Hello hello major major! I hope you guys are looking forward to a fantastic week ahead. I know I am having one because I have a series coming up for you starting Tuesday about Filipino Street Food. Monday is for our resident chef, Chef Mike Santiago and he will give us a sneek peak into what we will talk about in the coming weeks ahead in this month of May. Before I go on, 2 things:

Congratulations to our hero, Manny Pacquiao for “bringing home the tocino” again and added another name on his list of warriors eliminated. The next one is, Happy Mother’s Day! Or if you are in the Philippines and are a mommy, mama, mamang, nanay – belated Happy Mother’s Day to you! Now let’s get on to the news!

Address rice wastage right at home – Nutrition council

fetched from Philippine Information Agency

I have been going on with this rice issue over and over that I am getting tired of myself. But this is one of the issues that we need to address. If you want to know what I was up to for the past months, go on the homepage after you read this and clik on the category Kitchen Siege so you can read why in the world I am still on this topic. And the link to the news there will tell you why.

I always wonder, why some Filipinos, either at home or in a restaurant would leave a morsel of rice on the plate after they finish their meal. I’m puzzled really because one, it is definitely a waste, two, it is an insult to the server or the provider and three, why would you ask or take that much if you can’t finish it? I remember as a kid, we are not allowed to stand up on the table if the plate is not clean. It is then followed by a sermon of this and that and kids in Africa, world at war, how lucky I am, and whatever it is that my parents can think of. Is this the fault of the parents? Do these parents know what kind of monster they are creating if they let their children leave food on their plate? I mean, I understand feeding toddlers because you don’t know how much they can finish. But grown ups? Enlighten us please. Philippines is not a rich country so why this kind of culture? Is there something we don’t know why some people would leave rice on their plate after meals.

I think I am going to leave it at that. Please do speak up. Let us know. Or as what I did, rant below. It’s free! And don’t leave any morsels of disgust, delight, or any argument unfinished on your plate of thoughts.

And on to the headlines that glow like embers. That really didn’t go well. I was trying to translate the Filipino news cliche, the line that everyone uses – “At sa ulo ng mga nagbabagang balita”. Epic fail!

Click this first. That is a link to my review of last year’s “headlines that glow like embers”. Can somebody help me translate please? So I was talking about Filipino food trucks and how it has become our Mercury, our Hermes in letting the world know about Filipino food. Yes my brothers, we are taking it to the streets.

Now, I want to go back to discovering more of these Filipino Food Trucks, specially this week because we are featuring Filipino Street Food. So why not fan the flame by talking to again to these guys? I am in the process of interviewing Tapa Boy. I have interviewed Señor Sisig if you click here to go there. And if we get lucky, we can also talk to the guys from White Rabbit Truck and the food truck that started it all – The Manila Machine.

But what I want to discuss in this update are the new Filipino Food Trucks that are about to hit the scene.

I have an awesome list of newly launched Filipino Food Trucks

Hey Joe Filipino Street Food

Brian and Margita are the husband and wife team behind Hey Joe.They met 5 years ago in Phoenix.  A couple of years later they had their wedding in Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines(Margita’s home town)  Lapu Lapu is on a small island close to Cebu. One would think that fish would be the most popular dish, however pork and chicken BBQ  rules the street food scene.  The meat is cooked on a Filipino style “robata” grill.  Brian’s taste buds instantly blew up and the wheels in his head started spinning.

Being a graduate at Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Brian has a real passion for food. He worked at  Pointe South Mountain Resort at the former Latitude 30 restaurant. Also he was the opening chef for the Pure Sushi North Location, and worked for the L.G.O. corporation at Radio Milano. As he was slaving to the grind, living somebody’s else dream, he couldn’t stop thinking about how to bring the street food of Lapu-Lapu city to the streets of Phoenix. Then it came to him, a roach coach (food truck)!

So Brian turned to Margita to unlock the secrets of her native cuisine.  They returned to Lapu-Lapu to absorb as much information and calories as they could.  While doing this,and being of fair complexion,  Brian was constantly on the receiving end of locals shouting out “Hey Joe”. And so forth, with Margita’s inspiration and Brian’s perspiration the Hey Joe Truck was born.

I actually just copied that from their website which you can read more by clicking here. And I have yet to arrange an interview with them.

Jezebel: Teri Fermo’s Filipino food truck

Here’s an excerpt of an article about it, fetched from news.tradingcharts.com

“Filipino food is one of the least represented — especially here in Oklahoma,” she said.

