Pabitin
Tue 31 Jan 2006
When was the last time you had a pabitin in your home? 
They are easy, economical and a serious favorite among kids! Every Christmas I try to put out several pabitins at the staff party where there are at least a dozen kids present. Earlier in the year, I hit the toy section of Divisoria and load up on all kinds of goodies, price doesn’t really matter, but volume and size does. In a pinch, I can do the same buying in the toy section of Landmark Department Store for just a little more than Divisoria. Then I buy two or three of those disposable pabitin bamboo frames from Shoemart or Landmark and get a whole bunch of colored crepe paper.
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(original recipe was from a Ken Hom cookbook many years back) that has never failed with guests… Take several handfuls of dry sotanghon (glass noodles or mung bean noodles)and soak it in some warm water until soft and drain. Clean some good alimango (mud crab) and cut into large pieces. Heat up a pan and oil and when it is smoking, add 2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped ginger, then 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic and 3-4 tablespoons of sliced shallots and stir briskly. Add the crab pieces and toss for a minute or two, still on high heat.
about amaryllis or hippeastrum before but I just wanted to give you all a heads up that they are in the markets now, albeit erratically. Someone must be bringing in some of the medium or lower quality bulbs from Holland and are raising them for the ornamental floral market. The size of the blooms is somewhat smaller than the Top Grade floral shop amaryllis in the West, but they are stunning nonetheless. At PHP50 (FTI, Taguig) or PHP100 (Salcedo, Makati) a bulb, they are an incredible bargain, in my opinion… They come in bright red, white and several shades of pink. Buy them when the blooms haven’t quite opened yet so you get maximum enjoyment.
present last year from some extremely generous and food-loving friends. By Christmas I had barely made a dent in the ham despite having served it as an appetizer at two holiday meals. I used to be a huge Prosciutto de Parma addict with its softer, smoother and also delicious taste, but I have graduated in some way to the more complex and flavorful Spanish hams… Jamon Serrano is just one notch below Jamon Iberico on the scale of superb Spanish hams and it is salty, flavorful, robust and memorable. Eat it plain, with some slices of good bread or with some cheese and it is a perfect appetizer…
Started over 11 years ago by two close friends that were inspired by the Silver Palate Cookbook (that was the result of a small but superb ready to eat/food shop in NYC’s Upper West Side), it is an outlet for their obvious passion for fine food. This small specialty food shop has just two branches at the Rockwell Mall in Makati and at the Shangrila Mall in Mandaluyong, but don’t let their diminutive size fool you…they have a lot of good stuff on offer. There are so many things about this business that I like… its owners have a real love for what they are doing, they are constantly experimenting, they pay close attention to how their store looks and their merchandising is world class. They are an outlet for artisanal cooks across the metropolis and they “import” authentic provincial specialties from well-guarded sources…
who make stuff the old-fashioned way or folks who really put a whole lot of effort into the foodstuff that they are purveying. I don’t necessary want slick, I prefer food with soul and passion. I have featured yemas and great ensaimadas from Mark Medina’s stall at the Salcedo market before…and last Saturday he handed me a bag of pastillas de leche to try while I was making my rounds. His pastillas were made from carabao’s milk with the caveat that they might seem a bit oily due to the fat in the milk…
Why haven’t I tried LAMAYO before? Why? My post several days ago on my beloved dried danggit resulted in several readers, including Marga, asking if I had tasted lamayo yet. I assumed it was fresh danggit but it isn’t…and boy have I, and you all (that haven’t tried it), been missing something really delicious. It just so happened that a couple of days after my dried danggit post I was speaking with the owners of The Blue Kitchen (post up soon) and lo and behold, they carried some frozen lamayo in their stores that they packed up and sent me home with to try at my leisure…