Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Bananas Foster in a Banana Leaf

My use of the term “binalot” has been limited to the answering of queries pertaining to my whereabouts. For example:

Buddy: Hey Marv, you ever been to Disneyland?
Me: Yeah, I’ve binalot.

College Professor: Hey Marv, you ever been to any of my lectures?
Me: Yes, I’ve binalot of your lectures.

Potential Employer: Hey Marv, you ever been to jail?
Me: Uh, no. I, uh, never bin to jail.

Well, it turns out that the term “binalot” also refers to the Filipino method of preparing foods in various types of wrappers—usually banana leaves, although other wrapper types may also fit in this category.  And with “Binalot” being the theme for the current Lasang Pinoy event, I had a couple of ideas to play around with.

On Vacation: Keep an Eye On Kal

The Wife and I will be on vacation for the next couple of weeks.  We are traveling to Paris, Rome, and environs in between.

In the meantime, please keep an eye on my Kalamansi Tree, Kaladocious Kalamansi IV.  I've watered him just this morning, so hopefully he's still green upon our return.

He probably doesn't look much different from the last time you saw him.  But if you look a little closer...

The beginnings of Kalamansi limes.

He's alive!  He's aliiiiiive!!!

Uh, talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Sadly, Irradiated Mangoes Do Not Give You Super Powers

After reading an L.A. Times article yesterday about the arrival of Indian Mangoes in Southern California, I knew I had to get my hands on a box of these sweet fruits.  Although Filipinos do have a weakness for mangoes, as seen here, I rushed out to the nearest Indian grocery store for entirely other reasons.

Here in SoCal, a majority of the mangoes found in supermarkets, if not all of them, come from Mexico.  Indian Mangoes, on the other hand, were banned from U.S. soil for quite some time because they can potentially harbor mango seed weevils.  I’m serious.  I didn’t make that up.  Mango seed weevils.

According to that Times article, the ban on Indian Mangoes was lifted because they can now be treated with irradiation to zap any potential evil weevils.  Now, while irradiation may scare some people off, it was the main factor that convinced me to buy a case of Indian Mangoes.  Why?  I figured irradiated mangoes would give me super powers.

You know, like how that irradiated spider bit Peter Parker and he became Spider Man? Duh!

Grilled Bitter Melon, Mango, and Tomato Salad

Lasang Pinoy, for those of you not in the know, is a group of Filipino food bloggers who get together every now and again to blog about Filipino food.  Each Lasang Pinoy event revolves around a certain theme to promote different aspects of Filipino food.  Think of it as an underground fight club--except no one gets punched in the face, it's not so underground, and everyone shares recipes (Ok, so maybe an underground fight club wasn't the best analogy. My comparative analysis is unforgiveably nonsensical!).

Ahem, uh, moving on.

Like I was saying, each Lasang Pinoy event revolves around a certain theme.  The theme for the Lasang Pinoy event that I took part in was "vegetables", or more specifically "Oh My Gulay!"

"Gulay" literally translates to "vegetable".  The term, "Oh my gulay!" is (according to Toni at Wifely Steps) a Pinoy expression commonly used to present a feeling of shock, frustration, excitement, or surprise.  Funny, that.  I don't think there has ever been a Filipino who met a play on words that he didn't like (remember my Grandpa's legendary coconut joke?).

With my first foray into a Lasang Pinoy event coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S., I knew I had to get a little creative.  I was initially going to make my most favorite Pinoy dish, Pinakbet, but I thought that would be too pedestrian a dish for this event.  The guidelines for this Lasang Pinoy event state that entries need not be a typical Filipino recipe, but it had to have Pinoy flavor.  So I attempted to incorporate that Pinoy flavor (flava in ya mouf!) into one of the biggest grilling weekends of the year.

My grill was calling out to me. Oh my gulay!

West Coast Beef (and Broccoli)

As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking part in the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge this week.  As soon as I started this challenge, I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to base my diet on 100% locally sourced food.  And I guess that's where my "beef"' is with eating locally: it's definitely a good idea, it's just not completely practical, at least not for me.  As someone who is trying to learn more about cooking Filipino food, my cooking style doesn't exactly lend itself to all local all the time.

Take for instance, a beef and broccoli dish I recently made (Yes, I know. Not exactly Filipino, but still).  Most of the components were grown within a 100-mile radius from where I live: The broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, onions, the rice, and even the oyster sauce I used was made locally.  Again, you can see where my local ingredients were grown here.

However, many ingredients vital to this dish were non-local: the beef (although grass-fed and organic) came from the midwest, the soy sauce was brewed in Wisconsin of all places, the cornstarch is from Indiana, and the sesame oil I used is from Japan.

Geez, after reading that last sentence it looks like I didn't even try at this challenge.  But that's the thing, I did.  Although I've made beef and broccoli many times before, I've always planned ahead for it and shopped for ingredients knowing that I was going to make it.  In this instance, I actually cooked based on what I bought at the farmer's market; it was all spontaneous.  And I think that's a good thing.