Potato Corner fries!

French fries when fried, contains a lot of fat but that doesn't stop me from eating them. One favorite brand of French fries that I love eating the most is Potato Corner, and they have this zesty barbeque flavor that gives a spicy-tangy sensation to my taste buds. It's been one of my favorite comfort foods when there's a time that I wouldn't care about watching my calories.

 

My younger brother bought a giga size of Potato Corner fries with barbeque flavor, which is good for five to six persons (but there's only the two of us!). When we got home, I was able to save some and made them my viand for early dinner, with steamed rice! Yum!

I wish I have more of it right now!

Puto Pao

Puto is the Tagalog word for steamed rice cake made in the Philippines and has gained its popularity in other countries. I used to hate eating this native delicacy in our town (Biñan) as a kid, but as I grow up, my taste buds began to love the puto's sweetness and fluffiness. I used to make plain puto four years ago and at that time, I was equipped with my grandmother's puto recipe. My mother and my older cousin told me that my rice cake was good! I can't remember where I put it  (I wrote the recipe in a piece of paper) and it's really frustrating that I couldn't find it anymore. The latest puto I am craving for is from Aling Nene's store which is located at San Vicente, Biñan Laguna and they sell special Puto Pao. The stuffing consists of pork asado, how I wish I just wanted to eat a plain puto with no fillings in it but overall I love the taste of special Puto Pao!

Inside the box, there are ten pieces of Puto Pao complete with asado fillings. They are perfect as side dish  for pancit bihon, canton noodles or spaghetti pasta or you can eat them alone on their own.

Now I am craving for more Puto!

Sauteed Crushed Eggplant

This dish is inspired from my grandmother's version of  "Ginisang Talong" recipe. From her ingredients, she used soy sauce and vinegar to marinate the already boiled and crushed eggplant on a plate and drained the remaining marinade before sauteing them with garlic, onion and tomatoes. I made up my own version of cooking crushed eggplants with the same "panggisa" batch as sauteing ingredients and mixed the eggplants with some liquid seasoning. 

Ingredients: 

2 pc. cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1 pc. red onion, sliced

1 pc. small tomato, sliced 

5-6 pcs. medium eggplants 

2 tbsp. liquid seasoning  

salt and pepper to taste (optional) 

Procedures: 

1. Boil eggplants in a large pan until they are easily pricked by fork. Drain.

2. Using fork, crush the eggplant on a plate.

3. In a medium frying pan, heat oil and saute garlic, onion and tomatoes until the onion becomes transparent and tomatoes wilt.

4. Add in crushed eggplants and saute along with the garlic, onion and tomatoes. 

5. Add a dash of  salt and pepper (optional).

6. Sprinkle the crushed eggplants with liquid seasoning and stir again until they become coated well. 

7. Serve with plain rice.

Sauteed Bittermelon with Egg

This is what we call "Ginisang Amplaya" in Filipino term, which means the bittermelon is stir-fried together with the garlic, onion, tomatoes and egg. It is one of my favorite breakfast viands. If there's a left over on the table, I expect that this one remains untouched because of its bitter flavor. I do not mind its bitter taste, I just love how it tastes like when cooked this way. 

Ingredients:

1 pc. tomato, sliced

1 pc. red onion, peeled and sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 medium sized bittermelon (ampalaya), seeded and sliced diagonally

1 egg

2 tbsp. cooking oil

1 tsp. Maggi Magic Sarap granules

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat cooking oil at a medium heat.

2. Saute garlic, onions and tomatoes until the onion changes color and tomatoes wilt.

3. Add sliced bittermelon and stir-fry along with sauted garlic, onions and tomatoes for 2 minutes.

4. Sprinkle Maggi Magic Sarap granules on the bittermelon and stir.

5. Beat the egg and mix it over the bittermelon. Stir-fry constantly to cook the egg into scrambles.

6. Serve with plain rice. 

* If you hate the bitter taste of ampalaya, you can de-bitter it by rubbing it with salt and soaking it with water before cooking. Squeeze the juice out of sliced ampalaya and it's ready to cook.

Pork Sinigang

The usual favorite dish among Filipinos where the pork is cooked / stewed in tamarind soup along with vegetables - tomatoes, string beans, eggplants, water spinach, okra and radish. If you want a thicker soup, you can include gabi (taro) in your vegetables. I use long green pepper to add some spice to the soup and a powdered soup base, the brand name Knorr Sinigang Tamarind Soup Base Mix.

Ingredients:
1 pc. red tomato, quartered
1 pc. red onion, peeled and quartered
1 pc. medium radish, peeled and sliced diagonally
2 pcs. long green pepper
1 pouch Knorr Sinigang Soup Base Mix
2 pcs. eggplant, sliced quarterly
5 pcs. okra, cut into 2-inch length
3/4 kilo pork, cut into chunks (good for stewing)
2-3 pcs. small gabi (taro root), peeled and sliced into half (optional)
1 bundle of kangkong (water spinach), cut into 2-inch length
5-8 pcs string beans, cut into 2-inch length
8 cups water

Procedures:
1. In a cooking pot, combine water, a little bit of salt and pork. Bring to a boil until pork becomes tender.
2. Add onions, tomatoes, radish, eggplant, gabi and Knorr Sinigang Soup Base Mix. Let them boil for 7 minutes. 
3. Add in the okra, string beans, long green pepper and kangkong stalk. Cook for a few minutes until their color turns to bright green. 
4. Lastly, add the kangkong leaves into the boiling soup and cook until the leaves wilt.

My Food and I

I'm a food lover and I love to cook. Just like other people who have interest in doing so. Still I'm not a pro at it even though I developed the passion in cooking until I met my grandmother from father's side. She's a talented cook, but was never a chef in her younger days. I watched her cook in our kitchen and eventually found out her secret ingredient (I'm not telling!). Perhaps that's why I began to learn how to cook, and I never thought that it wasn't easy as I thought when I cooked chicken adobo (our viand for lunch) for the first time in my life.

I live and grew up in the Philippines so most of my cooking stuff are made up of local dishes, even the basic viands. I also love to cook any kind of pasta - spaghetti, baked macaroni, salad macaroni and so on. I like trying and tasting new foods (except the exotic and odd ones), those that come from other places.

Here I would like to share the foods that I have eaten and still crave for. I will try to post some of my recipes as best as I can.

Victual Memo

This is the first time I'll be tending a blog pertaining to foods that I very much enjoy eating (and cooking) and would like to keep record of. Thus the name Victual Memo is born. Victual stands for food supplies or provisions while Memo is short for memorandum or rather a subject written under observation or a journal.

There are times that I wanted to keep a journal about the foods I eat and was able to take a snapshot of them but failed to write them down even after consuming the rations. It's a good idea to start blogging about them to be able to keep my food blog updated as much as I can. Enjoy reading!