Isaw. That’s what we call them. I-saw. The first syllable is pronounced as E and the second one is pronounced as if you are saying Tao -more like saying E-sao. But that’s when you are in the northern parts of the Philippines. Both in the central and south, they are called either inihaw or inasal.

Before I go on with trivial things (Which is for you my dear regular readers who do not usually comment! I know you’re existing, you just have muted hands.) let’s accomodate our new readers by getting straight to the point. Here’s a list of Filipino street foods or Filipino barbecue I have made in this site so far:

Skewered Chicken Skin Barbecue. Which is one of the first posts I’ve made in this series. The post was made up when I was working on Saturdays in a relatives’ Charcoal Chicken shop, it’s one of those Greek chicken shops here in Australia. Until now I can say that they have the best Charcoal Chicken I’ve ever tasted in Melbourne… or even in Australia. Of course, I cook there! What i’ve noticed though, when they do prepare their Chicken Schnitzels is that throw the chicken skin away after peeling it off from “everyone’s meat” – which is the chiken breast. So I collected them all and made something more wonderful than a bland piece of meat.

I wasn’t suppose to talk there. I was just supposed to give a list of Filipino barbecued street foods. Here’s the rest -

Skewered Pork Barbecue. This is epic and in a 3-part series so don’t forget to click the next post. I’ll shut up now.

Skewered Chicken Liver Barbecue. You gotta know why Liver is the best food in the world.

Skewered Chicken Hearts Barbecue. Exotic, fun-tastic, tick-tocking delight.

Skewered Chicken Gizzard Barbecue. Juxtaposition in a grill.

Skewered Chitterlings Barbecue. This is where Isaw got its name.

So far I have 6 in the list. Read them all. I had fun writing them so you will have fun reading them too. And if you want to request for more please let me know. That is, if I have time to do it. And what I meant by that is, it’s winter from where I am already and making barbecue is next to impossible. Well unless you have something to bribe me with, we can do negotiations.

A month ago, @Limer35 and @Filipeanut, Filipino foodies from California, sent me a tweet asking me what do I think of adding Betamax to Adobo. To clarify, it’s not that dino-age system that your grandparents use to watch a movie. Betamax is a slang for coagulated blood cubes or cakes as it resembles the tape that you load in your Betamax system to watch movies like Total Recall, Top Gun, Pretty Woman or that Nora Aunor movie that’s famous for the line – “My brother is not a pig”. Well right after they got my attention in Twitter about this radical idea of adding blood cubes in Adobo, I thought… it was actually brilliant.

So I thought, how am I going to do this? (I got excited suddenly.)

Because first and foremost, blood cubes (or cakes) are very delicate, I have to do this right. Although it retains a certain integrity, when cooked recklessly, it will still disintegrate into a million pieces. Remember eating a Dinuguan like an exploded blob of bloody chaos instead of the perfect smooth and saucy Dinuguan stew? That’s why I want to pull this off right. And  and I thought it may affect the delicate soy sauce and vinegar combo of the Adobo. @Limer made a version of his own but I didn’t really have a enough info on know how it turned out.

So -

1. I did this carefully by cooking the chicken in vinegar with a generous amount of salt, the traditional way of cooking Adobo. I then set the chicken aside and dried it up for a bit, then shallow-fried it in high heat to wrap it in crunch.

2. For the sauce, I mixed chicken stock, soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaves, and then reduced them to a sauce.

3. And as for the betamax, I marinated it in vinegar… which diluted the thing. Which is exactly, how you make Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew) – by diluting the blood in vinegar or tamarind squeeze. Luckily it didn’t melt entirely. So I quickly shallow-fried what is left of the freaking thing in high heat just to make a well formed crust and then cooked it further in low heat so as to avoid eating raw blood. Yuck. Sookie.

The reason why I made this is because this is what Modern Filipino Cooking is which is also our topic next week. Reinventing and innovating traditional dishes. Sisig, Bicol Express, Tapsilog and its varities are among a few of them. I’ll discuss them further hopefully by Monday.

Anyway, I’ll stop blabbering. Here are the pictures.

Kudos to @Limer for the brilliant idea. You rock Adobo in a bloody way!

