Archive for the ‘Cuisine’ Category

There is no doubt that Filipino meals are one of the world’s best dishes which not only Filipinos themselves appreciate much likewise also by non-Filipinos who have tasted Filipino dishes. Thus, there is indeed no doubt that a simple Filipino Sinigang dish has make it on the list of Asia’s Best Menus on recently concluded 4th Miele Guide Gala Night held at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

Miele Guide Gala Night is an event organized by the Miele Guide in Asia that will showcased restaurants in Asia that has best menus and that of course will be feature on the Miele Guide Book which the Miele Guide is. Yes, Miele Guide is as Wikipedia said, it is a regional guide book to all restaurants in Asia which can be useful for tourists who are seeking fine dining or good restaurants in Asia to dine. It showcased Top 20 restaurants in Asia aside from list of categorized restaurants in Asia in their annual book. The top 20 is judge base on online voting on their website and of course sample taste of the menus in a particular restaurant. And from this, the Filipinos’ Sinigang dish was included on this year’s Asia’s Best Menus on the Miele Guide Book. Actually, it is the “Beef Sinigang” cook by Filipino chef Antonio “Tonyboy” Escalante got the taste approval of the juries from his fine dining restaurant that bears his first name that is “Antonio’s Fine Dining”

His restaurant have already listed on the 2008 Top 20 restaurant in Asia on Miele Guide Book as one of the best restaurant in Asia landing at # 10 spot, thus making him one of the trusted and credible chef in the Philippines.

The beef siningang was described on the menu guide as “beef served in a sour tamarind and taro broth puree” or in Tagalog calling “Sinigang na Baka sa Sampalok at Gabi/gandos”.It is very common simple recipe or Filipino dish that every Filipino could cook won the taste of an international jury?; that is a big thing, but of course not only this delicious Filipino soup dish impress the judges but also the brilliance of Chef Antonio Escalante brings it on.

However, it is not only chef Escalante the only Filipino chef present in the latest Miele Guide Gala Night but also other Filipino chefs with their respective restaurants, namely, Restaurant Verbena in Tagaytay, Goose Station at The Fort, Steakhouse 22 Prime in Ortigas city, Circulo in Makati city,Alchemy and Indigo in Boracay, Abaca and The Gustavian in Cebu, Hill Station in Baguio city, Tatoy’s in Iloilo city, Alive! At the Farm in Batamgas city, and KaLui in Puerto Princesa.

The Philippine Mango is one of the fruits most Filipinos loves to eat whether the fruit is ripe or not and one of the Philippine fruits that has high nutritional value which every Filipinos could enjoy and be proud of on the world. Actually the Philippine Mangoes or the Pinoy mango is the most love mango in the world because Pinoy Mango is said to be the best mangoes in the world and most exported fruit of the Philippines with a revenue amounting to 16 Billion pesos annually from an estimated 160,000 hectares of mango farm across the Philippines with Malungon of Sarangani Philippines as the leading municipality in the Philippines that produces largest production of mangoes with last year(2010) its mango plantation expanded into additional 2,00 hectares of mango plantation from 3,296 hectares with now 5,000 hectares of mango plantation.

But though the Philippines is said to contributes 3.5 % of world’s mango production, lately, the Mango Industry becomes lethargic or become indisposed due to inconsistent weather patterns and conditions which affect Mango farmers especially those in Mindanao or those in Sarangani Mindanao. The changing of weather condition has forced mango farmers to deliberately induce the Mango trees to bear fruits the hard way instead of the mangoes bear naturally. For typically, mango trees bear fruits during dry seasons and not during cold and stormy seasons; but because of inconsistent weather condition recently happening in the Philippines wherein almost weekly there is a typhoon, the production of mango have reduce into now 670,000 metric tons per year compare to usual 1M metric tons per year since the changing of Philippines weather patterns starting the year 2008.
The reduction of mango production annually is really big and alarming for this reduces also the income of Pinoy Mango farmers who rely on this kind of business; however, there is other means to get livelihood if mango industry in the Philippines declines.

The ultimate solution to this problem is if only Mother Nature will reduce hampering the Philippines with weekly typhoons; but what can we do about climate change though some blame it to those who do not love Mother Nature. No matter what environmental undertakings we do to avert the consequences of the growing climate change in the world, the earth will not wait us for it to spin its axis whenever the earth wishes to spin it on this way and that.

It is resist or accepts.

