Pinoy Foodie

Happy, Healthy Holidays

2006-12-05T21:18:00.000-05:00

Holiday celebrations are orgies. They are occasions to indulge ourselves in worldly pleasures, prominently food. We behave by the credo “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet…” add to that, “and suffer from our sickness.” Pass me the insulin injection and the zocor please. Confucius will say, if he had the culinary skills and the taste buds

Lasang Pinoy 15: Recycled, Reloaded! (Recycling Leftovers)

2006-11-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

A whole chicken can create plenty of leftovers in a two-person household especially if the members have vowed to cut down on meat for health reasons. But I still buy a whole roasted chicken because it’s cheaper than buying the parts. There is a Portuguese churrasqueira in the neighbourhood so I buy it from there. I request that the piri-piri hot sauce be on the

Summer and Patios

2006-06-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

The patio is the most desirable piece of real estate in Canada in the summer. Canadians just love to hang out in the patio to soak in the sun. Restaurants, cafes and pubs don’t even wait for summer to officially begin to bring out the patio chairs and umbrellaed tables. As soon as the stubborn Old Man Winter bows out, patios begin to mushroom all over the country.Not all patios are the same

Tea for Two

2006-04-22T23:29:00.000-04:00

Imagine a leisurely hour, taking tea at a five-star hotel at five o’clock in the afternoon. This is a small luxury my friend and I allow ourselves at least once a year. There are only a small number of establishments, mostly English-style hotels, in the city of Toronto that serve afternoon tea, or what is more fashionably known as “high tea. We have been to all of them.We started the practice

Wake me up for Brunch

2006-04-14T09:55:00.000-04:00

One of the pleasures of the weekend is the brunch. To wake up late on a Sunday morning, laze around the house, and then have a good meal without cooking, c’est la vie. Include a stroll on the Board Walk near Lake Ontario or a theatre matinee après brunch and life is perfect. A combination of breakfast and lunch taken as one meal, the brunch is usually served at mid-morning but can extend to

Unique Gift for Pinoy Foodie

2006-03-10T18:27:00.000-05:00

I received a pasalubong (a present from a traveler) from Cynch, handcarried by a common friend who just returned from a trip to the Philippines. It was a jar of dulong fish packed in olive oil, garlic and other spices. Dulong mga kapatid! Let me introduce you to dulong if this is the first time you have heard of it. My internet search yielded very little information about this tropical freshwater

Brown is Beautiful

2006-03-07T19:55:00.000-05:00

I had known for a long time that brown rice was healthier than white rice but for some reasons, I had stored this fact at the back of my mind.Colonial conditioning had made me believe that anything white was superior. And as a post-WWII baby, I grew up in an industrial world and therefore thought that everything should go through machines to be improved. However, the New Age has made me realize

Roll Out the Barrel and the Grille

2006-03-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Canada now. Statistics show that out of nearly 2.7 litres of alcoholic beverages sold in the past two years, beer sales made up 81 per cent of the total. Wine came in a poor second with 12 % and spirits accounted for only 7 % even with the introduction of coolers in the market.Despite this growing trend, Canada still does not have a beer culture,

Something "Cultural"

2006-03-03T12:19:00.000-05:00

One really hot summer, I joined my officemates at a walkathon from Nathan Phillips Square. The walkathon ended at the same place close to Chinatown. Tired and hungry, I asked my friend and her partner to lunch at a Chinese Restaurant on Dundas Street. After being seated by our server, I immediately asked for pop (or soft drink to the Philippine-born, soda to the Americans). I was brought a

Breakfast at Lek's

2006-03-02T13:59:00.000-05:00

What started me on an epicurean search for the perfect croissant was breakfast at Lek's. "Lek’s" is not a breakfast or brunch place. Lek is the nickname of a friend who is a Paris denizen.On a visit to the famed city of lights, my friend and I were privileged to have stayed in Lek's parents-in-law's studio apartment, in a 150-year-old building on the summit of Butte Montmarte. This building,

Feed the Prisoners

2006-02-27T12:35:00.000-05:00

“Feed your prisoners,” I yelled to my friend Eppie, at the other end of the line, on the eve of her birthday.Eppie was no prison guard and her hostages were no suspected terrorists. She had in her garage the live crabs and lobsters that she had bought from Chinatown for her birthday lunch the following day. Earlier, when she had called to tell me about her magnificent finds, I had warned her

The Filipino Diaspora and the Global Nomads

2006-02-16T20:25:00.000-05:00

My non-Filipino friends turn green with envy when I pack up and go to visit friends or relatives in different parts of the world. They are surprised at how widespread my connections are.That’s because the Filipino diaspora has created a global network of pads to crash in for my friends and me when we travel. There is always someone to offer us a bed in a house or apartment in many cities and

Manila Street Food

2006-02-15T21:38:00.000-05:00

The Philippines has a busy street life. There, the street is a happening scene.Many activities take place on the streets including the basic activities associated with simple living. But the economic and cultural ones are what attract foreigners --- the hawkers who sell everything from food to pirated CD’s, the performers who beg (or should it be the beggars who perform?), the hookers, and the

National Dish - Is there one?

2006-02-13T21:57:00.000-05:00

A segment of the youth-targeted TV show “Flip” once asked a number of young Filipino-Canadians what the national dish of the Philippines was. The question elicited answers from adobo (most expected) to bopiz (a surprise). The variety of replies only shows the diversity of the cuisine and not the ignorance of the youth. It is natural for the young people to assume that the dish they are most

Let me take you on a mouthwatering, nostalgic trip to the Philippines

2006-02-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate to have traveled extensively in the country and to have lived in four cities for part of my life there. I still have vivid memories of the food I had savoured in many places and hope you will join me in evoking the flavours and aromas of my favourites.Cebu was a central location for meetings and conferences when dealing with projects and programs in Southern Philippines. It was

Memories of Home Cooking

2006-02-02T20:00:00.000-05:00

Like my fellow foodie, Rikki, I come from a food-loving family that cooks. I realize now that I am sentimentally old, that my fond memories of childhood include food. My mother spent all her growing up years in the dormitory. She was an “interna” from grade school in Bacolod to high school in Manila and shared an apartment on Padre Faura with her siblings while studying at the University of the

A Dog's Life

2006-02-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Chinese Year of the Dog. The element this year is fire so it is going to be a hot dog. The dog is known for its faithfulness, selflessness and loyalty so in the Chinese calendar the dog is an ethical and idealistic sign. Chinese astrologers therefore say that the year of the dog will bring increased social awareness and interest in society’s