Browsing Category Fruits & Veggies

  Black bean garlic paste has this salty-spicy-sweet quality that enhances the flavor of a lot of Asian dishes. Basically, this paste or sauce is made from fermented beans AKA Douchi, soy sauce, and garlic. It is one of my favorite ingredients especially for flavoring the sauce of my dish. So, whenever I visit my [...]

Ginisang Ampalaya – Fine Filipino Dish This is another one of those “love it or hate it” kind of food. I remember someone asked me. . . “Why do you like eating that stuff?” I just asked back. . . “Why do you like drinking strong-black coffee, isn’t that the same bitterness?” Don’t get me [...]

Summer is here again and we all know what it means — camping, pool party, and backyard barbecues.  One way to relieve the heat is to always hydrate ourselves. Speaking of hydration, here is one for you – cantaloupe juice with vanilla.  This drink is very easy to prepare BUT . . .  before you [...]

This is one of those dishes that we order and eat from our favorite restaurant every time we visit Chinatown here in Los Angeles. The flavor of the ribs and the mild saltiness of black bean sauce counter the bitterness of the melon. By the way, there are several techniques that you can use to [...]

Beef Stewed Vegetable Soup, also known to Filipinos as “Nilaga” is a popular and one of the favorite dishes among Filipino families. Perhaps it is because of its simplicity, and versatility where one can use either beef, pork, or chicken as the main ingredient. I prepared this dish because this is my late dad’s favorite [...]

Adobong Sitaw or String Beans Adobo or Long Beans Adobo is a very simple dish to cook. It is usually done in a traditional way of cooking the meat — adobo style, then just cook it again with the string Beans AKA Sitaw. Here in the States, string beans are readily available in most Asian [...]

For now we will refer to this dish as Ukoy. Why? Hmm, because uhmm, that is the proper name for it? Okay, okay, I’m just too lazy to type “Vegetable Fritter with Shrimp” over, and over. Now that we got the name thing out of the way, let’s talk about Ukoy. Ukoy is or was [...]

Ginisang Mongo or sautéed mung beans can be very boring and bland if it’s not cooked correctly. That is why some folks would add all kinds of goodies to the dish to make it flavorful, like adding smoked fish (tinapa), or chicharon (pork rinds). Okay here is a simple and yet very tasty version of [...]

Macaroni salad brings back a lot of memories because it’s a dish that’s always present in almost every Filipino occasions like Christmas, New Years, and Birthdays. There are several variations or versions of Macaroni Salad.  I have seen other cooks adding shredded chicken, carrot strips,  diced celery,  beef tongue, and even sliced pickles  but my [...]

Growing up as a Filipino Catholic under a strict guidance of a Filipino Catholic parents especially my father was not a walk on a park. There’s a lot of rules in the house and one of the rules was the strict observance of the lent season; that means we always have No-Meat-Fridays during the season. [...]

Kulinarya’s March theme is about Filipino vegetable dish and “Vegetable” playing the main role. There are a lot of savory Filipino vegetable dish like Pinakbet, Adobong Sitaw (String Beans Adobo), Ukoy (Shrimp Fritters), Rellenong Talong (Stuffed Eggplant), etc. I chose Tofu (in the the Philippines, we call it Tokwa), because of its versatility as far [...]

Are avocados fruit or vegetables? Botanically, avocados are considered fruit but in the kitchen (especially mine), it is considered both. I’ve used and I’ve seen avocados in different culinary applications like sandwiches, salads, dips, and shakes. Shakes? Yes mam and yes sir! Shakes as in sweet-cold drinks and shakes as in milkshakes. Avocado shake is [...]

Looking for easy fish recipe for lunch or dinner? Here it is – crispy fried Trout with Mango salsa to go with it. This is the type of dish we like making and eating on lazy-just kicking back kind of weekends. Something that we would feast on our backyard table with no utensils, just the [...]

This delicious dish – Beef with Asparagus Pancit is my post for the Kulinarya Club’s challenge for the month of February. One of the many wonderful folks in the group came up with a challenge, which is of course in time for the month where most of us celebrate Valentines. The rule is this, and [...]