Fermo knows the success of a food truck comes down to having that one item everyone thinks you have to have. For the Jezebel food truck, it’s eggrolls.

Her lumpia, the Filipino version of eggrolls, are bite-sized and made with ground pork, water chestnuts and scallions. They’re wrapped in spring roll wrappers, fried crisp and served with sweet chile garlic sauce. Each order is $5.

I have yet to find a way to contact Teri Fermo and I don’t even know if this is a full-on Filipino Food Truck. Well… we will find out.

Elena’s Filipino Food Lunchwagon

They have a Filipino restaurant and they had a fantastic idea. Yep, a food truck. Genius. Here’s something that I got from their website:

The Butuyan Family immigrated from Dagupan City, Pangasinan, Philippines in 1969 to the Island of Oahu.  The Sugar Plantation town of Waipahu, Hawaii is where Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino opened its doors for business. Under the entrepreneurship of Elena and Theo Butuyan, Elena’s Restaurant in Waipahu expanded its operations to 3 lunch trucks, Caterings,  Expos and Craft fairs.  Known for its Trademarked Original Fried Rice Omelet, Popular Pork Adobo Fried Rice OmeletTM, and Sari-Sari, Elena’s is truly the “Home of the Finest Filipino Foods”.

That write-up my dear readers is a classic. Grooveh! Hey, visit their website by clicking this. I reckon they have the almighty-est restraurant in Hawaii.

Little Filipino

Aha! This one? We have yet to find more about. But here’s a write-up about it from nashvillest.com

Forgive us for the terrible pun, but another brand new food truck is preparing to throw open its doors (or windows, whatever) in Nashville and we just couldn’t help ourselves. Little Filipino will hit the streets next week, putting that magical street food twist on egg rolls, noodles and other traditional Filipino dishes. Owner Nate Lampa grew up eating traditional Filipino cooking, and he’s been working toward his dream of bringing that same Filipino food in Nashville for the past two years. Now he’s finally ready to give the city a taste of what’s in store.

Little Filipino will serve Filipino Lumpia (egg rolls) and Pancit (noodles), along with a rotating menu of specials like Filipino Adobo, tropical fruit cocktails, sweet rice porridge, and unique rolls with out of the ordinary fillings.

The truck will make its debut next Friday, May 6 at 8pm at the People Loving Nashville benefit show at 12th & Porter. It’s a great cause in and of itself, but throw in some egg rolls and noodles and we’re sold! For the time being, Little Filipino won’t have a regular schedule, but will instead be experimenting with different locations to see how Nashville reacts to the food.

So yes, they haven’t launched yet but I tried to contact them to arrange an interview. If it’s from Nashville, it should be good.

This is gonna be awesome dude! Cowabunga!

Play it baby play it.

‘Sup party people boys and girls. I got the rolly in my arm and I’m pourin’ chandon and I roll the —- i’m not going there.

How’s your weekend? Who’s goin’ to the market today lemme see those hands! Do you like the music? I’m popping! I’m popping! I’m popping!

This site is so lucky that we have talented and awesome individuals who decided to give a part of their time and knowledge for us Filipino food enthusiasts. I would have wanted to wait for them to post a new article before breaking the news but I think we need to do it as early as we can.

Because one of them is actually giving birth in a few months time. The other one well…. it’s his birthday today. So without futher ado, we are dropping it like it’s hot.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MISS MANTEKILYA, YOU ARE

EXPECTING A BABY!!!

Show yourself! We need more of those Filipino quirks and perks! (Do we know yet if it’s a boy or a girl?)

and for the next one -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHEF MIKE SANTIAGO!!!!

We hope you have a fantastic day today and we are so lucky to have you here in the site!!!!

You guys make Filipino food look good! Thank you for being a part of www.myfilipinokitchen.com!

So currently, i’m researching Philippine Miso – how they make it in the Philippines and how different is it from the Japanese Miso. I’m not finished yet because I cannot find enough local information in the internet about it. It just goes to show that Philippines is not really that adulterated by the internet but I don’t know if it is a good thing or not. If you are abroad though wanting to know more local information is quite a challenge. I might even end up with no information at all.

