Don’t laugh, yes you……stop it. I know it leans a little but I couldn’t find my cake leveler. I baked a buttermilk spice cake with cream cheese frosting for Thanksgiving. There were so many mistakes with this cake I don’t even know where to begin. First, you shouldn’t try this recipe unless you have a stand mixer….I don’t. You will also need a few extra hands to pour the oil and drizzle the buttermilk while mixing, plan ahead for this. If you do it yourself (like me) then you may accidentally pour some of the oil into the vent holes of your hand mixer and freak out when it starts smoking and sets off the smoke alarms. Make sure  your cake will fit into your cake box before frosting or transporting it could be a problem. Don’t worry if it looks funny, it will still taste delicious. You can find the recipe I used here.

My second contribution this Thanksgiving is something I always bake around the holidays. Challah is a traditional Jewish bread served with the sabbath meals and at the holidays. My family is a blended family of Christian and Jewish faiths so I have always tried to incorporate a little of both in the food. Because I have never found the proper pan to cook this in, the dough relaxes and doesn’t retain that tight braided look of most challahs. I kind of like it this way. I love making bread because of the suspense. You never know if it’s good until you cut it open. This was a good one.

As for other oops, there was plenty. I made baked beans that wouldn’t get done. 4 hours in the oven and 1 1/2 desperate hours on the stove top and they still weren’t done. These were the toughest navy beans I had ever seen. We had to leave so they went as is. Tasted good but a crunchier texture…lol. The stuffing with turkey gravy came out okay, no drama until I picked it up or I should say I tried to pick it up and the aluminum foil pan collapsed and I burnt my wrist saving it. Still it was a good day, good food (lumpias, calamari, ham and garlic shrimp with green beans casserole…yum!) but most of all good company. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving too.

Yeay!!! I hope nothing changes. I’m just letting everyone know that I’m satisfied!

We got a new camera.  It’s a 10MP Nikkon Coolpix s203, for $47 from Black Friday.  My mom regretted not getting two. It’s quick and easy to take pictures with it. It’s really small too…at least, small for us, it’s like 3x smaller than our older digital camera (it’s as old as my computer).  This new camera is like the size of a Pokemon card deck (60 cards) without the sleeves.

This was from my computer chair… like five hours ago or so.

Lumpia snack.

Few seconds later.  I ate the other one.

-

Finished You’re Beautiful.  OMG.  Best. Drama. EVER.

There’s so much I have to say about this, but before this gets lost in the galaxy of my mind…

Episode 15, Shin Woo confesses the SECOND time.  I was like WTF PATHETIC!!! SHE REJECTED YOU ALREADY, YOU LOOK LIKE A LAUGHABLE LOSER. He gets rejected again.

And then on episode 16… I GOT OWNED, because he was right.  He tells TK “It may have looked pathetic and laughable to you, but because I tried everything I could, I was able to let her go.” He’s referring to that second confession. HOLY SHIT. *SWOON* But bleh, she rejected the guy hotter than the hottie.

I added these quotes to the quote section.

“You just stand there and watch her run away because its difficult for her, but you’ve never thought of going after her.  Fine. Protect your pride and wait until she runs off far away.”~Shin Woo, from You’re Beautiful

“Waiting and not telling her is the same thing as not waiting at all, you self-centered asshole.”~ Jeremy from You’re Beautiful

This is officially my all time favorite drama.  Some dramas make me bored in the middle, but this one didn’t, I watched all the way like an owl.  I love the cast so much!

I want to post pictures but I don’t want to ruin their images.  If I post a pictures of this drama I want to make sure it catches their best features… like right now, I can’t find any good pictures of Shin Woo’s gorgeous eyes. I’m trying to find a picture of when his eyes illuminate from a look at Go Min Nam.  I probably can’t find any though because you can only see eyes sparkle like that in pictures that actually move, watching the actual drama.

I really like how these guys dealt with rejection.

And this drama makes me want to look cute (er).

The way these guys think also reminds me of the way I think.  It’s hilarious.  TK’s fantasies and analyzing situations, Jeremy’s homo feelings, Jeremy’s love style, Manager Ma’s thinking like the Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry parody… there’s so much more.

Never again, will I have to anticipate a Friday night date with Go Min Nam, Shin Woo, TK, Jeremy, and Manager Ma. It’s saddening, but I’ll find another drama and deal with it that way.

I’m going to watch this drama again. Not now, but I want to watch it again soon.

Music’s awesome too.  Of course it should be, because, it’s about a band.  Well, the characters are band members.  It’s about love!