Hazardous To Health If Recycled

Who among you loves to buy cheap recycled cooking oil on wet market? And who among you loves to store used cooking oil on cups and small containers or bottles on their kitchen for another future round of usage? Beware!

Recent studies revealed that recycled cooking oil or cooking oil that has been used and reuse for cooking again is known to release harmful toxins that could cause health diseases on the body though it is heated. Yes, it is on heating, the harmful toxins were released. So, therefore forget buying cheap recycled cooking oil on wet market and recycling your used cooking oil for a long time if you want to avoid the harmful effects brought by it.

Actually, buy and sell and usage of recycled cooking oil was already ban at San Juan Philippines only this year by the creation of city ordinance No.15 that prohibits the recycling of used cooking oil and the selling of it in public markets. The city ordinance also prohibits the disposal of used cooking oil on waterways, sewerages, and drainage system within the city but rather advise the homeowners of the city to dispose their used cooking oil on a separate container which the city’s authorized collectors will collect on a regular basis to be processed instead as a bio-diesel that could generate city revenues.

Anyone in the city of San Juan caught in the act of violating this city ordinance will be penalized with Php.5, 000 and revocation of business permits for business establishments within the city that violates the bill.

Recycled cooking oil being sold at every wet market in the Philippines or even by an individual vendor draw their source of cooking oil which they recycled from food establishments that uses cooking oil, like Jollibee, McDonald, KFC, etc. from the used cooking oil which these mentioned food establishments have used in their cooking which is already considered waste product.

So these unscrupulous traders of recycled used cooking oil buy the used cooking oil from these food establishments which these food establishments already throw into their garbage bin as a waste product to solve the problem of these food establishments of how they could dispose their used cooking oil without clogging the sewerage systems near their establishment.

The unscrupulous traders of recycled used cooking oil then allegedly filter and bleach the waste used cooking oil and repack it into smaller plastic bags and sell it on a lower cheaper price on the wet markets which often than not, financially poor people are the prime victims of these cheap recycled cooking oil; as well as those customers who are looking for cheap products or how could they make a thrifty shopping.

This kind of trade is already going on before the city ordinance at San Juan Philippines is imposed in the entire Philippines ever since but none is bold enough to tell that recycled cooking oil though they are cheap in budget but could wreck a major havoc on one’s health and could bring forth hole on one’s pocket.

From June 1 to June 5

1. Taal Lake’s so-called “FishKill”. The mysterious (actually it is not mysterious but there is valid reason or cause for it) so-called “fishkill” in Taal Lake Batangas, which slowly becoming a pandemic within the province of Batangas affecting and spreading already within towns and cities over the weekend since its existence on the Taal lake, have already mark a bad impact on the fish industry in the Philippines and people already afraid to eat the most affected type of fish – the milkfish or bangus in Tagalog word – which is the most eaten fish by Filipinos. Moreover, not only the milkfish is greatly affected by this so-called “fishkill” but also the other favorite type of fish most Filipinos love to eat – theTilapia.

The main reason for the so-called “fishKill” phenomenon is somewhat deviated by the fish cage operators from their own responsibility into something “mysterious” though it is clear that it is their own responsibility why such so-called “fishKill” happened.

For the main suspected reason is “overfeeding” the fishes caged on the lake with wrong food or feeds type because this type of feeds some sink on the bottom of the lake and become a waste product which in turn contributes to the lost of oxygen percentage within the lake which suffocate the fishes, thus causing so-called “FishKill”. There are said to be two types of fish food or feeds: (1) the floating kind and (2) the sinking one type of feeds.

In case of “fishKill”, the fish cage operators uses the sinking kind of feeds because it is more cheaper than the floating one type. The sinking one is a sticky pellet that is made of “chicken manure” that breaks into fine powder when it combines with water. This type of feed since its main ingredients is “chicken manure” is of course rich in nitrogen component that triggers the birth of weeds in the lake that adds burden on the oxygen percentage on the lake.

The only solution on this “fishKill” phenomenon is for the fish cage operators to realized their own mistakes and “greed”[??] (To harvest more fish to sell without much care for the ultimate welfare of the fish by inducing too much feeding of the fishes) and start rehabilitating the lake or their fish cage.

2. Opening of Classes. Last June 6,public schools and even private schools in the Philippines have started the annual class school openings headed by primary and secondary classes which then followed by tertiary levels or college classes.

As the usual annual class openings, usual annual school problems and complains is frequently utter on the media; such as poor class rooms, tuition fee problems, etc.

Do You Know What You’re Eating?

