Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Filipino Food Bloggers Featured on "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho"

Last Saturday, four Filipino food bloggers were featured on the "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" television show on the GMA network in the Philippines.

Along with MarketMan of Market Manila, Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet, and Lori Baltazar of Dessert Comes First, I was lucky enough to be one of the featured bloggers on the program.

Because of the time difference between Manila and the Burnt Lumpia Worldwide Headquarters in SoCal, I was asked to simply film myself cooking something for my blog in lieu of an actual interview with host Jessica Soho.

I gladly obliged to this request and decided to cook something that I thought would catch Pinoy viewers off guard: Bell Pepper Adobo (egads man, an adobo of vegetables?!!)!

Yup. Bell Pepper Adobo.

Of course, much of the footage I filmed was left out of the final show, so my Bell Pepper Adobo recipe will have to wait for another post (or perhaps another medium altogether...) for another time.

I am happy to say that despite much of my own footage being cut, the producers of the show managed to sneak in some existing Sasquatch-esque film of me cooking on The Manila Machine. Very cool, to say the least.

And if you missed the show, check out the video below. I'm featured at the 10:20 mark, but I urge everyone to watch the entire video to get a glimpse into the lives of the four different Filipino food bloggers. The video is all in Tagalog, btw, and because my Tagalog is spotty at best, I can only assume nice things were said about me;)

Many thanks to the kind folks at GMA, KMJS, as well as to MarketMan!

Giveaway: Asian Ingredients 101 App

I've never been grocery shopping with my grandmother, though I imagine such an experience would provide innumerable perks.

Aside from helping me pick out the best green papayas for her atchara recipe, or perhaps telling me straighaway which Filipino vinegar is best for any particular dish, my grandmother would be indispensible in proving my ethnicity to doubtful fishmongers at the Asian market.

Alas, my grandmother lives 4 hours away from me, so my excursions to the market (like most everyone I'm sure) are always grandma-less.

But thanks to Asian Ingredients 101, an iPhone app created by cookbook author, Pat Tanumihardja, you can now have a robot Asian grandma in your pocket!

Asian Ingredients 101 is a comprehensive guide to East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian ingredients at your fingertips. Whether you are shopping at an Asian market or traveling in Asia, this app will help you to identify close to 100 ingredients ranging from spices to herbs to sauces using color photographs as well as their common names in different languages. It also tells you where to find the ingredients at the market (i.e. frozen or dried goods section) and offers little tidbits on selection and preparation.

Oh, that's what oyster sauce is for! Thanks Robot Grandma!

Pat's an old friend of mine, and is the author of The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook, so I can vouch for how cool this app is. And luckily for you, dear readers, Pat has provided me with three (3) promo codes that will enable three of my lucky readers to download her app for free.

For a chance to win a free download of Asian Ingredients 101, just leave a comment telling me what your favorite Asian ingredient is. I'll then randomly choose three winners who will each recieve a free download.

All comments for this post will be accepted as entry for the giveaway and this contest will end on Sunday January 16, 2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific time. I'll randomly select three winners and announce the winner later that week.

Coconut Eggnog with Coconut Moonshine

Aside from baking a couple of fruitcakes, wolfing down some arroz caldo, and scoping out the neighborhood Christmas lights, there's another holiday tradition that gets my insides all warm and fuzzy: Eggnog!

I know not everyone is an eggnog enthusiast, but I suspect that's because eggnog haters have never imbibed in the homemade stuff--'tis a shame. But to me, it wouldn't be Christmastime if I didn't whip up a pitcher or two of some frothy creamy nog from scratch.

And this year, I decided to stray from my usual straight-up eggnog recipe consisting of cream, milk, eggs, and a Santa-sackfull of bourbon and decided to instead Pinoy-ify my potent potable by adding coconut milk and fortifying the nog with a healthy dose of lambanog.

Lambanog?

