Fresh Tomato-Tuna Pasta

Remember my home made tomato salsa/ sauce, see recipe here , I made last week_gone. Part of it was consumed as dips of my girls who are chips addicts. The rest was used as spaghetti sauce of the tuna pasta we had at lunch today.

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Simple as that! Just sauteed them all together and enjoy a healthy tuna- mushroom pasta with fresh home cooked tomato sauce. Yum.YUm.YUm.

Tomorrow, I will check in the market if tomatoes are still cheap. I'm planning to stock more jars in the fridge. My family loves it!

I'm a happy mom.

Thai Deli

*Sent by the girls' uncle who is based in Thailand.

Thai's delis seem to be over the top compare to our local versions. Take for instance the durian candy. We also have it from Davao, but ours is basically candied with milk or the most mixed with other fruit like yum or jackfruit which wonderfully compliment well with durian. Thai has this durian toffy with too much coconut milk taste on it, the durian is hastily missed.




But the spicy tamarind candy is the best. We tried those made here in our country and they didn't come close to Thai's tamarind.

To say the least _ if the relative from Thailand is reading this : we don't mind if a bag will have nothing but this favorite tamarind. We luv it!!

*Ty for the goodies Tito Pip :D

Bibingka & Tikoy

When we are on a road trip, my girls would always travel along with junk foods specifically bags of chips to munch along the hours inside the car or on stop overs.




But I, an old school lady from the province, would always seek for familiar local delicacies along the side roads.



This smokey hut has been a favorite initial stop of our provincial trips. A lot of these huts nestle along the side roads of San Pablo, Laguna which we consider as the first town outside Manila ( going South), at least to us who leave the city half asleep and would only be fully awaken at this point.



This is actually a local rice cake bibingka stand. Freshly baked in a make shift ovens made from used drums and use coconut husk as fuel. All natural, the aroma smells utterly organic and delicious.


Their ingredients of the dish are all primitive using the original recipe of grinded rice and coconut milk, unlike in the city where bibingka is altered with artificial ingredients such as polished flour and food colors.


Selling for P11-15 per piece which enough to fill a ranting tummy, it's all worth the minute stop over.



Bibingka offers me initial feeling of stress free holiday away from the bustling, restless city.




On with my road- food trip comes along the tikoy. I'm sorry but this too has no English word translation. Famous during Chinese New Year in the city, my province (Quezon) has it all year round. Personally, I like Quezon tikoy a lot. Tastier and cremier, this one is ready to eat and no need to cook.



My girls share my craze for this delicacy and a box of it is easily consumed in a matter of minutes.

If bibingka commenced our provincial trips , tikoy is an announcement that we are approaching our destination.

Hot Burst in a Crunch

At home, we call this atomic bomb. Bars and beer joints have their own name versions for this. Sometimes it is called chili finger, others call it chili cheese lumpia, etc, etc. All names borne out of the hot burst after a bite. The culprit _the long green chili which is the main item for this dish. A favorite home cooked pulutan (-appetizer taken with alcohol such as wine or beer), J would always demand me to make a tray of this chili recipe for his beermates.


J would always compare my homemade version to the ones purchased outside. He said, outside they use long green chili which is usually found in our sinigang dish (a Filipino tamarind based soup with either meat, or fish or shrimp) and personally he prefers my version. (patronize your own, hehehe :)






Always, I take time to look for the right chilis in the market when I'm tasked to make this recipe.
I'm not sure what exact type of chili is this but local markets refer to it as siling tagalog (Tagalog chili). The green color is intense and vivid. Compare to sinigang chili, this one is shorter and fatter with skin seems thicker and meatier. Thus, complementing the cheesy meat fillings. The lumpia wrapper works as handler and contributes crunchy appeal to the pulutan dish.





Best as pulutan, this is also an interesting snack for the chili-brave-tongue. Serve with complimentary sweet and sour dip.




Recently enjoyed by this drunk table. :D

DIY Tomato Salsa/Spaghetti Sauce

Lots of tomatoes in the market. Big, plump, juicy and best of all cheap..it's in season. Ofcourse I bought_ a kilo for P20.





