salad.

For the coating, we used, flour, eggs and bread crumbs. For the breadcrumbs we just used store bought as we didn't have the time, recipe or energy to make our own though I'm sure it would be easier than it sounds. Or maybe it IS as easy as it sounds.

Our breading production line






All breaded and ready to fryThe trick for not getting all the breading on your fingers is to use one hand for the wet - egg batter and the other for the dry - flour and breadcrumbs

Fry until golden brown.

We had a discussion about this with S's brother DO on how to properly fry fish. I said flesh down while he said skin down. You be the judge.

For the simple salad, we had lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and beets drizzled with balsamic vinegar.


Simple lunch for a lazy Saturday at home

Romulo cafe despedida

My friends threw me a surprise despedida (going away party) before I left at Romulo Cafe in Quezon City. I rarely go beyond my comfort zone so this was my first time here.

Like regular restaurants that serve Filipino dishes, the food comes in family style. So we all agreed to try their best sellers

Tito Greg's Kare Kare
We all agreed that to make a good kare-kare, you need good bagoong to go with it or else the dish fails. And Romulo cafe had good bagoong. Enough said.
Crispy Pata
This is a Filipino dish made from deep fried pig leg.

Pomelo Salad
The Flying Tilapia
We were all so intrigued by the name and expected the fish to be laying flat on the plate but this blew our minds!

Tilapia is a common fresh water fish in the Philippines.


Romulo Cafe is located at 32 Scout Tuason corner Dr. Lazcano, Tomas Morato, Quezon City. It's quite out of the way but definitely worth a trip. You can call for reservations at telephone: +632 332-7275.

DEKA Makati

I have lived in my current residence for about 2 years now and in the street opposite to mine is this Thai restaurant called Deka. And in my 2 years, I have never gotten the chance to eat there and before my big move, I decided to have dinner there with my friend from work.

The milk iced tea we both got

From my friends Thai Bagoong rice meat dish (no pic of the actual bagoong rice)
Bagoong is a fish sauce made with salted fish or shrimp.
My green chicken curry
Satay which we shared. Satay is a skewered meat either pork, beef or lamb etc. and usually served with peanut sauce
The outdoor eating area
Portions were skimpy for the price ( we got the solo meals which cost Php150 =around Aus$3). Maybe we should check out the portions meant for sharing. And the taste was okay not bad for a neighborhood thai place.

Terms from Recipetips.

Barnacle Bill fish and chips

Was so hungry but too lazy to get dressed up for a night out so we decided to get take away from Barnacle Bill, known for their fish and chips.
The exterior with the Barnacle Bill mascot





Fish and chips with shrimp, squid and coleslaw.


Check out the Barnacle bill website for more details.

Namanama in Eastwood

I recently trekked all the way to Quezon City via C5 to Eastwood for a medical errrmmm vanity procedure to be done. We arrived at 11am on the dot, talked to the doc, given anesthesia and was told to have lunch while the anesthesia does it job.
Walking around the mall, we chose Namanama

Aries chose the Hawaiian Chicken

While I HAD to try their version of Chicken Marsala

For the price, the food portions was plentiful, the taste almost but not quite, the service okay and over all, we left the Namanama with our tummy's full and that was just how I like it.

Food word for the day

aioli \ahy-OH-lee\, noun:

A sauce made of oil and eggs, usually flavored with garlic, from the Provence region of France.

He said he was treating. There was roast artichoke topped with a sort of sly aioli. Mutton stuffed with foie gras, double chocolate rum cake. Seven kinds of cheese.
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

A beef sirloin is good, too, slightly charred on the outside and reddish pink in the middle, nicely peppered, with mustard aioli.
-- Garrison Keillor, Love Me

Aioli comes from the Provençal word for garlic, ai and the Latin word for oil, oli.

From Dictionary.com