tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77877750233791118972010-03-09T17:54:33.227-08:00Bringing the world to the Filipino table, and the Filipino table to the world.Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-25384530999956275052009-11-09T20:31:00.000-08:002009-11-10T00:20:34.026-08:002009-11-10T00:20:34.026-08:00

I can't believe how we haven't had any post on any kind of pancit here.Pancit is how Filipinos have assimilated stir-fry noodles. If you trust Wikipedia, the word is an abbreviated version of a Fukienese or Hokkienese (dominant language in Southern China) phrase that means 'to be cooked conveniently'--or the basic premise of the underrated culinary art called stir-frying. But before we get to the

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-80849017476616018032009-11-03T01:36:00.000-08:002009-11-03T02:22:50.777-08:002009-11-03T02:22:50.777-08:00

My gout has left me imprisoned at home for almost a week, and so I was forced to make do with a lot of saltless, purine-less and basically, tasteless fare. If you read the literature about gout, especially coming from the internet, it can be confusing. Some say you can eat broccoli, some say you can't. Others say to avoid strawberries, others say its a good remedy. Others say apples work wonders,

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-72425116361318002822009-10-25T03:54:00.000-07:002009-11-03T01:32:15.655-08:002009-11-03T01:32:15.655-08:00

I'm without skewers so this chicken satay had to be stir-fried. The satay gets its distinct taste from the use of peanuts. It's a dish that has different interpretations across Southeast Asia, and is believed to be an incarnation of the Mid-eastern kebab. Indonesians love it with kecap manis, so theirs is sweeter. Thais put coconut milk in theirs so it's a bit more indulgent and creamier. I

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-82198226748403580622009-10-25T02:52:00.000-07:002009-10-25T05:21:59.732-07:002009-10-25T05:21:59.732-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while. I missed this blog's first year anniversary and I have no excuses for it. To commemorate the first birthday and to celebrate our steadily rising readership, Recados Filipinos is now a dot com! So, avid reader, make sure to change your bookmarks to http://www.recadosfilipinos.com.I think the honeymoon phase of my move to Melbourne has ended, and surprisingly I am not

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-63361867173934655022009-09-04T02:14:00.000-07:002009-09-04T04:30:38.174-07:002009-09-04T04:30:38.174-07:00

Apparently the idiom, too many cooks spoil the broth, is true. In this case there were just two. I was supposed to cook Chicken Afritada and went through the motions of preparing everything. I was nearly done, and was just simmering the pot when I decided to enter my room to sit out the five minutes of waiting in there when another housemate comes in to the kitchen, opens the pot, gets a whiff of

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-89734685640695644422009-08-29T05:23:00.001-07:002009-08-30T05:05:52.716-07:002009-08-30T05:05:52.716-07:00

I obsessed over cannelloni for days. I ate quiche a few days ago from one of the cafeterias in school and it sucked. So I decided to respond to my own spinach and feta cravings by tinking about stuff like cannelloni and lasagna. So the plan set: what better day to do it then on a lazy Saturday. And did I look forward to Saturday. And here, Saturday. I woke up to really bad weather today. It was

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-70410294553854101842009-08-28T17:29:00.000-07:002009-08-28T23:53:06.349-07:002009-08-28T23:53:06.349-07:00

Walking around the Northcote end of High Street and stumbled upon the Wild Yak Tibetan restaurant and thought why not?The inside interior was a bit too campy and would baffle the likes of Edward Said. It's Tibetan orientalia trying to accommodate the flourishes of Western dining: fan-folded paper napkins, plastic laminates for tabletops, poorly placed dim lights, and a menu that's structured

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-28969426439950238142009-08-27T18:38:00.000-07:002009-08-30T13:49:42.043-07:002009-08-30T13:49:42.043-07:00

You know you are not in Kansas (or Manila) when you peel a garlic and realize the whole bulb is an entire clove. I had to bite it to make sure it was garlic and not some premature onion or a kind of onion, so I had to suffer with this stinging garlic taste in my mouth for the rest of the day. Yes, it is garlic. Afraid the whole thing might not last if I store it, I decided to use it all.

