Longganisa Pasta

My aunt went to Ilocos lately and she brought with her a box full of vigan longganisa. I tried bringing some back to our hometown but my package was held at the airport. I also warned my aunt about it as her flight was supposedly on the following day. What she did was to cook some and bring it back to her place down south while she left a few bags of longganisa here in manila.

We had no choice but to cook it and eat it these past few days.. I previously loved vigan longganisa but there came a time that we were already "sawa" with it. What I did was to use longganisa as an ingredient of something loved by the entire household especially my little girl.

One lazy afternoon, I checked the refrigerator and noticed there were a lot of cooked longganisa leftover so I decided to use it as the main ingredient for my pasta. Instead of ground meat, I had diced longganisa minus the wrap of course!

Here's the recipe I came up with as far as I could remember:

Ingredients:
vigan longganisa (about 12 pieces), diced
garlic chopped
onion diced
tomatoes cubed
cooking oil
olive oil
del monte tomato and cheese gourmet pasta sauce
maggi magic sarap

Cooking Instructions:
1. Take out wrapper from vigan longganisa.
2. Heat few drops of cooking oil and olive oil.
3. Saute garlic, onion and tomato with longganisa
4. put a few drops of maggi magic sarap and heat for 5 minutes
5. pour del monte tomato and cheese gourmet pasta sauce. heat for 5 minutes
6. pour sauce over cooked spaghetti noodles and serve!

Surprisingly my little girl loved this recipe.

Davao's Best Dining Places II

I was quite fortunate to be back in my hometown for a few days despite my busy work schedule. We were able to go to a few dining places and I suddenly remembered I used to write about Davao's best dining places. Here's a few more venues of gastronomic delight that the Durian Republic offers:

1. Ahfat - I am always delighted with my meal in Ahfat. Whether it be any of their seafood offering or their pancit or their spareribs. Ahfat is one of the dining places where we frequent bringing along our visitors in the city. Proof that Davaoenos and visitors alike love to eat in Ahfat: the place is always full even if there is already an extension of Ahfat's dining area nearby. One should not miss eating in Ahfat especially if it is their first time in Davao City.

2. Lisa's - Offers a wide array of fresh seafood delight at an affordable price. Located near Time's Beach, the place is always full at lunchtime and dinner time. I always love their crispy fried hito! I was so delighted that I need not to drive far in Tugbok whenever I crave for crispy hito as it is already available in Lisa's. It is best to go to Lisa's in the afternoon almost dawn as lunch heat can be quite scorching. After going to SM, you can drive along the Times Beach area. Once you hit the place, you will never miss Lisa's as it is the one with most cars parked in front. Parking sometimes a hassle especially during peak hours but don't worry as it will also lead you to nearby alternative seafood dining places.

3. Miggy's - In case there's no more parking space available at Lisa's try Miggy's also along Times Beach area.

4. Roadhouse/Antonio's - If you happen to be in SM, try dining either at Roadhouse or Antonio's. My family always take us either to these 2 places for Sunday lunch.

5. Bigbys - A great place to dine with family and friends in case you need to chat and catch up with each other's lives.

6. Colasa's - Their chicken barbecue is one of the best that I've ever tasted.

7. Picobello - For great pasta and pizza!

8. Cecil's - For afternoon snack, we love best their dinuguan and pancit luglug.. Try also their caramel cake.

9. Bistro Rosario - If you love cakes, drive along Torres Street and you will never miss the white building facade of Bistro Rosario. Choose a slice or a box that you can take home to. A family friend used to bring Bistro Rosario cakes back to Manila whenever they are here in Davao for a visit.

10. Sutukil - it's near the Central Bank and food is great and affordable for working professionals. A lot of sales people dine here during lunch or dinner.

Rice Saver

There are plenty of hungry people in the world thus it always make me consider not to waste any food most especially rice.

Few years ago, I got a simple but useful tip on how to maintain freshness of cooked rice: wipe out moisture in the rice cooker! When I tried this trick, the extra cooked rice lasted for the next 2-3 meals! depending on how much extra rice we've got! Another practice that we've gotten used to when we have extra rice after dinner is to place it in a container and put it in the refrigerator. We use this when we cook breakfast as our main ingredient for fried rice!

Tikoy Festival Recipe

As Chinese New Year draws near, I received lots of Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Cake) from my Chinese friends for good fortune.

My favorite is the one from Salazar - brown and heavy!=) I'm the only one in the household who is a Tikoy fanatic. My husband doesn't eat it, my daughter ate a few and found it too sticky for her taste. Yaya takes a few bite every so often.

 

The first time I received Tikoy was about 7 years ago and I thought it was eaten raw as it is. I found it too hard and gummy then. I was told the following day that it was supposed to be fried in cooking oil, with an option to dip it in scrambled egg before frying. 