What I love about researching in the internet, and so much unlike in the library, is you stumble on really silly stuff. I consider them perks in the journey where only a few people take – history of Filipino food. It even seems that Filipinos are more interested with foreign food than their own. But I digress, I’ve already discussed it in this article if you click here. Going back to the perks, below is one really silly automated translation from English to Filipino on how to make Miso. If you can’t understand Filipino, skip to the scanned letter further down. If you understand Filipino, good luck, you might not understand anything at all. Pray before you continue reading:

Ang miso-proseso ng paggawa tumatagal ng isang maliit na pasensya, ngunit ito ay napaka-simple at nangangailangan ng ilang mga ingredients. Miso ay may malakas na mga benepisyo at kalusugan ay may kahit na nahanap upang mabawasan ang panganib ng dibdib kanser sa mga kababaihan na ubusin ito ng madalas. Nagtagal kayo ay paggawa ng iyong sariling Miso na sopas!

Ito ay kung ano ang kailangan mo:

4 tasa tuyo beans

5 tasa Koji (bigas inoculated sa spores ng Aspergillus oryzae) availabe sa mga lokal na asian market

1 tasa dagat asin

2 tbsp unpasteurized buto miso (din availabe sa mga lokal na asian market o pamilihin tindahan)

1. Sumipsip 4 tasa ng tuyo beans magdamag. Ayon sa kaugalian soybeans ay ginagamit, ngunit ang iba’t-ibang ay isang ganap na katanggap-tanggap, kabilang ang chickpeas, black beans, split mga gisantes, lentils, itim na mga mata mga gisantes, atbp Pagkatapos sila ay babad na babad, lutuin ang beans hanggang sila ay malambot at madaling crush (tungkol sa 1 1 / 2 oras). Siguraduhin na hindi mo paso ang beans!

2. Kapag ang beans ay tapos na, siguraduhin na malinis ang lahat ng iyong mga kagamitan lubusan. Pook ng isang collander higit sa isang walang laman palayok at patuyuin ang beans. I-save ang bean likido, at itago ito sakop upang panatilihin ito mainit.

3. Mash beans sa nais na kinis, gamit ang isang patatas masher, ricer, butil kiskisan, pagkain processor – anumang mga kasangkapan ikaw ay may. Susunod na, kumuha ng tungkol sa 3 tasa ng reserved likido bean (pero mainit na tubig ay gawin mo kung accidently ito poured down ang alisan ng tubig) at ihalo ito sa asin at kalahati ng miso. Matapos na mized mabuti, idagdag ang Koji. Panghuli idagdag ang halo sa mashed beans at ihalo hanggang ang pagkakayari ay pare-pareho. Kung ito tila makapal kaysa sa mso mo ay, magdagdag ng ilang mga karagdagang likido bean. Ito ang iyong Miso!

4. Sunod, asin sa ilalim at gilid ibabaw ng iyong mga daluyan ng fermenting (sa anumang plastic lalagyan na may pagpapalapat talukap ng mata). Ang mga ideya ay upang magkaroon ng mas mataas na asin nilalaman at ang mga gilid na kung saan contaminating bakterya ay maaaring ma-access ang miso. Pack ang miso mahigpit sa lalagyan, ang pagkuha ng pag-aalaga sa pockets patalsikin hangin. Smooth sa itaas na may spatula o kutsara, at sabog ng patong ng asin sa ibabaw ito.

5. Takpan ang miso sa isang talukap ng mata. Kung ang mga talukap ng mata ikaw ay hindi mapapasukan ng hangin, gamitin ang isang malaking plato na may isang liko ilalim. Ilagay ang mga bloke, libro, o ilang iba pang mabigat na maghintay sa itaas ng talukap ng mata. Sa wakas, takip ang buong lalagyan na may isang tela o plastic upang panatilihin ang alikabok at / o iba pang mga particle. Lable miso ang malinaw, na may isang petsa. Ito ay mahalaga lalo na kung mayroon kang maramihang mga batch.

6. Naghihintay para sa Miso

Ty ang ilan sa mga fall / taglamig miso matapos ang unang tag-init ng pagbuburo. Repack ito nang mabuti, nang basta-basta pagbuburo ang bagong top layer. Pagkatapos ay subukan ito sa isang taon mamaya, kahit na sa isang taon matapos na. Miso mananatiling mabuti para sa isang mahabang panahon, at ito ay lasa mellows at develops sa paglipas ng panahon. Miso ay tulad ng alak!