Next week we will be talking about Modern Filipino Cooking and we will discuss recipes that have been created decades after the 2nd World War. This week, I will be giving you a glimpse of what we will be taking about not only next week but also for the next month.

In this segment, which I am thinking of doing on a regular basis, I will let you guess what are the secret ingredients to this Filipino Food. And what Filipino recipe is it. Let’s begin shall we?

So have you guessed what are the secret ingredients in this secret Filipino food recipe? And don’t you even dare to view the page source. You’ll find nothing there anyway.

Let the games begin!

The infamous Kare kare. Kare-kare. Karekare. Echo. Echo. Echo. It’s like sex for most teenagers- all those teenyboppers talk about it a lot but few know how to do it well. In this post, we’ll take it like adults. Open your brains and let those nerves start gyrating.

Ingredients

Toasted, powdered rice as a thickener, half a cup. If you can’t find this anywhere, I’ll teach you how to make it from rice grains. Read on.

Atsuete or Annato Oil for color. I’ll tell you how to do it later and how much to use. Turn some music on.

Ox tripe and Ox tail. If no one in your house eats ox tripe, then just do ox tail or even just chunks of beef. If you stick to using both, 1 kilo for your ox tail and 500 grams for your tripe.

Peaut butter for flavor 2 tablespoons.

Shrimp paste or bagoong for condiment, as much as you want.

One cup of Peanut Oil. I am now specific on the oil because this adds so much flavor.

Vegetables for your Kare Kare stock:

4 huge-as brown onions. They will be used for both your Tripe and Tail, 2 for each.

2 fat and strong carrots.

4 stalks of celery.

Vegetables again for your initial saute for lifting the flavors for Kare kare.

5 medium sized tomatoes

1 huge spanish onion

5 cloves of garlic.

All of them should be chopped finely.

Vegetables again but this time, for your  actual Kare Kare. You can use anything you want but if you want to keep it simple:

Petsay or Bok Choy 3 bunches.

String beans or green beans in some areas of the discovered world. Get at least 300 grams.

1 big and healthy eggplant or aubergine cut any way you like.

Preparation

Now we will prepare this in 3-4 hours. So if you don’t have time to do this, don’t fast-forward stuff because you will only screw this up. I tell you doing Kare kare is easy, you just have to take time. Are you ready?

Toasted Rice

If you are not in the Philippines and you visited your local market and can’t find any toasted rice, wake up, you are not in the Philippines where you can buy this stuff in a small bag. You need to do it yourself, here’s how:

1. Grind, pound and turn those rice grains into powder. In my case, I used, believe it or not, a hand-mixer. The one you use “only” in soups. I poured at least half a cup of rice in a glass, inserted the head of the hand-mixer and mixed until they turned to powder. If you follow after me, don’t forget to shake the glass. Before doing that, I tried using a mortar and pestle but I got frustrated because it won’t do the job so I broke it using my head.

2. Heat up a pan in low heat. Again, do not be in a hurry by turning up the heat to the highest centi-freaking-grade. You are not helping yourself you know that. Wait. Wait until it’s hot and then pour your powdered rice.

3. Once it’s in, practice the juggling-wok or pan technique. It’s fun. Do it you and stop being a kill-joy. From time to time scrape and scrape. Once it turns slightly brown and if you can smell a toasted smell, take it off the pan and set it aside. Do not leave it in the pan or else it will turn bitter. Goodness, why do you love doing short-cuts? (If that is not you, leave me be with my ranting, I am just imitating my father.)

Pre-cooking Meat

The reason why we are pre-cooking meat is to prepare the flavors. You do not want your Kare-kare to have that very gamey taste of Tripe. You neither want to eat a stubborn and gummy ox-tail – it is mostly bones and if the meat is difficult to gnaw off, eating it may lead to serious injury.

Preparing your Ox Tripe for Kare kare

We will use a sort of rice bath for this. We will cook our ox tripe with rice. Not only that the rice will help us cut the cooking time, because rice works as a tenderizer for the meat, the comforting smell and taste of rice should overcome the gamey-ness of tripe.

