Name: Lei
Posts by Lei:
Happy Anniversary to Myfilipinokitchen!!!!
September 8th, 2010
Click here to read Seigfred’s first post from a year ago.
What exactly does it mean to be the mistress of his Filipino kitchen?
When your other half plunges headfirst into a seemingly rough body of water to actualize a zeal, the least you could do is put on your best bikini and learn to swim. Put simply, my husband opened the doors of his virtual Filipino kitchen to translate his passion for food into delicious portions of verbal goodness, and I had to fill in the role of gracious hostess.
One year ago today, my Filipino kitchen served its first meal. While the dishes that have been and will be served are all out there for everyone to enjoy, chew, swallow or spit, reaching this milestone is an opportune time to look back and wonder about how it was cooked.
As in a real kitchen, the prep-to-plating process for the site is complex and is perhaps as valuable as the articles themselves. Having myfilipinokitchen.com means giving up $150 of the family budget to keep it up and running. It also means having Malay, Spanish, Chinese and American influence on Filipino food as normal dinner table conversation. Saying yes to spending hours online researching about the right way to prepare authentic La Paz batchoy means saying no to taking our daughter out to the park to play. It also means dealing with the outrageous idea of eating tomato-based dishes four straight nights in a row just to know the difference between caldereta, menudo, afritada and mechado. It could also mean driving for an hour just to get to the Asian wet market to find the perfect soy sauce and the proper vinegar. It can get exasperating sometimes, believe me you; just last week I got served Filipino-style escabeche for dinner and Spanish-style escabeche for breakfast. I don’t like escabeche.
On some mornings, I wake up to statements like “I have an idea for my next article!” or “what do you think about film noir writing?” Site statistics, page ranks, comments and hits matter to him too, every so often to the point of obsessionw. Sometimes, my Filipino kitchen means having to endure watching cheesy late night reality shows on tv (though I secretly love Naked and Funny) while waiting for Ziggy to finish writing. It entails having diplomatic skills, with me being his most critical reader. It means being updated about news about Filipino food. From all over the world. It also means for me to be able to fare reasonably well in the kitchen, primarily because I have to feed my perfectionist of a husband great meals and secondly because of fear of my culinary misadventures being the subject of the next day’s article. The site has securely integrated itself into our lives that it almost seems like it is our second child. It surely is as demanding, though it gives me great relief that I do not have to breastfeed nor change its nappies.
But the deeper meaning of having my Filipino kitchen is this: it has brought together kababayans from various countries, if but for a brief moment, to talk about a shared passion; it has, and I believe will continue to, forge genuine human connections; it has somehow helped bring awareness about Filipino cuisine to foreigners and has increased understanding and perchance answered a few questions some fellow Filipinos might have had; and most importantly, it is an ongoing journey towards contributing to uplifting the pride of a nation in one of the foundations of its culture. Perhaps one day, Filipino food will gain its due recognition and be deemed fit to join the ranks of Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Thai food when considering what to takeaway for Friday night dinner. In the meantime, being on first-name basis with our local butcher, grocer, fishmonger, farmer and deli man suffices. We have provided them with a little window to glimpse at what we eat; and at least now we don’t get strange looks when we ask if they have offal, veal bones, chicken intestines, lye water, sugar cane vinegar, bangus, banana hearts, bamboo shoots, pandan leaves or kesong puti. Let’s take it one person, one day at a time.
And today, as my Filipino kitchen turns one, here’s to appreciating everyone who has given meaning to Ziggy’s love of Filipino food. To those who occasionally visit the site (subscribe here), those who await his next article (thank you, stalker), those who comment on Facebook (please leave your comments here), those who have and will contribute entries (at least 300 words please), those who actively join discussions, those who inspire, those kindred souls who do the same thing in trying to bring our cuisine at the forefront, those who lurk (it’s time to start leaving comments) and those who have mistakenly arrived at the site from a search engine (thanks for the hits). I raise my glass of warm tuba to you. Here’s to another year of Filpino food mania, Ziggy’s creative wit and Mr. Kitchenero’s crazy humour.
Here’s a gift for you. Clickety-click this.
Myfilipinokitchen is – A Gift to readers
September 8th, 2010In connection with the anniversary of myfilipinokitchen, I am giving out my own handmade jewelry from my Etsy collection for Kitcheneers (that’s what I call myfilipinokitchen readers) as a way to thank all of you for supporting Seigfred’s cause on Filipino food. Here are the jewelry that I will be giving out:
ORCHIDACEAE EARRINGS
CABERNET SAUVIGNON NECKLACE
SWEET SIXTEEN BRACELET
Please click on the pictures to go to my Etsy website and see all the details about these jewelry. I will give them to 3 lucky Kitcheneers 
Here are the mechanics to get you one of these:
1. Click this link to go to the page MYFILIPINOKITCHEN IS
2. From your experience with www.myfilipinokitchen.com, leave your repsonse and share your thoughts about what myfilipinokitchen is to you.
3. Before you submit your comment, please do a “select all” on your comment or highlight everything you have written, copy it, and then submit your comment. Click on the Share on Facebook button, and paste your comment that you have copied and click share.
Sorry, I have to be very specific with the instructions there, I don’t want anybody to miss out.
I only have one rule for this give-away. No one person should get 2 or 3 items of jewelry. So everyone has a fair chance of getting one. After the draw we will make sure that the addresses are not the same, which is also the reason why I want you to share this on Facebook so we can see if you are a real person or not.
We will raffle all the entries after 10 days starting from September 9, 2010. We will only honor comments that are posted before September 20, 2010.
The first draw will get the OCHIDACEAE earrings.
The second draw will get the CABERNET SAUVIGNON necklace.
The third draw will get the SWEET SIXTEEN bracelet.
You will love them ladies, and men, you can either give it to your mom, your sister, wife, girlfriend, mistress or best girl friend. Click here to begin!