#50: Encounter with Evil Labong

Dinner last night was a failure because of the bamboo shoots I bought from SaveMore. I asked the attendant if it was fresh and if the yellowish color is not food coloring. Too lazy to walk to the nearby wet market, I just took his word for it.

Haist! I soaked it in water, drained it, soaked it again, drained it again, squeezed it with a handful of salt, then rinsed again then boiled it in salted water. I probably drained whatever nutrients are left in that sorry bag of bamboo shoots. I cooked it the same day I bought it. Made it into what I believe is a pretty good adobo. But what's that? Has some goat peed in our kitchen? 

Apparently, the torture I gave the bamboo shoots wasn't enough to make it smell decent. I sincerely thought it was tasty despite the pungent smell. So I served my Adobong Labong to my dubious family, which quickly became a disapponted (and disgusted) bunch. It just smelled nasty for them.

So lesson learned: NEVER BUY BAMBOO SHOOTS (or any fresh item for the matter) THAT ARE NOT FRESH.  It's evil. Also, don't buy produce from SaveMore. I have had enough.

#44: Cream of Celery Soup

30In the past entries, I have shared soup recipes like Leek and Broccoli Soup and the Pumpkin Bisque. This time, I'm delighted to introduce you to another creamy soup that is both hearty and refreshing for the palate because of featured ingredient: celery. I know some people are not fond of the flavors from this family of vegetables. Cilantro, parsley, along with celery just taste too much like freshly cut grass for some. But this soup will give this vegetable a new face and will easily become a family favorite. Gone are the days when you can only use it in pansit or chopsuey. You kids will not notice that they are gulping a good serving of celery in each serving. 

I tried to do that "heart-shaped sauce" trick  move but  I think
I failed to make it look like a heart but more like a guppy.

#39: Oriental Cabbage Salad

I used to have this notion that salad greens can only be lettuce. Whatever its first name is, so long as its last name is lettuce, then that's what you can use for salads: Romaine lettuce, Iceberg lettuce, Butterhead lettuce and so on. Otherwise, there are the more expensive and equally hard-to-find greens (at least here in the Philippines) such as the alfalfa, arugula, rocket, mustard, chard.. most of these I haven't even seen yet in person! I only see this whenever I watch Jaime Oliver! He has his own organic veggie garden, so.. oh well.

Going back, my brain was stuck in this idea that leafy salads only belong to the upscale Filipino dining table. That was until one of my mentors Kuya Hubert Cheock introduced me  to this clever little salad  made from our featured ingredient: CABBAGE!

#37: Leek and Broccoli Soup

I love soups! I think I said that before in my Pumpkin Bisque recipe. I am always thrilled at the prospect of a meal starting off with a warm hearty bowl. Actually, sometimes, a big bowl of soup and a buttered toast can comprise a satisfying dinner for me. (I think I said that before too). So before I become redundant, I'll share with you a soup that I tasted from one of my marriage-and-life-in-general mentor Joanna Cheock. She and her husband Kuya Hubert invited us over for lunch and served Broccoli and Leek soup with Kuya Hubert's juicy lamb steak and shrimp and mango salad. I remember eating twice my weight that day.


What amazed me was how tasty it was even if the soup was not made from any meat broth. This proves that meals can be totally vegetarian and totally tasty too! A small bunch of broccoli will do for this recipe because this soup uses up the flowers and stems - everything! The potatoes create its creamy texture but the leeks give this soup the umph. 

#33: Cucumber for All Occasions Part 2

Now we have come to the second installment of our cucumber festival. The first couple of recipes are quite common but these two here are more adventurous.

Tzatziki's Long Lost Pinoy Brother

Now where getting somewhere! And that somwhere is Greece. This is a traditional Greek dip but we will try to make it more down to earth, ok? Strictly, it should be made with Greek yogurt which is richer than the yogurt we know. But hey, yogurt is already a bit pricey here so I guess we can make do with that. It's up to you if you want to scour the international aisle in your supermarket and find the real thing. :-D

#3I: Cucumber for All Ocassions Part 1

I got this cucumber picture from a site that sells -
you guessed it right! Cucumbers!

Before, I introduced you to the world of Buttered Vegetables. Now I want you to meet my friend the cucumber. This will be a series on how this simple and cool vegetable can make your dry days a bit more refreshing. Aside from the fact that this is packed with vitamin C, adding this to the menu will ensure that you will have your serving of vegetables and fiber for the meal. All of these recipes will more or less serve four people, depending on how herbivorous they are, haha! ;-)

#26: My Garlic, My Hero

Thanks to livetoeat-megha.blogspot.com for the picture!

Taking off from the sharp garlic from our pesto recipe, let me share this with you:

"Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12

#21: Tuna Vegetable Pasta

This recipe was taught to me by one of my Sisa girlfriend, Charis (hi Yox!). I was initially curious and eventually it earned my respect (after I sampled it, if two servings can be called a sample) because it was sooooo flavorful for something nutritious and has eggplant. Imagine, it has carrots, chunks of tomatoes, sweet white onions, bell peppers and eggplant swimming in tomato sauce and a dash of olive oil. What's more, it has tuna in it. I usually place a dish in my hall of fame if i get to have my my good friend "I" to eat something she hates. In this case, eggplant. *pat in the back* (Good job, Anne.)


