The Wily Filipino

The Friday Five.

Last week's Friday Five was a little icky -- it was about doing something nice for someone else, blah blah blah -- so I didn't bother answering it. This week is a grab-bag of food-related questions. (And answering them makes me feel like I'm part of a high school slumbook network, even though I'm probably the oldest person who's bothering to do this. You know, a network kind of like those pretty young things (before you accuse me: male and female) at Rice Bowl Journals -- I mean, look at them! Isn't all that pulchritude just, I don't know, absurd and totally unreal?)

Anyway, on with the show:

1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
The cool thing about our refrigerator, aside from the pull-out freezer located at the bottom, is that it comes with a built-in Brita water filter with a spout.

2. What are your favorite flavor of chips?
Lay's KC Masterpiece barbecue chips used to be up there, as was Tostitos lime chips.

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?
My friend Andrew once chortled when Madeline announced that I cooked adobo really well. "Every single Filipino male knows how to cook that!" Andrew scoffed. Yeah, Andrew, but you can't do it like me. Ah, but adobo -- Mark Bittman writes that his friends claimed was the best chicken dish in the world -- is truly a wonderful dish, bringing up memories of home and horrifying your non-Filipino neighbors with the smell.

I usually just eyeball the measurements, but brown some chicken parts in a pot with a little oil, then add 1/3 cup of vinegar and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, and bring to a boil. Throw in a bay leaf, two tablespoons of crushed garlic, two teaspoons of peppercorns, and lightly simmer for as long as you want. (My mom likes browning the chicken after simmering, but I find that it gets too dry.) Tastes great heated up the next day, too.

Another way of doing it is with coconut milk, in which case you use 1/4 cup of soy sauce and half a cup of vinegar, then add a head of minced garlic. After the simmering process, dump in a cup of coconut milk, stir, and you're set. Skim the oil so as not to kill your non-Filipino guests.

There are a couple of other dishes that I like cooking and eating: peppered steak in oyster sauce reduction, and broiled lambchops with anchovies, but I really do like my adobo.

4. How do you have your eggs?
Scrambled.

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?
Madeline's making a big pot of curry chicken right now, and I know it's going to be fantastic.

Posted by the wily filipino at May 16, 2003 05:10 PM