Sinigang na Manok with Banana Blossom

Sinigang na Manok with Banana Blossom. More often most Pinoy will cooked chicken as Tinola. Most will not try or attempt to cook chicken as Sinigang for the reason that it might not turn all right or would rather have a tinola instead of sinigang. Sinigang na Manok is as good as Pork Sinigang or Beef Sinigang. There is no special cooking method anyone who have cooked sinigang could cook also Sinigang na Manok. As to most of my Sinigang recipe I do not sauté the ingredients, sinigang is a simple boiled soup dish. For this recipe aside from the usual sinigang vegetable ingredients I also added banana blossom. Banana blossom make the soup milky and add a distinct flavor that complement the sourly taste of the broth.

Here is the recipe on my version of Sinigang na Manok with Banana Blossom, try it.

Ingredients:



1 kilo chicken, cut into serving pieces

1 medium size banana blossom, cut into wedges

1 medium size labanos, skinned, sliced diagonally

2 medium size eggplant, trimmed, sliced diagonally

2 medium size tomato, quartered

2 medium size taro root, cubed

1 medium size onion, quartered

2-3 pcs. green chili

1-2 tbsp tamarind sinigang mix

salt

Cooking procedure:



Wash chicken thoroughly. In a large pot, boil 6 to 8 cups of water, Add in the taro root and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until the taro root start to disintegrate. Now add in the onion, tomato and banana blossom, then simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Add in chicken and continue simmering for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Remove scum that rises. Season with salt to taste. Add in green chilli, eggplant and labanos, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until vegetables are just cooked but firm. Serve hot.

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Puerto Princessa’s Chaolong, Bona’s Chaolong - Palawan Food Trip Part 2

Puerto Princessa’s Chaolong, Bona’s Chaolong - Palawan Food Trip Part 2. Chaolong is Puerto Princessa’s local version of Pho a Vietnamese noodle soup. Chaolong is a misnomer, chaolong is pork innards porridge in Vietnam but the local chaolong is a meat stew soup with noodles. Puerto Princessa is known for Vietnamese restaurant and eateries being a host a processing center for Vietnamese refugees or boat people in the past. Most of the Vietnamese have since left and to those who have opted to stay are in to chaolongan eateries all over Puerto Princessa or are in to Vietnamese Specialty Restaurants.

The more popular of Puerto Princessa’s chaolongan is Bona’s Chaolong, the place is a typical eatery with wooden tables and plastic chairs along the road in an open garage setup. Expect that the place is crowded, it is frequented by locals for the reason their food are cheap. We visited the place early for a breakfast of chaolong with bread, we arrived at the place before it open but there were already several people earlier than us waiting for the place to open.

Bona’s Chaolong is made up of either pork or beef meat, they do have also a buto-buto version made up of pork in bones, and rice noodles in a reddish soup topped with bean sprouts and served with kalamansi and hot chili sauce. Chaolong is best eaten paired with the local version of French bread with a choice of plain or toasted with butter and garlic or cheese. If you are really hungry try their French bread with tuna, longanisa, pork or chicken.

Be warned that you will get splattered with the nuclear red soup while eating those addictive chaolongs, avoid wearing light colored clothes. If you are choosy and not as adventurous and prefer fine dining Vietnamese restaurants this may be not the place for you.



Bona’s Chaolong is located along Manalo Avenue Extension in Puerto Princesa City, just less than five minutes tricycle ride from the airport.

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Looking for Filipino Food in Brisbane?

Best Friends, Kainan sa Valley. Every time I have a change whenever I visited major cities in Australia I tried to find and visit a local Filipino restaurant or similar eating place. My problem is I am always on the go and I would not have enough time and I could only visit one or if I have time to spare perhaps a couple, defending on their location. A couple of months back while I am in Brisbane I finally have time to visit Best Friends, Kainan sa Valley. The place is located in McWhirters Centre Food Court just across the Fortitude Valley Train Station. The train station building is connected by a foot bridge to McWhirters Center, therefore going there was dead easy if you are taking the train.

