Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Friday, November 5, 2010
Adobo - Filipino Style
One of the first meals that I learned how to cook when I had access to my own kitchen was chicken adobo. Though, when most people hear "adobo," they assume it's the Spanish version. But, while we might have adopted the name from the Spaniards and the base is similar in that there is a marinade, it's really its own beast.
Filipino-style Adobo is really a very simple concoction, but it is truly individualistic. While it can be considered the "national dish" of the Philippines, every household cooks it differently.
In essence, Filipino Adobo is anything marinaded in a vinegar based marinade. Anything else that is added to the marinade is purely representative of the region the cook or their family is from.
My family cooks it in a relatively popular way: add soy sauce, black pepper, and garlic.
Obviously, if you prefer something other than chicken, like pork or beef or fish or shrimp, you can easily adopt the adobo recipe to it. That's just part of its beauty.
Recipe:
2lbs of Chicken (Personally, I think that bone-in tastes a lot better since it really holds in the flavors, but boneless is also delicious and will cook faster.)
2/3 cup of Vinegar (If you can find cane vinegar in your Asian market, you're quite the lucky duck! This is Filipino vinegar, and it's just got a great twang to it.)
1 cup of Soy Sauce (Any soy sauce will do)
1 tsp of Ground Black Pepper
1/2 a bulb of Garlic...or if you're like the boyfriend and me, the entire bulb!
Additional ingredients added to your liking:
Juice of 1 Lemon
3 or 4 Bay Leaves
Instructions:
Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the chicken while you prep other things. You should definitely start your rice at this point, and prep any veggies you might want to add to your meal. I suggest broccoli and baby carrots to add to the rice, but I'll get to that later.
Heat up a pan or a skillet, and put about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil on the pan. When it's heated, place the chicken and marinade in the pan. Make sure to turn the chicken around to ensure that it cooks on all sides and all the way through. Boil the chicken in the sauces until it is somewhat dry and the chicken is cooked thoroughly.
Set the chicken aside. While the heat is still on and there is still some sauce in the pan, throw in your veggies. Hopefully, your rice is done cooking at this point, and you can throw in your rice as well. This will really help to mop up the rest of the sauce and garlic bits. Fry the rice and veggies until the rice is fairly covered in the sauce and the veggies are somewhat soft.
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. You've now made chicken adobo. I wish I had pictures of my completed meal to show you. Alas, I got way too excited and ate it before I got to take a picture. However, I do have the nutritional value.
Not so bad for a full meal. It's fairly healthy when you add the veggies to it, and it's chock full of protein.
But really, the reason you should be having this meal is because someone Filipino has invited you into their home, and wants you to learn more about their culture by feeding you this dish. You are one lucky son of a gun.
Filipino-style Adobo is really a very simple concoction, but it is truly individualistic. While it can be considered the "national dish" of the Philippines, every household cooks it differently.
In essence, Filipino Adobo is anything marinaded in a vinegar based marinade. Anything else that is added to the marinade is purely representative of the region the cook or their family is from.
My family cooks it in a relatively popular way: add soy sauce, black pepper, and garlic.
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| All you need... |
Recipe:
2lbs of Chicken (Personally, I think that bone-in tastes a lot better since it really holds in the flavors, but boneless is also delicious and will cook faster.)
2/3 cup of Vinegar (If you can find cane vinegar in your Asian market, you're quite the lucky duck! This is Filipino vinegar, and it's just got a great twang to it.)
1 cup of Soy Sauce (Any soy sauce will do)
1 tsp of Ground Black Pepper
1/2 a bulb of Garlic...or if you're like the boyfriend and me, the entire bulb!
Additional ingredients added to your liking:
Juice of 1 Lemon
3 or 4 Bay Leaves
Instructions:
Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the chicken while you prep other things. You should definitely start your rice at this point, and prep any veggies you might want to add to your meal. I suggest broccoli and baby carrots to add to the rice, but I'll get to that later.
