Tag Archive | Filipino Food

Recipe: Corned Beef Silog

Mar18

Oh yes, another TikTok recipe. You know it!! I saw it and just couldn’t get it off my mind. I knew I was going to Sam’s Club for a run so I could buy a few cans of the Palm Corned Beef. This is basically homemade corned beef hash and it takes so much time and effort. I just asked Chan if he felt like it was worth all the hassle, he said it liked it! He said we should try to make our own corned beef next time to really make it homemade. I told him he can make the meat and I can do the rest. My favorite is the garlic rice because of course it is.

Diced Potatoes frying up…

Yeah so it takes quite a while to get browned since I just do some shallow frying. Also…it goes back into the corned beef after and loses the crispiness anyway so is it worth it? Idk man. I’m sure it does add a nice crunch to the dish when you have it fresh!

Garlic Rice

I didn’t burn it this time! I fried up the minced garlic in butter and oil on a medium-low heat. You gotta be patient with this, because it’s going to look so white for the longest time but it will brown eventually. Mm…and so well with some nice jasmine rice. Delicious!

Here’s the corned beef with the potatoes, garlic and onions stir-fried together! Mmm…

Recipe Credit: derekkchen (instagram)

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Mixed Plate Friday

Mar13

Sort of a mixed plate if my plate was full of Filipino food. If you are active on social media, you may have seen how popular Ilocos Empanadas are. There is a well known place in Hawaii that sells it but it’s out of a house and you have to call in your order on Wednesday night to pick up during the weekend. Apparently it’s hard to even get through the phones on Wednesday so I am good. Well I went to the Marketplace in City Square the other day for produce and just so happened to see it at one of the vendor stalls! Total twist of luck. I don’t recall a big sign for the vendor but it could possibly be Pinoy One. If I’m wrong, please let me know and I can edit this.

So what is Ilocos Empanada? I pulled this from Google…Ilocos empanada is a famous Filipino deep-fried street food from the Ilocos region, featuring a thin, crispy, bright orange rice flour shell. It is typically stuffed with savory savory Vigan longganisa (garlic pork sausage), shredded green papaya, mung beans, and a whole egg.

Took quite a few bites for me to get down to the egg! I knew it was the empanada in their case because they put each empanada in its own paper bag and of course it’s all greasy lol. They serve it with a vinegar dipping sauce. So was it worth the hype? Ehhh…I think this was $6.50 and it was just alright. Not super flavorful by itself or even with the sauce. Maybe I gotta try it from the super popular place…glad to have tried but was just alright.

I can’t resist pancit so I got an order of it from the same stall. Bummer of the year, a flavorless pancit. How can? You look at it and it looks full-bodied and seasoned! It wasn’t. I was this close to just drowning it in hot sauce or something but didn’t. It’s all too bad!

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Recipe: Filipino Garlic Fried Rice

Mar31

Garlic Fried Rice and you got me, fully. But I came across this video on TikTok and watched as they fried up the garlic and then added a can of vienna sausages which they then smushed with a fork so it was little bits, add eggs and day old rice…top with some green onions and you’ve got yourself a beautiful Filipino Garlic Fried Rice! There’s not even a full recipe, I’ll post the ingredients I used below.

Did I tell you folks I started using pre-peeled garlic and a garlic press? Wow, never has my life been easier. The taste of the garlic is not compromised. I can’t finish a whole big bag of garlic so I just put it in the freezer and use it as I need it. Thaws out really quick! Sometimes I might use fresh garlic but generally, I just use the pre-peeled one! Just like this here! Brown in a hot pan on medium low heat to get a nice brown to the garlic (not burnt).

Add a can of drained vienna sausages and mash coarsely with a fork. (Don’t pay attention to my burnt garlic). Stir fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Add 2 eggs and stirfry together to create a quick scramble. No need to cook it too much…add the rice almost immediately!

Add some chopped green onions and season with salt and soy sauce to your liking. I thought the vienna sausage was plenty salty – it wasn’t. I also prefer a bit of spice so I used a lot of hot sauce as I ate it. Just a simple and flavorful fried rice!

Filipino Garlic Fried Rice

1 T neutral oil (avocado, corn, vegetable, etc.)
2 C day old rice (rice cooker cups, I used Jasmine)
1 can of vienna sausages, drained
5-6 cloved of garlic, minced
2 eggs, whisked/combined
1-2 stalks of green onions, sliced
Soy Sauce to taste
Salt to taste

Heat pan on medium to medium low heat, add neutral oil and garlic and slowly fry until garlic is fragrant and lightly toasted. Add vienna sausages to pan and immediately mash with a metal fork coarsely, fry for about a minute. Add eggs and create a quick scramble before adding all the rice. Mix it all together and stir fry about 2 minutes. Add green onions, soy sauce and salt to taste. Enjoy!

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Mixed Plate Friday

May31

Maybe when you’re reading this post, I’ll be off to Vegas! Excited for a mini-vacay to Las Vegas! No, not to gamble. I am excited for all the good eats and of course Trader Joe’s and Ikea, let’s be real! I’ll try to schedule out a few posts for while I’m gone. Have a good weekend folks!