The final song. The final song he wrote. It was so appropriate at that time, and my time:

What Should I Do- Park Da Ye

English Translated, thanks to starones (starones.wordpress.com)

As I let you walk another step away, it brings tears to my eyes
As you walk another step away, it brings tears to my eyes
I reach out my hand, but you go where I can’t approach
I can’t hold onto you, I can only cry

What should I do? What should I do?
You’re leaving
What should I do? What should I do?
You’re leaving me and going away
I love you, I love you
I call out to you but you can’t hear me,
because I’m only crying out with my heart

All day, I try to erase you but I keep thinking of you
All day, I say goodbye but I think of you again
I reach out my hand, but you go where I can’t go
I can’t find you, I can only cry

the lobo side of my family

for a road trip to the city
family in a car with me

craving auntie mila’s gravy
playing with bella, char & cary’s baby

can’t wait to hear gina’s laughter
and joe’s jokes after

avoiding saying the prayer for grace
we’re all betting william’ll volunteer to do it if we each look away

i’m waiting for mom to appear at my door at any moment
but i’m spending some of thanksgiving hoping

for pancit, rice from a cooker, appretada,
honey ham, chop suey and lumpia

not hungry for a dinner or dessert
but for familial company, that’s for sure.

janice.

It has been some time since I posted something here, so apologies to my friends who’ve been expecting something from me for a while. Anyway, the last time I wrote something, I gave the lunch menu for my 25th birthday.  It looked daunting when I first planned it, but I was ecstatic to actually have pulled it off.

My concept was a Filipino tasting menu since I always had difficulty explaining Philippine cuisine to my friends. The best definition I could give them was “Think Southeast Asian, but not too spicy and with Chinese and Spanish influences.” That only puzzles them further.  (I knew I should have brought Ma’s copy of the Kulinarya cookbook with me.)

I spent a week planning my menu and got everything I needed from the Tiger and Dragon Food Store which had a really impressive collection of Asian ingredients.  Every Filipino ingredient I could think of was there.  Note that in the latter dishes I will mention, everything was prepared from scratch. Yes, they even had fresh pandan leaves, powdered ube root, and coconut milk!

I did the meal twice: the first time for my PhD student friends, and the second time for my research group.  So that it would be easy for me, I made sure there were no more than seven guests at a time.  Also I thought it would be more practical (ie. cheaper) and impressive to just serve the food in portions and course by course.

The first time I did it, one of my guests came a few minutes early and watched me in the kitchen.  I was preparing the lumpia (Philippine spring rolls) when she arrived and she was excited to learn how to prepare the peanut sauce served with it. What really made me happy was how she thought that I looked professional and asked if I studied cooking somewhere. I told her I never took formal lessons, but I’ve helped out my mom in the kitchen since I was a little kid and I enjoyed reading cookbooks, watching cooking shows & competitions, and eating in all kinds of restaurants.

She then complimented my chopping skills, which I was thankful for again. You see, as a birthday present to myself, I had bought a professional Wüsthof chef’s knife before I even secured all the ingredients just so I would have a more fun prep period.

Since I served the meal course by course I was able to explain to them what each dish was.  They listened intently as I explained when these dishes were usually prepared and what their influences were.

This was the menu:

I had to serve this in small bites since I just wanted an appetizer.  Sisig is usually prepared with boiled and grilled pork (pig face to be exact), but I used tofu for easy prep and a healtier alternative.  As an amuse, it was good that the sisig packed a punch with the salt and spices.  Since I couldn’t find quail eggs the day before, I decided to just drizzle heated egg yolk and cook the egg white with the sisig.  The “pork rind” was a cheap German snack which looked like chicharon, but tasted like a Philippine snack called Fritos Ring. Really nice alternative since real pork rind was expensive and sold only in large bags.

I thought of pairing the sisig with SMB (San Miguel Beer) for them to taste the most famous beer in the Philippines.  However, since SMB was expensive (about 3x as expensive as German beers), I decided to do shots of it. Most of them really liked the lightness and fruity tones of SMB. One of them who didn’t drink beer a lot really liked it as well.  An Indian friend commented that I should just cook this dish and we should have a beer party with it. Great suggestion. I mean the Germans love grilled food, pork, onions, vinegar, and beer. Why wouldn’t they love sisig, right?

Salad
Lumpiang sariwa
Philippine fresh vegetable roll with egg net
served with peanut sauce
Origin/Influence: Chinese, Southeast Asian

Salad with the amuse

For the lumpia, I originally wanted to use ubod / hearts of palm, but the only available ones were canned and really expensive. I decided to just use carrots, togue/mungbean sprouts, and preserved bamboo shoots. It turned out to be really tasty, especially with the sweet-salty peanut garlic sauce. Since I wanted it to look pretty as well, I made the lumpia wrapper into a net instead of a plain crepe. Got great reviews on the taste and presentation of this one. Some of them couldn’t stop eating the sauce!

Entrée
Pansit Canton at Kropek
Philippine style lo mein noodles and shrimp crackers
Origin/Influence: Chinese

Since it’s tradition to eat pansit on one’s birthday (for long life), I decided to have this as the prelude to the main course.  I used dried pancit canton, various fresh veggies, and an oyster-based sauce for this. This was the only dish I cooked from scratch on the actual party day. Got the kropek from my favorite Chinese restaurant in Bismarckplatz.