  Kamote Cue is a typical Filipino Merienda or snacks that have been and still part of the street food culture, along with Banana Cue, Maruya, and Turon. It is simply Sweet Potatoes, deep fried with caramelized brown sugar then served on bamboo skewers. The reason for a Kamote Cue being on a skewer is [...]

Recipe of this delicious and almost exotic Lemonade came from my daughter – Kareena. I love having this drink especially with grilled dishes like Korean Grilled Beef, Barbecue on the Sticks, or even with Bahn Mi Taco. Next time you’re having a party, try this lemonade with a unique twist. INGREDIENTS: 1 ¾ – 2 [...]

I tried googling this dish but I couldn’t find anything that refers to it. Wait a minute. Googling? Sorry, up to now I still feel uncomfortable using that word as a verb but I guess I’ll get used to it. Anyway, I looked and used all the possible keywords but it turned out – NOTHING! [...]

It’s always our family’s belief that if you start the first day of the year with abundance of good things, you will have abundance of good things throughout the year! So, every New Year’s day, we welcome the year with food – Lots of it. This year, we cooked different varieties of seafood like Fish, [...]

Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year, we will always have this main dish leftover that we don’t know what to do with. It can be Chicken, Turkey, or Ham. If you have this dilemma every year, why not make a Filipino style macaroni soup out of it. In this recipe we will use Ham [...]

Whenever I get a chance to go to my favorite Asian Supermarkets like 99 Ranch Market or Seafood City, I usually pick up a pack of Steamed Chow Mein noodle. The one that I always use is the semi-dried ones with small strands. Most of the time half of the package is all I need [...]

Are you looking for a quick fish dish to cook tonight? Try this yummy recipe, it only took me 30 minutes to cook. You may add more pepper if you like or you may also completely eliminate them – it’s your choice. For me I like my food HOT, HOT, HOT! Serves 4 Preparation Time: [...]

I adapted this recipe (with some variation) from one of my favorite Chinese chef and uncle – Martin Yan. Okay he’s not my uncle; he’s actually my auntie hahaha! Just kidding. I just wish he is my uncle but I’m sure he doesn’t share the same wish. Hey wait a minute!!! Let’s just imagine if [...]

The other night, my cell phone rang and it was a friend telling me about ”White Rabbit Truck” being in our area here in Santa Clarita.  White Rabbit Truck is a Filipino catering truck that goes around different areas in Los Angeles vending Filipino food.  It is the Filipino version of the famous Kogi truck.  So [...]

Tess (my wife) and I were in an Asian Supermarket the other day buying our catering stuff and I came across a frozen package of shredded coconut in one of their freezer.  All of the sudden, I got this craving for Coconut juice drink. So, I picked up one package and also picked up two [...]

I got introduced into eating tofu, especially Tokwa Baboy (Braised Tofu with Pork), during my teenage years when my parents used to take me to see movies in Manila.  I remember always having dinner in this hole-in-a-wall Chinese restaurant called Cho Nam near Quiapo Church. This dish is one of their specialties along with Pata [...]

Chicken Tinola is a chicken soup (some prefer to call it chicken stew) that every moms, grandmas, and aunts always made and prepared. Purest would insist on using green papaya, and chili pepper leaves as their veggies but of course you may always substitute papaya with chayote, and chili pepper leaves with spinach. Here in [...]

Rellenong Talong is basically an eggplant that is stuffed with sautéed ground meat, vegetables, spices, and herbs then wrapped with eggs.  This dish is usually served with steamed rice, and banana ketchup as condiments.  First thing that needs to be done is the preparation of eggplants. Preparing the Eggplants: Eggplants have to be grilled and [...]

You would either love or hate Pinakbet. I remember disliking this dish when my dad used to cook it for us.  Of course my sisters and I ate it with a smile on our faces or else we wouldn’t have deserts after the meal.  Let’s just say this is for adults only type of dish. [...]