The hardest thing about eating raw?  Not having options for meeting up with friends!  Having a “restrictive” diet restricts my social life, huhu!

Think about it– if you take food and drinks out of your activity options, what’s left?  Maybe a bit of sports, work, movies, and… well that’s mostly it.   But what are sports, work and movies without food?  Never realized that so much of what we do really revolves around food.   When someone visits you at home, you serve merienda and juice  or coffee at the very least.   You go watch a movie, there’s popcorn or shake.  You watch a game, there’s beer and pizza.  When you’re willingly choosing not to eat what maybe 90% of the population eats–coffee, rice, milk, meat, chips, beer– you are also making a stand not to participate in or to stay away from activities that involve any of these!  It’s hard to stay raw when everyone else around you is salivating over grilled baby back ribs, fried tawilis, or hot fudge chocolate!

The first time I got to try being 100% raw for a sustained period was last August when I visited my friend Pi in Bahay Kalipay, Palawan.   Six days on raw.   I posted pictures of that 6-day Raw food detox if you want to take a look.  Since then, I’ve been trying to infuse raw into my everydays as much as I can, with very encouraging results with the green smoothie…

…and not-so-encouraging ones from experiments like this pumpkin soup…

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Masarap daw.  Have you tried it?

My friends have been raving about the tenga (grilled pig’s ears) in Countryside along Katipunan since college, but it was only last week that I got to try it—2:30am and the place was still bustling with customers, wowowee!!! Look at that oily goodness–that’s cholesterol straight to your thighs and heart, but well well well, sometimes, it’s just okay to be a little baaaad.

Coupled with some pork isaw (grilled pig’s intestines), this was surely one of the best post-inuman eats I’ve had in a while!

Of course I paid for it with the all-day dizzy spell the next day, but haaay sulit pa rin!

* * *
Countryside is on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. It’s on the same side of the road as Freska and is one of the last establishments before the stretch to the flyover to Ateneo and UP.

For my dad’s 65th and my kuya’s 31st birthdays, we trooped to our favorite places in Tagaytay– Bawai’s and next door Chateau Hestia, deep in the residential rows of Lagusan Drive.

Bawai’s is a Vietnamese restaurant, lutong-bahay style, and is owned by the Tatlonghari family. The word “Bawai” is actually grandmother in Vietnamese, and whenever we come here, we do feel like we’re just dining in a friend’s home!

They set up our table for 26 quite nicely..

After all the appetizers, I had this dry noodle bowl with beef slivers… really yummy, and only costs P195!

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When you live alone, you either eat out all the time or cook for one.   If you choose to cook and are like most girls, your pantry would probably be stuffed with pasta, salads, breads, and cheeses…

But I think one can only have so much pasta and salads!!

I took home non-default items from the supermarket the other day–including baboy adobo cut and cream dory (why are they everywhere now?).  Tonight I wanted something light though, so I took out my most perishable food in the refrigerator –tofu– and made veggie adobo!  For a first try, masarap siya!

I added monggo sprouts and sayote tops because I still wanted something leafy in there,  then put in chili flakes for that perfect bite..yummm!

I also used organic black vinegar, which true enough, may have made the difference:

I think I’m beginning to appreciate Pinoy and Asian flavors more… am I growing old?? hehe

Care to share your favorite easy-to-cook meals?   With ingredients easily found in Manila please? )

My friend Jhoey Hernandez of PinoyOrganics.com is holding a unique culinary tour in Alabang on Saturday, May 22, for sustainable cooking! Hope you and your green-minded friends can support her project:

Are you a cooking mama, a foodie, an urban gardener wannabe or simply love learning new things? Dust off your basket and join us as Pinoy Organics launch its Market-to-Plate Tours in the South!

Pinoy Organics in partnership with Feed 5000

present

Market-to-Plate Tour Launch

MAY 22, 2010, SATURDAY

8AM – 2PM

• Know your local producers in nearby weekend markets
  • Help us purchase our ingredients for our cooking demo
  • Meet the only certified organic local produce seller in the South
  • Meet a 70 year old woman who sells local produce from Batangas on weekends only
  • Know where to buy organic brown rice at market price in the South
  • Enjoy a local drink with more electrolytes than commercial sports drink
  • Visit Mom-Turn-Farmer who sells her sustainable foods from Cavite
  • and more!

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My mom told me my cousin Whitney loved loved loved the cheesecake at New York’s Grand Central Station, so we got her a box on our way to Connecticut last weekend.

The box says Junior’s most fabulous cheescake has been “voted no.1″ as “the best cheescake in N.Y.” by New York magazine!