1. Dunk in your tripe in the pot with at least 2 huge brown onions with half a cup of rice and 2 teaspoons of salt.

2. Let it simmer in low heat for an hour.

3. After an hour wash your Tripe with running water.

We only cooked it for 1 hour because we still want that texture and integrity of tripe. It adds to the delight of eating it. You don’t want to eat an overcooked Tripe. It’s icky and yucky to the tongue if it’s very soft and disintegrates when it touches the edges of your teeth. We will still cook it with the rest of our ingredients for our Kare kare recipe so relax.

Preparing your stock and Ox Tail for Kare kare

This stock will act as your actual stock-to-sauce for Kare kare and this will also get rid of the gamey smell of ox tail.

1. Do this twice – put all your oxtail in the pot, fill it water just to the level of your meat and add a tablespoon of salt. Let it rip in high heat, once it boils, wash them with flowing, cold water.

2. While that is ripping off on high heat, peel and chop your brown onions, carrots and celery.

3. After you’ve done your wash on the ox tails, add your veggie stocks in and pour in water to the level of your meat. I strongly recommend you use a big pot for this. If you use a small pot, the meat will stick in the sides of your pot and you just ruined your chance of eating the remaining meat that is sticking on our ox tails. Let it simmer in low heat for 2 hours. (This should be done side by side with your ox tripe to save you time.)

4.  After 2 hours, take your ox tails off and put them on a separate container. Do not throw the stock, drain and sieve the liquid. As for the mashed-up vegetables, apply them on to your mother’s face. Tell her it will make her look young. Be sure they’re not hot. Or else….

Preparing your Annato seeds or Achuete oil

Normally I will tell you about what are Annato seeds or Achuete but I will wait for you to ask it on the commenst so we can have at least a decent conversation here. So here’s how to simply do it.

1. Pour at least a fourth of a cup of Annato Seeds or Achuete in a thick, glass bowl.

2. Heat up a pan or a wok in low heat and once it’s hot, pour in half a cup of your peanut oil. Once the oil is hot (test this by throwing a grain of salt in the oil and if that oil reacts like it was thrown in hell), take it off the heat and pour it in your bowl of Annato seeds.

3. Let it sit for a couple of minutes or until the oil turns into a reddish color.

To actually go to the process of How to Cook Kare kare

1. Heat your pot in low heat, do not burn your peanut oil. Add almost half a cup of peanut oil. Throw in your chopped garlic. Once the garlic pieces turn brown, immediately take them off the heat so as not to turn them into bitter little kids. Now drop your onions and tomatoes and saute till they turn mushy.

2. Add your stock, ox tail and tripe and eggplant pieces and turn the heat up. Once it boils, turn the heat down. Do not cover. And if there are any sticky stuff on the bottom of the pot, scrape carefully without cutting off the meat from either your tripe or tail. Add your 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. Add 3 tablespoons of Achuete oil. Wait for it to boil again and taste. Can you taste the peanut butter? Good. Is it bland? Much better. It should be bland. Do not add salt. As long as the peanut flavor is the overwhelming taste, it’s all good. Add more peanut butter if you think it lacks the taste. Add more Achuete oil if it lacks the needed color. Yes it should be at least orange. By this time too, it would be a little bit thick with your peanut butter.

3. All good? Fantastic. Now let’s add your toasted rice. Add 2 tablespoons first and see if it thickens enough. If it’s thick, of course you should not add more. If you think it’s too light, you know what to do Jeeves. Now dunk the rest of your vegetables in. Those beans and petsays should be cooked in less than 3 minutes. Now cover the pot for at least 3 minutes. Open it up again and mix everything carefully. Turn the heat off and cover it again for the next 5 minutes.

4. Serve with hot, steamed rice with a side of your shrimp paste.

For those who know how to prepare a sauted Shrimp paste, please leave a comment. I’m tired of typing.

P.S.

This post was inspired by Sylvia’s comment here so if you have any requests, please leave a comment so I can make one for you. Unortunately, this wasn’t published before Sylvia’s birthday. So maybe you can set me a deadline and I’ll reply if I can do it or not.

In line with our theme of Filipino celebrations, Chef Mike posted a Paella Negra Stuffed Squid with Cream Sauce Aligue, just the sound of those words coming out of my orifices turns me on. So I am obliged to make a Filipino Paella Recipe. Here are the things that you need to inject your brain before we continue:

1. This recipe will be mostly based on the readily available ingredients for Paella in the Filipino Market. So if you’re thinking that we will add Thyme later, you are dreaming.