Main course
Dalawang luto sa karne: Adobo at Kaldereta
Duo of Philippine meat dishes:
Chicken & Pork Adobo* and
Lamb & Pork Caldereta
Origin/Influence: Adobo-Native, Caldereta-Spanish
(Served with steamed jasmine rice)
*also as vegetarian option with tofu and mushrooms

The adobo was the star of the lunch. Everyone kept raving about it. I prepared it the night before and let the meat absorb the oil and sauce. Then, just before serving it, I seared the skin to almost crisp and drizzled the sauce on it on the serving platter.  The kaldereta was stewed for three hours the day before as well. It cooked for so long that the lamb cubes just melted in one’s mouth.  The meat dishes went well with the red wine that my roommate bought for the occasion. For the adobo, I had to try it out as a vegitarian option as well since one of my labmates was vegitarian.

Dessert
Samu’t saring minatamis:
Ube puto, turon, buko-pandan
Sampler platter of sweets:
Purple yam rice cake with coconut toffee and coco-butterscotch sauce
Mini-banana eggrolls
Coconut-pandan sherbet
Origin/Influence: Puto-Native, Coconut desserts-Native and Malay, Eggroll-Chinese

For dessert, I had so many things in mind I ended up with a tasting platter. For the frozen dessert, I originally planned to make a buko-pandan gelatin salad. Unfortunately, my pandan jello did not set so I just mashed it together with the cream and made some kind of sherbet that still had the refreshing taste of pandan.  They really liked the taste of pandan and kept on asking about it. The rice cake / puto turned out well and I was surprised since it was the first time I made it.

In the end everyone enjoyed the lunch and thanked me for the meal. They all agreed they had a blast on the “culinary adventure”.  My boss even commented that I should already extend my Ph.D. to seven years, haha.  My friends now call me “Chef.”  Not really, but why not?  Well, if things don’t go well with my Ph.D. at least I know I have a fallback!  A Filipino restaurant in Europe would really be something interesting, wouldn’t it?  I’m sure the folk here in Heidelberg would welcome it.

—

Rekomendasi :
Jajanan khas Bandung ini mulai jarang terlihat di tempat jajanan goreng-gorengan. Saya akan membagi resepnya untuk kamu-kamu yang mulai susah menemukan gorengan ini. Nikmat disantap bersama keluarga di tengah-tengah musim hujan ini sambil menikmati hangatnya teh atau kopi. Selamat memasak!

Bahan:

• 1/2 kg pisang tanduk
• 20 lembar kulit lumpia
• gula pasir secukupnya
• untuk lem : tepung terigu dicampur dengan air
• minyak goreng secukupnya

Cara Membuat :

• 1 buah pisang ditanduk dibagi menjadi 2 bagian. Lalu masing-masing bagian tersebut dibelah menjadi 4-6 bagian, sisihkan.
• Ambil 1 lembar kulit lumpia, taruh pisang tanduk di ujungnya, taburkan gula pasir di atas pisang lalu digulung dan dilem dengan campuran tepung terigu dan air tadi.
• Lakukan hingga kulit lumpia habis.
• Siapkan wajan, tuang minyak goreng hingga pisang aroma tercelup ke dalamnya.
• Goreng hingga berwarna kecoklatan di atas api kecil.
• Sajikan hangat.

Tips :

• Saat pisang aroma sudah dibalik, harus terus dipantau agar tidak menjadi gosong.
• Jika pisang tanduk yang kamu beli itu kurang manis rasanya, saat menaburkan gula, agak dibanyakkan jumlahnya.

Now about that bar-b-que I went to. I had a really good time except I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep. I didn’t get one single picture or even a great story but I did get some great food. My son in-law is Filipino and he makes meaty, juicy ribs that are to die for. His parents were there so we had lumpia and banana lumpia too.

Lumpia is like a spring roll and you can never eat just one, 10 maybe but not one. A banana lumpia has brown sugar-coated bananas sliced in half and rolled in the lumpia wrapper (instead of meat and vegetables) and then deep-fried, this is unbelievable good. I brought homemade navy beans since this was a pot luck and even though I know they are good they looked pretty sad next to all that sticky, deep-fried, carb-heaven, goodness. This may be the reason I was so tired, too. much. food. There was a Hawaiian Rainbow cake for desert, I didn’t get any. I was trying to be good and with all the other things I had eaten there was just no way I could eat cake. Too bad because if you haven’t tried one, its delicious. In the end I went home early and took a nap. I think maybe I am getting old. Oh! and the picture above is from google images. I told you not one single photo. lol.

The funny thing about vegetable lumpia is that it has meat in it.  Ground beef.  Of all the lumpia, it is my favorite!  I made it for the first time when Iko was living in the States some years ago with her husband Joel and daughters Popsie & Ruthie.  I made it for her birthday and frankly, we were both surprised by how good it turned out!

I am not really sure what the key is to making seamless, non-greasy, nice & crispy vegetable lumpia because I’ve only been able to achieve that kind of “perfection” that one time.  It probably entails a combination of factors:  draining the filling well, wrapping the lumpia tightly, having a good lumpia wrapper.

If anyone reading this has a favorite brand of lumpia wrapper available in the States and Canada, please let us know!