Best Friends, Kainan sa Valley is an offshoot restaurant outlet of the popular Best Friends Philippine and Asian Food Store, these may be the reason, aside from the easy accessibility, that the place is has become one of more popular eating place of Filipinos in Brisbane. The place is a “Turo Turo” style eatery on a food court set-up, the place is noticeably clean despite the fact that McWhirters Centre is an old shopping center. I was only able to try their Dinuguan and Laing a personal favorite but looking at the food selections, the food are indeed visually appealing and it will definitely make any Pinoy that primarily go to shop for Pinoy goodies hungry. They do also have a large selection of dessert and other Pinoy native delicacies to try.

Adjacent is Café de Manila the coffee shop outlet of Best Friends which offers bakery products and Pinoy baked goodies and Pinoy cakes. It is an alternative option for someone who may not be hungry for a full Pinoy meal, and prefer a piece of Pinoy cake and a cup of coffee.

For the record this is not a paid advertisement, Overseas Pinoy Cooking do not do paid post. OPC do regularly make similar post as part of our information sharing and as guide to our readers who may be looking for a place to eat or dine while visiting the subject place. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Bon de Chavez for giving me permission to take pictures which were used on this post.





Best Friends, Kainan sa Valley and Café de Manila are located at:



McWhirters Centre Food Court

Brunswick Cnr Wickham Streets

Fortitude Valley QLD 4006

PH: (07) 3854 1462

FAX: (07) 3854 1418





Check out these other Pinoy Eating Places in Australia:



Pinoy Food Sydney?

Sydney Chinatown Food Trip

Dahon a Gourmet Tea Lounge in Melbourne

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Cheesy Buko Fruit Salad

Cheesy Buko Fruit Salad. This is my cheesy version of the classic Pinoy Sweet Buko and Fruit Salad. The truth is there is no hard rules on types and quantity of ingredients. Pinoy Fruit Salad main ingredients are assortment of canned fruits usually fruit cocktails, and there are countless canned fruits out there that can be used. Sometimes fresh fruits are also added if available, usually fresh buko or apples and oranges. For added nuttiness kaong and nata de coco are also added. For sweetener, condensed milk is used instead of sugar.

To make the sweet desert creamy an all-purpose cream would do the job. And last to make it cheesy, cheese is added, most Pinoy just use the affordable and readily available cheddar cheese. As I have mentioned earlier there is no hard rules on the ingredients quantity if the mixture lack sweetness just add more condensed milk.

Here is the recipe of my version of Cheesy Buko Fruit Salad.





Ingredients:



2 cups buko meat strips

2 cups fruit cocktail, drained

1 cup sweetened kaong, drained

1 cup red sweetened nata de coco, rinsed, drained

1 cup sweet corn, drained

1/2 block cheddar cheese, cubed

1/2 block cheddar cheese, finely grated

1 cup thick all purpose cream

1 cup condensed milk





Method:



Combine and mix thoroughly all the ingredients in a big bowl. Chill in a refrigerator until ready to serve.





See other sweet dessert recipe:



Buko Melon Salad

Buko Salad

Buko Fruit Salad

Buko Pandan Salad

Fresh Fruit Salad

Almond Jelly, Lychee and Pineapple Salad

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Sugpo at Upo Buridibud

Sugpo at Upo Buridibud. Buridibud is one of my favorite Pinoy vegetables dish, it’s a vegetable dish usually made up of Pinoy vegetables cooked/boiled with sweet potato or kamote and bagoong na isda, and topped with fried or grilled fish or fresh shrimp. When times are hard the vegetables may be just topped with daing na dilis or hibe. Click the links below to see the recipes of some of my Buridibud and dinendeng in the archives.



Dinengdeng with Inihaw na Bangus

Dinengdeng with Inihaw na Tilapia

Buridibud, Dinengdeng a Alukon ken Patani

Dinengdeng with Beef Soured with Tamarind

Dinengdeng

Dinengdeng, Green Leafy Version

Saluyot at Labong

Tabungaw (Upo) nga Buridibud

Malaga ken Marungay, Samaral at Malungay

Cooking your favorite Pinoy vegetable dish is not limited to basic ingredients it would be good to tweak the ingredients to add level to a humble Pinoy vegetable dish and make it special. For my Sugpo at Upo Buridibud I used prawns instead of using small shrimps or dried shrimp. It may be an overkill using prawns on a boiled vegetable dish but I thought I could enjoy more my prawns simply boiled with my favorite vegetables.



