The Food Techie

Baked Fresh at Le Croissant Shop – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Archie de Lara — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:51:43 +0000

A stop at this bakeshop along your way home is worthwhile when you want some freshly baked croissants. Le Croissant Shop in Riyadh offers authentically made croissants that are flaky and crusty.

You can enjoy a wide variety of croissants of different fillings. The classic butter croissant is also a must try. This concept of a French bakery and cafe that Le Croissant Shop has is very basic but the difference is the taste of their croissants.

Le Croissant Shop is located all over the Middle East and this branch is strategically locate for travelers in between Al Dabbab and Al Olaya Streets – Makkah Road Olaya District in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Kasola na Bangus sa Kamias (Stewed Milk Fish in Bilimbi)

Archie de Lara — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:39:39 +0000

Kasola is rarely known to many, but this dish is maybe a very native Tagalog dish. Even if you search the Internet these days, you find no recipes about this dish. Kasola is a manner of cooking usually of fish by sautéing and stewing basically with upo (calabash) or any similar ingredients. My mother cooks kasola usually with kamias or bilimbi. The kamias contributes to a light touch or sourness but not similar to the popular sinigang. The soup is very little that only comes from the juice of kamias when cooked and from the rice washing.

In this recipe, I made sure to watch as my mother cooks her Kasolang Bangus. She even asked me many times whenever I needed to take a photo. The taste of Kasolang Bangus reminded me always my childhood that I never got over eating this with hot boiled rice even on summer days.

Ingredients

2 pcs about 1 kg each bangus (milk fish) – cleaned and sliced into serving portions
2-3 cups roughly sliced kamias (bilimbi)
garlic and onions to sauté
2-3 medium ripe tomatoes
2 cups water from rice washing
pechay
long green chilli or sili sigang
Fish sauce to taste.
tamarind juice (cook tamarind fruit in water and extract) – optional

Procedure

Sauté garlic and onions with tomatoes in small amount of oil.
Make sure to cook the tomatoes evenly and all the juice comes out by pressing with your ladle.
Add the sliced kamias and immediately add the sliced bangus on top.
Add the water (rice washing).
Add fish sauce to taste.
Let simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Add the pechay and sili sigang and allow to cook with the remaining heat.
Serve while hot with steamed rice.

Pizza Napoli – A Must Try in Riyadh

Archie de Lara — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:03:49 +0000

There are too many Italian restaurants in Riyadh, and one of these is Pizza Napoli. The restaurant may seem to be originally conceptualized here in Riyadh, or may be this is a franchise from outside Saudi Arabia. You can’t tell because of the very common name they use for the restaurant and even if you searched the Internet, the list goes on for Pizza Napoli. Maybe, second visit will let us know the origin of the restaurant when given a chance to chat with food servers.

In any case, the food is delightful and you can enjoy the taste of near to authentic Italian food. The Pizza Calabrese costed SR 55 which had the usual tomato sauce, mozzarella, olives, salami and basil. While the Linguini Pesto was SR45, that may not be appealing on the photo below – but it tasted good. The pesto sauce was prepared with a creamy tone.

The visit was done last June 15, 2012. The posting was a bit delayed due to little time creating reviews.

Pizza Napoli is located in Tahlia St., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Free Photos from adD Photos

The Huffingtonpost featured Marvin Gapultos’ Adobo Road

Archie de Lara — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 04:43:22 +0000

The Huffingtonpost reported on April 18, 2013 Filipino food has all the trappings of the next big “it-cuisine” in the United States restaurant scene. Unlike any other Asian cuisine, Filipino food has not got yet to the mainstream USA restaurants. Even in any other parts of the world, you will only find Filipino restaurants being frequented by mostly Filipinos in a community where Filipinos settle.

Marvin Gapultos’ Adobo Road is a cookbook that will introduce Filipino food to the USA foodies. Marvin is also the person behind the Manila Machine – a gourmet Filipino food truck that gained popularity in Southern California. He is also the food blogger of Burnt Lumpia.

Having seen this post in the Huffintonpost, the Filipino food can be hopefully the next major foodie trend in the United states or even in any part of the world.

Pork in Sour Soup Using Ripe Guavas (Pork Sinigang sa Bayabas)

Archie de Lara — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:46:23 +0000

Here’s one recipe that most Filipinos love, usually by Tagalogs in Central Luzon. Sinigang is commonly popular in the Philippines that is using tamarind to sour the soup. This recipe is from the kitchen of my Nanay, and we always have abundant ripe guavas all the time – so our sinigang is cooked with guavas.

The recipe was an estimate of what my mother cooks – as I see while she was preparing it. The taste of the soup is moderately sour with a little bit sweet flavored guava. The ingredients are very minimal.

Ingredients:
1 kg pork buto-buto with moderate amount of meat
10-15 pcs ripe guavas – medium size (peeled)
1 big bundle of kangkong
fish sauce to taste

Procedure:
1. In a big pot, boil the pork until the scum can be removed.
2. Continue boiling until the meat is tender.
3. Add the guavas and season according to taste.
4. Add the kangkong to final simmer.
5. Serve while hot with rice.