Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Resto-rant

turo-turo in Falls Church, Virginia

the usual: daing na bangus, menudo, pork sinigang, bangus sinigang, ox-tail kare-kare, pork/chicken adobo, skewered pork barbecue, and my favorite, lechon kawali

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays is hosted by SpiCes. This week: Resto-rant

I apologize if I have turned this food photography meme into a long Rant And Rave post.:D

The Resto-rave: The turo-turo pictured above is inside a Filipino grocery store called Manila Oriental [in Falls Church, Northern Virginia]. The turo-turo, located at the very rear of the store, has 3 tiny tables and a few stools which were all occupied when we got there. I am normally not attracted to turo-turo because the food always seem to look dry and stale but this store is a huge improvement. Although the grocery store is dusty and overflowing with stuff, the turo-turo area is bright and clean. It has a lot of customers judging from the long line and wait for the tables, although most are carry-out. I had the lechon kawali and my husband the Kare-kare, both are superb. The hot delicious food which are freshly cooked right there and are replenished constantly while we were eating have changed my view of turo-turo restaurants from meh to a very positive one. When I asked permission to photograph the place, the girl at the counter presumed we were video cam wielding tourists from the Philippines, and said "greetings from Virginia to our kababayans!" :-)

The Resto-rant: I had a rather unpleasant experience with a Filipino restaurant several months ago. The owner left a comment in one of my posts advertising his place, which shall remain nameless, in Maryland. I got excited when I saw sisig on the menu posted on their website which also has photos of the restaurant. It looks large and airy, cozy, and has plenty of tables. I immediately linked the restaurant's website to my blog to help out a fellow Pinoy promote his restaurant. We didn't mind the 1 hour drive through light rain/snow because we are always on the lookout around my area for sit-down restaurants that have the potential to serve really good Filipino food. I was disappointed but not discouraged to discover that most of the food are not a la carte but also turo-turo style that need to be reheated upon ordering/pointing. A few dishes can be cooked to order, one of them is sisig which was what we went there for. I ordered the sisig and he got his usual Kare-kare and a vegetable dish from the buffet (boy, aren't we boring and predictable?). The Kare-kare was okay but nothing to rave about. The moment the not-so-sizzling sisig arrived and set on the table, my pork-eschewing husband said "ugh!, smells awful, rancid, and too porky", whatever the heck porky means. The strong smell of the sisig which didn't bother me was making him ill so I moved it far away from his sensitive nose. The sisig was not good at all not because it was spoiled or something, rather it lacked flavor, heat, acidity, and crunch, but I ate half of it because the owners were sort of "observing" me. I was such a wimp because I didn't say anything to them. Should I have said something? Would you have if you found yourself in the same situation: a promising Filipino restaurant with enthusiastic owners but the food they serve are mediocre at best, at least IMHO. Would you have the courage to tell them the food need some improvements? Maybe it was our fault for not ordering something like okoy or spring rolls, I don't know. But that was not the worst part of our food trip, though. A few minutes after we got home I became sick from a mild-to-almost-bad case of food poisoning. I never contacted the owners but after a month I removed the restaurant's link from my blog.:(

Confetti Slaw

The weather is getting unbearable already and it's only the first week of June. When it gets hot I crave for vegetable salads which are very refreshing and a breeze to prepare. I was in the mood for coleslaw yesterday but I didn't have cabbages nor green pepper. What I had in the vegetable bin were 2 aging purple carrots, a yellow beet, and lots of sweet peppers and I imagined these vegetables together would make a good slaw. Well, they are more than good, they are great as a slaw.

I used the food processor's medium shredder for the beet and carrots and I sliced the peppers by hand. I added a cup of golden raisins into the mix for a slightly sweet crunchy colorful slaw. Sooo yummy with chicken teriyaki. I will make this salad again with just carrots and jicama with maybe toasted sliced almonds for variety which I think sounds as good if not better.

