Potato Balls Recipe

Basic potato balls recipe. This is similar to Tokyo Tokyo’s potato balls. Choose your own dip, but personally, I think the garlic mayo dip I made for my homemade mojos work for this one too.

Mashed potatoes with cheese

Yes, it's oozing with melted cheese.

Click Read More for the potato balls recipe.

Homemade Mojos Recipe

A few weeks ago my brother requested that we make some mojos, but I was able to try it out only today. I just experimented on what to put (haha) and fortunately it ended up okay. The latter batches were a little more salty because I put more garlic powder than breading mix. So don’t make the same mistake I did. Lol.

Click Read More for my homemade mojos recipe:

Apple Cinnamon Crepes

It's officially the start of brrrr months. And I saw earlier today that we still had some pancake batter mix that we hadn't used. But it would be boring to make just pancakes. So I thought I could just whip up some quick crepes with some Christmassy fillings--so that's how I ended up with apples and cinnamon. :)

Finally! Faburrito: Fresh Mexican Grill

One of my bosses had been conceptualizing about opening a Mexican restaurant—or how we used to refer to it, the “burrito place”—a little over two years ago. A few days ago, it finally opened. Needless to say, we had to be there on the first day they officially opened.

The rest of the review after the jump!

Herb Cream Cheese Dumplings – Late Night Binge

I was so overwhelmed at how easy it was to make crab rangoon, I decided to experiment a little more with the ingredients I have left—cream cheese and those dumpling wrappers. Since I bought plain cream cheese, I thought it would be boring if I didn’t add anything else. Luckily, I saw that I still had a little of McCormick’s Italian seasoning left, so I just sprinkled around half a tablespoon of it onto the cream cheese plus added a little chili powder before mixing it really well and wrapping it up. But that was the tricky part, the wrapping-up part.

Earlier, Poi helped me out with the wrapping and it was almost disastrous. I had to “support” the dumplings with the tongs to keep them from opening up. So this time, I thought I would practice on how to close it up properly. I really couldn’t.

I ended up just scrunching the sides and it somehow looked like a flower. Haha. Well, at least my lousy skill turned out to looking something like art—or not.

Bottom line is that it tasted delicious. Perfect late night binge while watching season 2 of Dexter.

Asian Fusion Saturday--Crab Rangoon, Kimchi Fried Rice, and Laksa

There was an abundance of crab in the household today (rolls eyes) so I decided to try a new recipe with crab. I was actually searching for fried rice recipes (I can’t get enough of fried rice), but somehow I was redirected to the crab rangoon recipe page. Needless to say, I decided to try it out.

A friend was visiting so I let her help me with wrapping the crab/cream cheese mixture, but it was a disaster! Haha. In the end though, it was edible and they said it was actually good. Another nice appetizer I could do quickly. And it’s easy to do too. Just make sure if you decide to let someone else help, that person’s competent enough to close up the dumpling wrappers.

We ate this with some kimchi fried rice and laksa. Asian Fusion Saturday, if you must say.

Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe – Another Vegan Delight

I’m featuring another fried rice recipe, because you can never go wrong with fried rice (unless you are unbelievably incapable of making something so simple). Just kidding! I swear, you can use almost anything to make fried rice and it would turn out absolutely delicious. I guess that’s the magic of day-old rice, lots of garlic and a little bit of soy sauce. Haha. So why kimchi fried rice?

For days I’ve been watching Full House (Korean series) and—let’s just ignore the fact that I’m five years late in watching this series—in one episode Jessie (Song Hye-Kyo) was eating kimchi rice out of a big pot. Justin (Rain) asked her what the hell is kimchi rice and how did she make it, and she said she just tossed in some kimchi in a pot of rice, added more vegetables and seasoned it with a bit of soy sauce. Justin added that she was disgusting for eating something like it. Haha.

But the truth is, it’s not disgusting at all, especially if you ask any other kimchi lover like me. I just love kimchi, probably because the flavor is really strong and it’s very spicy. Anyway, that was what inspired me to make it, and earlier today I had some time to kill so I headed off to the grocery to buy the basic ingredients in making kimchi fried rice. The recipe after the jump!

Homemade Hamburgers Recipe

I was finally able to make homemade hamburger patties today. I love a really good grilled hamburger—that’s why I love Wham! Burgers so much. I also like my burgers simple. Just some lettuce, a slice of tomato or two, and a little ketchup and mustard and I’m all good! I hate putting mayonnaise and cheddar cheese on my burger because it ruins the whole experience, especially if the patties are grilled. They have so much flavor already that you really don’t need to add a lot.

Anyhoooo, I already tried making some homemade patties last night but I wasn’t able to take pictures and document the process. Tonight, I made sure to take pictures because I’m featuring the recipe and giving instructions on how to make them. So if you want to start making your own homemade burger patties, check out the recipe after the jump! :)

Review: Sonsi House of Authentic Native Longganisa

I said that I didn’t want this to become just another food review blog. But when you’re given a great deal to a really nice place, how can you not tell other people about it?

So I’ve been a member of Salamat.ph since they started around March. I’ve seen great deals being offered, grabbed coupons I liked, but was always reluctant to actually use one because the featured restaurants and shops were just too far. So imagine my excitement when I saw that they featured Sonsi: House of Authentic Native Longganisa—which is just a short walking distance from my current workplace.

Needless to say, I had to try it. The place was ideally located, and the deal was great—buy 1 take 1 for ALL their meals. I invited a friend to try out the place, with the condition that I will buy her lunch (because contrary to popular belief, I can’t finish two meals in one sitting all the time).

When we got there, the place was totally empty. A few minutes later, it struck me that it’s usually an inuman place, so there really wouldn’t be that many people in day time as there would at night. I wasn’t disappointed or anything that it was empty—just surprised that’s it.

So for the food. I ordered my favorite Cebu longganisa because it’s sweet. We asked for their bestseller and that was what my friend ordered—Alaminos longganisa. The meals came with fried egg and a drink, so the deal was really a steal.

above: Cebu; below: Alaminos

I loved my meal and finished it within minutes. Haha. Alaminos longganisa tasted a little sour and very garlicky. I liked it too, but I usually like my longganisa sweet. They have a few more choices for you if you plan to try something new.

I plan to go back there again with E sometime this week and try probably Lucban or Vigan—which I hear is another bestseller.

For more deals, you can check out Salamat.ph.

Favorite Pinoy Merienda---For Breakfast

My mother is a traditionalist. Most of the dishes she cooks for us, she learned when she was younger. I remember the first time I cooked Carbonara at home, she was weirded out because it had white sauce instead of the usual red we have at home. That’s how old-school she is.

But I’m glad that I was never discouraged to cook new things (despite many failed attempts), and so fast forward to today, even she is beginning to experiment on cooking. She even told me earlier today that we should fill the cupboard with different spices and sauces and whatnot so we could use whatever fancies us in the future. Big leap for her.

And speaking of big leap, she really did a big leap in cooking today—homemade palitaw—a classic Filipino delicacy we used to buy only from the resident manlalako during lazy weekday afternoons when we were kids. I remember how much I loved the smell of sesame seeds, how I used to sprinkle my palitaw with lots of white sugar, and how much I loved to chew on this sticky snack. That’s why I really enjoyed eating these today—reminded me of simpler times when I was a kid.

I didn’t get to see her actually make these because I woke up late (as usual), but I know these are made from rice flour (galapong), and you just poach it in boiling water, from which it will first sink—then float back up (litaw) when it’s done.

I absolutely love palitaw. I hope someday I also get to learn how to make traditional Filipino merienda.