TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday with Friends, Fun and Food!

Thank God it was Friday yesterday and it was one very good one indeed! I met up with 2 friends, Kym, my friend from Malaysia, whom I haven’t seen in ages since I left HP in Manila and Karen, who just got back from her trip to Manila.

Kym and I met up over at Pier 39 and of course she was still gorgeous as always. I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 years since I left my job and Manila to venture out into a new world for myself! We exchanged stories, updated each other with what’s been happening and it was really good for me to see a good friend from my “past life”. It’s even so funny how we met up yesterday, neither of us knew that we were both in town. I just moved to San Francisco just a little over 2 months ago and she was here for a quick vacation with her mom. As I was going through my Facebook 3 days ago, I saw her post a picture of Fisherman’s Wharf and said this is she in town? So I sent her a quick message and we were able to meet up yesterday. So I guess TGIF is also for Thank God its Facebook? That didn’t sound quite as catchy as I thought it would be. But hey, meeting up with old friends is really wonderful.

After meeting up with Kym I met up with Karen for dinner. Karen is a friend of mine who goes way back in college student council days. A few years ago as I was preparing for my application for my MBA I found out that she was going to take up her masters in UC Berkley (yes, she’s really smart aside from being pretty!) and I never thought our paths would cross since I was in the midwest and she was out in California. Last year, we met up in Chicago while she was supposed to be en route somewhere to the north-east for work, so since the work part got canceled we just ate our way through the Windy City. Anyway, suffice to say things happened, doors opened, now I am in San Francisco and we met up again after months.

It was a night full of laughs and stories. Stories, which will not be included here But what made our night even more great was the great food that we had. Karen got a groupon for Zuppa, an Italian restaurant along the South of Market neighborhood and we decided to go for it. We started with Prosciutto, which had a perfect flavor of salt and wasn’t as hard/ dry as other Prosciutto that I’ve had before. Perfect starter. Then came in our Pizza Vongole, I saw the group beside us ordering it and I was curious about it because I’ve never seen clams with their shells on a pizza before. And most definitely, it was great choice! Clams were fresh, the crust was thin and had a smokey flavor from the wood-fired oven . Amazingly we finished all of it and still had room for the pasta. The “delicate” pasta as it was named on the menu had Dungeness crab meat and toasted bread crumbs on top. It was perfectly seasoned, nothing too overpowering, usually I like my food to be doused with Tabasco sauce for the kick and spice, but this pasta was absolutely meant to be eaten as is.

It was a perfect Friday. Weekend, friends and food are always the best mix! The only thing that could have made it better was if Safeway sold individual ice cream bars/ sandwiches, because I was craving for an ice cream sandwich and had to settle for a cup! But nevertheless, its TGIF!

My Dad Taught Me To be a Porkaholic

Growing up, I didn’t really get to bond with my dad. He was your typical stoic, unemotional and conservative Chinese dad in Manila. I’ve thought about it many times and I can’t recall spending over 10 minutes talking with him. Weird huh? My dad passed away when I was 11 years old from his first and last heart attack (he smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day, take note that Lights wasn’t a hit then nor do I think he’d consider them either).

I can still remember when I was 6 years old I had to stay home for almost 2 weeks because I had a really bad fever. My dad got me a plastic toy truck and an orange, which until now I will never forget. That was one of the few rare moments of his emotional gestures with me.

One thing my dad did really well in taking care of us was to feed us really well. He’d prepare the best meals that I ever ate as a kid and until now the best Chinese food that I can remember. He didn’t say a lot of things but he knew how to make his family happy with food. He made the simplest dishes into the most memorable ones for us. I remember one time my dad was proofing overnight his own dough to make steamed buns. The  buns were perfectly flavored, sweet, moist and even tastier with my dad’s Adobo as its filling.

I didn’t get to learn a lot from my dad before he passed away. I was too busy eating as a kid to pay attention on how he cooked. Though one thing I learned aside from appreciating food was how much I love Pork!

Two things of being a porker that I learned from my dad back then, first was how to make the best Lechon Kawali by mastering our turbo broiler, which is as old as I am (or even older), it’s so old it has only 2 settings, ON and maximum heat (450F degrees). Second, was how to make the best Chinese style Adobo that can be the best comfort food to brighten up even the cloudiest day!

Traditionally, Lechon Kawali or Crispy Roast Pork is fried to turn the rubbery skin into the crispy layer of goodness that everyone knows. After boiling the pork belly, my dad used our trusty turbo broiler to cook the meat into golden crispy perfection. Of course, given it has no timer and all sometimes we had some burnt parts here and there. But who cares? everyone still ate all of it! The best part was after cooking the pork belly was seeing all the rendered grease at the bottom of the pan. Takes out some of the guilt while we gorged on bite after bite.