2. Although I told you in number 1 that we will use Filipino ingredients only, I take my word back because I will be using real saffron. The one that I had a picture with in the previous post here.

3. We will not use a Paellera (a pan that is usually used to cook Spanish Paella). It is expensive and I don’t see a point (as of the moment) buying one pan that can be only used for one dish. I am not rich and dumb yet. But hopefully, I’ll get there. I’m excited to say “Duh! I have money!”.

4. Paella and Arroz Valenciana is different. You use rice in Paella and you use sticky rice in Arroz Valenciana.

5. I will screw up at the end of this post because I used real saffron. So read on to witness my impending destruction.

Ingredients for your Filipino Paella recipe

5 cups of cooked rice. Yes, we are going to pre-cook  our rice because cooking rice in a wok are only done by people with really really really high IQ.

5 really really really ripe tomatoes

1 really really really huge-as Spanish onion (alright I’ll stop with the really really really)

1 chopped red chili pepper

A head of garlic

half a cup of vegetable oil.

1/2 kilo of skinned and cubed chicken thighs. Be sure all the water is drained from the chicken after you wash it.

1 huge longganiza or chorizo. Clue, you can’t get it from your boyfriend.

1/2 kilo of raw monster-big prawns

1/2 a kilo of any combination of fish fillets, cubed. In this recipe, I used salmon and swordfish. Be sure you use fish that can hold its integrity. Tuna fillets are good contestants.

1/2 a kilo of mussels or green shells.

300 grams of squid or calamari. You can cut it any way you like as long as you clean and cut it. And when did it happen that we can only make rings out of them?

1 cup of chicken stock, or dissolve a chicken cube in a cup of water, or a cup of water. I prefer home-cooked chicken stock. Read here.

1 cup of green peas, preferably sweet peas

1 whole green bell pepper

1 teaspoon of orange-coloring. In this recipe I am a saffron-using-idiot. If you can’t get saffron, you can get that orange coloring that is also used for Arroz Valenciana. You can even add a little bit of paprika which is always available in your friendly cash-grabbing supermarket.

3 bay leaves crushed and torn into pieces like the plight of those Filipino Telenovela protagonists

A very wide and deep wok. They are cheap to buy. Just visit your local wet market and haggle. If you have a small wok, where are you going to cook kilos and kilos of these ingredients then?

Big and small containers because we will be cooking batches. Do not start cooking unless they are prepared. Do the scout salute.

How to Cook your Filipino Paella

1. Chop your tomaotes, Spanish onion, chili peppers and all your garlic cloves. Put them in separate containers. You don’t want the juices of the tomato to touch your chopped garlic. Heat up your wok and put all your oil in. Now saute your garlic in low heat. Watch out, right after it has turned golden brown, scoop it out of the wok and into your readily available container. Save that for later. As long as our oil is garlic-infused, it will be awesome. Turn up the heat to medium. Now drop in your onions, chorizo or longganisa and chicken. Wait for them to turn a little bit brown and then drop in only 3/4 of your chopped tomatoes but all your chopped red chili pepper. Cover it for 2-3 minutes until those tomatoes have given up all their juices for the cause. And then pour in your chicken stock and cover again until it boils.

2. Boiling? Crank the heat up and wait until the stock turns into a saucy consistency. Once it’s saucy, drop all your seafood in baby. Every 30 seconds you need to turn all the ingredients over and over to make sure that everything is cooked evenly. Is it crowded in the wok already? Wait till we put in your 5 cups of rice then you can panic. Alright, the seafood should only be in the wok for 3-4 minutes, so you should be turning and turning them. But be gentle, you don’t want to scar your fish cubes. Once everything has changed in color, all luminance gone from the fish, prawns turned orange and squid cuts have turned all-white and textured-up and all the mussels have opened, take everything off the wok except for the sauce. If after you’ve transfered them to your container and if the container has juices in it, pour those juices back in the wok. By then that thick sauce that we had a while ago has turned thin again because of all the juices of seafood that we’ve added. Add your coloring. If you are using saffron, you should have let them simmered in that cup of chicken stock 2 hours ago before you started cooking so the color and flavor will be released to the chicken stock. But if you are an idiot like me, you forgot about it, so you dropped your saffron in the wok hoping it will color the dish but wouldn’t. If you are not using saffron, then your coloring will do the job in a fraction of time. Wait for that stock in the wok to turn really thick, down to half a cup. You only need half a cup of very thick sauce for 5 cups of rice. You don’t want your rice to turn into porridge. And just like what Chef Mike said, “It’s just like making Sinangag!” That’s Filipino fried rice for you white-boy.

