A Scientist in the Kitchen

How does your local market look like? Is it outdoor or indoor? Is it a night market or opens during the day? Do you have a market day, when everyone brings the fresh produce for the week?

A typical market in the Philippines

Each farmer’s market has a charm. From local produce to stalls to markets, there is always something to look forward to. Hence, whenever I go to a new place, I visit the local market as much as possible. What better way to know the delicacies of the place than where these come from? What better way to learn about the local culture than to attend market day?

A fruit stand in Maharashtra, India

Here’s how you can enter this event:

1. Blog about the local market where you buy your food. Include a picture of the place (e.g. your favorite stall, a local delicacy, a seasonal produce). Talk about the sights and sounds. Mention the location of the market as well as the local name/equivalent for “farmer’s market”. For example, in Tagalog, a marketplace can be called palengke, mercado or pamilihang-bayan. You can also blog about a market you have visited in other places.

Sausages in Quebec

2. Only one entry per blog.

3. The post should include a link to this post.

4. Once you have written your post, email me at mgccarrillo AT gmail DOT com. Include the following:

* Your Name
* Your hometown/region and country
* Blog name
* Blog URL
* Post title
* Post URL

Please include “To Market, to market” in the subject line so I don’t lose your email.

5. Submit your entries by March 1, 2008.

Vegetables in Pike’s Place, Seattle

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Spaghetti pasta is probably the most popular type of pasta in the the Philippines. It is so popular, in fact, that Filipinos have developed their own version of spaghetti sauce to cater to the Filipino palate. This is a sure hit with kids, even babies in strollers!

A warning though, because our spaghetti tastes sweet! Rather I would call it sweet-spice taste using tomato sauce and catsup as the sauce. In the grocery stores, you can find tomato sauce labeled with “Filipino style”.

While I prefer the Italian style of cooking pasta, I still crave for Pinoy spaghetti now and then. For that, I turn to my Dad to cook the spaghetti for us. My Dad cooks really great Tagalog dishes and I’ve learned a lot from him. For the spaghetti, I usually all the ingredients before I let him in the kichen. Two cooks in the kitchen don’t mix well! But then, once he is ready to cook, I usually assist him and wash after him. Otherwise, the kitchen would really be a mess!

The recipe calls for half a kilo of spaghetti, banana catsup, a pouch of tomato sauce and uses corned beef hash instead of fresh ground beef. Freshly crushed black pepper adds to spiciness of the dish for sweet-spicy spaghetti only in the Philippines. Note also the absence of herbs. And since it’s sauted Pinoy-style, soy sauce is added to mixture.

Here’s how he does it:

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Staying at home for the holidays has made me enjoy a lot of dishes I rarely cook when I am back in Los Baños. For the record, most of the cooking I post in this blog are done at home (where the computer memory of my desktop is a bit full). And since I am home only on weekends, I have to be choosy on what to cook for the day. I usually cook pasta and another dish while breakfast is almost always with fried rice.

Laguna de Bay

Since my sister and I were at home for several days, we have been going around town, visiting the town museum, our cousins and going to the market for our daily fare. Since our town is just beside Laguna de Bay, there are several freshwater selections, my favorite of which is the freshwater shrimps in coconut milk or ginataang hipon. I use to make them, but it takes to much preparation, I have to make a lot which we can’t consume in one or two eatings so I haven’t cooked it for a long time. Anyway, in the afternoons, the vendors sell the dish and for 10 pesos per cup it is not too bothersome for me. I like to eat it with rice or use it instead of meat for sauteeing vegetables especially monggo.

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Lobsters at Pike Place Market in Seattle

or

Lobsters sold at the Puerto Princesa market in Palawan?