Chichiria (Snacks)

Last Saturday my daughter and I brought some of her things to the townhouse. We used my car for the trunk space. She drives a 2 door mustang which has a fairly large trunk but not tall enough for bulky items. She asked me to help her with the heavy items so I went with her. On the way back she asked me to show her the Philasia Filipino grocery which is halfway between our houses. I ended up buying $20.00 worth of chichiria and sweets. Hoo, that's expensive, 1 can of dalandan (Philippine orange with vivid green rind and vivid orange pulp) soda is $1 each but I haven't had dalandan in over 25 years, and it was worth it.

Dalandan photo courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/santos/. We opened a bag of adobo flavor Boy Bawang (garlic) cornicks (crispy corn kernels) while sipping our dalandan soda and almost finished the whole bag, yum, yum, yum. I declare this Boy Bawang the best munchies ever! Other chichiria we bought in addition to Boy Bawang cornicks: Potato rings, Boy chili corn, Prima toast (tiny toasted bread with lots of butter and sugar) and Jacobina biscuits. The sweets: rice paper wrapped turrones de casuy (cashew nuts), buco pandan polvorones, Ovalteenies (yep, the orange wrapped sweets are candied ovaltines), and tamarind candies. One of our favorite sweets that's already in the pantry is ChocNut, a chocolate and peanut candy.

Pancit Lomi

I found these lomi noodles last week in the Korean grocery (where else?). Never tried cooking these before but eaten them more than 20 years ago in Manila maybe once or twice. I looked online for the Pinoy recipe, substituted soy puffs (fried tofu) for the shredded chicken. I did not add sesame seed oil because the lomi I remember did not have it. The beaten eggs added right after the heat was turned off give the noodle dish an interesting texture and of course added protein. The ingredients I used are pictured above (I forgot to include the carrots in the photo). With plenty of seasonings you won't really miss the chicken. This is a very substantial and satisfying Filipino meal.

For dessert: homemade strawberry ice cream and jacobina

I'm sure most Filipinos know Jacobina: crunchy, flaky, milky(?) snacks with just a hint of sweetness, perfect with halo halo or ice cream. These are tiny, about 1 x 1 inch, the jacobinas I used to snack on were bigger than these. Everything seems to be getting smaller in the Philippines, perfect example: ChocNuts, they are now 1/3 their original size.