April 2012 - Certified Foodies

Free Tickets to the Big Summer Outlet Sale for 2012

It’s that time of the year again when BPI, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Malibu Enterprise bring you one of the BIGGEST annual sale events you MUST not miss! This time, you can get as much as 80% off from brands we all know and love. It’s the BIG Summer Outlet Sale 2012!

It’s happening this weekend, April 27-29, at the SMX Convention Center in SM MOA. Here are the details for your reference:

BPI Express Credit Edge, The Philippine Daily Inquirer AND Malibu Enterprise bring you:

THE BIG SUMMER OUTLET SALE 2012!

When: April 27-29, 2012, Fri-Sun 10am-9pm

Where: SMX Convention Center, Hall 1, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City

Who: FREE Entrance to ALL BPI cardholders (w/ a valid ID)

Additional discounts & Raffle draw for BPI Edge Cardholders

P50 entrance fee to non-BPI Cardholders

What: Everything ON SALE! Up to 80% off on select items from selected brands!

And here’s the list of the participating brands:

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Lugaw with Tokwa’t Baboy : A Pinoy Favorite

Since last year, Ken and I usually go out three to six times a month to check out a new restaurant or food place. We haven’t blogged about most of them yet. We do have fun dining in different restaurants every time. I also enjoy researching for the next resto we’ll visit before we head out. However, every once in a while, we miss the usual food we eat at home. So, one early morning, Ken craved for lugaw, and he headed out to buy the whole family breakfast.

Pardon the photos on this post. Everyone’s hungry so I had to take photos quickly. 😀

Lugaw is porridge or congee, soft-boiled rice usually cooked with broth (chicken, fish or pork). But, there are some who sell lugaw cooked in plain water and they just add seasoning to it. You can top it with pepper, scallions, and crispy fried garlic (yum!). I sometimes put several drops of patis or fish sauce when it’s slightly bland to my taste.

Here in the Philippines, lugaw is usually served with side dishes like tokwa’t baboy (tofu and pork). The pork part is normally the pig’s tongue, which I love. They come with a sauce made with calamansi, soy sauce and slices of onion. I sometimes add some chili pepper with it to give it a little kick.

Some of you might be familiar with Arroz Caldo, also a congee / lugaw, but it’s much thicker and ginger is used to flavor it. There are large chicken parts in Arroz Caldo, which is usually the distinguishing addition between them and Goto, congee that is flavored with beef.

Anyway, Ken loves lugaw with sumpia, which is what we call a beansprout spring roll here. I prefer hard-boiled eggs in my congee, along with the tokwa’t baboy side dish. But, sumpia and the egg weren’t available when he went out to buy lugaw for the whole family. The photo below was taken a long time ago on my old digital camera.

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Listerine for Foodies’ Oral Health

Having a mother who works as a nurse, the importance of brushing our teeth was instilled in us early on. Since we are certified foodies even when we were very young kids, we knew that we also had to continuously take care of our teeth if we’d want to go on enjoying and discovering food and flavors. And for that, teeth-brushing is not enough. You need a mouthwash that’ll clean even the nooks and crannies of your mouth. That’s why we trust LISTERINE.

Brushing alone only kills about 25% of your mouth. Alarming, right? The good news is, with Listerine, you get rid of 99.9% of germs and bacteria left after brushing. Why is this important? Because if you let all those nastiness stay in your mouth, it can result to tooth decay, bleeding gums, and bad breath. And when that happens, you can’t enjoy food as much as before. Plus, it can affect the way you look as you can’t flash your teeth anymore when you smile. 🙁

With all the various flavor combinations we encounter as we go on our foodie adventures, bad breath can be a real buster. Good thing Listerine is also available in smaller bottles so we can bring it anywhere and freshen up after meals, even when we’re dining out.

From our past food trips, here are some of the dishes we thought we needed Listerine to refresh our breath after the meal:

Anti Vampire Sabaw (garlicky) and UFOs (scallops) – Perfect Italiano Mystery Dinner

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Binatog : Craving Satisfied!

We happen to be lucky enough to live in a place where there’s still an abundance of legit street food. We have vendors roaming the streets selling all sorts of Filipino merienda like taho, balut, fishballs, mais con yelo, halo-halo, green mangoes with bagoong, and, of course, binatog.

Binatog is made of white corn kernels that have been soaked in salted water, boiled, drained, and then topped with grated coconut. You can choose if you want sugar with it or a little salt.

For the past weeks, I’ve been craving for it and I was already getting frustrated. The vendor who sells it on a bike passes our house too quickly that I haven’t had the chance to catch up to him. And, so, over a week ago, determined to finally satisfy my craving, I tasked my shop assistant and our helper to call the vendor when he passes by our house. Yeah, that’s how much I wanted it. 😀

Unlike the taho and balut vendors, the people who sell binatog on the streets don’t yell out “binatoooggg”. Or at least not here or at our old place in Navotas. Binatog vendors have this very distinct bell ring whenever they’re passing by. So, that afternoon, my ears were on alert. 😀

And then I heard that oh-so familiar bell ring. I literally yelled out from inside my room to tell our helper Ate Susan, who was currently ironing clothes at our living room, to go and call out the vendor. Well, she didn’t hear me, but good thing my assistant was on alert mode too. 😀

“FINALLY!”, I exclaimed at manong (sorry, “sa wakas!” was too dramatic 😀 ). I told him he should slow down next time, so we can all keep up with him. 😀 I bought binatog for everyone! Of course, following the tradition, I brought out our own bowls for him to fill up. The contents of the white bowl cost me a measly Php 20, and he was VERY generous with the grated coconut. I bought Php 50 worth of binatog from him that afternoon.

Continue reading Binatog : Craving Satisfied!