So what's on the table for my mother's ?? birthday a few days ago? A menu of favorites - favorite cake, favorite recipe, favorite brand, favorite flavors, favorite fruits, etc.
Here's Chicken Sotanghon using the locally made Marca Pato sotanghon brand with lots of sahog - chicken strips, carrots and cabbage with even a lot more of black pepper! This got to be my first sotanghon where the sahog were twice as much as the noodles.
Another chicken dish is the Tinolang Bisaya na Manok or native/free range chicken. Aside from using our favorite combo of green papaya and sili leaves, I guess its a favorite past time of mine to feed our native chicken with anything from the kitchen - rice, bread, even spaghetti noodles.
Easy and a favorite recipe during special occasions is the Sweet and Sour Fish or Escabeche. Just fry your favorite fish then top it with an easy sauce made with vinegar, sugar and cornstarch with onion, bell peppers and carrots.
The "Turbo Pork Liempo" is almost a family tradition using our decades old turbo broiler. And among the easiest to make - boil pork liempo in seasoned broth then pat dry (best if done a day ahead) before placing it in the turbo broiler for about 30-45 minutes or until the skin if brown and crisp. Perfect with my fave dip - banana ketchup, calamansi and sili!
The Embutido is another favorite recipe and instead of the usual hotdogs, we use canned Vienna sausages.It gives more depth to the flavour compared to hotdogs and less of the artificial looking red color. And it's all meat, no extenders!
And what's a birthday without a cake? Here's an Ube Royal Cake from Tinapayan Bakeshop. It's made with layers of ube chiffon, whipped cream and ube halaya topped with more whipped cream and ube halaya and white chocolate.
There's also our favorite fruit of the summer - yellow watermelon in "pick me up" slices.So cheers to this simple birthday lunch of favorite offerings! Burp!