I decided to whisk them into a sauce or a salsa. Whatever turns out :))


From my memory box, I tried to dig some recipe from the past. The thing is for a lifetime now, I suffer from short memory span. But when it comes to food/recipe, for unknown reason to me, my cooking lessons from school or from my mother's kitchen always pop out when needed. That's sharp :)




To remove the skin of the tomatoes, I dunked each in a pot of boiling water. By batches of 3 to 4 pieces. When the skin appeared to wrinkle I transferred each to a bowl of cold water with ice on it.




The tomato should look more or less like this with some skin voluntary peeled off. The rest of the skin_ you have to remove them. Worry not, they're so easy to peel off.

After I skinned the fruit, I started to remove the seeds and squeeze unnecessary liquids off the tomato.


I chopped a half bulb of garlic and one whole medium onion and the tomatoes. Sauteed them all together, put some salt and pepper and went beyond the original recipe cheated on by sprinkling Mccormic Italian Seasoning and added store bought tomato paste.




Voila!!! My very own home made all purpose salsa for nachos and what have you..




Great too as spaghetti sauce !!! Promise_ it's del-iciousoo!!! Want some??:)))

Crab- bing with Icor

It was one of hanging with my friend Icor days. She picked me up from my house so early the malls were still close. I was craving for veggies so I dragged her to the restaurants circle (-invented it, I forgot what the place called) in Alabang so we could look for a salad.



We roamed around and decided we couldn't find a good plate of salad here and hey the mall is open already, let's get in there !





We drove across and got to our destination ATC (Alabang Town Center). It was almost lunch but the mallwide sale was destructing us! Especially when Icor found out her favorite local brand_Kamiseta was also in sale for like up to 70% ! Suffice to say_ the ranting tummies were ignored and gave in to the alluring opportunity. We walked out the shop with 4 big bags_ happiness!!!

Now, decision..decision_ where to eat? I was still in green salad crave, bff wanted real sea food






We agreed on a buffet then. She suggested former Red Crab which is now Crustasia which she frequents with hubby Cris .





We didn't know if it was a name changed, but the location was occupied before by Red Crab and Crustasia is also a crab resto. We arrived past lunch nearing to the closure of the buffet table which I think up to 2pm, not sure. Roughly we only got an hour to attack the buffet so we thought we should minimize our chit chats in between spoons which normally padding our eating time with 2 more hours.

crunchy roasted beef

Icor went straight to grab a handful of crabs which actually she was drooling about.

crab szechuan

The server started to refill the trays, while I went my way to salad bar which the past holidays' heavy meat plates made me thirst for the healthy greens.

salad bar



Icor's first serving




fried foods we choose to ignore.ehem.. feeling healthy?




california maki



hardwares for crabs

icetea & watermelon juice + Icor's 2nd serving

fish in tausi & chopsuey

eggplant_ luv its spicy tangyness

Bff still banging the buffet table_on her nth time serving :)))))





When all the while you thought I was the one ate bigger_ look at her ( the one w/o the crab bib, that's Maricor, slim and all !! where do u deposit those food?? not fair!! )

now... we're so ready for desserts !!!

please refill the sweets bar !!!

yummy maja blanca

We got everything, we are dessert moms !!!





Happy moms !!

ps : so its Crustasia by Red Crabs.

Dried Fish and Mango

I used to hate dried fish in my younger years. It was all nothing but saltiness to me. But lately, when I'm alone at home, I always eat dried fish with any veggies on the side. Now, when I get home to my hometown, I buy kilos of dried fish as stocks for my dailies in Manila, which I used not to have interest of doing before. I even buy at the grocery now if I ran out of stock. My, my.. no goodness! Too much salt from dried fish is surely the culprit of my plumpness these days.

I guess, as we age, our taste buds also mature and become ready with food we hated when we were younger. I saw it to my children. As they add years to their age, their food horizon also broaden.



One thing has not changed in me_ my craziness with fruits. From grapes to durian, I heart them all! It's my sweet tongue, it stays uberly mad with anything sweet through the years.



With green fruits like green apple and green mango, I'm not that crazy thu'. You know, green means sourness which against my sweet tongue. I also eat them but not as much as I savor the ripen sweet fruits.




Like Philippine mango which is the best ! It's in season now. I see a lot of them around and they are getting cheaper. I love mangoes!!!