Fort Ruger Market Sweet Longanisa, Egg, Rice | $9.95 (May 2024)

I was super excited to try this. I love me some longanisa sausage and I thought there could be no wrong. I WAS WRONG. The sausage was so weird and mushy, the texture was totally off. When I buy the ones from the store to make myself, the skin is almost crunchy (sounds gross but it’s good). This was 10 bucks! Well at least it was fried rice I guess? I would not get this ever again.

Kahala MKT Zaru Soba | $8.99

This one was quite a surprise, I really really liked this. And what this dish included was eggplant and I usually hate eggplant. HATE. But this eggplant was cooked and seasoned perfectly, not at all mushy, had a bit of crunch and there was a nice smoky flavor to it. The only downfall of this dish was the imitation crab. This sounds weird but this crab was like super dry, I like imitation crab that is wetter? Is that weird? Do you know what I mean? I don’t want to feel like I’m chewing on paper is what I mean. Would get this again!

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Max’s of Manila – Kalihi, HI

Nov25

Knock, knock…is anyone still here? I took quite a long and unannounced sabbatical. October is probably my busiest month and this time, it dipped deep into November. This is the first weekend where I haven’t been stressed about the upcoming week. That may have to do with the three day work week coming up, yay!

Updates? I got a new laptop! Yay! I have a trip planned for December, yay! And yes, I did not stop eating during my sabbatical. Here is a recent meal I had at Max’s of Manila by Costco. I have been to Max’s once, years ago. I didn’t come into this restaurant with high hopes but left feeling pretty good! The reviews on yelp cite bad service, we had very good service so I will not echo those sentiments. On to the food!

Pancit Palabok | $10.50
thick rice noodles in a delicious shrimp, squid and ground pork sauce, garnished with garlic bits, ground pork cracklings, green onions and sliced hard boiled egg.

I enjoyed the dish, it wasn’t great but it definitely wasn’t bad! My dining companion didn’t like it so I got to eat most of it. Hahaha! I will say I’ve tried it here and at Jollibee’s but I like it better here.

Garlic Rice | $4.25 (small)
jasmine rice deliciously stir fried in golden garlic bits

You read that right. This is the small order of garlic rice. How was it? Well, kind of bland. I think I could have gotten white rice and been okay.

Kare-Kare (Beef Peanut Stew) | $15.50
beef shank and oxtail with vegetables simmered in thick peanut sauce, served with shrimp paste on the side.
Shrimp paste with the Kare-Kare – I love it!

Yet another dish my companion did not enjoy but I did! I enjoyed the oxtail with the peanut-ty sauce and the shrimp paste, oh boy, that really adds a nice umami kick. I enjoyed it!

Max’s Fried Chicken (Half) | $9.75

Their famous fried chicken. Was it good? Well…the skin is certainly nice and crispy. The meat inside? Well, kind of dry and blah. I rather eat Popeye’s fried chicken, sorry! Don’t hurt me!

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Saying Goodbye…

Jun3

Okay, misleading title…no I am not the one saying goodbye! This post is focused on bidding goodbye to an employee of mine. While I am sad to see her go, I am excited for her new adventures and her move to the mainland! Now, she is a graphic designer so I knew I wanted to personalize her gift with something handmade…and well…if you know me, you also know I am obsessed with miniatures so guess what I did…

I made a miniature of her office! Yes, this was all done by hand from scratch…I wanted to help her to commemorate her first ever office space as well.
Made her bookshelf, mirror (yes her mirror is blue!), art work…
Of course the iPad box contains an iPad inside too! Gotta focus on the details!
Did I? Yes, these are real books in her shelf that I scanned the covers of to create the books! Sorry I didn’t get to show a book inside, but the pages are text lined! Loved creating these mini books!!
One of my favorites in this project, creating the cork bulletin board! Yes, the pictures were the same as the ones on her real board!
Created the blinds in her office with the exact view out of her window…and yes, the blinds move!

I put a lot of work into this piece and while I had my moments of insanity (mainly because I am so focused and detailed), it was all worth it because she loved it! Ugh…I love miniatures so much…

Of course I had to cook for the going away party! I made homemade pancit because it’s one of her favorite foods. Very nervous making this because it’s just such a good dish and the taste is key! I gotta admit, I did a test run myself before this day and did not like the first test. I revamped the recipe I worked with and I think it came out great! My coworkers seemed to like it so I am super happy!

If you follow Kat, you would have noticed she talked about Butterfly Pea Flower tea the other week! It was such a coincidence because I had just ordered the dried flowers online and was prepping to make this drink! So you steep the flowers and the water turns into a very bright blue color. When mixed with acid, it changes color! I made a fresh lemonade (first time, was good!) and poured the drinks at the party. It was so fun to see it turn purple and pink! The tea itself doesn’t have a strong taste or any taste, it’s hard to explain. I would pour maybe 3/4 of lemonade to 1/4 of the tea. Tastes great!

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