Food Hauz

I’ve been buying French red wine and French white wine for my mother and my Aunties as a gift to them every time I come home. And now that it’s Christmas time, bought another bottles of wine for the family and my relatives too. Since I was buying the same brand of wine again and again, going to the wine shop the other day made me think that maybe I should try another brand this time. And yes, I risked buying different brands of wine. Though I never tasted it yet, but I am hoping that my guests and my family will love it.

Choosing wines is not an A-B-C task for me. Maybe, for some people who are wine lovers and wine experts, it will just be an easy task for them… They only need one sip, or probably, labels would tell them that it’s worth to buy. But, it’s totally different in my case. I don’t even know what to look for on their labels. Really made me think that I need an expert for me to acquaint what a good wine should have or taste. Probably a visit to a French Wine Shop would be a good start. But I am taking the first step already in getting to know about wines well. I’ve been reading some sites and I have found out that French wines are one of the best wines in the world!

Ok, so, here are other things that I learned: that aged wines are the best; the “older”, the better. Wines should smell intense and clean, otherwise that particular wine is not that old. Another discovery that amazed me is that there are lots of grapes varieties! I didn’t know that! Maybe, some of you are laughing, but, I swear, this is the very first time that I knew about that. Oh gosh, I feel like I still have millions of things that I need to know about wines.

Another thing that I learned is that, white wine is commonly served before red wine and there are also different temperatures needed in order to bring out the best of a particular wine. Oh gosh, just reading one site about wine, I am now feeling overloaded with information! But really, aside from my interest of learning about wines more, I also hope and wish to have a wine tasting experience in a certain vineyard in the US (was it in SFO?) soon.

Can you feel the holiday rush? The busy streets? The crowded malls? Well, I hope all of your plans this holiday seasons are all set. As for me, I am done with shopping, and wrapping gifts… the only thing that is lacking is what to cook on Christmas eve! I am sure, my mom’s special Pfaltzgraff stoneware and flatware are all ready for the holidays. Well, I am super excited since the whole family is complete this Christmas! What more can I ask for?

So, I am currently browsing now for recipes online and browse sites that talks about Dinner Recipes. I am planning to bake a cake, make a dessert and probably, cook one main course. Looking at these food sites make me hungry!! So, I think for this holiday season, I’ll be kissing dieting goodbye for awhile. Hahah!

I’ll give you updates once I have decided what to cook. Excited!

Me, me, me…I can hear myself fighting for my right to take a bite of this yummylicious Filipino-style sweetened cured meat. Pork tocino plus rice with egg is my favorite breakfast accompanied with a hot cup of coffee. Perfect, ain’t it?

We once hopped into an Oriental store and found a ready-to-cook tocino made in the Philippines. Despite my craving, its price tag hindered me to throw it in our basket. I search for recipes online and found them easy. However, remembering Country Bob’s all-purpose sauce, my experimental self decided to make her own tocino recipe.

I will be sharing the recipe here but please know that I am never accurate with measuring ingredients. I always trust on my instincts and fortunately, my recipes always came out good if not perfect. *WINK* *WINK*

My tocino ingredients include:

Garlic

Pepper

Apple cider vinegar

Soy sauce

Brown sugar

Country bob’s all-purpose sauce

Pork chops or loin

Procedure is not complicated at all. First is to cut meat into about ¼ inch thick. Mix all other ingredients then marinate meat. I keep the marinade refrigerated for at least 3 days before cooking.

When cooking, I heat skillet then place meat on it. I don’t add water since the meat will produce its own juice eventually. In the case where you want your tocino to have a little sauce, you can pour some more of the marinade sauce on it when cooking. I never timed how long it gets cook. I just make sure it’s on medium heat and watch close til it looks like it’s done.

Thanks to country bob’s all-purpose sauce and looking forward to try out the recipes they sent with the sauce…

Birthday Blessings

By Joanna Fuchs

Instead of counting candles,
Or tallying the years,
Contemplate your blessings now,
As your birthday nears. Consider special people
Who love you, and who care,
And others who’ve enriched your life
Just by being there. Think about the memories
Passing years can never mar,
Experiences great and small
That have made you who you are. Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
“Instead of counting birthdays,
I count blessings every day!”

i love fruits!, originally uploaded by Food Hauz.

My friend got mixed fruits as her dessert during our lunch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia… a very healthy choice!

This is the pasta I used, 250g of San Remo instant lasagna

Prepare the meat sauce first:
oil
garlic
onions
ground beef (500g)
tomato paste (5 tbsps)
tomato sauce (600g)
salt and pepper
nutmeg

Then the white sauce:
butter (2 tbsp)
flour (2 tbsp)
1 big can of evaporated milk
quickmelt cheese (125g)

Once the sauce is done, arrange it in the baking dish starting with the pasta, then the meat sauce and the white sauce. You can have up to 4 layers. Make sure each layer is fully covered with sauce to keep the moisture.

After the last layer, top it with grated quickmelt cheese.

Bake for 45 mins.

sikwate at puto maya, originally uploaded by Food Hauz.

The Buzz Cafe at ICM, Tagbilaran City

Had an omu-rice meal in Hong Kong. This is the yummiest meal I had during my stay there.

From Wikipedia:

Omurice, sometimes spelled “omu-rice” , is a contemporary Japanese dish consisting of an omelet made with fried rice. Its name is a wasei-eigo (Japanese portmanteau) of the French word omelette and the English word rice. It is a popular dish both commonly cooked at home and can be found at many western style diners and izakaya restaurants in Japan. It is also a popular dish in many restaurants in South Korea and Taiwan.[1]

The dish typically consists of chicken rice (rice pan-fried with ketchup and chicken) wrapped in a thin sheet of fried egg. The ingredients that flavor the rice vary. Often, the rice is fried with various meats (but typically chicken) and/or vegetables, and can be flavored with beef stock, ketchup, demi-glace white sauce or just salt and pepper. Sometimes, the rice is replaced with fried noodles, yakisoba, instead of fried rice, to make omusoba.

Here’s an easy recipe for a chocolate muffin which I have tried.

Easy Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (Hershey’s)
¾ cup refined sugar
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup milk
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)
A little chocolate chips, for topping

Method:
(1) Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt.
(2) Make a well in the centre. Pour the melted butter, milk and vinegar into the well.
(3) Stir until all ingredients are moist. Add 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and mix well.
(4) Spoon the batter into muffin cups.
(5) Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.
(6). Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for 20 minutes.

I love food. That’s the reason I put up this website since I want to experiment and taste different kinds of food. And especially during payday, me and my friends are always excited to look for a restaurant that we’ve never been to before.

So, I bumped with Cafe San Diego site as I do one my searches online. It’s like Google, but only this time it’s a search engine for restaurants. How cool is that? And how convenient would that be to restaurant lookers like me? You can actually search the site according to cuisine that you like, neighborhood, atmosphere or some special features that you are looking.. and voila, they will then give you a San Diego restaurant list according to your specification.

I know it’s only for San Diego restaurants, but, what I want to say is, this is really a very smart idea! I want to create a service like this one too. =)