I received a fabulous tip lately from a Chinese colleague that it can be wrapped with lumpia wrapper before frying it.

I tried the recipe the minute I got home and I instantly loved it! Tastes like Turon in fact! Yaya also tried it and liked Tikoy in lumpia wraps. My daughter who rejected Tikoy not cooked this way considered trying Tikoy once more since she found it crispy to the bite.

Crispy! Sticky! Lovely! Yummy! Looking forward to my next Tikoy fest!

Questions for Moms

Do you really know how much of the important nutrients your child gets from his milk?

Do you really know what's in your child's milk?

Do you know how much you are really paying for?

Do you check the label?

Some intriguing questions I've been meaning to ask all of my mommy friends.. Answers would most likely be a "yes" or "no" or "I think so". 

For moms, who answers either of the last 2, it's time to check the label!  

Comfort Food

Food for the Soul list:

• Ice Cream - Yum! Yum! There's a new product from Nestle - Heaven's ice cream that enables me to indulge some more! My Old Time favorite is Nestle's Double Dutch flavor.
• Chocolate Cake - always put a smile on my face regardless of the source - may it be the one in our office canteen, at Red Ribbon, Starbucks, Pepper Lunch or homemade.
  
• Mr Chips - I'm not much fond of junk food but I cannot resist Mr Chips whenever wherever I see a bag of it!
• Green Mango with bagoong - If bagoong is not available, soy sauce with sugar will do.
• Yogurt - There's something about yogurt especially the Strawberry variant made by Nestle that simply relaxes me. For the past 10 years now, I've added yogurt as one of my comfort food.

List of food above always give me a certain high whenever I have a chance to savor them!

Davao's Best Dining Places

During the holidays we were able to go around Davao and discovered a few great dining places mostly with families..Some are quaint while most of them are ideal for families.. Here are a few of my favorite dining places in random order:

• Paparazzi - A great pizza place near Mabini St. I loved Papa's Pizza! I was disappointed when they closed down their Ilustre branch but was ultimately pleased when I found out that makers of Paparazzi pizzas are one and the same of Papa's Pizza. I loved their Prego Pizza so much!
• Sugarmunch - A great dessert place tucked in Marfori Subdivision. You won't miss the gold and white stripes beside Gigz party shop. Most coffee shops in the city serve Sugarmunch delicacies. I would recommend to try their Dark Moist Chocolate Cake. Its super delicious and easy on the pocket!
• Papa Ching's - If you loved Molave's Chicken recipe, then you would definitely love Papa Ching's greaseless chicken. I couldn't believe I finished an order of half-sized chicken by myself!
• Aseya - A door away Humberto's place, one would love their own version of fusion dining of Thai, Indian and Malay cuisine. Check out their Aseya salad and their version of spring rolls and Pad Thai. Their chocolate cake is a must try in which my lovely guess would come from Sugarmunch.
• Hola Espana - Finally, an authentic Spanish cuisine in Davao City! One should try their Paella dishes and steak! Be prepared to shell out some money though.
• Tadakuma - It used to be situated at the back of Chowking Bajada. I loved how fresh their makis and sashimis are! I frequent their place near Central Bank. I recently learned that they opened a site in Damosa.
  
• Harana - a nostalgic place for me! We used to spend our childhood playing in their big playground. Now, its our children's turn to play. We never got tired of playing that we dined out here twice during the holidays.
  
• Sarung Banggi - we normally have dinner at this place to celebrate my parents wedding anniversary. This time around we had lunch here during my birthday. I loved all their steaks - Pepper Steak, A la Pobre, Porterhouse are a few of my favorites.
• Banoks - We are Colasa's lovers but when I observed that Banoks almost became ubiquitous in the city, I got curious and tried out their Chicken Barbecue. We dined in their Torres branch. Loved the chicken (but not as much as Colasa's) and downed it with fresh buko juice. I got extra curious with Allegro' s ice cream freezer standing nearby and tried out the Durian Ice Cream. Yummy for a non-durian lover like me.

There are still a lot of great places to dine out in Davao. The list will continue hopefully in my next visit!

On Barbecue Marinade

I've tried to improve on my barbecue marinade for the past few months.. Here's my standard marinade ingredients that I want to share:

1 can Coca Cola Regular

2 tbsp Peanut Butter

few pcs of Calamansi

1 sachet Maggi Magic Sarap 

Garlic - minced and chopped

Ginger- chopped

Brown Sugar

Pork Spareribs - almost 1 K

I always boil the spareribs before I marinate it. I place salt and pepper prior to boiling to add some taste. After boiling the spareribs, I add the ingredients above. 

I welcome any suggestions you may have on how to prepare a great pork barbecue marinade! Suggestions on chicken barbecue marinade will be appreciated as well. :)