Flavours

I don’t like eating just for quantity. Which is why I hate carb-laden meals; you keep chasing a flavour, but you never quite catch it. Things like pizza, pasta, potato salad, and noodles. When I was a child, the only time I ate a lot of rice was when we had something like fried pork chops, and I basted my rice with the fat that was rendered from the pork and seasoned it with fish sauce. Salty and umami locked together, the silky feel of the fat in your mouth, you wanted it again and again and again.

Sad to say, I have never again dared to eat this as an adult -scared for my heart and and my veins - after my mother’s horror stories of people she knew collapsing right after eating such meals. But I’ve also learned a very adult skill- self-regulation. For how can you continue to enjoy dishes like salty adobo, pork binagoongan, curry, Filipino fried-chicken, kare-kare, bopis if you omitted the rice? But I’m more focused now on the flavour and to eat slowly. Now, I never eat more than a cup of rice with these dishes and I’m still satisfied afterwards. When faced with lechon or pork-belly, I can omit the rice altogether as long as there’s a vegetable side-dish.

The weight of a big meal is, well, heavy. The kids and I had Korean BBQ night at home on a Monday and you realise afterwards that you duped yourself into thinking that a lot of little things- pork belly, wagyu strips, kimchi, vermicelli- amounted to a little thing. But this is the effect of a buffet- you just carry on cooking and eating and cooking and eating.I was literally still burping the next day.

But today for dinner, I assembled one of my favourite easy meals- freshly cooked rice, kimchi, one duck egg and two normal eggs- yolks still runny- showered with spicy furikake. It’s a lot of little things, but it all amounts to flavours- the tangy bite of the kimchi, the velvety yolk with a hint of sesame and the sharp, cheddar-cheese like saltiness of the duck-egg.

Japanese curry

I can’t remember how I discovered it. It might have been at a Japanese mart or an Asian store.

I like the thickness of it, the beef stew-like sauce but without all the effort of making an actual beef stew. Come to think of it, I might try making a beef one which I’ve never done. The protein here is chicken breasts (ugh, it always turns out to be tough- how do you make tender chicken breast pieces??).

Not all barbecues are made equal

Right off the bat, I went for the brisket and while it was good, we’ve had better (the brisket at Blue Ox Babe is superior).

And this is the thing with food places that focus on barbecued and grilled stuff; more often than not, you really go there for the heft and the quantity.

Nothing fills you up like really good protein. The sides are there just to serve as a palate bridge between meats. The ribs were good; the bacon-wrapped peppers filled with cream cheese were a revelation; the jalapeno-spiked Kransky sausages were a bit tough; the chicken wings had a nice tangy and sweet glaze; and the salmon we brought home nearly intact in a doggie bag. It felt like the odd man out in the group.

Matt was right; after a while, you were wanting for some rice!

MooMoo Smokehouse gets a 7 out of 10.

Tortang talonggggg

As a child, I probably wouldn’t have liked eggplant had it come in the form of something other than a torta (omelet). It would be adulthood when the eggplant, grilled until charred on the stove-top, mashed and dressed in nothing but vinegar, salt and pepper, became something sublime- a perfect foil to the salty, fatty richness of duck eggs (a combo that you can have with fish or pork or even chicken).

But as a child, anything fried was good, and to have meat, was even better. So the tortang talong was both, and it was also a vegetable, albeit one that didn’t have anything by way of substantial nutrients.

And when we grew up and could cook our own meals, being able to make the ‘perfect’ torta was a sign that the ‘baton had been passed down’ to you; that you passed the test that separated the so-so cooks from the capable ones. Our nanny was taught by my dad, but ironically, we had to learn it ourselves, and I did it by trial and error.

The requirement is simple- the eggplant has to hold the fillings in place (using the beaten eggs) and be in an acceptably regular shape. You get bonus points if the eggplant stem is intact and you can use it to transfer the omelet from the serving plate to your plate, without it breaking off. But I’m not fussed with this as the only reason why I keep it is for aesthetics; I like a lot of fillings so my tortas tend to be heavy and fat.

If you’re looking for a good recipe, try this one.

I’ve used shrimps as my filling, spiced up with Korean gochu jang. I also used FOUR EGGS (I’m currently dieting) which explains the round shape; the pan was literally filled up. I used the American eggplant as it’s currently cheaper. I wasn’t completely convinced that it would work, but it does; the flesh is more watery, but other than that, it’s virtually the same as the Chinese or Japanese variety that we’re familiar with.

Capsicum sauce

Finally, $1 capsicums, yay!! From a high of $4.50 per piece, summer is the inflation-buster we all need.