Adobo is a staple of Filipino households. Everyone has a version of their own. There are two Adobo’s that I will consider the best, my dad’s adobo and Tito Henry’s batangas style adobo. Tito Henry’s Adobo is reflective of the traditional Filipino style Adobo which is cooked in a lot of garlic, peppercorn, soy and vinegar, then it’s fried in oil and more garlic. While Tito Henry can make the best Filipino Adobo in my book, it was my dad who first introduced me to appreciating this humble yet so heavenly pork dish.

My dad’s Chinese style adobo is unique compared to the rest. To start of, instead of browning the garlic in oil, he used brown sugar to replace the oil. Since the brown sugar helps to add the darker and richer color, it also uses less soy sauce. After caramelizing the brown sugar he adds the garlic then the cut up chunks of pork, when the meat has caramelized a bit he adds the rest of the ingredients (soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaf). What also makes this unique is true to being a one pot Chinese meal, this Adobo is very hearty with all the other ingredients added to it from hard boiled eggs, fried tofu, dried squid, wood ear mushrooms and shitake mushrooms.

And like all Chinese-Filipino households who believes in not wasting anything, left over Adobo becomes the perfect base for Pansit Bihon (stir fried rice noodles).

Of course now I’m far from being a kid and I’ve had pork in so many ways. From Lechon Cebu, different varieties of sausages, the prized black pork, Carnitas galore and more. But my porkaholic roots will always be traced with my dad’s Lechon and Adobo.

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Gordon’s Kitchen

If there’s one thing I know I am good and passionate about, it’s definitely cooking. Everyone loves to eat but not all gifted with the passion to create happiness from the kitchen. I realize that over the years I cooked a lot of stuff but I don’t really keep track of what I make. Sure, I take photos but then post it up on my facebook, twitter, etc but I don’t really put an effort to compile them.

From now on I’m going to put up a digital photo gallery of what I make starting with the ones I have on my flicker account. I think it’s fantastic, years from now I’ll get to see everything that I’ve made and know what people liked.Who knows when I open up my own restaurant someday I’ll get the whole menu from here!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28081571@N02/sets/72157625833734969/

Last Summer Pig Out… Mexican & Italian style

This blog has been long due, I had a pig out saturday with my friend, Annah a few weeks ago before she headed back to Cincinnati for law school. It was one of those weekends that you just didn’t care and psych yourself that you will not feel guilty after whatever happens.

So we headed out to Pilsen, a Mexican neighborhood somewhere south of Chicago. A friend of mine told me that years ago it was an Italian neighborhood, as the years went by it became an ideal place for Mexican immigrants to settle in because real estate was cheap. Lucky me! I might not really an expert when it comes to real estate, but I have an eye (and a palette) for cheap eats! One of the things that made me curious about Pilsen was I’ve read somewhere that Rick Bayless (Top Chef Master and lover of Mexican cuisine) had a food tour of the neighborhood. So I thought if it was good for a Top Chef then it’s good for me!

So on this pig out of a food trip, Annah and I went to have lunch (after getting stuck in traffic in the highway) at Taqueria el Milagro. I am a sucker for tacos, while Annah was for tamales. I had the steak and lengua tacos, Annah had the pork and chicken tamales. The tacos were fair and decent, but the portions were huge! But of course, I had to taste some of Annah’s tamales, they were really good! Homemade masa with bits of nice fatty pork which reminded me of the chinese “ma-chang”, which is sticky rice with pork and chinese sausage wrapped in lotus leaves then steamed till cooked. Needless to say it was quite a messy lunch and we can’t help looking at what other people were eating. There was this couple seated to the table next to ours who had the chicken mole, which just looked as scrumptious as our meal!

We stood up to go back to the car to head off for dessert. But of course we had to stop by to the store next door. I forgot to mention that El Milagro is one of the largest suppliers of tortilla in Chicago so it was just right we take a peek in their store. But what caught our attention was not the tortillas…. It was the gigantic vats filled with freshly made Chicharon! Growing up in Manila, it was the chicharon that we know as chicaron-laman or the crispy pork rind that is “meatier”. We got a small handful and for 78 cents it was the perfect after lunch cum pre-dessert snack for that day! So while driving (not to mention getting lost, we were 2 happy campers munching on our chicharon.

Finally, we found our destination for part 1 of our dessert. It was freshly made Churros for $1! Again, I was drifting back in comfort food in Manila. I remember eating churros in Dulcinea with the hot chocolate dip, it was simply yummy (and fattening but who cares right?) The churros were warm, coated with sugar and filled with either cream, chocolate or strawberry. We were just a tad disappointed with the filling since they tasted like store bought. But then again for a $1 each, the freshly fried churros were more than compensating for the mediocre filling.

By this time around Annah was about ready to wave the white flag, but I just wouldn’t let her! So off we go to our last stop, Italian Ice! Mario’s Italian Ice is located in the hear of University Village. Annah simply fell in love with the neighborhood, it’s her ideal preppy collegiate type of neighborhood. But the biggest secret in this neighborhood was Mario’s store which is only open during the summer months. The Italian Ice is like eating a cup of smooth snow that is made with real lemon base then mixed with other fresh fruits for flavor. I had the lemon and cantaloupe, for $2 it was the best way to end our pig out weekend. We just sat on the steps of one of the apartments right across Mario’s store and spent over an hour reminiscing of things while people watching.