Yes, it is “kare-kare”, ”adobo”, ”steak”, ”cola”, etc. but do you know why you eat these foods and what are these foods? Yes you know I know but do you really know?

What I am trying to say for example is do you really know that the pineapple juice you order, bought and drank either on a food chain, restaurant o supermarket is a real pineapple juice? You can never say, is not it unless you are the one who prepare it.

What if the label says that the products you have bought is a pineapple juice and is you really convince that it is indeed a real pineapple juice only because its color is yellow and taste as if the real juice of pineapple fruit? I know this is so absurd but what can we do if some food manufacturers could “fake” the real foods that we eat and drink using high-tech technology in order they could profit more from us financially? In lieu with this, thus there is a government department that ensures the safety and the health advantage we could get from the food we order or buy from our trusted food stores and food dining stores. However, the nutritional information feed to us consumers on product labels is very insufficient guide on our healthy eating regimens and sometimes could mislead us and end up us into malnutrition. For there are still people around the world who got sick and diseased from the foods they ate, like the cereal products which are recently reported to have cause diabetes whereas on the labels of these cereal products it speaks its nutritional value like cereals have fiber ,B vitamins, etc. which are beneficial to our well-being-ness. Moreover, not only processed manufactured foods but also on the foods served on restaurants and food chains. How the dining consumers can knew that the food they ordered for dining are really clean, safe and nutritious? We could never tell unless we ask “What’s in my food?”

Yes, according to the recent survey reports conducted by Unilever Food Solutions on seven countries that most people around the world were demanding from food manufacturers and restaurants to provide them more real information on “what’s in their food” they bought, eat and drink or ordered when dining in.

The target of the survey was especially on food dining establishments like restaurants and food chains wherein dining consumers were demanding that chefs and food servers should provide them information on the food they ordered; of where they get the ingredients, of what nutritional value they could get on this meal they order, etc.

The Unilever Food Solutions Philippines aside from the seven countries where the survey is conducted, will provide this consumer demands on all restaurants in the Philippines; that the chefs and food servers will provide information on every meal a consumer will order in order the consumers could watch their health while dining out.

This is really great idea that whenever you order a meal on a restaurant or food chain, a chef or a food server should explain to you what nutritional value you could get from the meal you have ordered and will dine-in in their restaurant or food chain. I hope this plan of Unilever Food Solutions Philippines will materialized sooner on all Philippine restaurants and food chains and all restaurant and food chain owners will agree to this idea of Unilever Food Solutions so that Filipinos also could have health-conscious meal time even when they dine out from their respective homes or houses and could promote health consciousness among Pinoys.

Leaf and Wrap
No food holder? Go banana. It has been a usual custom for most Filipinos that if they do not have any plates, bowls, spoon or pork for eating, they go banana. No, they do not go nuts but they go on their backyards to find help from a banana plant. Most Filipinos, I bet, already know what I am talking about, that is, Filipinos will cut then banana leaves and will use it as their plates or food holder and eat with their bare hands. This style of eating of most Filipinos has been adopted by a food restaurant in the Philippines, the Binalot Fiesta Foods.

Binalot Fiesta Foods is the first and so far the only Filipino restaurant that uses banana leaves as an alternative food holder for the food one will order for dine-in in their restaurant, as well as banana wrapper for the food one will order for take -out. And this “green” style of them of serving foods to their eating customers is not left unnoticed by the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) which rewards annually business organization that enforces and practice environment friendly programs and corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in their business undertakings. For Binalot Fiesta Foods received the Intel-Aim Corporate Social Responsibility Award for 2010.
Amidst the high-technology and improvement in the business sector, Binalot Fiesta Foods resort back to basics despite of criticism they will get from some people that will see and treat their way of food serving as a primitive way of handling food plus the risk of bad micro-organism that will be induce on foods they serve by doing such handling. But Binalot Fiesta Foods never mind such detractions and concentrate of their “leaf of faith” on banana leaves instead.

Actually, it is a “green” marketing strategy in order to compete well with world known successful fast foods and restaurants like Jollibee and McDonald to get a share of the Philippine market in line of food business, which indeed goes well and have received an international recognition for their undertaking.
It is a bright “green” marketing idea that not only they could profit from it but also in the same time help the environment by reducing the percentage of usage of polystyrene packaging on fast food chains that could bring negative impacts on environment when burn or trash anywhere; plus they could give a livelihood for poor communities by hiring them for manual processing of banana leaves to be use as a natural food holder and wrapper for their food chains through their CSR program DAHON (Dangal at Hanapbuhay Para sa Nayon).
Truly, the leaf has given them a lift on their business and a reap of fruits for their “leaf of faith” on the banana leaf. Nature has paid them back by backing up nature’s healthy ways.