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-9882395797008186662009-08-23T16:53:00.000-07:002009-08-23T17:04:00.478-07:002009-08-23T17:04:00.478-07:00

Somewhere in the suburb of Nedlands in Perth is Ned’s which serves wonderful coffee. Teri-Ann’s assistant Susan recommended the place so the first thing I did on the little free time I had was to go immediately to Ned’s to sample the coffee. You get a good balance of that in this macchiato. What I am liking about the coffee in Australia is the subtle hint of sweetness that doesn’t overpower the

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-15435502328262986042009-08-11T21:48:00.000-07:002009-08-12T00:37:34.157-07:002009-08-12T00:37:34.157-07:00

Settling in to Melbourne slowly. The snow-less winter and torrential rains have made it difficult with temperatures reaching a low of six degrees. So going around on foot is a nightmare considering home is a 20 minute walk from the tram and work and school is another fifteen minutes. The nose has been runny the past few weeks but thankfully—knock on wood lest I jinx it—there have been no signs of

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-297313762414403622009-08-09T22:11:00.000-07:002009-08-09T23:19:16.629-07:002009-08-09T23:19:16.629-07:00

The day before our flight back to Melbourne, I tagged along with Christine to Fremantle. It’s a small town off Perth. If the population in Perth made its money through mining, Fremantle—or Freo to the locals—is believed to be the domain of the old rich, whose forays are inscribed in the town’s symbols from sailing and yachting to really good beer.It’s unfortunate that I was only able to spend an

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-1151373948436772422009-08-09T16:51:00.000-07:002009-08-09T17:08:11.554-07:002009-08-09T17:08:11.554-07:00

What is beguiling about Annalakshmi is not the food, but the concept. The food is good—don’t get me wrong. It features a staple selection of Indian classics from basmati rice to vegetable curry that all taste well, albeit a little more sedate than usual. Annalakshmi operates like a soup kitchen, where anyone can come in, grab a fairly large platter, and fill it up with the stuff you can find in

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-46192513605977922082009-07-29T01:23:00.000-07:002009-07-29T01:41:06.355-07:002009-07-29T01:41:06.355-07:00

I don’t know what will become of this blog now that I have relocated to Australia temporarily. Will it be about rekindling ties back home through food, processing nostalgia in the process, even looking for substitutes for those elusive ingredients that have been synonymous to home? Will it be about Australian food, how a Pinoy like me tastes and appreciates it? I’m keeping my plans in order so I

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-81974355179081911212009-07-14T02:21:00.000-07:002009-07-17T01:28:36.204-07:002009-07-17T01:28:36.204-07:00

The pluses of moving away is that you get gifts like this: 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die. One of my pre-departure gifts is this wonderful book of literally a thousand and one items of epicurean delights from all over the world. This is a lifetime project in the making, as I imagine not every well-heeled soul can lay claim to half of it. Scanning through it, I've found a fair amount of

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-91197046157086655412009-06-25T09:10:00.000-07:002009-06-25T09:15:18.969-07:002009-06-25T09:15:18.969-07:00

My first encounter with Bandung nearly two years ago left me awestruck with the potential and range of Indonesian food that I never realized in Jakarta. The latter will always fall prey to standardized tastes, considering its more significant culinary achievements often stand and compete with fastfood chains accompanied by processes that hardly provide room for any whimsy and flair. Food is often

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-23801818804106949692009-06-18T08:46:00.000-07:002009-06-18T10:09:35.836-07:002009-06-18T10:09:35.836-07:00

Ma Mon Luk is the iconic panciteria of old Manila. Those days that saw an influx of food practices from nearby Asian and Southeast Asian countries as well as innovative kitchen techniques by folks from all walks of life struggling to deliver their passion for food into something that can bring money to the table. Ma Mon Luk has such fabled beginnings. Named after the owner and founder of the

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-41448187769017876682009-06-17T09:17:00.000-07:002009-06-17T09:29:29.168-07:002009-06-17T09:29:29.168-07:00