7. Isang Paalala sa Decanting

Kapag binuksan mo ang isang palayok ng miso na kung saan ay fermenting para sa isang pares ng mga taon, ang top layer ay maaaring lubos na off-patong. Ito ay ganap na normal. Sinagap na lang ito off, at ihagis ito sa iyong pag-aabono.

Isang Paalala sa Pagluluto Sa Miso

Miso ay buhay, at kumukulo ito ay pumatay ito. Kapag ang pagluluto sa miso pagkatapos, lutuin ang iyong sotck at lamang bago mag-alay patayin ang init, kumuha nang isang maliit na mainit na likido sa labas, ihalo ito sa miso, ibalik ito sa sopas at kalikutin!

You can jump to your death now.

That article appeared in searchgrid.org… thanks for the happy confusion. On the other end of the table is what Filipinos call Carabao English. Below is a letter which has been circulating in the internet for ages. It always cracks me up so I want to share it. Fasten your seatbelts:

Happy Easter! Before this conversation goes downhill.

I have talked about this a couple of months ago and I am again resurrecting the issue because this month this issue has floated again on the dailies. Yes, the rice issue.

If you ask the majority of the Filipinos about the issue of us importing rice instead of developing it within our shores, you will get all the angst of 7,107 islands. Except of course for people who don’t really care or don’t know what’s happening around. I don’t even know what to say anymore. Here have a read yourself:

AQUINO WARNED OF RICE CRISIS

MANILA, Philippines—Rising costs of basic commodities and services in the country and a shrinking rice supply have become a national security concern, according to a report by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).

The report, prepared on Feb. 20 and a copy of which was furnished President Benigno Aquino III, said one of the possible flash points being watched by the local intelligence community was the supply and prices of rice worldwide.

Soaring prices of cereals due to production shortfalls led to food riots in several countries and toppled a government in 2008, while prompting the Philippines to buy huge volumes of rice, which it sold to the poor at a discount.

A top security analyst, who helped prepare the NICA report, said early signs of unrest as a result of the price increases this year were being watched closely.

Pockets of protesters have been holding rallies against price increases and a nationwide strike called by the transport sector is a cause for concern, said the security analyst, who asked not to be named because of the nature of his work.

“The sources of unrest are not just terrorist movements or political conflicts, but also issues of the stomach. The most vulnerable of people are the ones who are hungry,” he said.

In March, the average price of rice in the international market was a little over $500 a ton, according to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The agency said recently that food prices worldwide this year were about 37 percent higher than last year’s.

In the country, the average retail price of rice ranged from P30 to P35 a kilogram, the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported on April 9.

The NICA report came a few days before Social Weather Stations released the findings of its survey on poverty that said at least two out of every 10 Filipinos had experienced hunger this year and more than half of the country’s population rated themselves as poor.

Unusual weather

The NICA report, tagged as confidential, said unusual weather patterns brought by climate change and upheavals worldwide were exacting a heavy toll on food supply and costs in many parts of the world, including the Philippines.

Some of the writings on the wall that point to a potential crisis in rice supply, according to the report, are the following:

• Weather disturbances—flooding and drought—“have greatly affected food production worldwide.”

• Rice-producing countries, “without any exemption … experienced overall reductions in production.” These are the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, India, China and Cambodia.

• Massive losses in wheat production due to flooding and a cold spell in Australia, Russia, Ukraine and countries in Eastern Europe are likely to force wheat consumers to shift to rice, further straining worldwide supply.

“Wheat affects rice importation because rice and wheat are reciprocal alternatives, being similarly the world’s most important staple food,” the NICA report said.

• A warning made by the FAO of a worldwide food crisis as a result of sharp declines in international food production.

Ledac meeting

The report has reached the desk of the President and was taken up at the first meeting of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) on Feb. 28, according to the source.

At a press conference following the LEDAC meeting, Mr. Aquino was quoted as saying he had asked the agriculture department to review its figures on rice availability “because if we suddenly have a shortage … this will certainly have a deleterious effect on consumers.”

“This report is being made to mitigate the spiraling costs (of goods and commodities) which started going up at the start of the year 2011,” the NICA report said.

The most-watched commodity is rice, it said, because “any increase in the cost of vital commodities, such as rice, will be politically critical to any administration.”

Vulnerable

The report said the country was very vulnerable to the tightening of food supplies in the world. The country currently has a production shortfall of 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of rice.

“In short, our rice production will not be able to meet our food demand for the year 2011,” it said.