Heat up a pan or a skillet, and put about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil on the pan. When it's heated, place the chicken and marinade in the pan. Make sure to turn the chicken around to ensure that it cooks on all sides and all the way through. Boil the chicken in the sauces until it is somewhat dry and the chicken is cooked thoroughly.
Set the chicken aside. While the heat is still on and there is still some sauce in the pan, throw in your veggies. Hopefully, your rice is done cooking at this point, and you can throw in your rice as well. This will really help to mop up the rest of the sauce and garlic bits. Fry the rice and veggies until the rice is fairly covered in the sauce and the veggies are somewhat soft.
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. You've now made chicken adobo. I wish I had pictures of my completed meal to show you. Alas, I got way too excited and ate it before I got to take a picture. However, I do have the nutritional value.
Not so bad for a full meal. It's fairly healthy when you add the veggies to it, and it's chock full of protein.
But really, the reason you should be having this meal is because someone Filipino has invited you into their home, and wants you to learn more about their culture by feeding you this dish. You are one lucky son of a gun.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Shoulda shoulda shoulda
I guess I couldn't have left Los Angeles without getting at least one comment on either my weight or my lack of husband and children.
For a good part of my 20's, I escaped the husband and children lecture. Clearly, since I was still in school, I needed to focus on that instead. The weight issue is another story.
I'm Filipino. I was taught to finish all my food because of those goddamned kids in China and Africa (even though we also came from a third-world country). Holidays are tables fool of food (as you can see from my Christmas post) and eating the whole night. Yes, I played outside instead of watching TV for the most part (in fact, I did not grow up watching Saved By The Bell like so many of my friends).
So, I still got chubby. It probably didn't help that after swimming class at the YMCA, we would go to McDonald's. It also probably didn't help that when I was around 5 or 6, I thought I needed to weigh 50 or 60 pounds, and that a 0 would be tacked onto my age as I got older. Weird, I know. I learned quickly that that wasn't true. I don't weigh 270 lbs.
And while the doctors would lecture me about my weight, I was still okay with myself. Then I started going home to visit for the holidays. My paternal grandmother, whom I love but scares me a little, starts grabbing at my arms, "You should lose weight! You'd be pretty if you did!"
Yikes. I started avoided visiting her because of the comments and the arm grabbing.
My mom was another culprit. Not a visit would go by without a comment on my weight - at least within the first 24 hours. She would then follow her comment by saying that it's still healthy that I had fat on my body, and I would be regarded as wealthy in the Philippines.
In the past couple of years, I started getting more serious about my weight. I joined an expensive gym, do workout DVDs at home, started counting my calories. I lost maybe 10 lbs. Then I started focusing more on eating more vegetables and got into riding my bike to and from work. I lost another 10 lbs.
Still nowhere near where I'd like to be, but I'm only really unhappy with my body around my family and when I get on the scale.
But this past vacation, I almost didn't hear anything about my weight. Almost.
It's only been recently, since I've finished school, that I've gotten comments about getting married and having a family. My maternal grandmother is the one pushing this topic this time.
The general gist is that I need to hurry up and have kids because I'm getting older. But, now I'm getting it from my aunts and uncles on my maternal side as well. Just when I think I was going to survive another holiday without getting lectured....well...2 days before I left for Boston, it happened.
With that, I now present to you the dialogue between my family and me at around 11:30pm on New Years Eve.
Tito E: You know, you should have babies now.
Me: WHAT?? Oh my god...I'm soooo not there right now! I'm still a baby myself!
Tito E: Well, the older you get the harder it will be to have kids. So you should hurry up.
Me: But what about all my other cousins? Are you saying the same to them? They're older than me!
Tito E: Well, you have a partner.
Tita B: Yes...you already have a boyfriend.
Me: I'm so not ready to have a family right now.
Tito E: Well, as long as you have kids before you're 35.
Nanay (my mom): Hah?? I'm not ready to be a Lola (grandmother)!
Me: Thank you!! I'm glad at least we're on the same page here!
Nanay: Besides....you should lose weight first or else you'll have a hard time....
