Happy Anniversary to Myfilipinokitchen!!!!
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.
Thank you very much love for this lovely anniversary write up. I appreciate it very much. You write really good I tell you. You should write here more often. LOL.
Again, thank you very much to everyone who have been a part of this website; lurkers, commenters, contributors (I have 3 who are coming in this or next month), and those who stumbled on this website.
And thank you Filipino food.
I love it.
If you just scrolled down to comments, you are missing out the gift that Lei is giving away.
Ouy! Congrats…1yr old na, saan ang kainan?
Sa Japanese place sa Sunnybank. Sama ka? hahahaha!
congrats on your 1st anniv! my mom’s been bugging me to lose weight and thankfully, your website isn’t helping. =)
cheers!
Magsiedoodles! Give me your mom’s email and I will talk to her. Tell her this website will be here for quite a while. Thanks Magsie! Where’s Luis? Mr. Kitchenero is looking for him!
Happy 1st year, myfilipinokitchen! Yey, time to pawtey! Cheers!
congrats. I would of sworn you had been around for longer. this blog rocks.
Happy blogoversary to you! I wish I’d known earlier, I would have baked a cake. A cake is pretty much the opposite to escabeche, right?>
Congrats!
Congrats, Mr. Kitchenero!! Happy anniversary! I can’t remember when I ran into you on FB but I’m glad I did! Love your blogs and I’ll keep sharing, you can bet on that!! Again, Congratulations on your FIRST ANNIVERSARY!! Many many more to come!!!
Congrats.On your first anniversary.
Happy Anniversary to your blog and congrats Ziggy!
Happy anniversary! I posted some sweets for you on my blog to celebrate the event. Hope you like ‘em.
Wow, wife of Ziggy is full of awesomeness! Congratulations on turning one! And here’s to not changing nappies!
Happy Anniversary to My Filipino Kitchen!!!! Congrats seigfred!!! Keep it up!!!
Happy anniversary MFK!! Ziggy, you say that the KCC is great in promoting Filipino food but I reckon MFK is absolutely fantastic as well! I love your writing and humour and now I can see that your wife has the same great humour which just makes your tandem fabulously perfect!!!
Happy birthday, and thanks for the great reads! As someone who is trying to reconnect with her cultural heritage through food, MFP (and KCC!) have been like finding a new family
@Ziggy, ay naku wag na noh! Ngeeh…just thinking about that place just creeps me out, lugawan na lang masaya na ako! @Lei, I love your post, now I know where Ziggy gets his witty nature=)
Happy Anniversary !!! Mabuhay ang lutong Pinoy !!!
@pam oist! thank you! how are you doing? you’re married already yes?
@damaris thank you very much. maybe in the future we can exchange recipe posts or do an iron chef brazil versus philippine cuisine? LOL just kidding. that would be fun though.
@conor thanks conor. yes it is the exact opposite of escabeche. like black and white. send a bali breakfast along with that cake.
@peach thanks peach, your daughter looks lovely. I wonder where she gets those charms.
@Lucy my dear Lucy in the sky with diamonds. I can’t thank you enough for sharing articles in Facebook. I can’t remember that time when we bumped into each other too. But it’s a good thing that we did.
@foodlovee thank you very much. can we hook up with you when we go to singapore maybe next year?
@caroline thank you very much carol. i want to ask a question. how did that longganisa without casings from Tapa Boy turned out?
@Kristine hahahaha I really have to drop by your site and paste a huge thank you banner. It was a year ago when I featured your website here. I feel like your long lost relative when I knew you were Ilongga. I’m just lurking on your blog as of the moment. You seem to busy with your restaurant reviews. Thanks Kris!
@Tuesday Why hello there! Why thank you! Tuesday, you gotta teach me one of those camera tricks that you do with your photos. They are the shiznitz. Anybody else in your area blogging about Filipino food?
@Marivic Thank you! Say hello to the hubby and kids for me! So did you make that Christams Ham last year? hahahaha!
@Trish Thank you very much. Thank you for the Kulinarya Cooking Club (and whoever it is that devised the devious plan with you to make Club of women blabbering about Filipino food). Yes I am truly blessed to have Lei. I also want your friends and their cheese and chocolate concoction. LOL.
@Sefie Thank Sefie. Feel free to drop us messages from time to time if you have any questions ayt?
@Cusinera pero gusto ko dun sa Sunnybank! LOL. I have to agree with you where I get the wits. Or else…
@Day thanks Day. Don’t stop blogging. Ever.
Congratulations! I love reading your blog! It’s informative and it’s funny in a good way
Happy birthday! all the best! i’m looking forward to a 2nd birthday post.
where the hell do you buy chicken intestines?!
lovelots
justin
amimertdee!!! mas nami pa gid ni tani ya kung may libre food! :9
Congratulations ziggy and mrs ziggy! More power to us Pinoy home cooks! Here’s to next year and the years after that!
Escabeche for breakfast? hmmmm…sounds good to me!
@chef_d thanks Chef! I really appreciate it. What do you mean by in a good way though?
@justin salamat ng madami. well you have to ask around don’t you?
@mabeck magpuli kami sa Iloilo palamunon taka. hehe
@beancounter Thank you very very much disciple of Tetsuya! So did your wife push through with her cake business?
congrats!happy anniversary!
Tito Yani! Thank you!
Happy Anniversary! Very well said…
Cheers! Thanks!
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead.
He puts a little heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less. 2 cor.5:5 the message
Thank you very much Tita Pet. I hope you’ll be blessed with your mission there in Cambodia. God bless!
Congrats on the milesrone Ziggy. I have to admit, I’ve been a lurkerr to yr blog… but no more, I’m here to leave a commennt! LOL
I am so glad that there are bloggers like you to voice our what all Filipino food lovers are thinking.
Also, thank you for supporting our Kulinarya Cooking Club.
thanks guys and gals for all your well-wishes and appreciation. it makes me truly and genuinely happy to see my husband get excited about everything that’s been going on in the site. let’s make the blog circle a little bit bigger on year 2 of my filipino kitchen.
congratulations on making it a year! me surprised? hell no!
Happy 1st blog anniversary and wishing you many, many more! I’m actually snatching available online moments when I can as my hubs and I are traveling right now, but I couldn’t possibly let the opportunity pass by to thank you for your fantastic site. Cheers to Lei and Ziggy for putting Filipino food in the spotlight where it deserves to be!
happy anniversary My Filipino Kitchen.. hoping for more recipes…nice write up by the wifey…
@Cherrie thank you very much cherrie. And thanks for introducing me to Kulinarya Cooking Club. You girls are the bomb.
@Luis Wha! I was surprised to read your comment. you’re still alive! LOL I thought you turned into an egg. Salamat Baetlog! Mr Kitchenero misses you!
@Tracey thank you very much for taking the time to comment. You and the hubby enjoy and take care. Cheers to Filipino food!
@regina aha! your write-up ready? thanks Reg!
[...] for me that I have made you aware how good Filipino food is. And thank you very much to Lei for the anniversary post and the little give-away to readers or should I say, [...]
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