Lechon Kawali (Fried Pork Belly) and Snow Pea Shoots

I was going to make Pinakbet (vegetable medley) with Bagnet (fried pork belly) that I got from my cookbook Flavors of the Philippines by Glenda Barreto of Via Mare restaurants in Manila. I got this cookbook as a 2001 Christmas gift. It is a very beautiful, clear, direct and precise cookbook showcasing the best recipes of different regions in the Philippines. The photographs done by Japanese American Neal Oshima are fantastic.

The vegetable medley is not the one I grew up eating, we have a different version in my hometown. After deep frying, the pork looked delicious I ended up chopping and serving half of it as Lechon Kawali (pork belly roast/fried in a wok) and reserved half for the pinakbet that I will make this week. This lechon kawali is eaten with either Mang Tomas sauce or vinegar, soy sauce and garlic dip, I had both. I also cooked these fine looking veggies snow pea shoots I spotted at the Korean grocery. They are very tender young leaves that I just washed thoroughly then steamed in a little water and 1/4 tsp salt until just wilted and still a little crisp.

I like the simplicity of just adding a little calamansi juice or lemon juice to this side dish. It does not need garlic, onion or some meat flavorings, I'm really loving it more than spinach or Swiss chard, this is the perfect veggies to serve with the fat laden pork.

Buco Pandan Ice Cream

Move over coffee mangosteen ice cream! I have a new favorite ice cream flavor, Buco Pandan (young coconut and pandan leaves extract). It is sooo yummy, why didn't I make this sooner. I used frozen young coconut strips and its water, then added buco pandan flavor that comes in a small bottle. I really like the pistachio green hue. This flavor is a huge favorite in Manila using it in everything from fruit salads (a combination of young coconut strips, pandan flavored gelatin cubes, sugar and cream, ooh I'll make this next) to candies, polvoron, barquillos (filled wafer sticks), hopia (Chinese Filipino snacks made with flaky pastry filled with sweet mung bean paste) and buche (mochi).

Pancit Bihon and Atis

We had an authentic Filipino Pinoy dinner tonight: rice noodles and the fruit atis for dessert. These are thin rice sticks sauteed with garlic and onions, soy sauce, boiled pork, carrots, snow peas, and shredded cabbage. It is eaten with calamansi juice (tiny Filipino limes). I found frozen atis, a relative of cherimoya, at the Korean grocery. The consistency of the fruit is altered as expected but tastes the same nonetheless. Fresh is of course the best but I haven't had these in over 15 years, I couldn't resist buying them. I'll make ice cream using 2 of these fruits, yum.

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.