The Neophyte Cook # 4: "Gising-Gising"

The Neophyte Cook - this segment in my blog will feature my cooking apprenticeship without the formal culinary lessons, shy of cooking standards, and is done out-of-passion in cooking. Recipes will vary from various cuisine's dishes as long as I can modestly prepare and my guts tell me to do so.


This menu was a week delayed already. Originally, we have planned to cook it last week. But due to a lacking ingredient, we decided to pass on and re-scheduled it this weekend.


And here's the "Gising-Gising" guys! I'm sure when you try it even at once you'll be so "gising talaga" LoLs..kidding aside. But, I guess I'm right when I say that since it has some chilli peppers ingredient that will surely arouse your lousy morning or not-so-exciting lunch time.


It was cooked after I'd finished the "Binagoongang Manok". Of course with the aid of my "sous chef" LoLs my wife is my sous chef and I am the master chef..hahaha! --pretentious enough to own the word.  Okay, here's what we've got.

Gising-Gising

I'm not so sure which province in our country this recipe originated. If I may guess, I would perhaps say it comes from the Bicol Region. I'm just suspecting that the "gata" and the "sili" is more likely my clues why I said that. But then again I'm not that sure. I was tired and lazy to look it up in the internet and search its place of origin.

The Neophyte Cook # 3: "Binagoongang Manok"

The Neophyte Cook - this segment in my blog will feature my cooking apprenticeship without the formal culinary lessons, shy of cooking standards, and is done out-of-passion in cooking. Recipes will vary from various cuisine's dishes as long as I can modestly prepare and my guts tell me to do so.


If you've been following this blog, you're probably oriented that I have this blog segment called "The Neophyte Cook" and the description is written above. In cooking, if you really have the talent it will surely show-up even though you're short of having formal culinary lessons. And this talent if properly develop will evolve into a passion. For it to become a passion you need to have a natural inclination and an intense & pure love of the craft.


Cooking runs in the family. In fact, I have an Uncle who's been so successful in the field of culinary arts. He is based in Sheraton Hotel in Guam and had devised & designed his own "Cuisines of the Suns Culinary Program". He's been traveling to different colleges and universities within the country to conduct this program. Basically, giving lectures and seminars to college students pursuing the field of culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management. And countable from my cousins are pursuing the same passion. So, you might not wonder if one of these days, I may be joining their ranks and you'll just see new posts here which are at par to cooking standards or has leveled-up in a very near future.


Like what I've said, I only cook if I have free time, which in my case fall under weekend. Today, I am featuring a original Filipino dish and perhaps most of you are familiar with. Or I may be wrong too. Maybe some of you aren't used to seeing or hearing "Binagoongang Manok" since when we speak of binagoongan, pork comes first into our mind as its main ingredient. To add a twist in it, I have deviated the recipe into chicken. Just for the taste of it and a detour from the normal course so to speak. And here's my third entry for this segment. I cooked it for our dinner.

Binagoongang Manok

Preparing this menu is more enjoyable when you're being assisted by your wife. She's like my "sous chef" - a second in command and direct assistant of the chef. Well, I pretended to be the master chef..LoLs. And when cooking session is being done with smiles both in your faces it'll surely result to a palatable finish product. Plus the constant goofing around adds a lightly cool mood into the relatively hot atmosphere in our kitchen.

CHANGE is Coming

It had been a long plan that I wanted to drastically change my blog’s content. Drastically? Wow! such a big word. Well, for quite sometimes and as I promised during the onset of 2012, I want to create a fully informative blog which will feature any of the following segments:

  v  Books

  v  Current Affairs

  v  Faith

  v  Family

  v  Food

  v  Movies

  v  Opinions & Editorial

  v  People

  v  Prose & Poetry

  v  Places

  v  Travel

I know it’s pretty challenging to come up with a regular post on any of the above-mentioned topics but I will try my best to at least deliver. I should befriend the quote “Under prepare but over deliver” at least the pressure won’t be mounting and disappointment will be nowhere in sight if I won't be able to reach a targeted output.

This change will also help me gain more traffic in my blog and my consistent readers will be more hooked reading my entries and those who barely visit will be excited to come back again. 

As some of my blogger friends would say, it's a sort of leveling-up--climbing another ladder to create a more seasoned, up-to-date, relatively & plausibly concise, and more informative entries. 