The country has a buffer stock of rice amounting to at least 2.5 million MT, according to the BAS.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala was earlier quoted as saying that the Philippines may need to import up to 800,000 MT to fill the gap in local production.

More rice imports

Jittery over the possibility of price increases in the international market and the specter of stronger storms, the National Food Authority (NFA) said it would import more rice to ensure a stable supply and prices in the latter part of the year.

NFA Administrator Angelito Banayo Monday said he was in favor of importing an additional 300,000 MT of rice to boost buffer stocks.

The NFA recently ordered from Vietnam 200,000 MT, which cost the agency about P4 billion under a government-to-government deal. The rice will be delivered from April to June.

“I would like to play it safe and buy some more. It won’t be too much,” Banayo said.

The NFA is allowed to buy 1.3 million MT of rice from abroad. Of that amount, 200,000 MT will be brought in by the government, while 660,000 will be imported by the private sector.

The country consumes more than 13 million MT of rice a year, said a report quoting the US Department of Agriculture.

Strained finances

The NICA report said the biggest question was whether the Philippine government could afford the costs of importing rice, strained as it is with expenses incurred in repatriating Filipino workers from troubled countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The report said “there is a growing pattern of rice-importing nations already purchasing or locking up the dwindling supply of rice in the face of lower production of both rice and wheat.” This could lead to higher costs of imported rice, it said.

The report said Indonesia, which did not import rice in 2008 and 2009, started importing 1.08 million MT of rice late last year and early this year from two of the Philippines’ top rice producing neighbors—Vietnam and Thailand.

Indonesia plans to import a total of 3.2 million MT of rice this year, the report said.

Even one of the world’s poorest countries, Bangladesh, recently entered into a rice supply deal with Vietnam.

Malaysia, the report said, had “quietly locked up” 800,000 MT of rice from Vietnam. South Korea is also importing rice from the same sources as the Philippines.

One of the most worrisome developments, the report said, was China’s purchase of rice from Vietnam and Burma (Myanmar).

“The actions of these other countries pose a great danger to our food security as there is a possibility that they will soak up the supply available for rice or if there would be remaining supplies, these would be very expensive,” the NICA report said.

Left behind

The report said the Philippines was being left behind by other countries. “(A)nd the danger of a food crisis in this country is reaching the point that is has now become an issue of national security.”

“What is more troubling is our very own weather is contributing to lower rice production,” the report said. Floods in the Visayas and Mindanao recently “while not significantly reducing potential harvests still add up to the shortfall for national consumption.”

The report warned that a shortage may open the door for “private traders … to create an artificial supply-demand inequality that could lead to higher prices.”

The report said rice importation should be protected from kickbacks. A shortage will benefit only a rice cartel that continues to operate in the country, it said.

The report stressed the need for Mr. Aquino to require the NFA to submit a detailed report on rice availability and measures being undertaken to ensure supply. With a report from Kristine L. Alave

That news by the way is weeks ago. The day after that report came out, the issue was addressed by NFA with this:

NO RICE SHORTAGE SAYS NFA

MANILA, Philippines—The National Food Authority (NFA) Wednesday disputed reports about a looming rice crisis in the country.

“We don’t have any problem in rice supply. There is no looming rice crisis,” NFA Administrator Lito Banayo said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer.

Banayo was reacting to a report by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) warning about a possible rice shortage and price increases amid the volatile global cereal market and uncertain weather.

He said was not disputing the NICA report which was dated February 20, but added that the government has since taken measures to address such a situation if ever it arises.

According to Banayo, there is no need to worry about rice shortage for there were government interventions to make sure that the country has enough rice supply.

“Walang dapat ipangamba. (No need to worry.) The government has moved in the right direction,” he said.

Banayo also said he had already signed a contract with Vietnam in March importing an additional 200,000 MT of rice to boost buffer stocks for a bargain price of $480 per MT compared to last year’s price of $630 per MT.

Banayo said NFA had also given permits to the private sector to import an additional 660,000 MT of rice.

But he explained that the rice importation has decreased compared to the 2.4 million MT imported in 2010.

For the full audio report, listen to DZIQ 990 AM. Danica Marie Hermogenes

And then a couple of days after that, this report came out:

ANOTHER CAUSE OF RICE SHORTAGE

WE, FROM Sentro para sa Repormang Agraryo (Sentra) want to share our concerns regarding the food crisis and rice shortage, the subject issues of the April 3 Talk of the Town section.