3. Thick to half a cup already? Taste it. If it lacks salt you know what to do. If it’s just salty, that’s ok because that will still be distributed to your 5 cups of rice. Put all your rice in if it’s thick-ready. Add your peas and bay leaves in as well. Mix, turn and scrape until everything is covered with that yellowish fantastic color. When they are colored evenly, drop in your seafood and mix. Remember you still have tomatoes left and green bell peppers? Just put them on top of your steaming Filipino Paella recipe and cover the wok. Cover. What we’re doing right now is for the flavors to meld and for that Paella “tutong” to form. Tutong is the overcooked and toasted rice on the bottom of the pot. A bonafide Filipino will join in a fistfight just to get this stuff. That will take 2-3 minutes in high heat. Take the cover off and sprinkle your toasted garlic pieces.

4. Serve on the wok. Do not even try to take your Filipino Paella off the wok. It would be barbaric not to serve Filipino Paella on a wok.

But here’s a picture of it on a plate.

My Paella did not have the desired color because again, I screwed up on using real saffron. What an ignoramus. I failed. I hope you won’t.

Paella Negra Stuffed Squid with Aligue Cream Sauce

When I was invited to be a partner of a Spanish-themed resort, I was asked to give a sample of a dish that I will be serving in my F&B outlet. I wanted to combine the flavors of Spain with the “Island” feel of the Philippines. Here’s what I came up with…

Good for 2

Ingredients

Paella Negra Stuffing:

200 grams Pre-cooked Paella Rice (Any Short Grained Rice will do)

30 mL Squid Ink  (Can be purchased in Cans)

50 grams Chopped Garlic

Salt

Black Pepper

Olive Oil

200 grams/1 pc.  Squid

Aligue Cream:

15 grams Crabfat

60 mL All Purpose Cream

Lemon Juice

Salt

Black Pepper

Procedure:

To make the Black Paella:

Saute Garlic in Olive oil over medium heat until golden brown. Add the the pre-cooked Paella rice and continue to saute (its just like making sinangag haha) Add the squid ink and stir until all of the rice is coated with the ink. Season with Salt and Pepper

Preparing the Squid:

Clean the squid by removing the tentacles, black layer of the skin, innards and the beak.

Season the squid with Salt and Black Pepper inside and out

Stuff the Squid with the prepared paella and Grill the squid on a charcoal grill. Set Aside

Aligue Cream Sauce:

On a pan over medium heat, saute garlic in olive oil until golden brown. Add crabfat and cream. Squeeze some lemon juice into the sauce (this is just to cut the richness of the crabfat) Season with Salt and Pepper.

Assembly:

Slice the Squid and arrange it on the crabfat sauce. Garnish with coriander/cilantro leaves

This week we will talk about Filipino classics, the big dishes, the ones that we only release when visitors camp out of our house waiting for the eve of the fiesta and then scramble on the table like animals. And the best way to open this week is of course to have our resident chef, Chef Mike to conduct the prelude. Enjoy! – Ziggy

Lamb Caldereta sa Gata

with Black Olives and Sautéed Peppers

In line with fiesta dishes, I have decided to post my specialty dish. I learned about having gata with caldereta through a Kapampangan friend, then I re-invented it by using Lamb and Black Olives. I once served this dish to the count of Germany, Helmut Matternich and our First Lady Imelda Marcos. I think it is festive enough haha!