It hit me much later that I was finally having an authentic New York cheesecake! Heehee. 

One small plain cheesecake goes for about $15, the chocolate a bit higher.

Very cheesy, baked just like I like them.  Could’ve been a bit tarter though, but I’m sure I’ll still get to finish the whole cake.

Junior’s is a cafe at the lower level of the Grand Central Station in New York.

I first visited the Marikina Shoe Expo (now called– and perhaps more aptly– the Cubao Expo) with my girl friends in 2005. Back then the area lived up to its name as a shoe depot–there were really just shoe shops everywhere! I remember telling friends that Marikina Shoe Expo was the place to get customized shoes done, even knee high boots in various leather colors!

Two Saturdays ago (March 27), I went back to Cubao Expo for Anton’s Photoblogging class, and was happy to just walk around this  U-street in Cubao and be curious again.

Parking is still available inside, although I don’t remember it being so expensive (I paid P50 for a little over 3 hours of parking)!

There was a street tiangge on that day though, which took up most of the slots…

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A Google search traced this forwarded email back to as far back as 2006, tail end of the bird flu virus epidemic. Given two years have passed, there may have been steps already taken to address this, but doesn’t hurt to be aware (or reminded) that these things do go on, and most likely not just in China.

What to do? We can never be sure where our food comes from, or what it goes through before it gets to our plates, so only option is to just be vigilant. I think a good start would be to investigate where the meat or produce in your actual market come from, try to find out more about meat processing and harvesting practices in your area.. I heard of a pig farm in Antipolo where everything is so sanitized that the pigs do actually look cute and cuddly!

Another tip would be to buy as local as possible…which means getting used to local goods (this also applies to things other than food!)… I read the same advice on fruits before– avoid imports, stick to local produce: bananas, guavas, pomelos, pineapples, buko, etc. You’ll get fresh goods, plus cheaper, and you’ll be contributing less to carbon build up from all the hauling involved in importing foreign goods…

Hope you’re not having fried chicken for lunch!

Beware of eating imported chicken- Sick & Dead Chicken Processing In China!

Caveat: the enclosed pictures speak a thousand words. Avoid buying processed food packaged in China . Anything goes! We just don’t know what else is in those packages. China does not have laws regulating food processing.

On that note: also avoid using disposable chopsticks in the restaurant. Apparently they have been bleached to look white! We certainly don’t need bleach in our body.

Basically do not buy any processed food from China and sometimes Hong Kong too. Some companies are using Hong Kong address to avoid this type of image reputation.

Early dawn, starts the day by riding around to collect dead chicken

Asking around for dead chicken

Total of 5 riders are hired by the boss to farms to buy dead chicken

A dead chicken cost 1 RMB and would be sold at 9 RMB after processing

Storage for the dead chicken in the court yard

carcasses are thrown everywhere

And on the floor….

4 employees start de-feathering the dead fowl after soaking in boiling water from a rusty wok

Enduring the pungent odour, but sometime, it get so terrible that even the most experience d of the workers would puke

Workers rushing to get the chicken de-feathered

A discarded bath tub being used to soak the bare skin dead chicken … the contaminated water would have accelerated the decomposition process

Wearing slippers walking among the chicken before colouring processing

After the colour dye, its creepy to find that they are quite tenderising

And now presenting the mouth watering Charcoal Roasted Chicken!

Send to as many people as possible

I first visited Manos Greek Taverna with two girl friends over a year ago. Always with a soft spot for anything homemade (i.e. made with love), I’ve since listed it as a Tagaytay favorite.

A greek-style carinderia, Manos is a roadside restaurant along the main Tagaytay road (on the opposite side of the ridge) about a minute away from the rotonda.

I really did feel very My Big Fat Greek Wedding-ish the first time I saw those blue and white curtains and tablecloths, not to mention the matching music and paintings of Greek beaches and houses. Add to the scene Manos himself, the place’s most Grecian import, who is such a cheerful and hands-on owner! He’s usually seen grilling meats and preparing dishes in the kitchen himself.

The only disappointment I’ve ever had here is they don’t serve hummus, but just last month I discovered the perfect alternative: fish roe dip, also served with pita.

Other musts: Dolmades (steamed rice in grape leaves with yogurt dip), Gyros, Grilled chicken, yogurt with fresh honey (from Ilog Maria)

Why the place is charming: The menu offers, before anything about the food, a detailed romp through food history and the place of Greek cuisine in it. Talk about pride and passion for one’s work (told you I’m a sucker for “heart”)!

Grilled chicken with real smoked flavor

Yogurt with fresh honey and pistachio bits

Baklava

Bill for 5 full stomachs