Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Brown Sugary Balls

My grandmother and her sisters sometimes make a quick dessert of caramel covered, deep-fried doughballs made from rice flour, macapuno, and water.  They call these sweet spheres "Cascarone".  Problem is, they also refer to another dessert that they make as "Cascarone" as well.  This second "Cascarone" is also a deep-fried dough; but it is shaped by rolling it off of the tines of a fork (kind of like gnocchi) and covered with a white sugar glaze.

I'm confused too.

I guess the term "Cascarone" refers, in general, to a deep-fried dessert covered in sugar?  I have no idea.  I didn't want to question my grandmother, lest I be finger-jabbed in my Adam's apple.  Further research into this matter was fruitless as well (and by research, I mean Google).  I did however, find a similar dessert in my Memories of Philippine Kitchens cookbook that was referred to as "Bunuelos"--the  dough was completely different, but these Bunuelos were shaped into spheres, deep-fried, and covered in syrup.

Anyhoo, I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated with the name of this dessert.  It's not that I don't believe my grandmother, it's just that I've never heard of "Cascarone" in this context before.  If any of my Filipino readers could provide some clarity, it would be much appreciated.  Until then though, I will just refer to this dessert as Brown Sugary Balls.

That's right.

Brown Sugary Balls.

On Making Pinakbet and Finding My Soul

Pinakbet is my favorite dish. Period.

I'm not speaking in general terms, like it's my favorite Filipino dish, no.  I really mean that Pinakbet--the illest of Ilocano dishes--is my most favorite food in the whole entire world times infinity!  Even by Filipino standards, this is a curious choice (I think) on my part as I know of many Pinoys who can't stand this vegetable medley.  I'm sure it has to do with the ever-present ampalaya, but as you may remember (or not), I loves me some bitter melon.

Despite my fondness for Pinakbet I had never attempted to make it.  I was happy enough getting my once-in-a-while-fix whenever I would visit my grandparents or my parents.  My grandmother and mother can both whip up a batch with a purse of the lips (psssst, hoy!).  Soon enough though, I started hankering for the stuff on a more regular basis.  I started making up excuses to visit my parents just so I could relieve my jonesing for Pinakbet:

Mother: What are you doing home?

Me: Uh, I was in the neighborhood.

Mother: You live an hour and a half away.

Me: Uh, what's for dinner? Pinakbet?

Dad: Goddamn it! Can't you make your own!

My dad's a really good guy (he's just really mean [I'm kidding {not really}]).

Anyhoo, I finally realized that I needed to figure out how to make Pinakbet for myself (otherwise my dad would start charging me for groceries).

A Flashback from Florence

Last month, in an excruciatingly long post about my travels in Italy, I made small mention of Ristoro Terra Terra--a little restaurant in Florence that my wife and I happily stumbled upon.  Although the food at Terra Terra was spectacular, it was not the only thing from this restaurant that left a lasting impression on us.

Our waiter at Terra Terra was a sight to behold.  Don't get me wrong, the service he provided was excellent as he made spot-on recommendations for our wine and food.  But we also found delight in certain eccentricities displayed by our server. Here is what I previously wrote about him in the old blog post I mentioned earlier:

"At Terra Terra, a little restaurant that was literally around the corner from the famed Duomo, we were greeted by a gentleman dressed in black baggy jeans, a black t-shirt, dark hair pulled into a pony tail, and a  goatee.  He pretty much looked like a non-threatening Satan.  He spoke very good English and had a gruff voice that was a cross between Cobra Commander, Antonio Banderas, and Count Dracula.  When he wasn’t serving guests he was either outside smoking (five cigarettes by my wife’s count) or behind the bar downing a glass of cold white wine (three glasses by my count).  An all-around cool dude if you ask me.  Seriously."

There was so much more that I wanted to write about our waiter at Terra Terra, I just didn't because I didn't have the pictures to back up my outlandish descriptions.  Until now...

Osteria Mozza: A Review

As far as Hollywood starlets and their inane nicknames go, I'd have to rank OsMo and PizMo ahead of Brit-Brit, J-Lo and LiLo. 

Who the hell are OsMo and PizMo you ask?

Oh, they are a couple of sisters that work the corner of Melrose and Highland everynight in Los Angeles—both sisters bringing in hot and brisk business.

Ok, that probably wasn't the best description of these lovely ladies. Let me try that again.

The Mozza sisters are the much-heralded restaurant ventures between superchefs Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali.  I sang the praises of the older sister, Pizzeria Mozza (PizMo), earlier this year.  And as soon as word got out that Pizzeria Mozza's new sister restaurant, Osteria Mozza (OsMo), was open for business, I got on the blower ASAP to snag a meeting with this young up and comer.

It took me about 10 tries, but I finally bypassed busy signals and got through to one of OsMo's representatives.  Surprisingly enough (starlets and their handlers are so unpredictable), I was able to get reservations at OsMo for my wife and myself just two weeks after OsMo's name went up in lights on opening night.

Bay Area Eats

The Wife and I were up in the Bay (or as the young’uns like to call it—The Yay) last weekend visiting my little brother and his girlfriend.  Although I’ve visited my little brother a couple of times before in the Yay, most of my time visiting was spent on drunken shenanigans, horseplay, and tomfoolery (and bob and johnfoolery for that matter).  With this most recent (and more mature) visit, I wanted to eat more and imbibe less.  And because my little bro and his girlfriend are such good dining companions (they don’t scoff or turn their noses up at anything), the task of finding good food would be easy.