Of course, I will never discount the fact  that my write-ups will always be prone to grammar blunders as it happens most of the times. Further, I will really appreciate anyone, bloggers or not, if they'll put extra effort in informing me through email or private messaging if they see grammatical flaws in my writings. 

As I've said, I write not to impress, I do so out of passion. My writings will always have grammatical flaws no matter how keen I'll be in editing. Plus, I do not conform to any structural way of writing nor I do an outlined framework. Admittedly, I am not a trained creative writer nor a holder of any communication arts degree. It's just passion--pure and driven kind of attitude in me that pushes me to scribble my thoughts about anything. 

And now, since we are talking of reaching a notch higher from where this blog is used to be, the above mentioned segments will be my focal points.

The scope of each segment will be defined in my follow-up entry. In the meantime, this is all for now.


HAPPY READING :) 

The Neophyte Cook # 2: "Tinolang Manok sa Pakwan"

The Neophyte Cook - this segment in my blog will feature my cooking apprenticeship without the formal culinary lessons, shy of cooking standards, and is done out-of-passion in cooking. Recipes will vary from various cuisine's dishes as long as I can modestly prepare and my guts tell me to do so.


For the record this is the second entry I have in my blog segment "The Neophyte Cook". I only cook if I have ample time and if ingredients are readily available in our refrigerator. LoLs.. I'm aiming to have more recipes to be cooked. (Crossing fingers with matching closed eyes..LoLs) 


Tinolang Manok sa Pakwan? Whooah! I never thought there is a certain recipe as this. Not until I found it out one day. And how did I find it out?


It’s funny how this idea (cooking it) came up. It was one late Tuesday morning of June 19 when I was tagged in a wall post by my good friend Ryan making me envious of his version of it. I really thought I’d be invited for a lunch that day (nag-expect lang si Spidey lols!). Normally, we usually take our lunch together with the rest of our group (Satt, Jimmy, &Remwell) almost everyday. It’s either we dine out or he’ll cook in his flat. But since these past few months I’ve been so occupied in the office I humbly begged-off from joining our lunch group until my bulk tasks in the office finishes. Seriously, I missed these guys. The normal cracking of funny jokes while having our lunch adds up to the "I miss them" part.

Now, back to what pushed me to cook my own version. I was just tagged for his purpose of maybe letting my envy runs in my blood and probably just to make me drool. And he was successful indeed because I almost got out of my office and rode a taxicab to head fast to his flat. But it was too late since when I read again his post it said they’re done with lunch already. I was frowning and a bit sad—hahaha!. I was hungry then and I thought it’d be perfect since I didn’t prepare my lunch that day. You’re such a poor guy spidey! LoLs! hahaha.

As a reply to his post, I did my own wall post tagging him by telling that I’ll be cooking my own version comes weekend too -my way of easing-out my slight irate that day.

And so here it is, my simple version of “Tinolang Manok sa Pakwan”. Initially, my wife and I planned to cook it for lunch but since when we checked out the nearby “Farm ” supermarket we didn’t find any sliced watermelon from the stands. Instead, we find one whole watermelon unsliced. The store attendant told us that the sliced one will be ready comes late afternoon. Having heard that we just decided to cook it for dinner.

I have the recipe saved in my Samsung Galaxy Note so we had to check it out and read the instructions. Honestly, I’ve read it twice already but my poor memory always makes me in trouble. I can’t memorize the way I used to before. So, we had to read again while preparing the ingredients.

To cut the story short, I successfully cooked my own version of “Tinolang Manok sa Pakwan”. I was laughing hard while we’re about to put some into a bowl since I told my wife that it should be presented well. So she got two tablecloth napkins and a clean white Corell bowl. To add to its aesthetic element we topped it with pechay leaves. And here’s what we’ve got.

Tinolang Manok sa Pakwan

TEASER - 2nd Blogversary Contest

Calendar check? Oh! Nalalapit na pala ang 2^nd Blogversary ko. Siguro mas mainam kung may konting “isprikitik” akong gagawin – hahaha! Anong isprikitik kaya eto. Hulaan mo? Hulaan ko? Maghulaan tayo hahaha!