Eating on a banana leaf was said to be inherited by Filipinos from their ancient ancestors long before the Spaniards conquered the Philippines. It was said to be a Hindu or Indian origin way of serving food which has some connection to said to be ancient belief system of Filipinos – Maharlikan-Lemurian kind of belief system- which of course have correlation with modern Hinduism and connection to Indian people. Actually, the Spaniards call the Filipinos then “indio” mean “Indian”. The term “Pilipino” or “filipino” was just the term and labeling of the Spaniards to the true Filipinos to designate that these Indian people are now King Philip’s people, thus the Spaniards rename them and baptized the true Filipinos from Indian into now “Filipinos”; so also the Filipinos homeland, the Spaniards labeled or rename it along with King Philip’s name – Philippines

So therefore, eating on banana leaf is indeed a true tradition of ancient Filipinos whose cousins or maybe blood-brothers are Indian people. For the Indian people today have also such kind or style of serving foods, that is serving it on banana leaves and eating with bare hands.

And this ancient old Filipino tradition was used commercially by Binalot Fiesta Foods.

Dine and Help

Cook for a cause? Almost every one of us has a reason why we cook and the most common reason is to eat hot food or simply to eat; we cook to eat. But in restaurants and food chains, of course they don’t eat what they cook, rather we customers eat what they cook, is not it?

However, we do not eat what they cook for free, is not it? Rather we buy what they cook. So also in our respective homes, we buy what we eat yet we eat for free what we cook in our own kitchen though we buy the food uncooked.

In food establishments like restaurants and food chains, they have a main constant reason why they cook, that is of course, they cook to have money. They cook delicious food for you and from them to get money from your pocket in exchange for the food they cook which you eat. For this is a trade in food business.

InterContinental Hotel Manila have took food business into charity works by gathering all eight best chefs in the Philippine food industry to cook for a charity cause for Children’s Hour and WFF Philippines.

The eight best chefs are chefs Jessie Sincioco, Marc Aubry, Roland Sager, Roland Lutz, Patrick Fournes, Billy King, Cyrille Soenen, and Christian Pirodon. Each luxurious meal cost 15,000 pesos wherein the guests for the one night dinner are wealthy people of course.

Philippines: Hotspot of Biodiversity?

Of so many multitude of sprouting diseases deadly and benign in the world today that agitates much humanity, there are also a lot of proven natural medicines around us which we sometimes doesn’t know or sometimes some of us deliberately ignore because of the major notion that pharmaceutical drugs are the best and quick medicine than natural ones or than boiling some leaves and roots of this and that or chewing this or that. Those who buy and embrace the pharmaceutical dogma regarding their effectiveness than the natural ones are often caught in a trap of never ending cure and financial drainage and multiple side effects of the pharmaceutical drugs, which leads them into an untimely death.

However, those who buy and embrace the use of natural medicine or the use of herbal plants are often blessed with instant cure in their diseases without financial drainage and prolong their lifespan.

Speaking of natural herbal medicine, the Philippines is considered by natural herbal medicine researchers and doctors around the world as a “Hotspot of Biodiversity” wherein the Philippines is filled with species of plant that are more potent or have more disease-fighting potential plants compare to the top countries: Brazil and Indonesia, though the Philippines is only the third in rank, that are rich in species of plants and herbs that effectively fight diseases.

According to Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan (the leading herbal doctor in the Philippines and advocates of the use of natural medicine) the Philippines is compose of 1,500 variety of different kinds of medicinal herbs and most of them have already been proven effective in curing a disease, even cancer and heart disease. However, one must follow strictly specific guidelines how to use a specific medicinal plant set by the professional Philippine herbalist like Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan; For as we know it, ignorance on the usage of something could lead to some disaster or improper intake that only waste away the efficacy of a certain medicinal plant.

Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan is the man behind the famous 5 herbs drink supplement First Vita Plus, wherein these five herbs compose of Malunggay (scientifically called Moringa Oleifera),Dahon ng Sili (scientifically called Capsicum frutescens),Talbos ng Kamote (scientifically called Ipomoea batatas),Saluyot  (Scientifically called Corchorus Olitorius),and Uray (Scientifically called Amaranthus spinosus).The five herb drink has been proven effective in curing even deadly diseases like cancer. His First Vita Plus company is just one of the wellness company in the Philippines that specializes on the usage of natural or herbal plants as an alternative medicine and nutritional supplements, which are indeed effective.