What better way to break the dry spell than with thoughts of Cibo. It feels like a lifetime since I last posted anything on this blog. The past few months have been tough as I engineer a million things for work and work-related projects, my own research and even my own personal life as I attempt to move temporarily to the Land Down Under for studies. In between the madness have been thoughts of

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-49996328556037512652009-04-19T06:35:00.000-07:002009-04-19T07:36:47.739-07:002009-04-19T07:36:47.739-07:00

I haven't cooked anything in weeks. It's been busy at work as we are preparing for something big, and this week is the climax of everything. To compensate, I have eaten a lot though, but not the kinds I really want to eat, though me and my friends at work still dabble in the occasional pigging out if only to let loose after a tough tough day. Other than that it's unhealthy junk food and a lot of

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-73003372284909714492009-04-18T12:03:00.000-07:002009-04-18T12:31:27.512-07:002009-04-18T12:31:27.512-07:00

I stumbled upon this "No Reservations" episode on the Philippines somewhere in Facebook. Mr. Bourdain sounded too patronizing. It would be nice to know what Anthony Bourdain really thinks, off-cam.

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-43974974018779028652009-04-17T19:42:00.000-07:002009-04-17T20:15:47.925-07:002009-04-17T20:15:47.925-07:00

The traditional piaya is basically flaky unleavened salty bread filled with sweet muscovado sugar. The dough is rolled into a ball, filled with the sugar and flattened before they are thrown into the oven for baking. It's originally from the Visayas but you can now see it peddled in every part of the country these days. I like the simplicity of the piaya: I imagine these humid summer afternoons

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-40314015960989977142009-04-09T05:28:00.000-07:002009-04-09T06:22:26.842-07:002009-04-09T06:22:26.842-07:00

The Top Hat Combo: Cranberries, Granola and Kiwis Went to the revamped SM North Edsa Annex and picked up a couple of frozen yogurt desserts from the newly opened White Hat Italian Frozen Yogurt. It offers cold desserts made with frozen yogurt, offering possibly healthier—and not to mention more environmentally viable—options to ice cream.The history of frozen yogurt traces its way back to the 70s

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-27833625772846216802009-04-05T08:09:00.000-07:002009-04-05T08:29:53.439-07:002009-04-05T08:29:53.439-07:00

The past few weeks have left me tired, and I am anticipating the next few months will weigh me down even more. I celebrated my birthday in haste, and have had mini trysts with friends, in all that celebration I encountered two different versions of the Cuban Mojito, and I knew I had to make this one myself.I've simplified mine: simple syrup, crushed mint leaves, white rum, lime, ice and a good

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-52819000179741162852009-04-05T02:34:00.000-07:002009-04-05T02:37:14.801-07:002009-04-05T02:37:14.801-07:00

Pinasugbo is the popular term for bananas that are thinly sliced, deep fried to a crisp, and coated in really thick caramel before enjoying a light sprinkling of sesame seeds. The banana slices are then bunched together and wrapped in the bottom part wrapped in paper to make eating it a little less messy. Depending on the paper used for wrapping, the pinasugbo can be prove to be a tough ordeal as

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-6331956270383183702009-03-22T10:43:00.000-07:002009-03-22T11:07:29.587-07:002009-03-22T11:07:29.587-07:00

We ate at Hai Chinese Restaurant and Chill-Out Bar at the newly opened SM Marikina for one of those lunch meetings. The name’s very misleading and reeks of a lot of pretensions: save for a big case of leftover beer bottles tucked underneath the wash sink and the stench of last night’s alcohol, there simply is no space for the supposed bar. The words 'Chill-Out' don't make sense especially since

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787775023379111897.post-17238019999551991042009-03-10T08:42:00.000-07:002009-03-10T08:47:11.972-07:002009-03-10T08:47:11.972-07:00

Had lunch at Glorietta 4’s Food Choices (their name for the food court, made into a proper noun by the Ayala malls’ main antagonist) and grabbed some more Indian food at the New Bombay Express. It’s a hearty place to get Indian food, maybe not the best Indian food in town, but it’s definitely worth every penny (since it’s a little too pricey for the food court) and a little more distinct compared

Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14583228139109597291josephqt@gmail.com0