Here is the recipe of my Sugpo at Upo Buridibud.





Ingredients:



1/4-1/2 kilo small or medium size prawns

1 medium size upo, skinned, sliced into thin wedges

1 medium size kamote, skinned, diced

1 medium size tomato chopped

1 small size onion, peeled, chopped

2-3 tbsp. bagoong na isda

salt

Cooking procedure:



Dilute bagoong na isda in 2 to 3 cups of water, strain in a sheave and pour solution in a medium size sauce pan, bring to boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, remove all scams that rises. Add in the kamote and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes or until it start to disintegrate. Add in the onion and tomato let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes then add in the upo and prawns, add more water if necessary, continue to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until the upo is just cooked and the prawns turned red, do not overcook. Correct saltines if required. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

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Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong

Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong. For some reason I like this alukon, I just can resist buying some whenever it is available in my favorite supermarket the South Supermarket in Filinvest Alabang. I just buy it and decide later on how to cook it. Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong came out as I was thinking on how to cook the alukon that was sitting in the ref for 2 days. It is simple, yes it is not a new dish, but it was the first time that I cooked ginisang gulay with alukon. It would have been best if I had some shrimp but I have to settle with pork to top my Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong.

Here is the recipe of my Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong.





Ingredients:



100 grams pre-boiled pork, cut into thin strips

2 cups, alukon, trimmed

3 medium sized long eggplant, trimmed, cut into thin strips.

2 medium sized ampalaya, trimmed, deseeded, cut thinly-crosswise

1 medium size tomato, chopped

1 small sized onion, peeled, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

2-3 tbsp. cup fish sauce

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a medium size wok heat about 2 to 3 tablespoon cooking oil till it start to smoke. Stir in the garlic then immediately after add in the onion and stir cook for another 1/2 minute then add in the tomatoes, continue to stir cook for about 1 minute. Now add in the pork and continue to stir cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Add in the fish sauce and stir cook for another 1/2 minute. Add in about 1/2 to 3/4 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Now add in the eggplant and ampalaya let cook for about 1 to 2 minutes then add in the alukon and continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. Correct saltines if required. Serve with rice.

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Microwave Chocolate Orange Cake

Have you ever made a cake in a microwave? I knew of a girl at university who made them a few times as we didn't have ovens in our student halls, but I had never tried it myself. Until recently when my boyfriend wanted dessert after dinner, I hadn't made anything and didn't particularly want to spend long making a pudding, but I didn't want him to just get a bar of chocolate from the cupboard. So I had a look online for some microwave chocolate cake recipes and as usual put my own spin on it by adding some pieces of a Terry's chocolate orange that I happened to have in the cupboard.



Microwave Chocolate Orange Cake- an original recipe by Caroline Makes

Serves one but can easily be scaled up

4 tbsp self-raising flour

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp milk

2 Terry's chocolate orange segments



You need a large, sturdy microwave-safe mug (i.e. with no gold trim!) to make this. You can mix the ingredients in the mug; it is easier to do it in a bowl but to me half the fun of this was making the entire thing in one mug.



Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder then make a well in the centre and break in the egg. Mix in as smoothly as you can then add the oil and the milk.

Insert two chocolate orange segments in the mug and push in.

Microwave on high for three minutes - that's all it takes!

You can either eat this straight from the mug or turn out (using a knife run around the sides) into a bowl. The chocolate orange melts on top and the rest of the mixture does actually turn into a cake! It's a bit on the stodgy side and certainly not the best cake I've ever had but for a dessert that you can make in less than five minutes from start to finish you can't complain!

I'm sending this to Dead Easy Desserts, the blog challenge run by Maison Cupcake and hosted this month by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy. The idea is to send in desserts that take 30 minutes or less to make; I don't think you can get much faster than this!

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