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Food for the Gods
Every Christmas, we make Food for the Gods. The sweet smell permeates the apartment and wafts out to the common hallway. They keep well without refrigeration, and we frequently send them out as gifts....
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Canonigo
Of all the desserts of my childhood, canonigo is one I find full of flavor, yet relatively light on the stomach. It’s icing that lands on top of all the heavy food you’ve devoured at a party. Many of...
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Lola Charing’s Bola-Bola
I never had the pleasure of meeting my great grandmother Lola Charing Valdes Gonzalez. Mom’s stories of her always revolved around food. She loved making and eating food. One of the recipes that comes...
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Recreating Childhood: Aparon
WARNING: This recipe uses unblessed communion wafers or hosts. If you are offended by my use of ingredients, please skip this recipe. One of my favorite childhood snacks was aparon. It was made from...
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Ukoy
For many families, ukoy, sometimes spelled as okoy, is made with mung beans and colloquially known as togue. I’ve always known ukoy as made with green papaya, squash, and onions. With its...
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Sukiyaki
Last week, Rica gave me a frantic call, begging me for a formula for sukiyaki sauce. She wanted to have some for dinner but didn’t have any ready-made sukiyaki sauce. I told her she could make it from...
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Creamy Homemade ChocNut Butter
It’s not low-fat. It’s not organic. It has no butter. But it’s delicious, I swear! ChocNut is a Filipino “chocolate” candy brand made with peanuts. I use the term chocolate loosely, as it uses...
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Butter Cake
As Billie, Reggie, and I we shopping together at the supermarket one weekend, we came across Sarah Lee cakes in the frozen desserts section. We each had a story about how our parents kept dissuading...
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Gluten-Free Chocolatey Nutty Oats Cookies
Reggie loves to go hiking, so I wanted to make trail food that is both tasty and hardy enough to survive the trip to Pico de Loro. Most cookies will have flour in them as a binder, but I wanted to try...
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Carbonara
When friends come over unexpectedly, one of my go-to dishes is carbonara. It’s an easy to prepare dish, and hits the spot after a long day. Mom learned this dish in 1976 from Mario and Rose Giordano,...
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Pink Bomb
When I was younger, my brother Casey loved to mix drinks for our barkada get-togethers. Some of his mainstay ingredients included vodka, rum, grenadine, and lime cordial. One, because they mix well...
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Lengua de Gato Cookies (Cat’s Tongue Cookies)
When my mom used to make this recipe, she would add margarine to help the cookies hold their shape properly. In the 1980s, it was difficult and expensive to find quality butter in the province....
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Homemade Chili Garlic Oil
Each Chinese restaurant has its own recipe for chili oil. Some use plain chili, others use a chili-garlic mix. I have yet to find a bottle of commercial chili oil in the grocery I like, so I decided to...
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Suam (Kapampangan Corn Soup)
Suam is the Kapampangan version of Corn Soup. Western style corn soup recipes will usually have cream included, but this one doesn’t. It’s one of the few soups I like that is 99% vegetables. You can...
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Easter Eggs
One childhood memory I have of Easter is making Easter Eggs. Mom would let us make the eggs on Black Saturday. She would boil eggs and prepare food coloring for us to use to decorate the eggs. The...
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Steamed Mud Crabs (Halabos na Alimango)
Crabs is a family favorite. When we have it for family meals, it’s usually served by the platter. Each person will eat at least two whole crabs, though some will have a platter all to themselves. We...
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Cold Brew Coffee
Coffee is a necessity to wake up in the mornings, especially for my partner Reggie. For many people, coffee is a sacred and necessary drink to start the day. On hot days, hot coffee can have a bit too...
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Cheesesteak Sandwiches
Cheesesteak Sandwiches are an easy to prepare dish that you can stock in your freezer for when you have surprise guests. I enjoy preparing enough of this dish for when I want a really good sandwich to...
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Garlic Aioli Sauce Recipe
Aioli is a Provençal garlic oil sauce you can make to spice up your food. I’ve seen it used with black paella and sandwiches. There’s a version that’s used to add zing to shawarmas. It’s a favorite of...
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Russian Salad
Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s time to celebrate with friends and family. Russian salad is a memorable dish I would often see at parties. The sugar beets color parts of the mayonnaise...
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