Ingredients:

• Ground Beef
• Garlic
• Onion – chopped
• Olive Oil
• Potatoes – chopped
• Singkamas (jicama) – chopped
• Carrots – chopped or shredded (I cheat & buy them in the bag already shredded)
• Green beans – raw/fresh – sliced
• Beansprouts
• Lumpia wrapper
• Datu puti vinegar
• Egg wash or small bowl of water

Directions:

1. In a large pan or pot, heat olive oil.
2. Add chopped/pressed garlic & brown lightly.
3. Add chopped onions and sautee for about 2 minutes
4. Add ground beef until almost no pink is showing
5. Add potatoes and singkamas; cook until potatoes are almost tender
6. Add remaining vegetables plus salt, pepper & soy sauce to taste
7. Simmer slowly being careful not to overcook thus drying out the beef.
8. Once well mixed & cooked, pour into collander to drain juices and to cool.
9. DO NOT USE SOGGY OR HOT mix to roll into lumpia – it will be a disaster!  Trust me.
10. Cut your lumpia squares in half diagonally.
11. With point of wrapper closest to your body, spoon mixture in a straight line running parallel to the long end of the wrapper.  Start rolling from the point to the long end being sure to roll tightly.
12. Use either an egg wash or water to moisten long edge of the wrapper to seal the lumpia.
13. Deep-fry lumpia in small batches and drain on paper towels.

Serve hot with chopped garlic, pepper & salt-laced datu puti vinegar.

Priscilla and I are in the usual Starbucks, 5 minutes away from home.  There’s always something to do or to study. So today we are trying to study “all day”. I have two goals today. I have to come up with a contract for my internship. I also have to finish a self-care plan assignment. Yeah, pretty ridiculous.

I started my internship this past Tuesday. It was interesting to say the least. I was really nervous coming in. But, my field instructor is really great and her co-workers are so relaxed. She’s so down to earth and she’s really interested in helping me, having been a student social worker not too long ago. Wednesday, after class, she rang me up and gave me bad news. I was supposed to have done a background check already.

Whoopsie. That was the first time I had heard about it. So I couldn’t do any hours today or yesterday. I wasn’t allowed to work on campus without that background check. Yesterday, I caught up to regular, daily life stuff. I spent the majority of my time on the phone with customer service with my bank, technical support for my printer, and canceling my subscription services with magazines and newspapers. So time was not wasted.

Wednesday, the association I am involved in at school, the Asian American Association for Social Workers, celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival and it was successful! The members brought in food for potluck. I brought in Filipino eggrolls, lumpia. I didn’t have any to take home!!

Our association

Just to end on a peaceful note, a song I’m obsessed with right now.

Recently, I attended some employer panel discussions at the McIntire School of Commerce, and the Comm School provided all the attendees with a catered reception afterwards. I had to get a red dot drawn on my hand to prevent me from getting any drinks since I’m underage. They used some crazy permanent market because that red dot took me three days to wash off.

The hors d’oeuvres were beautiful and delicious. I haven’t had such fancy food in a long time, so I was really really excited for this. Also, the catering for the night seemed to have an Asian theme going on, which was interesting.

My Plate

Here’s my plate, and I guess I’ll start from the top and go clockwise. First, there was the shrimp, which came with a sweet, tangy sauce for dipping. Absolutely mouth-watering! They ran out of this soon after I got my plate, so I sadly could not get seconds. Next, in the adorable little boats was some type of beef and noodles except they used sliced vegetables in place of noodles. I loved the presentation, but sadly, I didn’t like the taste of the combination. I was expecting so much with the cute boat and mini chopstick-forklike utensils, but it was disappointing. Another rather disappointing one was the dumpling-like pastry that looked like a dumpling but tasted like a pastry. I have no idea what was on the inside, but it was bland and had no flavor at all. Now, my favorite of the night would have to be the mini lumpia. It was delicious! This one also ran out quickly, so it was obviously very popular. The last item on my plate is the fudge ball, which was divine. It was incredibly rich, and I am quite embarrassed to say that I gobbled quite a few of them. For drinks, I could not get my hands on any alcohol, so I went with the alternative, watermelon juice, which I much preferred anyways. I was so excited when I saw the watermelon juice because I have only ever found watermelon juice in 3 places: China, Chinatown, and my house. And it came in the tiny glasses too! Amazing!

Hors d'oeuvres

This is one of the tables of food. I only took one picture because people were giving me some weird looks. I guess I did look rather strange with my camera taking pictures of the food. And I didn’t want to give a bad impression to any possible future employers, so I quickly put my camera away.

May pera naman ako kahit papaano

Pero aaminin kung kukulangin na rin

Kaya ang kinailangan kong gawin…

Kumain ng tatawagin kong

“ESTUDYANTE MEAL” = Lumpia (P12) + Salted Egg (P9) + Rice (P5)

Nakamura ka na (P26 lang), busog ka pa. Hmmm naalala ko tuloy ang mga pinagkakain ko noon sa school

Grade school:

Meal  1. Zesto (Hi-C!) + Sandwich

2. Palamig + banana-cue / camote cue

3. Soda + Chippy ( o kahit anong junk foods)

4. Ice tubig + 2 pisong pan de coco o spanish bread

High school:

Meal 1. soda + brownies

2. tubig + tokneneng + rice

3. soda + spaghetti

4. ulam + kanin + tubig ( yes asensado na)

College:

Meal 1. anim na pirasong quail eggs (kapalitan ng kikiam) + gulaman

2. P10 cheese or sweet sour French fries + hot dog on stick +  soda

3. footlong (kahati ang isang kaklase) o crinkles + mango shake (promise favorite ko ito!)

