Friday, April 16, 2010

B is for BAON!

Baon - Tagalog word for which there is no direct English translation. The most common term used is "packed lunch" but then again, it could be breakfast, dinner, snacks or even just a bottle of water and a few pieces of candy. Baon can be anything and everything an average Filipino brings when venturing outside their homes (and away from their primary food sources).

Without further ado, let me present our baon for the week. Again, busy as hell so we weren't able to bring baon a lot... just a couple of days' worth:

This is asado siopao (store-bought by Jeni's dad). Asado is a sweet pork dish while siopao is literally translated as hot bread. This is just half (it was massive!) of the behemoth so that made breakfast happy for Jeni and myself. Jeni fried up some home-made chicken nuggets (which I marinated with - surprise! - sinigang sa sampalok mix) which we both dipped in some Bulldog tonkatsu sauce (in red-capped squeeze bottle). In my box (I forgot to take a picture of Jeni's), I squished in some Japanese rice crackers (one is toasted sesame and the other is some sort of sweet-salty flavor I couldn't identify) and a package of instant miso soup from the said J-grocery raid. Both flavors of the rice crackers and the soup are from Choto Stop in Little Tokyo along Pasong Tamo (now Chino Roces) - across from Herald Suites.

Two days later, I had slept enough the night before that getting up early was no problem. Jeni put in some rice to cook (we used Japanese short-grain rice) in the cooker and fried the tonkatsuwhile I punched some pretty flowers from luncheon meat. Cookie cutters are the cutest things! Using my egg molds, we made a couple of stars and a couple of hearts stuffed with the fried remnants of the luncheon meat. I then sprinkled them all over with the fried "flower" luncheon meat. This was breakfast, albeit non-bento in its empty spaces and skewed proportions - not to mention to glaring absence of any vegetables! Jeni is not very fond of nori so her stars and hearts were naked. Harhar...

I, on the other hand, am a nori monster. A rice ball and a smattering of shredded seaweed goodness is lunch for me! Not today though... I had these cute stuffed rice balls to wrap nori around... I also topped mine with the flowery luncheon meat. Using a raw cabbage leaf to cordon them off, I put in a packet of the instant miso soup! Good, good good! Yes, they were good for breakfast, though I managed only two of them. Beth has taken one of the hearts and my tummy was on strike yesterday... too bad! They were really nice too! Next time, though, I would take the time to pick up either Spam (which I love) or Ma-Ling (which Jeni prefers) for this. And I will do a more proper bento too!

But wait, we're not done yet! Remember than Jeni was frying up some tonkatsu earlier that morning? Here it is, for lunch. Jeni and I had an identical container, though mine contained more of the cabbage sauteed in Bulldog tonkatsu sauce (weird but nice) while Jeni's had more rice. It was rewarding to see the tonkatsu as I made it from scratch over the weekend (pork + salt/pepper + flour + beaten egg + panko) then thrown in the freezer. It was a shame that I only finished less than half of my food. My stomach wasn't being cooperative and my digestion left much to be desired. Anyway, Nikka got to finish my leftovers in the evening.

Next week, we'll be making California maki, as we scored some ebiko from Choto Stop. We also hope to score some sashimi-grade fish in the market over the weekend. I can't wait!

Today, I'm on sick leave >_< since the tummy has grown from uncooperative to outright hostile! So no baon for today. Next week, hopefully, will be another story altogether!

Happy eating!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Long Road to Bento-dom

I love food. I love baon. Food is L-O-V-E... so it makes a LOT of sense for me to pack food as baon for the people I love.

The past weeks, however, afforded me little to no time for myself... much less making baon. So my bentos weren't very pretty nor interesting.

But before all that... why bento (bring baon)? I have two reasons: 1) I want to be able to eat what I want and when I want it. 2) Seriously, almost three years of eating more or less the same permutation of food (will tell you about this in the next paragraph) in the office cafeteria is pretty boring.

Spoken like a true foodie... item#1, that is. The second one was spoken (written?) like a true female dawg...

Now I am one to eat almost anything (kamote is still out of the question so don't you freaking dare!) but no food is better than boring food. In the cafeteria, when you see Monday's ulam, you more or less know what's coming in the next four days. A good example:

Monday: Fried tilapia
Tuesday: Pinaputok na pla-pla
Wednesday: Fish steak (think fried tilapia in bistek sauce with onion rings)
Thursday: Fish cakes
Friday: Fish balls in SSS (sweet and sour sauce)

In one word: eeeeeewwwww! (At least they're Earth-friendly: recycle!) See my motivation?

I have a third (and not-so-secret) motivation: I LOVE food... I love going to the market, I love prep-work, I love cooking and I love eating! So there!

Without further ado, here are my baons for the week (only two... I didn't have much time this week):

This is pancit Malabon from Amber... with a stick of pork barbeque and two pieces of pichi-pichi with shredded coconut (I prefer the variant with cheese instead of the coconut) - the carb-protein-veggie proportions are skewed to say the least but this was g-o-o-d and made for good dinner. So good that RB repeatedly had to ask me "Kakainin mo ba yan? Kainin na natin!" to which I replied "Bakit mo pinakikialaman ang pagkain ko?"

The next day, I had the time to get up early to make baon for Jeni and myself. While Jeni preferred to bring sliced green mangoes and bagoong with diced ripe mangoes (the season for mangoes is upon us! EAT!!!), I packed more food for a satisfying lunch:

This is the same box I used the day before. Capacity is at around 400ml (I'll check again and get back to you on that) and is not as large as the utensils make it look. It is MUCH smaller than the 2010 Starbucks planner, which means the utensils are uber-tiny (in fact, they're for dessert. I got them at a flea market in Seoul for 3,000 KRW; around $3 per set). In it are sliced steamed okra (lady fingers), sliced local tomatoes ('tis the season for kamatis too!) and sliced salted duck eggs (itlog na maalat). Eaten with freshly steamed white rice and spicy-sweet bagoong (from a bottle - Golden Hands!), this was B-L-I-S-S!

Today, Jen made bagoong and we made two J-grocery raids (Choto Stop in Little Tokyo and Hatchin Grocery on Metropolitan Avenue) so expect those to figure in this week's baon. 

For now, ciao and stay tuned for more food... Welcome to my life of perpetual dieting! Mwahahahahaha...

Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Big Mouth Returns...

So, my blog is back and so are my (bad) fooding habits. Join me on this eternal (ok, lifetime) foodtrip called MY LIFE.

Sit back, relax and enjoy!