After getting home that afternoon, I didn’t bother to step on the scale. Who cares? Even for just one day I had a great time with cheap eats and a great friend.

Taqueria El Milagro
1923 S Blue Island Ave
Chicago, IL 60608

Don Churro
1626 S Blue Island Ave
Chicago, IL 60608

Mario’s Italian Lemonade
1068 W Taylor St
Chicago, IL 60607

The sweetest “Pasalubong” You can smuggle err bring home to Manila…

Filipinos are known to bring gifts called “pasalubong” to loved ones back home after a trip abroad. This article brings the traditional gift to the extreme level! Smuggling USD 140k disguised as chocolates. Clever?

Chocolate box used to hide 140K ABS-CBN News Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features.

Crunchy Crickets, Bugs and Grubs Anyone?

I’ve never had anything aside from fried crickets from the streets of Bangkok. But arthropods can be an interesting source of protein! It might not be your everyday eats, but for some people they are. I’ve seen a Andrew Zimmer eat tons of them and boy, does he make it sound good eats. But I still won’t try cheese cured with maggots. (Anything with the small white crawlers will never find its way to my palette.

So I found an article which tells you why eating bugs is good for you (not that we have been eating them already anyway)

Not So-Old Dog Learns New Tricks – Social Media

Yes, its my last 6 months of my 20s, so I’m not so old yet. So for some people I’m either still too young or the opposite. Anyway . . . I had a very interesting evening last night when I attended the event hosted by the Chicago Social Media Club and the British Council. It made me realize that new media can add the dynamism in traditional marketing mediums that professionals need to do.

One thing I learned way back when I was a student in De La Salle University in Manila with my advertising class is that my generation (Gen Y) is composed of a generation who can multi-visualize at the same time. Ergo, for someone driving EDSA’s sea of billboards my peers won’t need to glance to each and every one of them to recognize them. As for someone who belongs to other generations, it might take them a little longer to recognize them one by one. So for demographic sensitive products/ services its good to know this so you know where to throw in your cash.

So anyway going back to last night, it wasn’t just informative but also inspiring and fun at the same time! It was really amazing how they came up with the mix of speakers who came from all walks of life. There was this amazing lady from Ireland who is a self-proclaimed child prodigy for having a photographic memory and had a successful career in publishing till a few years back because she fell ill with a brain condition that only 90% survive. Lucky for us she was part of the 10% who survive and recuperated. So anyway, she was sharing to us how she lost a lot of her ability and how the net helped her to recuperate back on her feet. But what’s more interesting is her business. She is one of the few individuals who pursued a business in socio-entrepreneurship. Her biz is using technology to teach the Irish language to the world. her twitter is @michellegallen

There was another guy who struck me, his name is Raul Ramirez Riba, an indy film maker in Mexico. He shared to everyone how twitter overthrew the mexican congress. Well not out of the window, but it enabled them to repeal a 3% internet tax that the Mexican Congress wanted to implement. One of his slides showed a pic with real life tweet made of 140 people holding out a piece of paper for the message. Really simple yet creative.

There were others who spoke who had interesting stuff to share on the table, like how one guy shared how the New York state senate was so polarized and backward it made Manila politics look so plain and dull. Imagine in the 2000s people were still relying on photocopiers and manual labor to compile data and clippings. But what’s the more interesting part was the people who were photocopying it were only doing 32 copies, just enough for the 32 republican members. So now they digitalized info, not only providing access to everyone, especially their constituents but also making things less caught up by red tape.

Really awesome night! I have to admit, I haven’t been excited this much in my field in a long time. Somehow even if back home, net penetration has gone a long way, the way people use the net has still to develop. Nothing wrong with using the tried and tested formulas in IMCs but then again the market is slowly starting to evolve in a different platform, which is absolutely fantastic. Imagine, in Manila you can pay your Meralco Bill online? Or get service from either globe or smart that is impeccable because they’ll actually start to listen to their customers? I just hope that day comes sooner than later not only for Manila but for other Asian countries too. After all Asia is expected to deliver the global growth numbers.

But aside from digital Marketing there were some other speakers who were quite notable too. There was someone from the American Cancer Society who shared how they came up with their campaign of being the “Official Sponsor of Birthdays”. Another fellow from Ireland, shared how 7Up in Ireland, as part of their long-term market penetration strategy, rallied to push the Moher Mountains to be a part of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. It just shows that for corporations and organizations that there is a value in taking part in philanthropic endeavors. I am emphasizing this because unfortunately some people don’t see the value of this and just look into the short-term marketing program for immediate sales.

As for me, I am enjoying these new programs that need not make me learn the geek script language. Mastering the excel spread sheet is more than enough for me! But with all the new apps online, we don’t need to live in 2007

Imagine, someone gets paid to tweet in NASA???

look closely in the first few lines on how he described the Mexican Congress