The reliables

Sometimes, I just want to be done with it, preparing a meal, but it doesn’t mean I have to make a goddamned sandwich.

And so you pull out the familiar recipes and end up being surprised how for such simple things, there is so much satisfaction and flavour for so little effort.

Arroz Caldo
I like it thick which means a rice-cooker cupful (doesn’t seem like a regular cup) of rice to about four cups of water; this is about two generous servings. I don’t season it as much because I like to do the seasoning afterwards with lemon juice and patis. A dollop of garlic chili-oil gets it ready for eating.

Sinigang na baboy
I would prefer to use pork-ribs, but a $35 baby rack which we currently have in the freezer may be too rich. So I would divide a 1kg pork belly for this- the other half to be made into binagoongan- and simmer it in a sinigang mix (I like the Gabi variant). For the greens, it’s a mixture of swamp spinach and water-cress.

Binagoongan
It’s simply letting the pork-belly pieces cook in water until the liquid evaporates and it begins to render and fry in its own fat. A whole clove of diced garlic goes into this, and then the fish-paste. It’s not the best bagoong-alamang from Pangasinan, but it would do. I would do a fried rice with the leftover bits and pieces in the pan.

Smashed burgers two ways

I’ve been trying to eat a bit more red meat; you know, for the testosterone, B vitamins, zinc and iron. Since I really can’t do Wagyu beef all the time, I get really good Wagyu mince on some days.

But my cooking repertoire is quite restricted because I really don’t want to do the usual minced beef suspects like beef and pasta (not fond of pasta), or meatballs (I prefer pork or lamb for this) or maybe a shepherd’s pie.

So it’s mashed burgers which is how I do my burgers all the time these days. We got the brioche buns from Costco, not the best I must admit but in Auckland it’s crazy that there’s only one brand that sells brioche at the supermarkets and I haven’t seen any lately (people eating a lot of brioche buns in this economy?).

I didn’t have lettuce, so for crunch, I did cornichons for one burger, and kimchi for the other.

But I could only manage to finish one burger (the kimchi one).

Sunday's ribs

I love pork ribs BUT I HATE THE SAUCE.

I think there was a cannibalism scene in some dystopian movie or show where human ribs were covered in that ubiquitous brown glop that made me think- not because it was disgusting- how unnecessary it is flavour-wise. Of course the cannibals had to cover the ribs with sauce because if they didn’t, the flavour of the meat would be a giveaway.

But there’s nothing like the unadulterated taste of fresh pork. When I get the chance to eat lechon, I pick the belly meat for sure, but there’s the ribs and the spine, the meat and fat salted just right with that hint of lemongrass and garlic. And when I got out a rack of St. Louis Pork Ribs from the freezer I sure as hell, wasn’t going to smother out the flavour with sauce.

The rack was just seasoned with salt and pepper and marinated in lemon juice and crushed garlic.

The Station Buffet

From Wikipedia
The station handled freight and passenger traffic from when it opened in 1872 until closing in the late 20th century, and from 1880 was the site of an interchange between passenger rail and trams until the 1930s. The station building remains and is currently tenanted by a restaurant. There have been proposals for the reinstatement of commuter rail services on the Main North Line that would involve the use of Papanui but thus far, none has been approved.

And this restaurant, a Korean BBQ Buffet is called The Station in Papanui, Christchurch.

And it isn’t fancy by any means. There’s a table when you come in where you sit if you do not want the buffet, and in the buffet area, there are tables with the requisite single burner portable butane stove on top. The station structure is wood and while there are overhead heating lamps, it can still be quite cold- until you start cooking and eating.

I must say I love buffets. As someone who eats basically only one meal a day, indulging yourself in unlimited food is VERY satisfying. And the price- who says no to $39pp? If you’ve been to Korean buffets, you’d be familiar with the requisite sides: kimchi, pickled cucumber, and candied sweet potatoes. But because this is New Zealand, there are also chicken nuggets, hot chips and fried-chicken nibbles. Some people I know find table-top cooking a chore, but if you can keep yourself from eating a lot of the prepared sides, waiting til your meats are cooked allows your stomach to take in more just to get your money’s worth.

J'aime la France: qu'ils mangent du foie gras

Don’t ask me how much we paid for dinner.

J'aime la France: la recherche du goût

If there was a Popeye’s chicken, would I eat there? For sure. But we steered clear of fast-food (we checked the menu of Burger King and Maccas if there was a local entry, something like a foie gras burger with truffle shavings but there wasn’t any so..) as well as ridiculous items such as $NZ 50 burger and fries. We know there’s inflation, but that’s fancy hotel inflation.

So now we know (which Google didn’t tell us) that if you find yourself in any of those hotels on that narrow strip of white-sand beach, food is $$$$$.

I don’t mind pricy food- if that $50 burger had real truffle shavings on it or was served with a tablespoon of caviar on the side, I would’ve tried it out once.