Sentra’s experience in handling hundreds of agrarian cases shows that land use conversion has seriously affected rice production in the Philippines. The conversion of thousands of hectares of rice fields into eco-tourism hubs, residential areas and industrial zones continues without letup. This is contributing to the cycle of food crisis we are experiencing as a nation. Of the 6 million hectares of rice lands we had, only 4 million remain, which means we may be heading toward a severe rice supply crisis, if we don’t watch out.

In Cavite alone, from 1983 to 1989, the number of hectares of irrigated rice lands fell from 14,710 to 12,800. And there are land cases, involving hundreds of hectares of farm lands, pending before the Department of Agrarian Reform: among these, 217 hectares referred to as “Tropical Land” in Dasmariñas, Cavite; 90 hectares in Malolos and Calumpit, Bulacan; and 400 hectares in Tanza, Cavite, and Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas. Based on data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), since 1991, the size of our agricultural land area has been decreasing yearly by 27,000 hectares due to land use conversion.

Land use conversion is being used as an “entry point” or opportunity for land-grabbing, and thus lands that have been long dedicated to food production are lost and thousands of farmers are displaced.

Palay is more than a grain of food. Every part of the crop is a source of life. The straw can be used for thatching and mat-making, the fodder for animal feeds and the husk for fuel. All these provide additional sources of income for many of our poor farmers.

The Aquino administration must address these issues if it sincerely wants to improve the lives of poor Filipinos.

—EDNA VELARDE,

researcher and paralegal staff,

Sentro para sa Repormang Agraryo (Sentra), Quezon City

I’ll leave the commenting part to you. I’ve said enough in the past episodes of Filipino Food News. Actually, I was telling myself, “well… what can I say?” I’m even thinking that Philippines is just a victim of the fact that the world is getting smaller. But then, I don’t know. Speak up and let’s hear you.

*All news is fetched from inquirer.net

Goodness. There are no heavy news about Filipino food this week. As much as I want to indulge every lifestyle section in every news spread in the world telling this Filipino opened that Filipino restaurant, I digress. But not so much though. This just tells us that Filipino food is opening its doors everywhere in the world. Filipino food and the people behind it are being acknowledged. Which leads me to our first article this week.

Adobo Roots

fetched from inq.net

Yes and yes and yes. This is a good conversation topic along the lines of “Do you know that….. is a Filipino?” I didn’t even know that that Marc Dacascos guy in Iron Chef America is a Filipino. We as a race are getting noticed in the food scene. Gordon Ramsay’s Sous-Chef in one of his restaurants is a Filipino. Dale Talde the loud, rude and kitchen-genius of Top Chef fame is in a whirlpool of Filipino food love. Read the rest of the article who else is Filipino waving a flag with a plate of Adobo.

Adidas, Balut

fetched from abs-cbnnews.com

Yep, Adidas and Balut have reached the Grand Canyon. Again, we are infecting the world like a fast-spreading virus. This Food Truck business has got our Filipino balls rolling,we are zooming out of nowhere to everywhere. Two weeks ago, we featured weird Filipino food here in myfilipinokitchen. And not so surprisingly, a lot of non-Filipinos love it. So for those Filipinos who think our native and weird dishes can’t break through prime-time, eat my adidas and suck my balut.

Philippine Food in Singapore

fetched from countercultureph.wordpress.com

Singapore is a blessing to the Philippines – work wise. I personally know a lot of Filipinos who are now in Singapore working either in the field of media or travel. I have been to Singapore myself and it is food heaven. What’s good is, Filipino food is assimilating to a culture that treats food like an experiment of crossbreeding puppies. We don’t know in the near future there might be a dish called Adobong Soy Chicken. Alright, that may be weird but who knows?

Great Filipino Restaurants

fetched from thehungryhost.com

And if you are still an unbeliever that Filipino food can be presented really well and not just a mish-mash of this and that, save your money from the usual food court food and please at least try a good Filipino restaurant. Linda tells you all about it in the link. Do it you so your narrow mind will open like 5am-12pm. Devirginize your brain and tongue.

And if you think I am over iRice, oh no my friend, i’m on it like a monkey-eating eagle. The funny thing is, PIA who is supposed to be the first one to talk about it just recently launched their article about this mysterious, futuristic grain. Click this to access the government site.