Another Philippine Herbal Wonder

Aside from taua-taua, which formerly thought of as a mere grass or weed by some Filipinos wherein they ignore them or pull them away from their background; another misrepresented herbal plant which was also formerly perceived as a mere useless grass have been discovered last last year by Philippine herbal doctors but not yet so much popularized nowadays. For the sake of those Filipinos who are still ignorant of this tiny herbal plant or those who have heard its medicinal value but shrug it or have some doubts regarding it, I have made this short article regarding this very nutritious herbal plant.

What I am talking about is that tiny plant with a heart-shaped succulent leaves which just sprouted randomly on damp walls, plant pots of your favorite ornamental flowering plants, on your garden nook areas, on your backyards and even on the top of your unclean roof of your house – the Ulasimang Bato/ Pansit-pansitan/ sinaw-sinaw/ tangon-tangon/ olasiman ihalas/ lin-linnaaw. Yes, this tiny Philippine herbal plant has a variety of names in the Philippine but scientifically it is called Peperomia Pelluicida Linn.

A 100 gram of Ulisimang Bato could contain 1.1 grams of carbohydrates, 0.5 gram of protein,0.5 gram of fat,94 mg of calcium,13 mg of phosphorus,4.3 mg of iron,1250 ug of beta-carotene and 2 mg of ascorbic acid or vitamin c; which we need in our daily diet, wherein it could be eaten raw as part of a salad meal.

However, in terms of medicinal value, Ulasimang bato could help one in their arthritis, headache and convulsion, abdominal pains, kidney problems, skin problems and gout. It could also decrease one’s Uric acid and tophi formation if one has high Uric acid levels.

Ulasimang bato is also antipyretic (that is why it relieves headache), antifungal (which kills particularly the Trichoployton mentagrophytes fungal parasite) and antibacterial (which kills bacterias like Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria)

However, despite of its very nutritious and healing effects, Ulasimang bato should not be use when one is a lactating women or a breastfeeding mother and a pregnant women and to those who have asthma-like symptoms triggers by hypersensitivity reactions to a plant species.

There you go, I hope I could help, especially the financially poor Filipinos in seeking nutritious food they could serve on their families without spending much and could have an effective alternative medicine for their respective illnesses even though they do not have money.

Is Philippines’s Most Expensive Fish Losing Market?

Ludong fish or scientifically called Cestraeus Plicatilis is a kind of fish species in the Philippines which is also locally called Banak which are largely seen in great number in the Cagayan River and river systems of Ilocos Sur and Abra Philippines, are recently reported in great danger of extinction. The decline of Ludong’s population on aforementioned rivers in the Philippines was cause by irregularities and not systematized fishing activities of local fishermen who fish and catch ludong anytime they want and whatever the size of the Ludong they will able to catch, that is if it is youngster or adult ones. Thus, ludong are being driven away and their habitat on the river systems which I mentioned earlier is of course destroyed by the threats of irregular fishing activities; plus a climate change can be added to the cause of slowly extinction of ludong. For ludong is an herbivorous kind of fish that feeds on algae and other similar living green thing in the river.

Thus, Philippines’ Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources or BFAR have been compelled to issue an issuance (Fisheries Administrative Order [FAO] No. 31) that bans or prohibits the sale, purchase, capture, preparation and serving of ludong or banak for either public or private consumption at their peak seasons or the seasons where Ludong are in great number, to prevent their total extinction. For according to BFAR, every year the population of ludong drops and it is estimated to be dropping around 1.3 million metric tons of them in total declining years. Moreover, not only ludong’s population declines successively every year, but also ludong’s sizes reduce into smaller fraction of fishes, according to BFAR.

The cause of decline of ludong fish can majorly be influence by its very expensive cost in the wet market; for every kilo of ludong fish cost between Php.4, 000 to Php.5, 000 which is really staggering. Thus, because of its very expensive cost, it was dubbed as the “President’s Fish” or a fish which only a financially rich person could afford and enjoy to eat.

Perhaps, ludong’s very expensive cost in the wet market plays a major role for its annual extinction and reduction of sized which cause local fishermen to exploit ludong’s population. For imagine, if a fisherman have caught a 1 kilo of ludong, he has for sure an instant Php. 4,000 or Php. 5,000 once he sold it on fish market; what more, if he caught a 5 kilos of ludong? What a nice source of income, is not it?