Ingredients

250 grams Lamb Shoulder

15 grams Garlic

15 grams Onions

15 grams Ginger

30 grams Red bell Peppers

30 grams Green Bell Peppers

10 grams Tomato Paste

50 grams Potatoes

50 grams Carrots

30 grams Liver Spread

60 mL Gata

Vegetable Oil

Black Olives

Procedure

Cook the lamb in water with ginger until the first boiling point. Remove and drain the lamb, rinse it and replace the water. Boil it again for the second time and just when it reaches boiling point remove the lamb and set it aside.

Make the caldereta by sautéing some garlic in vegetable oil until golden brown. Add onions and ginger and mix well. Add the tomato paste and wait until the paste turns orange. Add the pre-boiled lamb shoulder and add water just enough to submerge the lamb. After it has boiled, add the potatoes and carrots into the mixture. Continue boiling until the potatoes and carrots are half way cooked then add the liver spread and gata. Garnish with sliced black olives and sautéed peppers.

Serve hot with steamed white rice.

You are what you eat. Raise your hands and eat money if you believe this!

If there is a Filipino street food where all the other street foods got their name it would be from intestines. Everyone calls it “Isaw” in the Philippines and it has somehow found it’s way to name every other animal meat organ barbecue after itself. Right. I thought I confused myself there.

It’s yucky, it’s icky, it’s ew-wy, it’s dirty, if you don’t clean it properly. In the Philippines where butchering and slaughtering in the household is a usual event, the cleaning of chicken or pig intestines takes most of the time. The intestine is plugged in the mouth of the faucet so the water can flow freely all throughout it’s canals and hidden places. And you can witness every unimaginable whatevers and thingamajigers come out of the other end worse than movies about Aliens and Predators.

You have to clean it carefully. Failure to clean the insides of this wonderful delicacy would lead to… how shall I put this? Death? Chicken and Pig intestines are home to tapeworms (should I continue?), E Coli, Salmonella and other cruel stuff that can beat your insides to pieces. The chitterlings (that’s what the English call their Isaw) that you buy from the supermarket have been cleaned from hell to heaven. Some of them have been simmered with a baking soda solution. Yep, the ones that your moms use to clean the carpet if some foul material found its way to your divine bare-foot path. Rumors in my local market in the Philippines tell that even chlorine is employed to edulcorate, elutriate, expurgate and launder these beauties before they are being sold for a virginal appeal. If ever you are the victim of this immaculate process, don’t fret, just imagine that you accidentaly drank water from a chlorine-filled swimming pool. It’s better than having to gulp E Coli or Salmonella.

Well, too much atrocities. Let’s talk about the good. Chitterlings, Isaw or intestines are rich in Zinc. A mineral that is also rich in oysters. If you click and go to this post, it will tell you about Zinc and oyster and having lots of baby-making time. Zinc also makes your tummy stronger. So that no matter how much dirty stuff you eat, the possibility of diarrhea is futile. But don’t take my word for it. I just realized that a lof of Filipinos can eat a lot of strange stuff but still survive unscathed. Although true enough, zinc difficiency can lead to frequent diarrhea which could of course, in really impoverished and malnourished areas in the world, cause death. So next time you see that “Donate a dollar and save a life” clip on TV, you have been informed. If you do not donate, you are guilty. You’ll feel bad the whole day because kids who can be saved from diarrhea did not have a chance because you did not give at least a dollar from your platic money.

Now you were wishing you haven’t read this article. And we are swaying too far away from what were supposed to talk about.

Where were we?

Aha! Skewering these stuff is the most difficult part. But to put it simply, you just need to fold and skewer. Fold and skewer. I have also marinated this using this marinade, so clickety-click. You have to grill them carefully around 12-15 minutes on each side in low heat. Just like what we did with our gizzards. Make sure that the insides are cooked. Just slice a piece of it and take a look if it’s moist and not wet or mushy because if they are that means it is still raw. Do not try biting through it. It’s not pasta. You will endanger yourself and the future of your unborn kids.

This is getting long. I resign.

I think Chicken Gizzard barbecue is the ultimate Filipino street food. And what I meant by that is, it is my favorite. It is a food juxtaposition. It is molecular gastronomy free from the hands of mad-scientist-chefs. It is God’s humor in the flesh. If you don’t know why, you have to eat one and simmer in all its fowl-wonder.