4. ulam + kanin + dessert (ito ‘pag kinakailangan sa pakikipagsosyalan)

5. Mcdo Value Meal 7 (pag walang sundae, naka upsize ang french fries at drinks)

Note: Proud akong sabihin na minsan lang ako magkanin sa school. Kaya kong hindi kumain ng kanin sa tanghalian o kahit sa buong isang araw

Wahhhh tipid-tipid!

When I see someone who is so much indulged in her food, it makes me crave.

And I can’t help thinking the kind of food I’d like to order.

How about this one?

Or perhaps, this one?

This one?

Please join me and let’s party.

This is an e-mail forward that I got from my colleague Gene who is Filipino like me.

This is for all the Filipinos out there, and those who are lucky enough to have Filipino friends, those who have Filipino spouses and those who have Filipino next door neighbors. The story goes like this…

The elderly man lay dying in his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite food, Filipino lumpia.

Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort, steadying himself against the walls with both hands he inched his way to the kitchen. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame and gazed into the kitchen. Were it not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. For there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite food, LUMPIA.

Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife of 60years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture. Painfully, he reached up with his right hand and weakly groped on the table surface until he felt the oily warmth of one of his rolled favorite dish. His arthritic fingers wrapped around one, gingerly picked it up and brought it down. His parched lips slowly parted and as he slowly brought to his mouth, the wondrous taste of that lumpia already overwhelmed him, seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand trembled on the lumpia, when he was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife.

“Get out of here!” she shouted. “These are for your funeral!”

OK, so I saw these cool cigarillo-style lumpia in this beautiful cookbook by Jennifer Arana (owner/chef at the now-closed Rambutan restaraunt in Chicago), and thought I’d try it for a Labor Day get-together with friends and family.

I didn’t have the cookbook on hand so I made up my own simple filling: ground pork, minced onions and garlic, and spices. I was going over in my head how I was going to get such a slim line of filling onto the lumpia wrapper with a minimum of fuss and muss, and I had a “Eureka!” moment: I could put the filling into a Ziploc bag, cut a hole off one corner and squeeze it out like frosting!

So I bought a box of my favorite lumpia wrappers — these Simex brand boxes have the wrappers separated by circles of wax paper, which absolutely minimizes the potential for torn, unusable wrappers. It is literally the best idea since sliced bread.

Anyway, it doesn’t look appetizing when you do it — you’ll be reminded it may be time to take the dog out for potty break — but it is so much easier than doing it with a spoon. I love the idea of not folding in the sides, but I’m afraid they’ll cook faster — and therefore burn — before the filling cooks. I’ll post an update later on whether that happens.

After making the lumpia, I decided I’d check to see whether I could find the recipe and sure enough, Arana has posted it on her Web site: www.filipinokitchen.net/recipes_1.html. Her recipe calls for cutting square wrappers in half, which makes for smaller lumpia.

I’m also making her humba recipe (a sweeter version of adobo) for tomorrow, but found another interesting recipe of hers on the FoodandWine.com Web site for Coconut Cream Scallop Seviche that I’ll have to make later.

Whenever I am in a “punctilious” mood, I would prepare this dish. Relatively, it’s quite easy to make, since all you have to do is put them together and deep fry. It’s the process of preparing and putting them together that just puts me off. First, you’re going to have to finely chop the carrots, onions, singkamas (or yam bean), and shrimps. Then you’ll have to wrap the mixture by the spoonful one at a time. But of course, popping them in your mouth is always the great equalizer so here you go. This will make close to a kilo so just cut the ingredients in half if cooking for just a few people. Then again, you may always keep some in the freezer for future use.

You’ll need:

For the meat filling:

• 500 grams of ground chicken (or pork)
• a small carrot, say 100 grams, chopped finely
• an onion, chopped finely
• a small singkamas about 100 grams, chop it finely and squeeze out the juice with your hands. Canned water chestnuts may also be used. Then again, you may always do away with this ingredient.
• 5 pieces of shrimp, chopped finely. Crush the heads and squeeze out the juice and meat. If feeling stingy go ahead and use a shrimp cube. Just crush and put it in the mix.
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• half a teaspoon of sesame oil
• an egg to bind them together
• salt and pepper to taste

Assembly materials:

• lumpia wrappers- I use those square wanton wrappers
• a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water to make paste for sealing the lumpia
• cooking oil for your wok, or if turbo broiling or using an oven brush the prepared lumpia lightly with oil before cooking.

In a big bowl, mix the meat filling and make sure all ingredients have blended together. Separate the lumpia wrappers and lay them one at a time, diamond shaped, on a plate or a chopping board. Place a teaspoon or a spoonful (depending on how big your wrapper is) of meat filling on the lower half of the diamond lumpia wrapper. Lift the lowest corner/edge and cover and tuck in the meat. Roll once until you reach halfway, and lift the two corners in the middle and fold them toward the center to keep the meat from falling out. Now use your fingers and apply paste on the upper corner/edge and roll it toward that direction to seal it. Lay them on a plate with the seal facing down to keep it from opening accidentally. Remember to put meat filling sparingly, no bigger than your thumb, otherwise it might take too long too cook and you don’t want the wrapper to burn.

