Buffalo Wings

My brother in law, Mark, if from Buffalo, New York so he is a buffalo wings snob!!! Well he is very particular with Buffalo Wings as I am with Tocino (being Kapampangan). Anyways, Mark has mentioned that he is on a continues search for the best Buffalo wings here in Bay Area California. So far the best one he found was at a small asian family own restaurant called D'original buffalo wings. Mark said that is the closest to the wings back home in Buffalo. He ordered some of this Buffalo wings from the resto for his birthday. I tried the sauce to have an idea what the sauce should taste like in the first place. I was surprise that its a lot tangy. He started told me how it was made, and explained to me what is very important on making good wings. Mark said that the crucial part of a good Buffalo wing is to make the wing crispy. I guess its the skin that has to be crispy. That part is what I was afraid of. When I decided to make some, I was thinking about how to make the wings crispy. I have not fried any kind of meat in a long while. But with the right oil temperature, everything went well. The sauce was a hit and the wings crispy. Friday Buffalo wings night was a hit!!! Mark loved it and so did my husband. I took on the challenge and survived. First Buffalo, next the world!!!! (evil laugh) ha ha ha ha ha

Kare-Kare

Kare-Kare is pork with vegetables cooked in peanut butter sauce. I guess this is Thai influence to filipino food, since Thai food uses peanut sauce or cooks meat in peanut sauce. Kare-Kare is the only filipino dish I know that uses peanut sauce. Kare-Kare is also always accompanied by bagoong aka shrimp paste. The vegetables used is usually sitaw, pechay and talong (eggplant). Some people also adds puso ng saging ( ahm direct translation is heart of banana! hehe). The puso ng saging is usually used to thicken the sauce but its not always available here in California. Anyways I wouldn't know how to cook it if I have it. Without it is just fine also. Kare-Kare is somewhat tedious to make but I have found my own procedure. I boiled the pork, usually spare ribs, until tender. Make sure to season the pork while boiling. Then, I make the sauce by mixing peanut butter with water until smooth. In a seperate pot, I am steaming or boiling vegetables til tender. Then when pork, vegetables and sauce are ready, put them all in the same pot and simmer so the flavors would marry. You dont really put a lot of seasoning on Kare-Kare. The taste all depends on the peanut butter sauce. Be careful on adding salt because you dont want it to be salty at all. When the peanut butter is mixed with the pork and simmered, the peanut sauce would change in taste. Its not going to be the same taste as what you put on your sandwich.

Dried Fish a.k.a Stinky Fish

For my sister Colleen's birthday, I put together a filipino feast for brunch. Once is a while my family does get filipino food cravings. I thought of having tuyo, but for some reason I can't find any from the oriental market. So the next best thing is the dried squid and jeprox fish?!!!! That is what it says on the label. I always thought its the poor filipino's bacon. Its a really thin fish and when you fry it, it kinda curls a bit and its very crunchy. Anyways, the preparations I do before frying up is, open all windows, close all bedroom doors, turn on fan and lite up candles. For some reason here in California or probably any cooler places, the rooms keeps the smell of food, and the dried fish is really really stinky for non filipino peeps. The smell sticks to your clothes and hair. But the trouble is all worth it. I cooked some tinapa and scrambled eggs with onions and garlic. I also bought some chitcharon. The brunch was a success. We might be smelly but atleast we are full.

Sinigang

How can a picture capture this dish? Looking at this picture, it just looks like a bowl of meat and vegetable in broth. How can your camera capture the tender meat in a sour and a bit spicy rich broth. Does looking at this picture make you salivate? Clench your jaw with the sourness? Does the taro looks like its tender and creamy? Can you even recognize its Sinigang at first glance. I guess when you see the kinds of vegetable used and the taro, yeah you can recognize it. I guess that after realizing what you are looking at, your imagination takes over. At the end, you can smell the picture. So, did this picture really capture the essence of sinigang? You tell me. Are you still drooling? Or clenching your jaw?

Chicken Mami CM

I used to go to the palengke (wet market) with my brother every saturday morning. I mean 6 a.m. morning. With bayong in hand, my brother and I would first buy the meat products, fish, vegetable then groceries. This way the meat products first would be at the bottom of the bayong then fish, etc. That is how we are taught. hehe Anyways, we usually go with our neighbor, and we usually have to wait for them. They take a while but we do our best to not get bored. So when we decide we are done buying our stuff, we look at each other and utter "CM!". We would go to a eatery, carinderia, stall at the outskirts of the palengke. They usually sell CM, BM and Palabok. Yes! for breakfast. I never thought it was weird til now. CM is for Chicken Mami. BM is for Beef Mami. I am not sure why its called Mami? We are so used to using the CM and BM names that we got the people selling the food call it the same way. hahaha Yes, we kinda re invented the name. I usually buy palabok becuase,,,,, I love palabok!

In the picture is also a bottle of patis. CM is usally served with calamansi and pepper. I have a japanese version of pepper I guess. It a bit spicy and has sesame seeds. Ahh this bowl is a total blast from the past. The bowl would have egg noobles, cabbage or napa cabbage (thinly sliced), carrots (also thinly sliced), chicken or beef, egg and sometimes with chitcharon. Oh and chicken broth of course.

Monggo with Malunggay

Here is an ingredient that I always buy whenever it is available. Malunggay. I am not even sure what its called in English. And when I see malunggay, I think Monggo! Monggo is Mung Beans soup. Cooking this dish reminded me how tedious it is to take the malunggay from the stem. Super easy to cook. My brother likes his monggo thin. Meaning the Monggo is not mushed with the broth. I like mine thick. I like eating Monggo with fried galonggong. It is also really good with chitcharon or pork grinds. Very hearty soup.