Market Manila

I was wracking my brains last night trying to think of a way to use the pinipig (puffed rice) bounty that was sent over by friends (see previous post)… Making homemade “pinipig crunch” ice cream bars seemed a bit involved (do you remember that childhood favorite that used to crack and crumble as soon as you bit into the chocolate crust and the vanilla ice cream inevitably started dripping down your arm?!!) so I scoured some Filipino cookbooks and came across a recipe for a sweet pinipig dessert named… what else… “pinipig crunch”!!! The recipe, in the Philippine Cookbook edited by de Guzman and Puyat actually gave me a rough idea of what to attempt but I altered the recipe quite a bit to get to the “pinipig balls” I have in the photographs here. They are stunningly good. Forgive my ignorance as perhaps most of you have tried this before, but I haven’t, and I was really surprised by how good they turned out to be…

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I thought I was making good progress on a lower carbohydrate, better protein and a higher fruit/ vegetable intake regimen that I started last week to help get rid of 10 pounds of fat I put on since January 1 of this year. This is no super food denial diet, just trying to eat better. Though I have to admit that the skim milk, whey, oatmeal and strawberry shakes that I have for “snacks” sounded a bit bizarre and preachy, they actually taste good. I have also exercised every day for the last week, from working out to walking “briskly” and even taking a half hour spin on my ancient racer bike last night. Then the doorbell rings after dinner and in waltzes a couple of enormous boxes and a mini-bayong bearing generous food gifts from friends who really know how to eat…

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Fruit and almond gratins featured in this month’s Gourmet Magazine special on Montreal looked so good I was itching to try them ASAP. They seemed like the perfect no fuss ending to the Saturday Dinner with Friends (previous post). It also helped that I discovered that Santis delicatessen carried frozen blackberries which I haven’t had in eons. I also had some nice pears in the fridge, perfectly ripe mangoes from Cebu and some tart-ish baguio strawberries. I figured I would mix and match and see what combinations would work really well. This dessert was really simple to make, and it was done an hour before the guests arrived as it is meant to be served either lukewarm or at room temperature.

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Saturday’s at the markets always yields a bounty that is beyond my family’s ability to consume. I buy with my stomach and eyes and it usually exceeds our recommended caloric intake for the week. So Saturday afternoons are the perfect time to invite some good friends over for a last minute “un-orchestrated” dinner. Sometimes we have just two friends over, sometimes more. These friends are aware that this could be a “use what is in the fridge, freezer or pantry meal” and yet almost always oblige if they aren’t busy that night. Two Saturday’s ago, in the midst of the whole “maybe a coup” brouhaha, we decided to have this fairly easy meal… The main course was grilled angus sirloin steaks (out of the freezer, gifts from generous houseguests over the holidays) which we put on the barbecue for just 3-4 minutes on each side, some terrific sauteed portabello mushrooms (fresh from market and wickedly well priced) with butter and Italian parsley and some instant risotto Milanese (yes, instant! though it took 15 minutes to make!). Don’t worry, I normally make my risotto from scratch but this instant stuff was my wife’s discovery and it isn’t bad at all…

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It’s time to load up on authentic sili labuyo once again! I wrote a very extensive entry on this fantastic chilli just over a year ago (worth reading if you haven’t already, though I got no comments as I probably only had 10 regular visitors a day at that point in the blog) and it’s absolutely fascinating how I can tell what time of the year it is by the stuff my sukis are carrying… I was thrilled to see a fairly large massing of real sili labuyo (not the farm raised Taiwanese hybrids that have proliferated in the past 5 years or so) at the stall of a lady I go to at the FTI Taguig market. I don’t even know her name despite the dozens of times I have purchased the stuff on her tables but I do know she grows all of it on her own farm…and that makes it doubly good stuff. Last Saturday at the market she had about 700 grams of sili labuyo (several hundred pieces) so I bought all of them. Yup, that’s right, ALL of them!

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I am a sucker for unusual finds at the markets and my sukis clearly know this so they are very assertive about showing me the latest thing… more often than not, I buy it just to encourage them to feature more varied produce. Yesterday I got these really terrific looking sugar snap peas… fatter than the more commonly available chicharo (snow peas or mangetout). Although chicharo are sometimes referred to as Chinese peas and are common in Chinese dishes, they originated in Holland and are popular in Europe as well. The sugar peas in the photograph here are different from snow peas in that they seem “inflated” and have a rather crisp outer pod and succulent juicy peas (though the peas in this one seem a bit small or immature…).

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Taba ng talangka (crab roe or “fat” from small shore crabs) is either terrific taste “heaven” or wicked cholesterol “hell,” depending on your point of view. I generally, though not always, avoid crab and lobster coral or fat for the simple reason that its color and consistency conjure up immediate increases in fat deposited around my mid-section which is feeling a little “salbabida-ish” (”innertubish,” a newly patented Marketman adjective) lately. However, when I do indulge, it’s with a “you only live once” attitude… Taba ng talangka apparently comes from those really small crabs that look like they are all shell and no meat…but they apparently have lots of fat! I have never made this delicacy from scratch and don’t intend to…I just wanted to describe to you the sinful enough bottled version.

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Pork on pork. Doesn’t that just sound terrific? In this case, I was looking for something quick to prepare for dinner and spied two pork tenderloins in the refrigerator and some nice wide strips of thinly sliced Canadian bacon (probably made in Yakal Street, but still called Canadian bacon). That and a vague idea encouraged by a recent Gourmet article on Montreal and I decided to sprinkle the pork tenderloin with salt and pepper, pour some good Molave honey on it (maple syrup was the suggestion of Gourmet), added some fresh thyme and wrapped it all up with the Canadian bacon. Pop it into a 375 degree oven for about ½ an hour and it’s done!

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