For a visual step-by-step on how to wrap, head on to the Cheese Sticks recipe. Just replace the cheese with the meat mixture (duh).

Deep fry in a wok, 3 or 4 at a time. Refrain from overcrowding to keep the temperature high. You’ll know it’s cooked when it floats and wrapper is colored golden-brown, about 4 minutes. I allow to give them a few burn marks just so I can be assured that they’re well-done.

The photo above has been turbo broiled at 350°F or 175°C. Brush it with oil using a pastry brush or even a table napkin before cooking and when it appears to be dry during the cooking process. The same goes with a conventional oven.

That’s baked salmon on the other plate, by the way, simply seasoned with coarse sea salt and pepper. I find it a waste of electricity when there’s space in your turbo broiler or oven so I put whatever I can find to fill it up. Even potatoes.

Once done you may chop them to 1 inch bite size pieces or to whatever desired length. Or even as is. Perfect dip would be chili sauce. Just wait for it to cool down or risk burning your tongue. Enjoy!

Wondering what to do with those excess lumpia/wanton wrappers? Make Cheese Sticks!

I’m sure many people say this about their moms, but let me say it loud and proud:  my mom is an awesome cook…

While the Filipino and American culinary traditions are her base, she’s not afraid to tweak her tried-and-true recipes or experiment with new recipes… I’ll have more shots of some of her creations in future blog posts, but let me focus on one dish today.

Many Asian cuisines have their own variation of the Spring Roll. The Philippines is definitely no exception, making a version of the dish as Filipino as Adobo.  Lumpia can be prepared fried or fresh, and its thin wrapper is usually filled with meat (pork is most common) and/or vegetables (usually carrots, green beans, and/or cabbage….sometimes bean sprouts).  Sometimes seafood can make its appearance in the filling, and it even can be filled with banana and/or jackfruit (the latter version described is a snack/dessert called Turon).

While Dan, his parents, and I were visiting my parents at the end of May, mom made Lumpiang Gulay (Vegetable Lumpia).

The filling was a colorful array of carrots, cabbage, green beans and red peppers. Sometimes Mom puts jicama into her vegetable mixes for lumpia, but I forgot if it was in the mix or not since it’s been a couple of months.

Lumpia wrapper is ofter made out of cornstarch/flour, egg, and water.  If one doesn’t want to make it from scratch, pre-made wrappers can be found at many Asian stores (and even some supermarkets depending on where you live).

Filling… nice contrast to the wrapper…

In this picture, mom’s already folded opposing corners of wrapper (and I think the bottom as well) around the filling. She’ll put eggwash on the remaining part and roll the filled wrapper from bottom to top.

Rollin’… rollin’… rollin….

Below: fully rolled lumpia. A few more of these, and they’ll be ready to fry…

Some completely finished lumpia, piled high…

Nope… no burnt lumpia* here…

Dan’s playing with his food again? Ruh-roh…

Sorry… no recipe here this time. Mom tends to eyeball a lot of things nowadays, and…well… she was pretty surprised when I let the family banana bread recipe out of the bag (Not necessarily in a good way. Oops…).

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*A shout-out to fellow food blogger Burnt Lumpia, who’s celebrating the birth of a Baby Lumpia. He’s the one who wrote the lumpia guest-blog I linked to in this entry.

Asian Friend’s mom: “FOB!!”

Asian Friend: “You can’t call them a FOB! You are a FOB!!”

Frei: “Uhhhh what’s a FOB?”

That’s right, I am a NOB. Never On the Boat.  I am an Asian at heart raised in American culture in an American family.  I could go twenty generations back in my lineage and find no one outside of Europe.  I’m allergic to soy sauce. That’s an automatic out.

But I was also raised with Asians. I have a boat load (No pun intended) of Asian friends that I have been around since kindergarten.  I embrace my adopted culture.  I think lumpia, Filipino egg rolls, are about the best things ever.  I’ve eaten popsicles with mung beans in them. I can cuss you out in Korean.  When I go to my Filipino friend’s house, her grandmother gives me size 6 sandals to wear in the house. I wear an eight. I have near-Asian grades.

All in all, I really am Asian, I just don’t look like it.

