08 Nov2009
You need to be a bitter green fan to enjoy this dish. Or at least enjoy strongly flavored greens. We served this braised gai choy with some leftover lechon, presumably to help temper the evils of cholesterol overload, and it worked flavorwise. But I can see how this would also be a rather tasty vegetarian dish on its own.
POSTED IN: General, Other Recipes, Vegetable/Salads, Vegetables
07 Nov2009
I have always thought of these as “Chinese” mustard greens, but it seems it is popular in several parts of the world and figures as an ingredient several different cuisines around the world. The leaves and seeds are both edible with the latter being made into mustard oil or just used as a spice for various dishes. While we have often enjoyed this vegetable in Chinese restaurants, as pickles, parts of mixed vegetable dishes or with some meats, I have never actually cooked this variety in our home kitchen. I have used a relative, mustasa, or mustard greens in various soups and this great salad with a bagoong kalamansi dressing. Gai Choy or Brassica juncea has a voluptuous curving leaves with rather sturdy stems. It has a strong, somewhat bitter flavor that some might describe as having horseradish notes. I have seen them relatively small as in the one in these photos, or in nearly giant heads.
POSTED IN: General, Produce, Vegetables
07 Nov2009
I was messing around in the kitchen, trying to come up with a sandwich that was first delicious, and second, used lechon somehow. First I made a paksiw na lechon and shredded the meat and placed it in a pan de sal. It tasted great, but it looked pretty boring. I think if the paksiw were darker and I threw in some greens it might look more appealing. And maybe a harder bun is necessary to hold up to the shredded paksiw, a pulled pork sandwich wannabe. But it wasn’t a slam dunk sandwich, so I futzed around some more…
06 Nov2009
Okay, here is Marketmanila 5th Anniversary mini-contest # 2. Everything I eat must eventually come out. So today I am sending you on a treasure hunt through the archives not on what goes in, but what comes out. Please use the search function to look for key words or phrases, and make sure you go clue by clue, they are numbered. If you happen by chance to come across a clue out of sequence, you have to start again so you have seen all the clues. When you get to the final clue, it will indicate you have finished the hunt and give you instructions. All folks who successfully complete the hunt will leave a comment on this post, and one of those entries will be randomly picked to receive a bottle of Marketman’s kalamansi marmalade! Good luck and happy hunting, if you are good, it won’t take more than 10 minutes if you read fast. Let’s just hope the site doesn’t crash from so much more search activity than usual!
POSTED IN: General
04 Nov2009
Pritong Lechon, or fried roasted pig is one way to resurrect some leftover lechon, see previous post here. But one really needs to temper this cholesterol laden dish with something a bit less deadly. So when a quick trip to the fish market yielded two stunningly fresh and rather large talakitoks (trevally or jacks), we were definitely in business! A simple sinigang na talakitok (tamarind broth soup with fish) with lots of vegetables and the pritchon were the perfect office lunch for Marketman and the crew…
POSTED IN: General
04 Nov2009
I’m not sure what gave rise to this, but the past year or two has really seen the renaissance of pork or anything porcine in nature. When the magazine Time Out New York issued its annual “100 Best Things We Ate And Drank This Year” in December 2008, and this $9 sandwich from Porchetta came out at the VERY TOP of the list, of course I was curious and definitely wanted to try it…
POSTED IN: General, Meat, Pork, Restaurant Meals, Snacks, Travel & Leisure
03 Nov2009
Here is Anniversary Game # 1: The prize(s) : A couple of dozen siling labuyo seeds from Marketman’s gardens. Can be mailed to a winner anywhere in the world, but I will not put a return address on the envelope just in case customs in your country of residence aren’t keen on imported seeds in the mail… Depending on the number of participants in this game, I might pick two or three winners from local and foreign entries… This contest will run approximately 24 hours so that readers from around the globe have a chance to participate.
POSTED IN: General
03 Nov2009
Marketmanila.com turns five this month! In blog years, that has to be the human equivalent of nearly 100 years old! I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought I could keep this up for this long. In the first four years, I wrote 1,900 posts and the blog logged 9.3 million page views. In the past year, I managed to write another 450+ posts and readers added another 5.5 million page views for a total of nearly 15 million page views over the lifetime of the blog. Every day between 6-9,000 visitors from around the world come to visit… I honestly thought I would have run out of material to write about by now, but as I type this, I realize I have a backlog of nearly 50+ posts worth of photos and items to blog about. I have been tempted to call it quits a couple of times during the past few years, but have also been fascinated with the continued growth in readership and the incredible exchange of ideas, tips, recipes, knowledge that have occurred in the comments section. So thank you for being a part of the marketmanila community and for your repeated visits to the blog. And in true pinoy fashion, it’s not the celebrant that gets the gifts, it’s the other way around! :) So for the next week or two, I will be giving away an assorted bunch of goodies as my anniversary “balato” or gifts for readers from near and far…
POSTED IN: General
It’s been several years since my last post using the wonderful and ancient grain called farro, here. I had a couple of cups of uncooked farro in the pantry and decided to make…
POSTED IN: Rice/Noodle/Starches, Salads
I was anxious to use the newly arrived bounty of ingredients as soon as possible, so we invited some friends over for dinner, and decided to make a salad as a starter. Before…
POSTED IN: Fruit, Other Produce/Ingredients, Salads, Vegetable/Salads
With superb sourdough and cheeses (as well as salamis) as Part I of the food pasalubongs, how could there not be a Part II with fruit and chocolate. Mrs. MM’s luggage included several…
POSTED IN: Fruit, General, Other Food Products, Kitchen Equipment, Etc., Travel & Leisure
Family, friends and business colleagues have always been amazed by the contents of our luggage when we return from local or foreign trips. I once ran into a professional acquaintance of mine at…
POSTED IN: Markets, Food stores & Provedores, Other Food Products, Kitchen Equipment, Etc., Other Produce/Ingredients, Travel & Leisure
A Christmas Tree Farm near the Canadian border… I knew there was a good reason to take these snapshots of these rows and rows of pine trees last Spring when we were in…
After a recent trip to Cebu, I realized there were three types of tableas in our pantry, so I decided to compare them… First and foremost, let me state that I love artisanally…
POSTED IN: General, Other Food Products, Kitchen Equipment, Etc.
Don’t read the rest of this post if you felt any tinge of sympathy for the fishpan lady…
POSTED IN: General, Other Food Products, Kitchen Equipment, Etc.
I regularly browse through the second hand or unsold food magazines at mall stores like “Book Sale” and other shady re-retailers of books and magazines. Sometimes the stuff looks like it might have…
POSTED IN: General, Main Courses, Meat, Pork