Tonight's Dinner: Sausage & Mashed Potato

Hello, there! Notice how I'm trying so hard to update this blog? I still have a loooonnnnggg way to go but I'm getting there. Anyway, here's another dinner made with love from Tapioca . . .

 . . . pan fried sausage topped with caramelized onions and mashed potato with gravy

I'm also trying my darndest not just to eat but also enjoy onions. Well, it's just some silly idea of mine to introduce my palate to essential stuff like . . . onion. So far the best way to eat and enjoy onions is by caramelizing them like what Tapioca did as it lessen it's pungent smell. 

And to go with the sausage, Tapioca made his signature mashed potato. He makes the yummiest, smoothest and creamiest mashed potato ever. It's my favorite in the entire world!!! I know I'm so biased. It's like saying he's the most good looking guy in the entire world hahaha. 

Oops, I think I heard some nega reactions there.

Peace, love and a bullet-proof mashed potato to y'all!

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Tonight's Dinner: Tuna and Cheese Omelet

For dinner, Tapioca whipped out this huge tuna and cheese omelet. He used five eggs, two cans of tuna, some white onions and lots of cheez whiz. It was cooked on a 12-inch non-stick pan.

. . . twelve-inch omelet 

You know how meticulous I am on how my eggs are cooked. From what it looked like I can tell it was overcooked. But I'm being considerate. The size alone was very unusual. I understand cooking that big of an omelet was a challenge so I let it pass. 

Anyway, it's the effort and TLC that he puts on his cooking that counts, right?

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The Home Improvement Project

Tapioca used to live in a huge house where he rented a small room for himself. In that house, there's a common bathroom and kitchen. As you know, Tapioca likes to cook. He may love to share his cooking but never his cooking utensils, especially to his housemates. 

He kept all of his stuff inside his room and I tell ya it was not a pretty sight. His stuff was accumulating dust and everything looked so out of place. I finally convinced him to purchase an inexpensive cabinet to store and organize everything or anything that would fit in it.

We went shopping for the cabinet in Shopwise Cubao. We were able to score a deal (huge discount!) for that last piece of furniture. It was a children's closet but we figured it would be good enough. Aside from the closet we also got storage shelves na buy one take one. It was quite a steal.

Here's Tapioca assembling the shelf. I did the other one.

. . .  assembly time

viola! instant storage shelf . . .

 . . . the cabinet assembly diagram

If the shelves were a piece of cake to assemble, this cabinet was the opposite. Too many components to put all together. Tapioca couldn't expect me to do the hammering job so I got stuck with anything that can be used with a screwdriver. When it came to the part where we had to put together the big planks of wood, Tapioca and I started fighting. 

He wanted me to do things he knew I couldn't do and he's getting frustrated. Ako rin frustrated. I was like "Akala ko ba you've had carpentry job before?' and he was like "I worked in construction and I did masonry not carpentry." Yeah, yeah right. 

We're almost done na with the cabinet when we noticed its not aligned and the support was not balanced. Super bad trip. Tapioca had to redo everything. He'd removed all the nails that had been hammered already and put them again like three times. 

We're running out of nails and there's still a lot more to do. Muntik pa masira yung thin board para sa likod ng cabinet. And you know what's more upsetting? He was blaming me kaya daw di nag-align. 

Sino ba naglalagay ng pako at nagmamartilyo? Eh di ba cya naman so dapat sisihin nya sarili nya. And I'm not helping daw! Asa pa cya ako magpupukpok ng pako baka mas lalong masira yung cabinet. I knooooowwww, I'm so unsupportive. Hay, bad me.

Buti na lang our officemate was going to come over the place and offered to bring take outs. When they came ayon mejo um-okay mood namin. Gutom lang pala. By the way, here's the finished product . . .

labor of love (and hate) . . . 