Sampe di Bandung tadi pertama kita cari breakfast. Secara naek Argo Gede ga dikasi snack (Terakhir sih waktu bareng si dudul juga ga dikasi, tapi secara waktu itu kita bedua bobo sepanjang perjalanan), tapi masa ga dikasi mineral water, at least yang cup, naek parahyangan bisnis aja dapet tuh. Si tube pengen makan mi kocok. saya sih taunya yang depan gang kartika sari, walaupun kalo di guide2 kuliner katanya yang enak di daerah martadinata, sampe sekarang sih saya masih ga tau di mana walaupun udah sempet nanya berkali-kali ama temen2 saya di kampus. Tapi kita keluar pintu selatan, jadi muter2 dikit, kita makan mi kocok di samping pasar baru, yah semacem gerobak sih cuma ada tempat duduknya juga. Standar sih rasanya. Tapi belakangan abis beres makan kita jalan dan baru sadar kalo depanan dikit ada mi kocok juga tapi tempatnya di rumah, lebih elit dikit.. =p

Berhubung hari masih lumayan pagi kita menyusuri jalan RE Martadinata, ga banyak sih yang didapet, maybe karena memang ga ada yang interesting, kecuali si tube yang pengen beli sepatu cuma ga ada ukurannya alias kakinya kegedean (ato memang sepatu di sini kecil semua ya bhe? – Relativity Theory Victorizm =p) Lanjut kita jadinya makan es buah di Mang Ewok. Weks sekarang udah pindah nih jadi ga di belakang persis Gedung Sate, tapi di seberangnya, secara hari udah mulai siang dan mentari lebih terik di gerobak mang ewok, jadi kita makan nya tepat di belakang gedung sate juga deh ujung-ujungnya, alias nyeberang dari gerobaknya..

Awalnya sih saya mau ikutan ke Veteran, tempat watol mau belanja spare part, tapi watol mau pergi sendiri aja. Ya maybe mang perhitungannya lebih hemat waktu sih, tapi sebenernya saya pengen tau juga tadinya sekarang kira2 berapaan kalo rakit sepeda, terakhir saya sempet nanya sekitar 2 juta, ya tentunya sesuai harga lah. Tapi si watol ini ga tau ke sana naek apa, duh ribet juga deh kalo jelasinnya, apalagi kan harusnya naik angkot dua kali sih biar langsung nyampe. FYI kita pisah dari perempatan dago bawah, yang sekarang ada dukomsel menggantikan DSE. Si tube sih udah cem dora the explorer kalo bawa peta, nah masalahnya dia ga bawa peta nih.. Eh untung aja saya inget kalo saya selalu bawa peta (yang walaupun udah kumel dan ga reliable juga secara skala) dari buku JJDB lama. SI tube udah cem gps udah diuplot peta aja, langsung ngerti. Jadi kita pisah deh tube n watol naek dago-kalapa dan saya naik kalapa-dago.

Sampe kampus masih belum jam satu, dan pas jam satu pun MPG blom ada, jadi saya dan jb belanja cireng di salman dulu. Lumayan isi perut sejak tadi makan mi kocok. Ok cireng salman memang ga seperti cireng rampat, yang gorengnya pas banget renyahnya, atau cireng keraton yang pricey tapi emang beda bahan adonannya. Cireng salman ini udah pre-fried, alias udah digoreng duluan, mungkin ga anget2 banget jadinya, tapi keuntungannya minyaknya ga segambreng. Tapi selain itu problem nya sih (maybe cuma saya aja, soalnya keliatannya si jb asik2 aja makannya) kenyal banget cirengnya, buset gusi saya lumayan sakit tuh makan tiga cireng..

Sampe kampus ternyata MPG udah tiba dan udah cukup banyak yang dateng. Standar aja sih pertemuannya greets, kapan lulus, dan as always nasehat. Tapi yang menarik MPG memberi deal kalo minimal 10 anak asuhannya lulus oktober ini, mau ditraktir semua anak asuhannya.. wkwkwk… mana saya ikutan lagi daftar lulus oktober, FYI emang saya plan lulus oktober, tapi bukan berarti wisuda oktober. ya maksudnya bisa aja saya baru sidang tanggal 31 oktober, kan intinya lulus oktober juga.. Tapi ga berlarut, beres perwalian, saya ke Annex, soalnya ternyata seperti yang tertulis di pdf nya kalo setor selain dari ITB Tamansari perlu ke Annex buat konfirmasi. Ternyata memang bener tadi si watol milih split aja dia ke veteran dan saya ke ITB, kalo ga nanti mungkin bisa ga kekejar waktunya secara jam lima lewat lima kereta parahyangan berangkat. Ya sebenernya simpel sih, di Annex cuma minta cap kalo kita uda setor, cuma saya memang ga fotocopy, jadi sempet ngantri lagi walaupun emang ga banyak.

Beres ngurus2 ternyata si tube dan watol ud beres juga, mereka otw ke ITB. Saya tunggu mereka di seberang Boromeus biar gampang. Tube dan watol ternyata belum lunch (duh ampun bro tadi gw ud ganjel perut pake cireng.. hehe) Ga lama mereka nyampe dan si watol ternyata beneran belanja sekarung.. hehehe.. yang keliatan bentuknya sih mungkin ban, tapi ga tau deh kalo masih banyak lagi. Meski tujuan utama yang pengen dia beli ga ada, setidaknya membawa something gituh biar ga pulang tangan hampa.. hehe.. Kita makan di Imam Bonjol, standar aja sih makan apalagi coba di sana yang lumayan, secara pada kelaperan juga. tadinya sempet tertarik ada resto baru yang ada prosotannya segala, tapi belakangan saya baca kalo itu semacem warung sosis, ya ga cocok sih buat lunch.