It is one of the most worked organs or set of muscles in the genus of birds, crocs, some dinosaurs and fishes. Since swallowers like birds have no teeth, it is the gizzard that works double-triple to digest everything that they swallow. And if you happen to see chickens swallowing stones, wonder no further der fuehrer. Fowls do this because swallowed stones help in the digestion of any unfortunate thing that goes in the gizzard. The girating motion of the gizzard make these stones act like teeth and grind any stubborn food they have swallowed. That’s why most of the time gizzards you buy in the market still have that sandy surface because the stones disintegrate while rubbing each other off. So yeah, the lesson is, don’t rub too much or it will disintegrate. Whatever it is your rubbing. Your girlfriend is not too big to get exempted from the disintegrating power of a rub-a-thon.

Most of the gizzards that we buy in the market have already been cleaned and stripped of the white (and sometimes green) synthetic-like substance that covers its insides. It has also been sliced halfway through thus the butterfly shape. There are many Filipino dishes that use chicken gizzard as ingredient. From Adobo to Pansit to Arroz Valenciana but I reckon, the best way of eating it, is by itself, on a stick, barbecued, along a busy polluted street in any metro in the Philippines.

Chicken gizzards are just awesome because it is chewy and soft at the same time. It is gamey but delightful. It sticks between your teeth in a comforting way…

If you are sickly, weak and thin, this is the best food to eat because of the minerals in it. It’ll make you strong little guy. If you are obese, lazy and stubborn, you gotta try at least a kilo of this, man, this will end all of your sufferings. Say hi to Peter for me.

Before you stop reading and get mesmerized by the picture below, let me talk to you about how this one made it to the plate. I did not marnate it because marinades on gizzards IMHO, is useless. Only salt and pepper before it lands on the grill. And while barbecuing I employed the expertise of Jared. Click here to get to know him. And then finished this off with an Elena sauce (you should know who she is by now if you clicked on Jared’s link). Average cooking time is around 10 minutes on each side in low heat. If you’re using coal, shave the half off of your burning heap and transfer them somewhere far from your gizzards. If you want to learn more about how we do our Filipino barbecue, click this.

Here you go.

Instead of ranting about people’s misconception on eating animal meat organs, like what I did on the previous post, I’d rather focus on what is good about our feature today which is skewered barbecued chicken hearts. Chicken hearts are one of the rarest Filipino street foods. Once you see them lying freely on the stall, grab them. They won’t last long. I don’t know why… it maybe because of its firm texture which confirms our being carnivores that we love to nibble on them. Or maybe each chicken only has one little heart that’s why it is a rare commodity.

So what do these chicken hearts have in relation to your existence? One word, Riboflavin. Although it is also rich with minerals and vitamins, Riboflavin or Vitamin B2 is its star. Think of Riboflavin as the super vitamin in your system. It converts all the important stuff that your body needs into usable stuff. You dig? It metabolizes the fats and proteins to fuel your body to repair and restore. It lights up what is “low-bat” to keep your system going and going and going. It is the energizer bunny . Not only that, it is an antioxidant. It kills aliens and radicals in your system which are responsible for heart disease, cancer and ageing. So in short, eating barbecued chicken hearts can make you stay younger and stronger. Yes! This sounds like a hard-sell advert.

I do encourage you though to try eating chicken hearts. Instead of throwing them to your pets. What will your pet do if you die because all the important nutrients from meat organs go to them instead of you? He will be alone, cold and wet in this unforgiving, cruel and careless world. Save your pets. Eat chicken hearts, gizzards and livers!

Why does it taste like? If you have tasted chicken liver, this is more subtle than that. The texture is unique. Although much softer than the gizzard, the sensation of biting through it is like saying the letter D. Well that’s my interpretation. You have to try it to merit yours.

How to cook those chicken hearts you ask? Well as you’ve seen on the picture above, skewer it, add salt and pepper, barbecue it and brush with your barbecue finishing sauce. Barbecuing it may take around 5 minutes on each side in medium  to high heat and 2 inches form your heat source. Don’t overcook them because they tend to go chewy and dry when overcooked. Look!

I marinated them using the marinade here, if you click on this post. With barbecuing, click this post for a rough guide. And click this post for the sauce.

I heart this very much, I hope you heart it too.