A few months ago, I introduced Adobo in the office during one of the many Monday lunches. I also introduced Paella to them but much to my surprise not a lot of them consider seafood as part of their diet but those who did had more than 2 helpings. And recently I introduced Afritada and to my delight and theirs, we all enjoyed the Afritada pretty well. And if any of my officemates are reading this, yes, I didn’t cook a lot of it and I know some of you were taking a peek inside the pot wanting to have second portions but were modest to leave some to those who haven’t had lunch yet. Next time I’ll cook more than that. They were interested in the recipe so I told them that a “how to cook afritada” (click here) is available at myfilipinokitchen.com. One officemate was so interested (and he did actually comment on the post and), he made it the weekend after and even sent me a photo of it. He said that was the first full-on recipe that he cooked in his entire life. And i’m so glad he chose a Filipino dish. I asked him if he could email me his thoughts about it and we came to the conclusion of – why don’t we post it here as a sort of a reader response?

So let me tell you a little about my officemate Dave before I stick his response on the screen. Dave is of course an Australian, but of Maltese descent. If you don’t know the Maltese people, here have a read about them. The Maltese people cook their dishes with a lot of tomato sauce so Afritada is not so much a stranger to Dave. Why don’t we jump to his email:

Hi Seigfred,

I really did enjoy following your recipe on how to make Afritada last Sunday. I found your recipe steps very easy to follow from your website and the pictures you included made the dish even more tempting for me to cook.

I did however make a couple of slight changes to your original recipe, just to suit my own personal tastes. The first change that I decided to make was to substitute celery with some fresh brussell sprouts, which I did boil up along with my baby potatoes, carrots, garlic and onions in my pot and I must say they did taste delicious. The second change I made to the recipe was to not add the peeled tomatoes or red pasta sauce to the chicken, sausage, onions, green peppers and garlic in the frying pan. Instead I only added the peeled tomatoes and red pasta sauce in with the boiled vegetables and this ended up being a great side dish to add with the meat afterwards on the serving plate itself and also made a fantastic chunky vegetable soup to have ready to serve as well.

I certainly will be cooking this delicious Pilipino dish again in the future and will try adding the peeled tomatoes in with the pan fried meat next time. I also am keen to try out many more of your delicious looking recipes that I see on your website

Regards,

David

Well Dave, thank you very much for sending me your response. And as to our readers who have tried to cook any recipes here (I myself wanted to post a reader response to Chef Mike’s Filipino Sandwich but that would be really strange), please send me a photo of the dish that you cooked and your thoughts while cooking it. Send it to seigfred[at] myfilipinokitchen [dot] com and I will definitely post it here in the website.

For the past few weeks I have been watching out for Philippine rice news with my mouth full. This time it has gotten way out of hand.

Philippines to launch I-rice

fetched from oryza.com

This title of the article reminds me of the movie Irobot starring Will Smith. So what is this Irice? Irice is a program by the Philippine government that will utilize robots that look like humans to “man” rice farms. So what do you think? The future is now Jose!

I’m just kidding. Irice is iron fortified rice. They said that Filipinos do not have a lot nutritional intake because their diet depends mainly on carbohydrates. And it’s time to inject extra nutrients in the diet by introducing iron-fortified rice. Which leads me to our next item

Iloilo Mayor introduces I-rice

fetched from .com.ph

It is actually an excellent effort by the city government of Iloilo (I remember when I was there, this Jed guy is quite hip) to not let go of the “feeding program”. I tell you this has been going on for ages in both private and public schools, I experienced this first hand. This program though is tied-up with the Department of Health. What I want to know is what is the Department of Agriculture doing in this Irice process? Let me get this straight and please enlighten me – if the country is having a difficult haul in producing rice for its citizens, how come we have jumped to a program that improves, boosts or “steroids” rice grains when we can’t even tackle the first step of producing enough rice for everyone? Which leads me to our next item…

Old eating habits, lack of post harvest facilities blamed for huge rice losses

fetched from philstar.com

This report says that too much rice is wasted. It shows a perfect picture that asks, why is it that when Filipinos eat at restaurants they tend to leave significant morsels of rice on their plates? We also have this tradition during weddings to shower newly-weds with kilos and kilos of rice. Not to mention that during the time of harvest, the process of harvesting to drying to distribution of rice wastes a lot of these golden grains? Can somebody pull my very-long-shampooed-and-perpetually-conditioned-hair for me? I would be angrier if they will be doing this with Irice really.

