American wrestler and model Travis Kraft teaches us how. In Filipino. And with such (insert adjective here) accent.

Props to the guy for trying his best to learn and speak the language. I cook adobo quite differently though. (Mine’s the lazy version.)

How to cook adobo, Nina-style:

1. Marinate meat of your choice inside the pan of your choice with equal parts of soy sauce and white vinegar, cracked black pepper, sugar, a couple of bay leaf and lots of crushed garlic for at least 30 minutes. Put in just enough soy sauce and vinegar to barely cover the meat.
2. Put on medium heat/fire until the liquid is boiling. Lower the heat and let it simmer.
3. Gradually add in water to prevent your adobo from drying too much. Continue to cook in low fire until the meat is tender.
4. Adjust the taste by adding more water or sugar if it’s too salty, or adding more soy sauce if it’s too bland. Add more vinegar for stronger flavor.
5. Turn of heat and serve.
6. As Travis says, “hayan, handa na ang adobong manowk!”

Popularity: 16% [?]

Here’s a short tip when cooking or baking in another country: know your temperatures! If your recipe calls for 375 degrees and your oven only goes up to 250 degrees, there’s a fairly high chance that your oven gauge is in Celsius, while your recipe says Fahrenheit.
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Popularity: 18% [?]

Youth Trip, in partnership with Alquimista, Inc. and The Sleepy Traveler, brings us Viajeng Cucinang Matua, a culinary tour of Pampanga.

This tour aims to showcase the culture of the Kapampangans through their cuisine, and to prove the saying “Basta Kapampangan, masarap magluto!”
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Popularity: 19% [?]

I was lucky enough to get an invite from Ajay to this French Cooking Class at the Manila Diamond Hotel. Despite the very short notice, I was really excited about getting out of the house, possibly meeting new people and attending a cooking class. (At this point, ANY class would have excited me; I miss school.)

I had a feeling that I would meet the other local bloggers, and I was right. First, there was Christine, whom I met over at BootsnAll, Rache, wife of Anton of Our Awesome Planet whom I met during the Pampanga Culinary Tour, and of course, Ajay, whom I met during the same tour. I was also able to meet Noemi of Aboutmyrecovery.com, but she didn’t stay; she just went there to drop off her daugther, Marielli, who unfortunately, I wasn’t able to talk to >_< Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 17% [?]

Unlike others who go for authentic taste and so far as buying gourmet ingredients for international cuisine, I take a more practical (read: cheap) approach when cooking: I look for the suitable local substitute.

Thai Kitchen is a brand of commonly used ingredients for Thai cookin. It goes without saying that in their cooking class and cookbooks, they promote their own brand. For example, in their Pad Thai recipe, it called for the Thai Kitchen Fish Sauce and the Thai Kitchen Tamarind Paste. The Thai fish sauce is easy; it’s already available in most supermarket. The tamarind paste however, left me slightly baffled.

Then I remember the pack of Thai rice noodles my brother and I were able to buy in Singapore. It comes with a pad thai seasoning mix. Then the answer hit me: it’s the most used seasoning in the house: Knorr’s pang-asim.
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Popularity: 15% [?]