Crazy for Cheeessssseeee

Swiss cheese (looks like a plain cheddar)

They smell, they are gooey and they have molds but we eat them! What is it with cheese that makes us go crazy. Do you know that there are hundreds type of cheese in the world? The types we commonly know are the ones we put in our pizza and pasta, breads and dish and most of all dessert. I was researching about milk and I came across the different kinds of milk that cheeses are made from. Seriously, there is a ewe milk? (according to the result in google, it's a person but if you scroll down more it's a female goat hahaha) and mare milk? (is that a horse milk?) LOL! Probably most people don't like exotic cheese (including me) because we are afraid of the actual taste and the effect of it on our stomach. ( I have a sensitive stomach when it comes to dairy products) So, cheese cheese cheese. When I'm at the office I sometimes munch down on some cheddar cheese alone and my office mates look at me in a funny way and say why I was eating it like that. I just said, "what?! I love cheese, better than munching on chocolates or something sweet. Healthy living dapat!" hahaha, then they turn away but with the same funny look on their face. Few of them are cheese lovers too so they sometimes tend to steal some of my cheese or buy some for themselves. You know, when we eat cheese, it's not just all about calcium that helps our bones and teeth.

• Cheese contains Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Sphingolipids which helps prevent cancer.
• Contains lots of vitamin B
• enhances blood formation
• strehgthens liver
• facilitates absorption of nutrients in the body

And since cheese is high in sodium, it's not that recommended for hypertensive persons. Also for those who are trying to gain weight, cheese helps a lot too. (source: http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/animal-product/health-benefits-of-cheese.html )  Cheese is good for you, but still bad if you eat too much especially if you have health condition.

One of my favorite food in the world is a pizza because of the cheeses. Especially the Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza oozing with cheese.I know, cheese cheese cheese. Regardless of the toppings or the flavor of the pizza, you can never, ever get wrong for cheese. There are a lots of time that I crave for cheese, then a pizza craving will follow after that. When I can't have someone treat me for pizza, I end up munching on some cheese. Oh men, I'm starting to talk about pizza now. This should be a different post. So enough pizza. Next on my favorite cheese dish is the Lasagna. Mouth watering lasagna, believe me if those two is in front of me, I'll eat them both. Warm cheese flowing on top, and when cooled turns to a gummy texture. Hmmmm.... LOL turning to a Lasagna talk. For dessert, uhm, there are lots of dessert that I love with cheese. But for now, maybe a cheesecake would be best. I'm craving so much for a pizza now. uhm. I'll shut up about the cheese talk right now before I end up buying one. So for all the cheese lovers out there, watch out for my pizza, lasagna and cheesecake article.

Best Dessert

Hi guys! Please don't forget to vote for the best dessert. Most voted dessert will be the featured sweets for the month of October! Thank you <3

Do the Coconut nut Juices

"The coconut nut is a giant nut, if you eat too much you'll get very fat. Now, the coconut nut is a big, big nut. But it's delicious nut is not a nut".Who could forget about that song whom our teachers made us sing and dance during our primary school years. I can still remember a few of the dance step that they thought us and it still make me smile thinking how funny we really looked back then. We wore these colorful skirts and blouse with flowers on it and a straw hat and a high knee socks. 

The Coconut Dance

I grabbed these picture from one of my friends. We went to the same school and wore the same costume, and dance the same dance.Oh my, it was fun for kids that age and even adults had fun watching us dance, but imagine if a 25 year old wears that kind of costume and dance that dance. It won't be fun, it will be HILARIOUS.

So, coconut juice. We have the "Buko juice" and "gata". Of course the only thing you can drink straight up is the Buko juice without going to any process. Cool facts about buko juice aside from what we know that it helps prevent Urinary Tract infection.

• Low in Carbs
• 99% Fat Free
• Low in Sugar

also it promotes

• weight loss
• good metabolism
• a healthy immune system that helps prevent viruses that cause flu, herpes and AIDS

(source:http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-320.html)

So I think it will be safe to say that "a buko juice a day, keeps the doctor a way".