Oh, I'm glad you asked. Lambanog is a Filipino moonshine made from the sap of a coconut tree. Add lambanog to some coconut milk eggnog and you've got yourself some high-octane coconutty goodness in a glass--something I like to call LambaEggnog.

Mmmmm. Pormanteau.

Queso de Bola Fondue

Every year around this time, a Dutch cheesemaker begins wringing his hands in anticipation of a huge financial windfall. With a high-off-his-rocker smile on his face, the Dutch dairy wizard loads a huge cargo container full of crimson globes--balls of aged edam cheese covered in red wax. The giant bounty of salty cheese is then loaded onto a ship bound for a port thousands of miles away.

The destination? Manila.

As the cheese-carrying ship dissappears over the Atlantic horizon, the Dutch cheesemaker jumps in the air and clicks his wooden heels together as he pictures the millions of Filipinos that will soon be enjoying his cheese at their Christmas dinner tables. He laughs maniacally and clipity-clops to the nearest head shop to celebrate.

*****

OK. So the above scenario has probably never really occurred--I just like to think it has. But there is a little bit of truth in the above story. Edam cheese from Holland really does make an appearance on many a Filipino dinner table at Christmastime. But we refer to the cheese as "Queso de Bola" or ball of cheese, or cheeseball. And although Queso de Bola is technically Edam cheese, the export to the Philippines is specially formulated for the Pinoy palate--the Dutch add some extra salt just for us (perhaps we can blame them for our gout).

Queso de Bola is usually served at Christmas Eve festivities (Noche Buena) and paired with anything from ham, to pandesal, to ensaymada, and even tsokolate.

And luckily for me, Queso de Bola is readily available here in the States. I found the Marca Pina brand of cheese at my friendly neighborhood Filipino grocery store, and I believe the Marca Pina brand is a preferred brand in the Philippines.

The cheese itself is firm with a sharp, rich and nutty flavor, though not as salty as I thought it would be. While nibbling on a few pieces of my cheeseball and drinking a cold San Miguel, I figured I'd do something a little different with the rest of the cheese--I'd make fondue!

Adobong Sili (Chile Pepper Adobo)

It's been said a few times before in this space, but it bears mentioning again: almost anything can be made into a Filipino Adobo. As long as you have a braising liquid consisting of vinegar, soy and/or salt, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns, a tasty adobo you should have. Of course, we Filipinos veer toward the meaty side of things when throwing something into the adobo braise.

In fact, you might remember adobo from such meaty blog posts as Chicken Adobo (Yes, Again), Unforgettably Fatty, and the Burnt Lumpia classic, Wingin' It, Filipino Style. But even things like squid and water spinach do a good adobo make.

And, as I discovered at my grandmother's most recent Thanksgiving feast, even chile peppers can be adobo'd!

Sinigang na Lechon

Despite nearly 20 wide-eyed, watery-mouthed, hungry Filipino porkaphiles hacking away at a whole-roasted pig this past Thanksgiving at my grandmother's, there was still plenty of pork to go around after everyone's forks and spoons were laid down.

Nope, my family could not put away 200+lbs of porcine goodness in one sitting, which was fine by me because the only thing better than lechon is leftover lechon. What to do with leftover lechon?

Well, on many an occassion I've been known to drizzle some good olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper on some leftover lechon meat and then throwing the whole lot on a hot grill--juuuust for a minute or two until the meat is branded with grill marks and the skin re-crisps.  Mmmm, almost as good as new.

And then there's always Paksiw na Lechon: a tasty stew of roast pig leftovers simmered in vinegar, sugar, spices, and lechon liver sauce.

But for this go-around, I decided to utilize my latest bounty of lechon in a pot of Sinigang. Sinigang is a sour soup that often contains fish, shrimp, or pork. Sinigang is also perhaps the most beloved and comforting of Filipino comfort foods. So I figured what could be more comforting than a Sinigang chock full of lechon?