Confetti Slaw
1 cup shredded yellow beets
1 cup shredded carrots or purple carrots
½ cup thinly sliced sweet yellow pepper
½ cup thinly sliced sweet orange pepper
1 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons rice wine or cider vinegar
½ tsp salt, or to taste
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

• Put the vegetables and raisins in separate piles in one container. Mix the rice wine or vinegar, sugar, and salt and stir until sugar has completely dissolved. Pour all over the vegetables. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Toss and transfer into a serving plate.

BBAC: Brioche

à tête

loaf (Nanterre)

BBA Challenge fourth recipe: Brioche. The book has three options: Rich Man's with 1 pound, yes, 1 pound of butter, Middle-Class with half a pound, and Poor Man's with a quarter pound. I chose the middle class because I've made the poor man's version several times already and although I am more than satisfied with the PM brioche which is perfect for making Croque Monsieur, I want a richer brioche with more butter but not THAT MUCH butter.

The middle-class is very rich and I can't imagine how the rich man's will turn out. I won't know because I have no intention of baking it soon; maybe after we are done with all the recipes I'll take a stab at it. I'm happy with the middle-class with its soft light-as-feather delicious crumb and flaky crust. It's a little bit richer than poor man's as expected but there's very little difference in flavor and texture. Brioche is one of the breads that I will never get tired of. It's easy to prepare and on the eyes, versatile, and did I mention very yummy?

proofing in 9-wave brioche (or tortilla) molds

After the first bite of this brioche you'll hear yourself nomnomnom-ing whether it's

torn off by hand

(I love the flaky crust)

or neatly sliced

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5, yes we have a winner!^__^

Wild Yeast Starter

When I baked the Greek Celebration bread a little over 2 weeks ago, I had to use a poolish because my 7-month old wild yeast starter died on me. The last time I used it was 2 months ago for rye sandwich loaves, but the jar got pushed at the very back of the fridge and I forgot to feed it. When I saw the very dark "hooch" and the bubbleless firm starter I knew it's a goner. I tried to revive it, took out half and added bread flour and warm water, left it overnight on the kitchen counter but nothing happened so I threw it away.

Please note that I am not jumping to letter S but since we will be using a starter for future BBA challenges, I made 2 new batches using both PR's BBA recipe and this method. PR's fell asleep on the 6th day after showing great potential. It wouldn't grow or bubble or anything, I just left it alone and kept it on the counter for 2 weeks before finally throwing it away. The one from The Fresh Loaf site is another story. It behaved as described and on the 6th day I divided it, added bread flour to one half and whole wheat to the other, they started growing steadily with every feeding and by the end of the second week have gotten stronger and developed a very fragrant sweet aroma. I immediately baked half a recipe of Basic Sourdough Bread from The BBA to check the flavor and acidity. Both starters are doing well and now resting in the fridge.
A bit of fun with wild yeast starter: I read in one of the BBA discussion threads that the son of a member baker calls us BBA challengers The Bread Freaks and The BBA The Bread Freaks' Bible. I totally agree, we are some sort of freaks! A few (or maybe a lot) of the bakers give their starters a name (and perhaps a personality); Nicole of Pinch My Salt calls hers Lyle after Lyle Lovett. My husband thinks it's weird, I think it's cute and fun. I want to be a certifiable Bread Freak and decided to name my two starters Brad and Angelina, Brad being the fair one.

meet Brangelina

For the [taste test] sourdough bread loaves, I used equal amount of both starters and equal amount of bread and whole wheat flours. I was very confident that Brangelina will perform well and produce a flavorful bread. They did not disappoint. The twins loaves are perfect: tangy but not too sour, very tasty, and chewy yet soft. I am recommending this wild yeast starter recipe to anyone who doesn't have a starter yet because it uses a very small amount of flour so you won't feel wasteful if it is not successful the first time. I will give PR's recipe another try but will reduce the initial amount by half as I don't want to waste too much flour.

The BBA Basic Sourdough Bread Loaves:

top: the dough doubled in volume after one hour
bottom: the dough more than tripled in volume after 3 hours

the finished loaves