Curbside Stories

I love to cook. I also like to try different dishes and let my son sample my masterpiece. He's a pasta kind of kid and I thought of cooking aglio olio because I like it personally. So, I tried, and here it is. I can't say it is perfect but I think it is close enough to what I order in restaurants. Of course, I added extra Parmesan cheese. Here is the recipe: Kosher salt 1 pound spaghetti 1/3 cup good olive oil 8 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/2 cup minced parsley 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Direction: 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. 2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the 1 pound spaghetti. 3. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until it begins to turn golden on the edges. Do not overcook. 4. Add the red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds mor...

Menudo is one of my grandmother's specialties. My fondest memory involving menudo is when I was still in grade school. We live just a few blocks away from school and during lunch break, I would go home to eat lunch since I am saving my day's allowance. One time, she cooked menudo and it wasn't what I would like to have for lunch. She didn't want to prepare other meal because it was already late so she insisted that I eat what was served. Being a stubborn young girl that I was, I spooned the menudo's sauce and slathered it over my plate for it to look like I ate lunch. I wasn't caught and it still remains a secret until now that I am sharing you the story. It was a bad move on my part because I starved and ended up spending my day's allowance. Photo from here . Menudo is a Mexican-Spanish dish typically made of pork or tripe stew seasoned with chili peppers. It is one of the famous Filipino stew dishes. Having colonized by the Spaniards for more than 300 ...

It's a windy night (again) and what better way to warm the stomach than to have soup for dinner. You can cook it in just three easy steps. I prefer eating this dish with steamed rice and fried fish. Here are the ingredients: 1 Patola (Ridge Gourd or Loofah), peeled and cut diagonally 2 packs of miswa (wheat noodles) 3 small packs of hibi (dried shrimps) 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 medium onion, finely chopped 2 tablespoons oil 2 tablespoons fish sauce 3 to 4 cups water salt to taste Here's how to cook it: 1. Heat oil in pan or skillet and then saute garlic and onion. Add hibi (dried shrimp). 2. Add ridge gourd (loofah), water and fish sauce. Boil for 3 minutes or until the vegetable becomes slightly cooked. 3. Add the miswa. Miswa absorbs water so add more water when necessary. Simmer for 3 minutes. Adjust taste by adding salt. Trivia: Photo from here . Ridge gourd is rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamin and magnesium. Aside from being ed...

Another no fuzz Filipino dish--pork adobo!  While riding the jeepney on the way home, I was thinking of cooking adobong sitaw (string beans) with ground pork but when I got home, I don't have string beans in the fridge... so I ended up cooking pork adobo. It is my son's favorite dish. In fact, even in the wee hours he would ask me to cook adobo. For me, it is his way of making lambing so whenever I see or eat adobo in other places, I always associate it with my cute and lovable son. Photo from here . Here are the ingredients: 1/2 kilo of ribs or pork belly cut into 3x2 size 3 tablespoons oil 1 red onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, diced 1/2 cup soy sauce 1 cup vinegar 1/2 cup of water 3 laurel leaves (bay leaves) salt and ground pepper to taste Here's how to cook it: 1. Heat skillet and pour oil. Saute onion and garlic. 2. Add pork, water, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover and allow to simmer for 30 minutes or until the pork...

How's your weekend? We stayed in our grandmother's house the whole day. While my son played with his cousins, I had a little chat with our aunts and grandmother on the porch. That is what I like about weekends... I get to catch up on my relative's lives over sumptuous meals. I was asked to cook tinolang tahong (mussel soup) . This is one of the easiest Filipino dishes to cook. Here are the ingredients: 1/2 kilo of tahong (mussel) 3 tablespoons of oil 1 red onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, diced 2 thumb size ginger, cut into strips 1 8 oz. 7-Up Salt to taste Here's how to cook it: 1. Saute onion, garlic and ginger in a deep pan. Put in cleaned and fresh mussels. It is always best to cook seafoods while they are still fresh. Mix a bit. 2. Add the 7-Up. Cover the pan. There is no need to add water since the mussels will release its juice when it  opens. You may wonder why there is 7-Up in the dish. I actually don't know. I just learned this dish from my grandma and ...

I wasn't able to cook chicken a la king (obviously) because I did not go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. Instead of chicken, I cooked mackerel scad and nido soup for dinner. Sounds like something you only eat in restaurants but it is actually the Philippines' famous daing na galunggong . The fish is marinated in vinegar and garlic for at least 24 hours and then sun dried to perfection so that it will become crispy when cooked. Photo from here . It is actually best eaten as breakfast with fried rice and tomato. I cooked nido soup just to have something hot to sip. I admit to being too lazy this day because I used Knorr's Nido Oriental Style Soup mix. Hehe! Photo from here . As usual, my son and I got so full.

Happy New Year! Tonight's dinner is shrimp in butter and oyster sauce. It is actually from last night. I cooked it while I was waiting for the pork sinigang to be cooked. I learned this recipe from my grandmother and I just modified it a bit because I am too lazy sometimes to buy all the ingredients. Photo taken from the pan, it smells so good... I wish somebody will invent a 'smell it' button on the internet. Here are the ingredients: 100 grams medium shrimp or prawns 4 cloves minced garlic 1 medium minced red onion 2 tablespoons melted butter or a two inch thick slice of 1/2 bar of butter 1 tablespoon of oil 3 tablespoons of soy sauce 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce pinch of ground pepper Here is how to cook it: 1. In a pan, put in oil and butter. Oil prevents the butter from burning. 2. Put in the onion and garlic. I learned in one cooking show that it is best if you put onion first before garlic because garlic burns easily and once it burns, it gives a bitter tast...

It is cold and windy so I decided to cook something that will warm the stomach... pork sinigang (pork in sour broth). Sinigang can be cooked in different ways and ingredients but generally, it is cooked using sour ingredient as the base like tomato, tamarind, camias (ginger lily) or miso. Photo of my pork sinigang fresh from the pot. It's still simmering. Here are the ingredients: 1/2 kilo of pork liempo (pork belly) cut into small pieces or 1 kilo of pork ribs 2 cups of string beans, cut into 5" length 2 medium sized eggplant, cut diagonally into sections 2 medium size white radish, cut diagonally into sections 4 pieces okra, cut in halves 6 pieces gabi (taro), cut into small parts 1 bunch kangkong (river spinach) leaves, young parts are cut off the stem 2 medium onions, diced 4 medium tomatoes, diced 3 green chilis (Hungarian variety) 2 liters of water 1 pack sinigang mix (because squeezing the tamarind juice is so 1900's)  Here's how to cook it: 1. In a pot, ...

Although it is 33 degrees, it didn't stop me from cooking my comfort food --macaroni soup.  My macaroni soup tonight is special, it is experimental because I wasn't able to complete the ingredients of my original recipe.  Instead of the usual ground pork that I mix in, I ended up using ground beef because I forgot to buy one in the grocery.  It turned out great fortunately.  As I am writing this blog, I take brief pauses to have a spoonful of my ultimate comfort food.  I am not good at measuring ingredients but if you want to try my recipe, here are the ingredients:  1/4 kilo ground beef or pork or chicken 4 pieces hotdogs cut into small pieces 1 cup diced potatoes 1 cup diced carrots 1 medium cabbage cut into wide strips 1 cup macaroni 2 cloves crushed garlic 1 onion diced 2 chicken cubes ground pepper fish sauce 1 cup evaporated milk 1. Saute onion and garlic in a little amount of cooking oil under low fire. 2. Add the beef/pork/chicken and 2 cups of w...