This cabinet served as the pantry (where we kept the condiments, spices, sauces and canned goods) and storage for the dishes, pots and pan, and other kitchen stuff. Note the clutter in the photo. I told you this cabinet was the only thing that looked neat and organized in the room :-)

We've also put one of the shelves inside to make more divisions at the same maximize the space. The other shelf Tapioca used to store his growing collection of burned DVDs.

Next time we will  leave woodworking projects like this to the professionals para walang away.

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Hunan Lutong Bahay

Tapioca and I were always on the lookout for the best Chinese restaurant. When I read reviews from my favorite blogs about this hole-in-the-wall place in Makati, I knew I had to tell Tapioca about it. In no time we found ourselves in Camia St. Makati near the Rockwell Center.

According to the blog posts I've read, this Chinese restaurant opens at 10am. We arrived at exactly 10am and we were told that they open at 11pm. We didn't want to waste time waiting outside for them to open so instead Tapioca and I did a little tour around Rockwell. We returned at past 11pm where we saw a group of Chinese guys who had just finished their meal.

. . . our water served on a recycled coca-cola plastic bottle

By the way, this place is located in an apartment with no signage but it's not that hard to find. It's a no frills Chinese restaurant so please don't expect anything fancy. The menu is written in Chinese with photos of what the dish looked like. For non-Chinese speakers like us we just made turo-turo to the waitstaff the pictures of the dishes we wanted.

sauteed petchay baguio . . .

We wanted something to go with our meat dish and that's why we chose this vegetable. It was okay. Nothing special.

. . . mapo tofu

We love mapo tofu and when we found out it's available we did not think twice of ordering this dish. I was hoping it would turn out to be really spicy since Hunan cuisine is known for using chili and other spicy ingredients. Yeah,  I have low tolerance with spicy food but I just have to try it at least.  Unfortunately, I found the spiciness to be underwhelming. This certainly failed to impress us.

beef hot pot . . .

The restaurant's specialty was mostly hotpot so we had to try one. Tapioca decided to go with the beef. It was huge in serving. Prolly good for 2-3 people. The beef was surprisingly very tender and it was super hot hot hot! 

Now this was spicy. Too spicy for me. I only ate a few pieces. I did like the soup though. My first spoonful was like nothing. And then the hotness kicked in and felt the trace in my throat. Despite the huge serving, Tapioca was able to finish most of it.

. . . rice all you can

The rice-all-you-can worked for us to help with the spiciness of the hot pot. They have this rice cooker in a corner where you help yourself to cups of rice if you need more.

boiled dumplings . . .

This was my favorite. For Php100++ we got 10 pieces of these yummy dumplings filled with kutchay, meat and other vegetables. It tasted so fresh and we're glad we opted for it to be boiled and not fried.

Check out the translucent skin of the dumplings. You can almost see what's on the inside

We came with high expectations (because of the good reviews) but didn't really get blown away based on our experience. However, I would surely go back for the dumplings and the beef hot pot. 

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The Original Singapore Chicken Rice

Singapore chicken rice, also known as Hainanese chicken rice, has been making waves in Manila. The first time I tried it was from the popular Paotsin kiosk. The Hainanese chicken rice from Paotsin was good but the flavor can get boring and tiresome. Their version might not be the real thing but then again I haven't tried anything aside from that. When I heard about this place that claims to be the original, I dragged Tapioca with me for some foodie adventure.

Singapore Chicken Rice is located at the back of Shopwise Arcade in Cubao. Their interior was kinda similar to Chowking with its white and red colors and the fast food joint ambiance. Tapioca wanted to dine in the comfort of our house so we had take outs instead. Aside from the chicken rice they also served other popular Singaporean dishes like this one below . . .

. . . chicken satay in skewers with rice balls

Tapioca had this. He said it was good. I never like anything satay so I dare not try it.

chicken rice . . .

This was my order. For some reason I found it bland. Both the chicken and the rice.