A Filipino Thanksgiving

I've mentioned in the past how my family gets down on Thanksgiving--my grandmother orders a lechon in addition to cooking a turkey for the big day. This year, however, things were a little different--my grandmother decided to not cook a turkey (gasp!). But in all honesty though, not a person in my family cared about the absense of said gobbler. After all, a whole-roasted pig is all a Filipino family needs, isn't it? Isn't it!? (The answer is YES!).

I was also lucky enough to be at my grandma's right when the Lechon Dude dropped off the pig. I had the honor of helping my grandfather take the roasted pig from the back of the Lechon Dude's pickup truck and into the house. The pig was still hot, and I could immediately tell that it was stuffed with lemongrass as I could smell the citrus-scented steam wafting from the pig's backside--the best a pig's ass will ever smell I'm sure.

And besides the roast pig, my grandmother and her two sisters (AKA "The Aunties") cooked up a Filipino feast that would make Manny Pacquiao weak in the knees (like SWV). So, I figured I'd share a few pictures of all the Filipino goodness with which I stuffed my face on this wonderful Thanksgiving. By the way, all the pictures in this post are courtesy of my little brother, AKA Jean-Luc Monstroso (kind of not his real name), who happens to have one of them snazzy cameras that come with a shoulder strap. Enjoy.

Powered by Polvoron

Although my young son (AKA Baby Lumpia) is only 15-months old and is much too young to indulge in candy of any sort, my wife and I made it a priority to dress the little guy up for Halloween this year and take him out trick-or-treating just so he could properly experience the occassion.

While I wanted to dress Baby Lumpia up as a Zombie-Ninja, the wife vetoed that idea and opted for something "easy and warm" as she put it.

Bones

To the casual observer, my kid's costume may seem to be a simple "skeleton", but I like to say that he was dressed as a member of the Cobra Kai:

Ah, the Karate Kid. It's a classic.

Anyways, besides dressing my kid up as a member of a villainous band of bullies, I also decided to celebrate Halloween by making my own homemade candy. But not just any candy, mind you. I decided to make a batch of the traditional Filipino candy known as Polvoron.

Manila Manila Manila Manila Machiiiiiiiiiiine!

In case any (or probably all) of you haven't been checking in to my other website, I figured I'd share this video with everyone here. The video features some background information about the origins of my latest business venture: The Manila Machine–Southern California’s First Filipino food truck. The video also includes a dang-catchy theme song. Yes, The Manila Machine has a theme song!

The video was produced by A.J. Calomay of Xylophone Films, and the song you hear in the video was written and performed by the Los Angeles-based soul/funk/R&B band, Elson and the Soul Barkada.

So have a gander at the clip and enjoy. I must warn you though, The Manila Machine theme song will be stuck in your head for days.

Manila Manila Manila Manila Machiiiiiiiiiiiine!

Macapuno Ice Cream/Coconut Porter Beer Float

Wow. Long time, no blog eh?

Although I've been in blog hibernation for the past few months, I've hardly been sleeping otherwise. I've been on the road and working like a dog (actually, I'm sure dogs don't work as hard as I've been working).

But as I've discovered, piloting Southern California's First Filipino food truck does have its perks, as well as provides much inspiration for blog posts (many of which I hope to cover here some time down the road).

For instance, a couple weekends ago I had the great opportunity to park The Manila Machine at the Los Angeles Beer Float Showdown II. Not only was I able to serve hungry bar flies some Filipino food, but I too was able to enjoy in the beer and ice cream festivities.

I Spy The Manila Machine

This year's Beer Float Showdown featured four teams/bars (Boneyard Bistro, Ladyface Alehouse, Simmzy’s and Tony’s Darts Away) that each created a single beer float. I was so inspired by the boozy ice cream floats that I decided to make my own Pinoy-ified beer float at home. But before I get to my own concoction, let's take a look at what went down at the L.A. Beer Float Showdown II.