*SIGH*
For a good part of my 20's, I escaped the husband and children lecture. Clearly, since I was still in school, I needed to focus on that instead. The weight issue is another story.
I'm Filipino. I was taught to finish all my food because of those goddamned kids in China and Africa (even though we also came from a third-world country). Holidays are tables fool of food (as you can see from my Christmas post) and eating the whole night. Yes, I played outside instead of watching TV for the most part (in fact, I did not grow up watching Saved By The Bell like so many of my friends).
So, I still got chubby. It probably didn't help that after swimming class at the YMCA, we would go to McDonald's. It also probably didn't help that when I was around 5 or 6, I thought I needed to weigh 50 or 60 pounds, and that a 0 would be tacked onto my age as I got older. Weird, I know. I learned quickly that that wasn't true. I don't weigh 270 lbs.
And while the doctors would lecture me about my weight, I was still okay with myself. Then I started going home to visit for the holidays. My paternal grandmother, whom I love but scares me a little, starts grabbing at my arms, "You should lose weight! You'd be pretty if you did!"
Yikes. I started avoided visiting her because of the comments and the arm grabbing.
My mom was another culprit. Not a visit would go by without a comment on my weight - at least within the first 24 hours. She would then follow her comment by saying that it's still healthy that I had fat on my body, and I would be regarded as wealthy in the Philippines.
In the past couple of years, I started getting more serious about my weight. I joined an expensive gym, do workout DVDs at home, started counting my calories. I lost maybe 10 lbs. Then I started focusing more on eating more vegetables and got into riding my bike to and from work. I lost another 10 lbs.
Still nowhere near where I'd like to be, but I'm only really unhappy with my body around my family and when I get on the scale.
But this past vacation, I almost didn't hear anything about my weight. Almost.
nom nom nom
It's only been recently, since I've finished school, that I've gotten comments about getting married and having a family. My maternal grandmother is the one pushing this topic this time.
The general gist is that I need to hurry up and have kids because I'm getting older. But, now I'm getting it from my aunts and uncles on my maternal side as well. Just when I think I was going to survive another holiday without getting lectured....well...2 days before I left for Boston, it happened.
Tito E: You know, you should have babies now.
Me: WHAT?? Oh my god...I'm soooo not there right now! I'm still a baby myself!
Tito E: Well, the older you get the harder it will be to have kids. So you should hurry up.
Me: But what about all my other cousins? Are you saying the same to them? They're older than me!
Tito E: Well, you have a partner.
Tita B: Yes...you already have a boyfriend.
Me: I'm so not ready to have a family right now.
Tito E: Well, as long as you have kids before you're 35.
Nanay (my mom): Hah?? I'm not ready to be a Lola (grandmother)!
Me: Thank you!! I'm glad at least we're on the same page here!
Nanay: Besides....you should lose weight first or else you'll have a hard time....
*SIGH*
Sunday, November 22, 2009
What's In a Name?
Names have power.
Naming things has power - for better or for worse.
Names can be changed in order to remove or increase power.
Names are identity.
I personally love my name, in all its Filipino-ness, 274th in popularity, Simon & Garfunkel ode-inspired, and significance.
Naming things has power - for better or for worse.
Names can be changed in order to remove or increase power.
Names are identity.
I personally love my name, in all its Filipino-ness, 274th in popularity, Simon & Garfunkel ode-inspired, and significance.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Makati vs. Makatí
| kati: Word: kati English Definition: 1) lowtide (noun) 2) itchy, scratchy -- MAKATI (adj) Source: http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/ | ||
| Tagalog: kati | English: lowtide, itchy, scratchy | |
When I was younger, my mom told me that I was always moving around. "If you're not moving, you're talking. If you're not talking, you're moving," she'd say. "Makatí yung paa!" Literally, "Your feet are itchy."
Though I've definitely calmed down from that fidgety version of me, I still have "itchy feet."
Now, I know that probably sounds gross...like I've got some strange fungus growing on my feet...but I promise you that I don't have any fungi on my toesies.
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