I am trying to look up the fertilizer scam issue but I punched the monitor so I can’t really read anything anymore. My screen is now going black.

Philippine Rice Industry in peril

fetched from bulatlat.com

Last week in Filipino Food News we featured an effort to increase the production of soybeans in the Philippines to which I replied, why would they focus all their attention and energy on producing more rice and make the Philippines be self-sufficient instead of joining the entire world in the race to grab sacks of rice from rice-producing countries? And this report? Has the Banaue rice terraces collapsed? That’s mountains and mountains of land dedicated to producing rice. You will probably hear from a taxi driver, an “istambay” (bum), a gossip-monger the question of, what has the previous government done that after so many years, Philippines cannot produce rice that can make the country independent from foreign rice supply? I remember the time during the Arroyo regime in the Philippines where they bought a lot of rice which resulted to a global scarcity of the rice. The rice from the local market here in Australia soared high and as my Filipino family consumes it in a daily basis, I was so struck where a decision from a government that is a thousand of miles away has affected everyone in the world. Rice is important to every Filipino. I hope the effort of the Aquino government will be succesful. I hope that in the very near future, Philippines will becomes 100% rice self-sufficient.

Philippines unveil support for coffee industry

fetched from sunstar.com.ph

Here we go again. From soybean to coffee cultivation. It is actually good to see that there are a lot of agricultural projects in the Philippines. What’s so sad is we could have done this before. (I am starting to not like this segment here in the website because I find myself just ranting instead of raving. I don’t like it. I feel that I should have done the improvements myself.) There are a lot of good and, let me use the word, awesome coffee in the Philippines. Civet coffee or natively known as Coffee Alamid in the Philippines is just way crazy and delicious that it is very marketable. Mushroom coffee is another thing that can slap the world in the face and turn it to next year. Coffee Barako cannot be underestimated as well. The crazy thing is, the Philippines has starbucks coffee everywhere but everyone is fed with Arabica and South American beans. I’ll stop. I’m going to look for raw coffee beans and punish myself by grinding them with my incisors.

I think this is all for this week. I would have given you more updates about Filipino Food around the world wide web but I deem others a bit of a ho-hum. Here are some links that I read this week; What will you abstain from, How many kids can your frap feed, and some ignoramus who says Filipino food is worst in the world. The internet is such an entertaining place.

Let’s Go Soybean

fetched from philstar.com

I remember during elementary school days… they would usually feed us with green peas and this sort of malt or cereal called Bulgor/Bolgur/Bulgur, I can’t remember. It was once a government program along with the Go, Grow and Glow campaign. Anybody remember that? The article is fully packed with information about Soy Beans I don’t even know where to start. I wanted to discuss it further but I have this nagging thought that says, “what about rice?” Should we prioritize our rice process, send it to rehab first before expanding the Philippine Sustainable Soybean Production program? If you ask me, it is a shame having the International Rice Research Institute in our country when we are the biggest buyers of rice in the world.

A Night Fit for a Queen

fetched from malaya.com.ph

I love Tita Nora. I call her Tita because I feel close to her. She was a constant companion when my parents would anytime decide to go see a movie and leave me, their 6 year old kid in the house with our flea-sy dog – no furs, just fleas. What I don’t understand in this event is, it seems that they did not serve a single Filipino dish. I mean, Tita Nora is an icon of Filipino food and she deserves all the honor and glory that is due her but, where is the highlight on Filipino food? Or did the article just miss that out? They could have taken at least 2 recipes from any of her books, improvised more on it (for fine dining rah rah), and have that spearhead all the dishes that they want to feature. I find it strange that the night fit for a Filipino Food queen did not have Filipino food at all. It’s just, weird. But hey, all hail Tita Nora!

Homegrown is top class

fetched from philstar.com

You gotta read that. You have to. Here are the words present there: “His entry of hanger steak with beets and leeks in coconut milk or karneng baka na may ginataang aselaga at sibuyas, won the grand prize of US$20,000…” Filipino food is rising and rising fast. I can’t wait for the time when it gets to its peak because Adobo will be everywhere in the world. I don’t care about fusion food as of the moment. I think when novelty Filipino dishes get ground internationally, everyone will see the beauty of it. Which leads me to the question, do we need to fuse Filipino food with other cuisines just to have it get a joyride on the fame train?

Unappetizing Outlook for Jollibee Foods Corporation

fetched from benzinga.com

Can somebody please tell me why Jollibee is on a slide?