I don’t particularly like capsicums- in my mouth, I can feel the soft inner flesh separating from the plasticky outer skin- though I tolerate them in stir-fries and such. I also don’t eat pasta a lot; if I wanted carbs, I’ll just do rice thank you very much.

But I saw someone on TikTok making a red-pepper (aka capsicum) sauce for pasta and then I got a supermarket alert for specials ($1 capsicums!) so I thought that it was meant to be.

The good thing about this sauce is that you don’t need a whole lot of ingredients (and the costs do add up). It’s basically 3 large capsicums and the rest of the ingredients are stuff you may already have at home like garlic, shallots (if you don’t have these it’s fine), butter and chicken cubes. Cheese which is normally horrendously expensive was on special so I got a block of good parmesan.

You simply char the capsicums so that you can peel off the nasty, plasticky outer skin and I realised that I couldn’t really do it as pictured below, using the electric cooktop. So I ended up putting it in the oven using grill. So once you’ve peeled the skin off and taken out the seeds. sauté them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and butter, a chicken cube and diced garlic (shallots if you have them) for about 10 minutes. Blitz the whole thing in a food-processor- it didn’t even need water or a thickening agent; the puree is the perfect consistency. And the flavour- sweet, creamy with a hint of spice and tang. I admit adding two tablespoons of sour cream, but it didn’t really need it, nor the parmesan if I’m being honest.

I’m thinking of buying a whole bag of $1 capsicums now, prepping them ready for blitzing and stored in the freezer.

Friday cravings

Because I don’t have a family of my own, I realised that I didn’t need to enforce some of the rules or traditions that we had growing up. So yes, I can eat a whole bag of expensive shrimp (we had to share because there was only so much to go around). I can eat in bed, or in front of the television (rarely now because I don’t watch ‘normal’ TV anymore). Cake for dinner (why not?). Or a can of mackerel with eggs and rice for dinner when it’s normally for breakfast.

Normally, we would saute diced garlic, onions and tomatoes before adding in the fish, but I skipped that part for less oil. A dash of tamarind powder into the broth made for a good sour contrast with the rich oiliness of the fish.

Happy, nostalgic eating on a rainy Friday.

What's for dinner? Meat pie

When I first arrived in New Zealand, I had a short-lived obsession for supermarket and dairy staple, Big Ben pies which the kids loved it as a school or after-school snack.

I’ve come to appreciate more sophisticated pies since then- a couple of award-winning ones in fact- but given a choice between a wagyu beef and chanterelle mushroom pie and a siopao, I’d honestly pick the siopao.

I don’t know really- sometimes like with steak and kidney (a favourite), there can be a bit of stodginess or heaviness to it. And sometimes I feel, the use of pastry which is so western throws me off a bit which I associate (and prefer) more with sweet like a good apple pie (I made individual apple pies in a muffin pan a couple of weeks back actually).

But having store-bought flaky pastry is good enough reason to try and make some, which at a glance on Youtube seemed so straightforward that I didn't use any particular recipe. You can basically flavour your beef whichever way you want it. I did the traditional route as if I was making normal beef stew; sear and brown the beef pieces first (I used a cheap blade steak cut) before putting them on a slow-cooker to soften. I used mushrooms but put them in a food processor with brown onions and garlic, and fried them in butter. Seasoning of course was Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, several tablespoons of chipotle sauce and heaps of black pepper.

We currently don’t have proper individual pie pans- thinking of getting some of those traditional enamel ones- so had to stuff them into a muffin pan. The portions were small that I couldn’t really seal the tops nicely and two, if you want your pies to be on the saucy side, there’s not enough room for the sauce either.

But they turned out perfect, like really; about 20 minutes in the oven at 180 and they were done. Served them with store-bought deli veggies.

Spam Fried Rice

I actually don’t remember when I first had Spam.

First of all, there was Ma Ling Luncheon meat for the longest time and 555 which was more flour and filler than meat. To make the Ma Ling or the 555 go a long way, you cubed the meat and did an omelet. I do this for Spam on the rare occasion I have leftover rice which I always have when I cook rice, because isn’t it stupid and a waste of energy to cook just one cup?

The problem with the Russell Hobbs is that it pressure-cooks the rice so you end up with rice closer to ‘malagkit’ rather than the basmati it’s supposed to be; but that’s my theory anyway or maybe because my rice to water proportion is 3 cups rice and 4 cups water.

But I like it either way and soggy rice re-heats better anyway in the microwave.

I fry the rice with a tablespoon of curry, chilli flakes and sea-salt. I cook the eggs and cubed Spam separately and add them later when the rice is cooked- which because it’s soggy, never really separates. And if you have a good non-stick wok, you could keep stirring forever hoping the grains will separate, so I normally just stir for about 15 minutes.

I eat it with a lemon juice and a splash of Kikkoman; tastes better the next day too.