What's For Lunch?!

... Kaldereta!!!

Yesterday, I got a chance to visit a foreign foodmart in Itaewon, Seoul for the first time. I wound up buying a couple of things, one of which is Mother's Best Kaldereta Mix from the Philippines. Kalderetang Baka (Spicy Beef Stew) happens to be my favorite dish of all time. I haven't tasted it in months so I decided to cook it for lunch today.

Here's how...

I used: A kilogram of beef cut into large cubes, 2 medium sized potatoes, 1 small carrot, red bellpepper, onion and garlic. The other two ingredient that gave this dish a super savory boost are:

The Kaldereta Mix..

and Hunt's Tomato Paste (I used about 3 tbsp of this).

So first, I boiled the beef in medium high heat. I didn't use pressure cooker, just a regular pot so it took about an hour before it became tender. Then I added the potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato paste and the kaldereta mix and let it boil for another 10 minutes. Lastly, I added the red bell peppers. You may notice I didn't add salt or pepper, the kaldereta mix already took care of that.

See folks, it's that simple.. The result is by far the best kaldereta I've ever tasted in my life. The sauce is so thick and flavorful, veggies are not at all overcooked, and man.. the meat is so tender!!! That kaldereta mix is really a life saver.

I can't wait till Chris taste this!

Sunday Rendezvous.

So this is about a gathering that happened yesterday...


***

WHAT: Potluck Party/Housewarming; lot's of food, laughter and a little bit of witchcraft ^^;
WHO: Me and my friends Jehan, Tessa and Anne. With the special participation of Gerald (Anne's better half) and Chris.
WHERE: Jehan's fabulous new home in Gimpo.
WHEN: Sunday, June 6th.


My friends and I had been planning to have a potluck party as early as April, but everyone seemed to be swamped with work, part-time jobs and family affairs that we couldn't squeeze a day out of our busy schedules to make it happen. The days and months kept counting, and the pressure from my impending departure got bigger and bigger, so I sent everyone an 'it's-now-or-never' text to meet on Saturday, June 5th. Eventually, it was moved to Sunday to give way to Jehan's pre-natal check-up. With Jehan's pregnancy and her new apartment, we even got bigger reasons to meet and celebrate!

So the Potluck Party/Housewarming was set, and everyone's expected to bring some food. Armed with a heavy paper bag reeking of pineapples and bell peppers from the Sweet and Sour Pork dish I made earlier, I rode the subway to meet Anne and Gerald. All three of us went to find Jehan's new house hidden amongst a sea of beautiful ricefields and farms. Their apartment complex is new so it was a little hard to find. Gerald, being the courteous man that he is, made a quick stop to buy a huge pack of toilet paper for Jehan (it's customary for Koreans to give toilet paper when they visit a house for the first time). Gerald went back home shortly after dropping us there..


Jehan lives in a beautiful place surrounded by ricefields. I can just imagine how beautiful it's gonna be in fall when the ricefields become golden in color.



As soon as we entered the new house, the party got rolling. Our conversation drifted from wallpapers, to curtains, to pregnancy, and to life in general. Coincidentally, it was Jehan's wedding anniversary that day so topics about significant others were also one of the things we talked about. Tessa had a prior engagement so she had go there all by herself. Jehan's house is a grueling 2 hour bus ride from Seoul to Gimpo, but Tessa beat the odds and showed up 2 hours later carrying a cake! Here's the food we had at the party...

My Sweet and Sour Pork with pineapples and slightly discolored bell peppers.




Anne's Galbi and Chapchae...

Tessa brought dessert, delicious White Mocha Cake..

So four hungry and overly energetic girls in a fabulous new house with endless things to talk and laugh about.. It was a riot from then on!







All's good till Chris called saying he's coming to pick me up at 8. It's so hard to leave when the party is as good as that. To make the most out of my one hour left, I decided to try a trick my mom taught me when I was a kid. Some may call it witchcraft, I call it an ingenious trick to know how many babies a woman will have and what genders their babies are going to be. My mom learned it from her Highschool Physics teacher, and from then on she has been performing this trick. She had done it to over a hundred people since she was young, and she never got it wrong. Jehan was the first to try of course. Since it's still early to check her baby's gender thru ultrasound, she has to wait 3 months to know I'm right (that is if the doctor will tell her the sex cause it's illegal to know the gender of the baby here while you're pregnant).

Chris came shortly after that. We convinced him to eat and chat a little before heading home. It was a long drive to Suwon and I was so tired when we came back home. But I couldn't stop smiling and thinking how fun that Sunday afternoon had been!

Of Salads and Stuff.

I love this Salmon and Shrimp Salad Chris brought home last night. It comes with a pack of yoghurt apple dressing which isn't really appealing to my taste, so I ate the salad without it. I love all kinds of salads and two of my favorites are Ceasar's and Avocado Salad. I used to go to Rack's back home cause they serve the best-tasting Ceasar's Salad in town. My father's Avocado Salad on the other hand, is the best among I've tasted... There isn't anything quite like it. He used to make it on a hot summer day, and nope.. I'm not referring to mashed Avocadoes with milk and sugar, although I'd kill for a cup of that right now! ^^ One of the best things about salad is that you could enjoy it anyway you want to. You could have them as side dish, as an appetizer, as a meal, even as a snack. It's just so uncomplicated, like how I want my food to be. ^^

Pinoy Food in Seoul?

Last month, I got a chance to visit Hyehwa-dong, the ever famous place frequented by Pinoys all over Seoul and other nearby cities. While we were there, we thought about having lunch so we headed to the small restaurant nearby that serves pinoy dishes.

We paid 5,000 won each and we were given our choice of 2 dishes, a huge amount of rice (enough to feed 2 people), and soup. I was looking forward to ordering sinigang, kaldereta, or adobo but it's unavailable so I ordered a different thing.

After a few bite, my stomach started to feel uneasy so I didn't finish my meal. I was a bit embarassed because the people there were nice... especially the one in the picture.

Pinoy Adobo

One of my favorite pinoy dish is ADOBO. There was a time when I tried really hard to make this dish while I was away from PH. I've been in food-sick mode for 3 months and I just couldn't bear it anymore. So what I did was to scour the nearest supermarket near my place for ingredients that resembles ours and try to make chicken adobo. I got the chicken and the soy sauce and the vinegar so I hurried home to cook it. While taste tasting the said dish I felt my stomach churned when I tasted the soysauce and even said to myself "why oh why doesn't the soysauce even remotely resembles the taste back home...". I think the soysauce was fermented too much and it tastes a bit 'wine-y'. No luck with the soysauce so on with the vinegar and to my surprise theirs tasted a bit too bland. It's more like a sour drink to me which by the way is true cause some people drink it by itself for health benefits. The finished product tasted really weird and it didn't go well with the chicken. I couldn't even managed to eat it so it went straight to the bin. That was the first time I tried to cook pinoy dishes abroad and it wasn't successful. My other attempts weren't a success as well. Either some ingredients are impossible to find or the taste is different. Next time, I'll always try to buy ingredients from the Philippine store even if it costs way too much.

Pinoy Chow

One of the things I missed while I was out of the country is Pork Barbecue. It's one of those food that I'll never get tired of. I have tried several BBQ's like mongolian, chinese, and korean but I feel something is lacking with their taste. Korean barbecue comes close when it comes to taste and distinct sweetness like ours but I still prefer our own style. My mother makes the best pork and chicken BBQ and we really enjoy grilling and basting it while drinking ice cold beer especially just before Christmas eve.