Last week, it was my first time to cook "ginataang mais with langka". My mom is craving for one and she asked me to make one. I told her I have never cooked a ginatang mais before, and then she said it's easy, it's like cooking a "champorado" and instead of putting chocolate you put coconut milk (gata) and add some sweet corns and langka (jackfruit). So I said "okay then, but I'll cook it tomorrow becasue I don't have the ingredients". So the next day, I went to Mall of Asia to pay my bill with Globe and do some minor grocery shopping. When I went home, I started cooking the ginataang mais and the monggo for dinner. While I was peeling and slicing some langka, I asked my brother to juice the coconut shredding with 3 cups of hot water. He said, "while it's still hot?", I said yes. He got a spoon and started pressing it to the coconuts to mix it with the water. I was gonna let him do it, but the sticky rice is almost done. I took the shredding it tried to juice it myself. But, IT WAS HOT! I end up getting a strainer and putting it little by little so I juiced as much as I can with a spoon. >_< 

My ginataang Mais

Took me about 15 mins juicing it up twice. My mom arrived and told me she was hungry, I manage to finish the ginataang mais by then and I still have a monggo to prepare. I placed the pan on the table, and while I was chopping some onions and tomatoes, my mom peeked on the ginataan and said looks good and she wanted to try some. She took a spoonful and the next thing I know she was getting a cup full. After I finished cooking the monggo, the 3 of us, my brother, her and I had a dinner together. She still manage to eat about a cup more of rice after eating the ginataan. So did my brother, after eating tons of rice, he also managed to eat a cup full of ginataan. He says, "who are you?". Hahahaha, that is one of his way to say that my cooking is awesome. I was able to bring some in the office for my friend Kimi. But I was not able to enjoy it that much because my mom and my kuya almost ate everything up. And one of my new office mate keeps asking me where is her share. But I keep pointing to Kimi because she ate the last cup. :) (Hey Twilight Girl, I'll try to make some again and give you some too. Try..not do :) )




So I'll probably continue the juices next time. :)

My first choice. Adobo

My mom's Adobo

For my first choice of food for my food blog would be Adobo. Adobo is originally a method of cooking in Spain wherein in a raw food is marinated for preservation. When the Spanish invaded us in the late 16th century, they encountered a cooking process that involved stewing with vinegar. The Spanish referred to this method as adobo due to its superficial similarity to the Spanish adobo. Nevertheless, the Filipino adobo is an entirely separate method of preparing food and is distinct from the Spanish marinade. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobo ).  Because of the popularity, Adobo became one of our national dish. 

About a year ago, I was watching Bobby Chinn's show in TLC "World Cafe Asia", if you are a fan of that show, you know that every time he visits a country he tries to cook a national dish or the most famous dish in that place. In our case when he came here, he cooked Chicken Adobo in one of our famous culinary school. I actually forgot which school it was, but I remember seeing Judy Anne Santos and Janice de Belen in the backround. So they thought him how to cook  Chicken Adobo using lemon grass, spices and vinegar only. I find it kind of interesting because I have never seen Adobo with lemon grass and no soy sauce. He said that it was good, but I'm not really sure about that  .

I have an office mate before whom lives in Batangas City, he asked me how do I cook Adobo. I said that I cooked the pork with water, soy sauce, vinegar, laurel leaves, ground pepper and lots of garlic. He wondered why it was different from them. I asked him, "what is your version of adobo?". He told me he was not sure how it was cooked but it is white. So I said, "uhm, I wonder how it is cooked?". Then a few months after that, a restaurant near our house opened serving batangas home made food. I was excited because I was tired eating from Andok's , Jollibee , Chowking and very pathetic branch of Goldilocks near our house, so I immediately visited the store to see the menu. I remembered my office mate when I saw to their menu "Batangas Adobo" and it was white.  But instead of ordering that, I ended up ordering the Batangas Bulalo. So while I was waiting for my order, I heared a customer asking what is the difference with the Batangas Adobo. The owner said it's cooked with ginger instead of putting soy sauce. I said to myself, "uhm. That will be a bit difficult to cook." So with my second visit to the store, I finally ordered the Batangas Adobo. It's not what I expected to taste but it's definitely close to the Adobo I've known but without the soy sauce.I think that each region in our country have different kind of version of Adobo. Every now and then, Filipino's became more creative in changing cooking style, adding up new things to old tradition. Like in some, they add pineapple bits , potatoes , boiled eggs (chicken or quail) or in others cases replace ingredients with other stuff. But whatever version it may be if it's Adobo, it will definitely make you feel at home.

One of my favorite Adobo,  is

My mom's Adobong Pusit

Adobong Pusit. For the past month, my mom and I have been going to Farmer's Market in Cubao where fresh seafoods, meat and vegetables are always available. She's been cooking it for 3 weeks straight and I never get tired of eating it. Well it's not the fact that one of my favorite seafood is squid, it's just that Adobong Pusit is one of the best way to enjoy it. Especially when the squid is fat and pregnant. Hmmm... I can hear angels singing.  . For vegans to enjoy Adobo, they have Adobong Kangkong. It's the same process of 

cooking a regular Adobo, but you have to replace meat with Kangkong. Among the various variety of Adobo. Adobong Kangkong is one of the healthiest  and the friendliest  on budget. Kangkong is one of the most known vegetable available in the market. With a pricing of 10PHP per bundle, almost anyone can enjoy Adobo.