Indeed, who will not eat eggplant when it is what gives this pasta dish its distinct character. It's smoky flavor punctuates (or rather gives it an exclamation point!) all the merry flavors that are at play in this tomato-based recipe. 

#15: Pumpkin Bisque

Don't you just love that dollop of cream on top?
Thank you http://www.olivecocomag.com for
the tantalizing photo!

Okay fine, it's really just pumpkin soup. Bisque just sounds more expensive. :-D

A  very good friend of mine hate our featured ingredient today: pumpkin or what we Pinoys commonly call kalabasa. The mere mention of kalabasa as part of her meal will make her stick out her tongue. Maybe because her only idea of kalabasa dishes are Pinakbet  and Guinataang Gulay (Vegetables in Coconut Milk). But I take pride in the fact that I was able to make her enjoy kalabasa through this hearty soup. She liked it so much she requests for it every now and then if she’s ever gonna visit our place. When we have this in our home, I just eat a big bowl of this filling soup with 4 pices of buttered toasts (although that is not a very good diet option, is it? Wheat bread perhaps?) and I’m good for lunch. Even my almost-2-year-old loves her rice to be swimming in this soup. Come to think of it, this is one tasty way of having your children get that beta-carotene in their diet.

#13: Simple Pinakbet (The Recipe)

Calm down, calm down...

The recipe you waited for is here. :-D This is simple because it only has the bare necessities: kalabasa, string beans and malunggay. The more elaborate ones include eggplant, okra, malunggay fruit, patani, kalabasa flowers, some wrinkly vegetable that looks like short string beans like the one in the upper right of the picture here. Are you familiar with that? Anyway, the more vegetables you use, the more bagoong and pork you should use as well to make sure that it will stay flavorful.

#12: Simple Pinakbet (yackety yack part)

Pinakbet was something frowned upon by us three Nicomedes siblings. During our youth, we were carnivores. But learning how to love vegetables come with the wisdom of age. :-D This used to be a non-favorite because one, I was too young to want to eat veggies, and two, too foolish to realize that it is one of the tastiest pinoy vegetable dish ever. You just have to learn the trick to cook it right.

#10:Blackened Chicken on Creamed Leafy Bed

I saw this on TV a few weeks ago but it required spinach. Hmmm... spinach may be affordable in POpeye's town but not here in the Philippines. So you know what I did? I substituted it with kangkong (water spinach) and  malunggay! It looked the same, tasted really good and is sure-fire to be very healthy. If you don't know yet, malunggay, when cooked right, it is the ultimate vegetable. You can practically live just eating malunggay leaves as your vegetable! Take this:


"Gram for gram, moringa leaves contain four times the calcium and two times the protein in milk. It also contains seven times the vitamin C in oranges, three times the potassium in bananas, and four times the vitamin A in carrots. "(Ernesto Ordoñez, IInquirer)


I thought that this is such a nice balanced meal that is perfect for lunch or baon for your kids. You just have to stock up on a number of spices first before you do this because this is spice-heavy. Meat and veggies, spicy and creamy, strong and mild. I love this because it is so simple yet when you serve this, it oozes with elegance, flavor, and wholesome goodness,  this should be part of every family's menu! 

#8: Buttered Vegetables

These baby carrots from eatjax.com
indeed look tasty and refreshing

This vegetable side dish is so versatile because it can go with any fried or baked meat dish that's relatively dry or monotonous in color. I usually pair this with Pollo Al Ajo because it balances the chicken's rich, spicy flavor with the light and refreshing flavor of the beans, carrots, the earthiness of the mushrooms and the sweet bursts from the corn. The light crunch and color definitely add not just nutrition but also life and depth to your meal whether it be simply fried chicken or fried fish. At the end of the recipe, I added variations to this to suit your taste and the main dish that it will be partnered with.

3: Chili Con Carne

Thank you to life123.com for the yummy picture!

  So the chili got a bit of that smoky flavor because the bottom got burned while I was writing my blog. You can actually avoid that by using a heavier bottomed saucepan and low fire. The thing is I only got low fire, a flimsy stainless steel saucepan and a forgetful mind. So attentiveness is also a precious asset in being able to cook well.


I love chili because they go with anything. Bread, rice, crackers, chips. Cook up some chili, stock it in the fridge and you can rest assured that you have something tasty and a bit sosy to feed friends who ambushed you for dinner. The thing with my chili, it doesn't have so much chili because I actually want to make it edible. Secondly, however which way you bend over backwards, it will not taste as Mexican as you want it to be without our featured ingredient: CUMIN! Sige, tama na ang satsat. (That's it, enough of the yackety-yack).