Coming back to my first love

It took several years to come back to where my heart is.. traveling, food and culture.  I had several issues on my hand that I need to address and deal with.  Now, I am back in business. I will be posting my activities particularly on new discoveries, experiences and people I met.  It will take some time but I will assure you that it will be fun and exciting.
As a start, I am now based in Bangkok, Thailand because of a new job which combines my professional career, passion and love to nature.  Coming to Bangkok is one of the best decisions and blessings I had for several years. It gave me the opportunity to live a live of stress free, humility and freedom; freedom from all the office politics, intrigues and negativity.  This time, it is all about loving what you do best and enjoying them because they are part of the whole experience. Traveling is so nice as I discover first hand what I read and saw on televisions and magazines. This is also the best way to meet people and understand their culture - practices, norms and tradition, artifacts, food, songs and dances and much more. JOIN ME AGAIN AS WE TRAVEL AND TASTE A BIT OF WORLD'S FOOD.

Chicken Outback Anyone!!!

Menu Background

Inspired by my very first overseas travel in Brisbane, Australia, I prepared this recipe as a gesture of thanksgiving using three important items in my Australian experience way back in 1992. These are chicken - because Aussies have a very unique way of calling their chicken during feeding time (it sounds like ca-ca-doo-dle-do), banana leaves because I cannot find these leaves to wrap my "maja blanca" which I prepared for the very first "bring a plate" party I attended hosted by my supervisor, and charcoal because they do not have charcoal out of wood but another material which was used to cook my recipe. Come to think of it, these items paved the way to highlight the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 Kilograms of chicken breasts (deboned)
• 1/4 Kilogram cabbage thinly chopped
• 1/4 cup of crushed pineapple
• 1/4 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup chunk pineapple
• 1/2 cup mayonise
• pinches of salt
• pinches of pepper
• 1/2 cup diced parsley
• 1 meter long banana leaves for wrapping

Preparations

1. Coleslaw - mix in a clean bowl cabbage, diced carrots, crushed pinapple. Add salt and pepper to taste and before serving, add mayonize. Set aside and chill.

2. Chicken Breasts - mix deboned chicken breasts, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl. Wrap two to three slices of chicken meat using banana leaves. Grill in slow pre-heated charcoal. Serve hot.

3. Place a banana leaf shaped as the size of a round wooden plate. Add pineapple chunks and parsley on one side of the plate. Arrange the grilled chicken meat and place the coleslaw on one side.

My Culinary Exercises

The Inspiration and Motivation

Before I became a good cook (according to my friends - speak up now or forever you will not taste my cuisine anymore), I started learning the tricks of the game through my parents who regularly host and entertain the athletic directors of different schools and provinces in Regions I, CAR, II, III and some NCR. Being the second eldest in the family, I have to peel, chop, and cut vegetables, potatoes, meats, onions, tomatoes and even garlic until these are all arranged and ready to be cooked per my father's instructions. As weeks, months, and years progressed, I have to elevate myself from a mere errand boy to an assitant cook. Exciting - because I can easily check and see the culinary secret of my dad. His secret - sing on top of your voice based on your own composition with the different ingredients poured one after the other in the pan. The result - a delicious, mouth watering, and aromatic food.

The Training Tests

Of course, you start first by cooking rice. It is always the training recipe for youngsters of rice-eating countries to cook the best rice. The perfect one is without the overcooked (with "tutong") or too much water "malabsa" or even the not so cooked rice which you mother will have to re-cook it and add a little of water to make it right. If you pass this test, next is to fry eggs - sunny side up with the perfect yolk intact, fried fish with the head still attached to the body and meat as tender and juicy. The final test is to cook the perfect vegetable menu that will maintain the color, juiciness and freshness. In our place we call it chopsuey or vegetable stew. I passed the three tests so I was given the go signal to do discovery menu. Question is my family must bear the taste because they are the initial critics of my budding skill. Good thing, they are all and still alive up to this very day.

Food Preparations and Discoveries

These experiences led me to explore the wonders of food preparation and menu preparations. As time progresses, I became more acquainted with different ingredients and styles of cooking. My travel to different places here and abroad changed my cooking style including food preferences from exotic to regular meals and from Asian to African to European and now American. But remember, it is always best to have the basic culinary skill and explore other ways. I always believe that the best cook are those that do not go to formal schools but learns the best technique of food preparation on their own. The formal school will just teach you the proper way to handle food given the aesthetic value of products being prepared.

The next stage of this posting will be the food discoveries and menu which my family and friends enjoyed and shared stories to make their every meal memorable. I hope you will keep in touch with all the stories behind my culinary exercises as I prepare and discover food around my circle.

Enjoy and surely these upcoming menu which will be accompanied by photos and stories.