. . . free soup in styro cups

Each meal comes with free soup made from chicken broth. The soup I can give a thumbs up. I wish somebody could tell me what's the taste of an authentic chicken rice and how to eat it. Or perhaps I should try to go to Singapore and try it myself?

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Nanay's Picadillo

You have seen Tapioca's version of picadillo. Now you will see my Nanay's picadillo. Nanay isn't really a cook but she tries her darndest to serve us home cooked food. When cooking, Nanay is notorious for scrimping on ingredients and doesn't put much thought on how it would taste. Her motto, "Basta may lasa, pwede na". 

You can just imagine how my brother and I would be so disappointed with her cooking. But you know if you're hungry wala ka na choice but to eat what's on the table. Couldn't really blame her. Despite her busy schedule she still tries to cook something for us. Until now, Nanay hasn't changed a bit on her cooking style.

Just look at the photo. Looks yummy right? But the taste, hhhmmmm lasang picadillo naman but lacks flavor. Nanay didn't mind us picking on her cooking. I guess she has been so used to it as we have been used to her cooking as well.

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Banapple On A Busy Weekend

The tiny Banapple place along Katipunan Avenue was packed with diners one weekend night. Didn't want to go to the other side of the road for the bigger branch, Tapioca and I decided to have take out instead. Here's what we ordered . . .

. . . warm chicken salad sandwich

Chicken in creamy white sauce with lettuce and cucumber.

trio of sausages fettuccine . . .

Fettuccine with crumbled chorizo, garlic longganisa and hungarian sausage in creamy sauce. Tapioca's choice.

. . . baked creamy cheesy penne

A combination of white cheese and tomato meat sauce with hungarian sausage. Jellybean's choice. After a couple of forkfuls, I realized this is not my kind of pasta. I'm more of a cream-based pasta. Ending? Tapioca and I switched pasta dishes.

apple caramel crumble pie . . .

I've already tried most of Banapple's cheesecakes but they're more on the sweet side. Not really sure what cake to order, Tapioca picked a pie instead. This was his kind of dessert. I gave it a try and still found it too sweet. Tsk, tsk. I'm still on the lookout for the perfect cake from Banapple that fits my palate.

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Tapioca's Picadillo

Tapioca got this recipe from his late grandma.

1. In a big pot, saute the tomatoes until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic.

3. Add ground beef. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Once the meat has turned brown, add diced carrots, potatoes, corn kernels and green peas. Add water and bring to a boil. Stir-in sinigang mix and simmer for a few more minutes then serve.

A pot full of picadillo. It kinda reminded me of sinigang because of the tamarind mix. This picadillo is too much for two people so we brought some at the office to share with our colleagues.

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Pancakes & Sausages

One of our favorite weekend breakfasts . . .

. . . pancakes and sausages 

A basic pancake batter is so easy to make. All you need is flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, milk, oil or/and butter. Basically, stuff that is always available in every kitchen pantry. 

But of course, if you're like us who don't have an oven and don't bake cakes, baking powder is not really a kitchen staple. Tapioca bought instant pancake mix instead of baking powder. Apparently, he likes the convenience of ready to mix pancake batter rather than making it from scratch.

Aside from sausages, we usually had pancakes with fried eggs and bacon. However, on this post we just wanted something light to start the day. We love slicing the pancakes like pizza. We think it's easier to eat them that way.

I like my pancake with plain butter and no syrup but I'm sharing this with Tapioca who loves his pancake swimming in syrup like in this photo. Hungry? Go whip up your own pancake now.

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The Big Bread's Egg Tart

No time to cook for dinner I ordered take out from Andok's. Then I passed by SM Cubao and saw these lovely egg tarts. They looked so pretty and yummy, practically screaming 'take me, take me'. And I did. I thought it'll be a perfect dessert after the oily and fatty meal from Andok's. I bought a box of 4

The verdict? Err, let's just say I would go for Lord's Stow egg tarts anytime of the day.

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