Tube pengen makan lumpia (walaupun dia uda kekenyangan juga dan sampai bekasi belum di makan2 tuh lumpia) jadi kita jalan ke ITB dan beli lumpia depan salman. ga lama sih karena waktu saat itu udah menunjukkan pukul empat jadi kita langsung ke stasiun naik sadang serang-caringin. Agak sedikit macet tapi biasa lah, sampai stasiun jam 4.30, beli tiket bisnis, lalu kita jajan minuman dulu di Yomart Express, hmm agak pricey, but i found something new.. ada Teh Kotak ukuran 500ml, wew, lumayan tuh, walaupun tadi waktu lunch udah minum teh manis segelas jumbo, i just can’t resist (cem lagu ABBA aja ya dul.. hehe =p) mana bentuknya agak janggal untuk ukuran minuman kotak dan udah ada corongnya jadi ga pake sedotan.

Oke ini bukan promosi, saya ga dibayar koq. Bagi saya everyone has their own preference, jadi wajar aja donk kalo saya cerita apa yang memang bagus, dan apa yang mungkin ga gitu bagus (red:jelek) bagi saya, tentunya perhitungan saya sih cukup objektif dan ada landasannya (yang pasti bukan UUD 45 =p) jadi ga asal buat menjelek2an atau begimana so jangan ngarep sue gw ke pengadilan gara2 gw nulis preferensi gw.

Oke kita masuk ke dalem stasiun, nunggu bentar secara di waiting area lebih adem, 10 menit sebelum kereta berangkat kita masuk. Ok saya emang salah perhitungan, kereta cukup penuh, dan tiket yang saya beli ternyata B,C,D. FYI buat yang ga pernah naek kereta, A,B,C,D itu artinya duduk sebelahan, A sama B, dan C sama D. Perginya sih kita A, B, C. That’s okay for Argo Gede, but not for Business. Why? soalnya kalo bisnis kursinya bisa di puter (not really rotate sih) jadi harusnya sih pesen tiketnya C,D dan C atau D di depan atau belakang dari nomer kursi kita, jadi bisa gabung. Ya awalnya sih saya mikirnya ga rame2 banget which is absolutely wrong setelah saya naik. Awalnya sih tube duduk di kursi depan saya, yah sapa tau ga ada yang punya. Ga lama dateng deh yang punya kursi. Tube geser deh ke sebelah B tapi di deret depan dengan menghadap ke belakang, soalnya ud ada bapak2 yang ngisi kursi yang mungkin kebagian duduk di A. Eh tube diusir lagi, ternyata yang punya kursi book dua deret depan kursi kita, jadi tube duduk di tempat nya deh, atau lebih tepatnya di A, soalnya si bapak milih duduk di B. Sori nih bhe ga maksud gw.. tapi setidaknya kan bisa merakyat bhe, kenalan ama bapak2, kita kudu melanjutkan perjuangan menyebarkan victorizm bhe.!! hehehe..

Sempet ketiduran, tapi rombongan yang di depan kita berisik banget, buset dah mulutnya bocor banget ga bisa diem. sempet ngobrol ama watol mengingat masa sma. siapa kul di mana, siapa ud lulus, reunian, etc. sempet sms si dudul juga, ya secara sms dia hampir seminggu lalu masa baru nyampe pas saya di kereta.. wkwkwk.. entah apa yang salah dengan hape (atau jaringan operator nya) soalnya memang ga jarang sms yang nyangkut dan baru nyampe seminggu berikutnya, termasuk sms si tube, acing dll.. (ga cuma lo koq dul =p) Tapi emang saya pengen kontak si dudul sih, ya cuma mau nanya aja gimana progres skripsi nya dia dan ngasi sedikit semangat. Saya juga sms si acing, yang katanya hari ini si ping2 sidang. Dapet A, wah bagus lah (asal lo cpet2 nyusul aja cing, jangan keasikan gawe =p) sempet sms si cs juga (ngarep dianterin =p) yang ternyata dia lagi keluar bareng bokapnya. pupus deh mau pulang gratis, secara di dompet duit tinggal dua lembar. Jadi kepaksa deh nyampe Stasiun Bekasi belanja dulu di Indomaret, supaya duit buat bayar ojek nya pas. Saya beli Pocari ukuran yang paling hemat, dan nyobain oops yang macem richeese. Pas nyampe di stasiun saya berpisah dengan tube dan watol, saya ke pintu utara dan mereka ke selatan.

Thanks buat tube yang udah temenin ke Bandung, dan buat watol semoga hapenya cepet balik!

Song of the night: Vertical Horizon – Best I Ever Had

karena ada yang merasa lagu ini lebih bagus dari You’re a God, jadi saya nobatkan lagu ini buat jadi song of the night (ok agak telat, tapi ga masalah kan?) Memang lagu ini lebih enak koq dari You’re a God, i admit it. Tapi yah memang dari awal kan saya ga bilang kalo lagu yang saya nobatkan itu harus yang top, yang best atau apa. lebih ke arah meaning sih, atau mungkin kecocokan situasi. that’s all..

You don’t want me back, but you’re just the best i ever had…..