It’s very timely to celebrate my second year in blogging world with a purposeful idea. Wow! purposeful daw LoLs! I am making my entry light and with a twist of humor para di naman laging seryoso ang mga usapan sa blog ko. May napapaiyak na nga ako sa mga iilan kong makabagbag damdaming entry haha.  Kaya medyo cool lang ang gagamitin kung mga wordings dito at ita-Taglish ko lang. Pasintabi po muna sa mga “forengers” ah este “foreigners” readers ko. Gamitan nyo nalang po ng google translate.

Teka eh ano kaya kung sa native vernacular ko dalihin ang ibang mga salita dito. LoLs. Di kaya magalit naman ang mga kababayan kong di nakakapagsalita ng aking diyalekto? Hmmm…siguro may kaibigan naman silang marunong magsalita ng diyalekto ko kaya anong ginagawa ng precision translation services ng mga friendly friends nila. LoLs.

Ok here we go! I’ll try my native dialect. Just for once people..LoLs! Nagtuna ako magblog nang diyes ng Agosto sa tuig nga 2010. Mahilig gid man ako iya magsulat ngani hay tamang tama lang nga nasayuran ko nga may blog gali nga tuyad ini. LoLs! Oh! Readers are you pissed off now? Hope not. Just enjoy every word and try to read between lines. Baka maintindihan nyo rin kay bukon man ton madayum tanan.

The reason for this entry is to plug my upcoming 2^nd Blogversary which will happen on August 10, 2012. Wow, it’s short of two months before Ill reach the second year of enjoyable blogging. 

And The Winners Are..........

I know it's too early to announce the winners since the announcement is really slated on July 15, 2012 but since we're done in deliberation anyway we decided to do it now. So, without further ado, this post will reveal the winners of this contest. 


So how did this blog contest came to life?

It was a cool and sun-shiny Tuesday of April 10, 2012 when I devised this blog contest. Basically, it has two major reasons: 
1. To sponsor a blog contest following the lead of other bloggers who have done it already.
2. To add an exciting twist of how our soon to be first born will be named.


To count it back, it ran for the period of two months and five days.  How time flies fast isn’t it? I never imagine that I would receive one hundred thirty four (134) in total entries. All I thought was just maybe 20+ entries would be many for me. But when I counted it last Saturday I was in awe when it totaled 134.

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thank you to all who have passed their entries. I couldn’t put all your names here since it would cost me too much space but I believe my gratitude is enough for all of you. For giving me your time joining this contest, meticulously thinking of beautiful names for our soon-to-be-new-born is worthy of a praise from us. This contest won't be possible if none of you had joined. THANK YOU VERY MUCH indeed!

You never know how excited I was every time I receive additional entry every now and then. And my excitement would lead me to reading it and smiling while thinking "Is this the one?" You have made the journey of our soon-to-be-first born baby boy very momentous. And this event will surely be one of his life's highlight when he grows up. 


Overwhelming joy is the right word to describe how we feel of your overflowing response to this contest.

Liham Para Kay Ama

ME, Nanay Aure, Tatay Eliseo, Ate Jing sa Serendra, The Fort - Dec.22, 2011

Dear Tatay,

Para sa akin, siyempre ikaw ang pinaka da-best na tatay sa buong mundo.

Lahat naman ng mga anak yan din ang sasabihin, pero I mean it.

Alam ko halos half of my life di na kita nakakasama ng madalas

Malayo kasi ako parati at matagal ding di umuwi sa atin

Marami akong gunita na gustong balikan.

L-R: nephew John, ME, nephew Allen, niece Jannea, Nanay Aure,
Tatay Eliseocousin Fe, nephew Nikko at nephew Jon
 sa Serendra, The Fort - Dec. 22, 2011

Isa na doon noong bata pa ako ay tinuruan mo akong sumakay sa likod ng kalabaw

Ganun na din ang pagsama ko sa’yo para mangahoy na kabayo ang sinakyan natin

Di ko talaga malilimutan noong minsan nagpunta tayo sa gubat para mangahoy

Pauwi na tayo noon ng biglang tumakbo nang mabilis ang kalabaw

Tangan-tangan ako kasama na ang “kangga” na may lamang mga kahoy

Pinilit mong habulin ang kalabaw pero ang bilis nito ay di mo kinaya

Di mo alam kung ano ang nangyari sa akin pero ng dumating ka

Laking pasalamat mo na ako ay ligtas at galos lang ang natamo

Kumapit kasi ako ng mahigpit sa ibabaw ng mga kahoy

Habang matuling kumukuripas pababa ng burol ang kalabaw

Tatay Eliseo, eldest child Ate Jing sa Serendra,
The Fort, Bonifacio Global City - Dec. 22, 2011

Naalala ko rin ng una mo akong dinala sa laot para mangisda

Imbes na kabahan ako ay tila walang akong takot

Kasi alam kung kapiling kita at superhero ang dating mo sa akin

Nagsasaka ka ng bukirin at sinikap mo akong turuan ng pag-aararo

Natuto naman ako pero sa isip ko di eto ang klase ng buhay na gusto ko

I honor you for the decent way of raising us

ME, Tatay, John, Nanay  sa Market Market - Dec. 22, 2011

At ikinararangal ko ikaw bilang isang simpleng magsasaka

Sa tindi ng pisikal na hirap ay nangako ako sa gitna ng palayan

Na mag-aaral akong mabuti para makaraos tayo

Ngayon, unti-unti  nang nabubuo ang mga pangarap

Pangarap na binitawan ko habang nasa gitna ng init ng palayan

ME, Tatay, John, Nanay sa Market Market - Dec. 22, 2011

Pero, anu't-ano man ang marating ko sa buhay

Babalik balikan ko pa rin ang mga alaala kung paano mo ako

Tinuruan upang makatindig sa sarili kong mga paa

Baon ko lagi ang mga pangaral mo

Magsumikap, huwag manlamang sa kapwa,

Lumaban kung nasa tama at magpakumbaba

L-R: Tatay, Nanay, Wife ko Wida, pinsan Fe, niece Jannea, Ate Jing,
nephew OR and niece Jia - bonding sa MOA sa harap ng higanteng
Ferris Wheel - Dec.22, 2011

 Simple lang ang sulat na eto tatay,

Pero habang sinusulat ko eto ay tumutulo ang luha ko

Luha ng pag-aalala, pagmamahal, paggugunita sa mga nakalipas

Luha ng unti-unting tagumpay.

Di ako mauubusan ng pasasalamat sa iyo

Di ko man o namin laging nasasabi sa’yo

Kung gaano ka naming kamahal

At kung gaano ka kahalaga sa aming lahat

Idinadaan ko nalang sa panulat para maiparating ko

Ang aking (aming) taos-pusong pasasalamat sa iyo

Ate Jing, Jannea, ME, Nanay, Tatay, Jia, OR, Fe, John Nikko, Jon
sa Serendra, The Fort - Dec. 22, 2011

Di ko na eto in-edit basta kung ano ang lumabas sa isip ko

At dinidikta ng puso ko sinulat ko na.

Maligayang Araw ng mga Tatay

Hangad ko(naming) na magkasama pa tayo ng matagal

Marami pang tawanan, halakhakan, at kulitan

Na magaganap sa atin.

At matutupad ang muli nating pagtitipon-tipon sa buwan ng Mayo sa taong 2013 

Kasama ko lahat ng mga kapatid ko at mga apo niyo.

Walang sawang magmamahal sa'yo

Ang iyong anak,

Jay

One of Nature's Perfect Spot - Kayangan Lake

I think I am back!

Have you missed me? I hope so, I sure do missed you too readers and peekers!

I'm really back. 

By the way, this is just a simple entry, just to entice you with photos during my wife's and I adventure last year.

These photos below were taken last December 2011 during our honeymoon island getaway in Coron, Palawan. I fell in love with the place and is thinking of re-visiting it on summer of 2013. Nature has a soft spot in my heart having been raised in a typical country side of Sibuyan island in Romblon. I can well identify to its sensitivity, the tranquil surrounding upon which only nature's sound can be heard and the sweet voices of the many bird species enchanted and serenaded our experience.

The place itself is located in one of the many islands that dot Coron and is reachable from Coron via a short, probably 45 minutes pump-boat ride. Upon reaching the island and an uphill hike and down a hill, you’ll reach a lake that simply takes your breath away.

And please don’t forget to take photos in an area where you can see the sea where you came from. Nature seems to have conveniently placed a large rock to sit and take in the view.