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.

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

The Neophyte Cook # 1: "Chicken Cordon Bleu"

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.

The result of my kitchen hardwork

It's been a while since I last blog about food. Well, for the reason that we seldom go out these days. I usually do the food blogging after a dining experience in a restaurant or a food chain. Normally, my food blog entry will end up rating these restaurants we have dined in. You can check out my other food blog entries in the archives portion of this blog.


Last weekend, I decided to cook my own apprentice version of "Chicken Cordon Bleu". It was supposed to be done last week but due to a limited time, my wife and I agreed that we'll do it next week. And so it was it. It's my third time and I still feel uneasy preparing it. When in fact I should have had mastered it already. Read the next paragraph as it explains the uneasiness in me.


The little dilemma added up when I realized I don't have a print-out recipe to look upon the procedure since I didn't bring my laptop going to my wife's place. (FYI - My wife and I don't live in the same roof everyday, I mean our jobs were the reason. I only go home during weekend, seldom on weekdays since I'm staying in a flat near my office. The distance of our place to each other is like close to two hours' drive). So I ended up collecting my thoughts to come up with the "how to" prepare one.

Looks succulent and palatable isn't it?