J'aime la France: jour deux

We woke up early to watch the Apple Developer’s Conference where they announced new MacBook Airs. terribly expensive and unnecessarily powerful Mac Pros and my next terribly expensive purchase, Vision Pros. This means that I do need to get used to using contact lenses, because if I don’t, I would have to buy terribly expensive extras in the form of Zeiss made prescription lens inserts in order to see through the damned things.

The conference made us hungry and depressed ($$$$) so off we went for buffet breakfast and it was spectacular. There was a pastry station with petite almond madeleines so freshly made, they felt like a dog’s tongue on your skin, warm and sticky. There was the usual hot-food station with spicy breakfast chipolatas, scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and a food server who did crepes made to order. There was the cereal-granola-fresh fruit-yogurt (TWELVE kinds including genuine Swedish langfil) station which I’ve always ignored; the pastry station with 10 kinds of croissants, danishes and specialist breads. And there was even an ‘Asian’ station where you could create either noodles or congee with different toppings.

The morning feed was good because on our walk exploring the eastern side of the city, restaurant food was ridiculously expensive. We ordered a galette to share only because we didn’t know how big it was and it was the first time I had one that had curry and rice as a filling.

But coffee was a disappointment- I thought this was a culture that was big on coffee?

We found another superarket and decided to do DIY dinner- a baguette, a good bar of butter, a pate and a rillette and a block of cheese.

J'aime la France

Today’s expenses:
1270 F for macarons
680 F for cappucino
chips and water ? F
250 F (2) cannelle

First we went to the beach. In the distance, we could see an ever shifting curtain of rain. It could come or it won’t, but we did bring our umbrellas. There was a long narrow wharf and midway, Sam got anxious. It wasn’t rickety but it was gappy. The water below was really clear and blue.

I couldn’t tell when the buildings were made. The Hilton looked like the buildings in Muriel’s Wedding and a quick Google search showed that the movie was made in the 90s, so there you go. But the streets all over the city were in a state of repair and we had to walk our way through a maze of orange cones. Doing pedestrian crossings felt like Russian roulette and finally, we found a supermarket.

We were stumped. We wanted cheese, butter, ice-cream and sorbet. but it was at least 45 minutes walking back to the hotel, so…..

Everyone literally had a baguette under their arm. The bread section held different sorts and we wanted to just stand there and smell it. We figured, we needed a car and then we’d go crazy shopping. So we’ll be back.

Darkness fell fast just like as it was back home. The restaurants were half-empty and we were all Frenched out asking questions so we just went back to the hotel.

We opened the courtesy bottle of brut champagne (an Armand de Brignac) and had it with bags of Lay’s potato chips. That was dinner done.

Tapioca pudding

Can’t remember if we were kids or actually a bit older, but one day, our mother made tapioca pudding. We absolutely loved it, and she never made it again.

So it was that singular event that made us- me at least- look for it ever since. And who knew that it was just really tapioca (I believe she used a boxed one from the States). Funny thing is to this day, she only half-remembers it, but then she wasn’t really into cooking when we were growing up. I saw a pack at the Asian store, and said to myself, let’s make it and I did and it was exactly as I remembered it. Funny that.

Online articles say it’s a bitch to cook, but not really. Watch over it as much as you could (boil a cup of the tapioca in about 4-5 cups of water) letting it simmer just until the whiteness in the middle of the pearls fades to the point of becoming invisible.

Turn off the heat and let it cook in the heat a bit before putting into the fridge after it’s cooled. I did a mixture of cream and condensed milk. It will be wanting for more sweetness but up to you if you want to add more sweetener.

You can put any fruit in it and I remember the version my mom made used pineapple chunks so that’s what I did, as well as mango.

Anzac Sunday (2023)

Eats

Food made with love

It’s always comforting to go to a place you’ve never been (this little town called Te Aroha) and find food and cooking that’s new and heartfelt. People who serve good food are people you could trust I think. There’s a kinship there even if all you’ll ever exchange with each other is the hello you utter when you walk in, and the smile you leave when you’ve paid the bill.

Sunday's Kahuku style shrimps

I must say I’ve been craving shrimps for the longest time and I’ve tried a number of products, none of which were satisfying until I found farm-raised Ecuadorian shrimps. SHRIMP ALL THE WAY FROM ECUADOR!

But a quick Google search reveals something surprising: Ecuador is the world’s 2nd largest producer of (sustainable) shrimp, so there.

Since these were raw and still in their shell, I thought that the perfect style of cooking them was Kahuku style- a favorite local dish in the Hawaiian island of Oahu, popularized by a string of shrimp trucks (or stands) found in and around Oahu's Kahuku community. We had this when we were in Hawaii and have been replicating it ever since.

There’s a million recipes of it and this is how I made it: