A scientist in the kitchen

Reading about Pile’s coleslaw salad made me crave for coleslaw salad the way my aunt made them. There are really a lot of variations to this salad, but here’s my aunt’s version which brings lots of memories of her in the kichen. This is really a simple version, but the addition of pineapples add a sweet dimension to the dish. This would be perfect for my first entry to the “Waiter, there is something in my…” series with this month’s theme: salads.

Nanay’s Coleslaw Salad

2 cups green cabbage, sliced thinly
1 cup purple cabbage, sliced thinly
1 large carrots, julliened
1 large turnips, julliened
1 can of pineapple tidbits, sliced thinly
1 cup mayonaise
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Mix all vegetables in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix mayoinase, pepper and salt. Add the mayonaise mixture to the vegetables, make sure to coat all of the vegetables. Cool before serving.

While I’ve been looking up on salads, I just realized that the slicer for vegetables for making that perfectly julliened carrots is called a mandoline? I’ve always a mandoline is a musical instrument So I’m taking out my credit cards and off to Amazon.com I go and get myself a nice mandolin slicer. I can’t wait!

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Presto Pasta Nights deserve a big birthday bash so I’m sharing with you this week the birthday noodles we served during my dad’s 70th birthday. No birthday celebrations are complete without noodles for long life! Congratulations, Ruth!

I have blogged about this dish before, called Pancit Canton, sir fried noodles with lots of meat and vegetables. What makes this special is the addition of kikiam, a seafood flavored sausage. Usually, we don’t add this to our noodles but my Mom got this idea straight from the noodle factory where she bought the noodles. Canton noodles are dried noodles and a neighboring town host a noodle factory that specializes in this type. In the store, you can also get all sorts of ingredients for making the perfect pancit canton. Dad cooked his birthday noodles, sauted in pork belly and the gizzard, heart and liver of the turkey which we cooked into caldereta. You might wonder if turkey is usually served in Filipino parties. Not really, we happen to raise a lot of turkeys so that’s our source, organically grown.

Birthday Pancit Canton

500 grams Pancit Canton
300 grams pork belly
1 large onion chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
soy sauce
250 grams kikiam, sliced into strips
sliced assortment of vegetables (carrots, chayote, cabbage, bell pepper)*
gizzard, heart and liver of turkey
salt and pepper to taste

Boil pork belly, and the gizzard, heart and liver of turkey in four cups of water. When all are tender and stock hass reduced, take out from the pan and cool. Slice into slivers. In a large pan or wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Saute garlic, onion, and pork belly for a few minutes then the rest of the meat and kikiam. Add pepper and soy sauce and saute some more. Add a cup of reserved stock and scrape the pan. Add the vegetables and simmer. When vegetables are half done, add the dried noodles. Mix everything to coat the noodles so it will cook. You will need to add more of the stock to properly mix everything. When noodles start to become translucent, taste noodles for salt and pepper and adjust as necessary. Serve with kalamansi.

*In our market, you can buy a pack of assorted vegetables that makes one serving of a certain dish, for example a pack containing vegetables for chop suey, pinakbet or sinigang. We bought two packs of chop suey vegetables to add to this noodle dish.

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Where do you buy meat, vegetables and fish? Where do others buy their meat, vegetables and fish? There’s still time for you to submit your entry to “To marker, to market…” a blog event dedicated to the farmers’ markets around the world.

 Come back next for the round-up and check out the colorful world of farmers’ markets where food bloggers get their inspiration for the next dish.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Well, sort of. Just a collection of photos from a picnice, farewell and birthday parties.

A picnic with salsa, pan de sal, brewed coffee, tortilla and lots of mangoes!

 A farewel party with potato salad, tortillas and salsa, egg salad sandwich and blooming teas.

 Another farewell party with pasta, kebabs, grilled garlic bread and grilled vegetable salad.

A birthday party for my Dad.

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One of the perks of working in science is the opportunity to travel in different places to present one’s work. It is a time to meet other scientists with the same interests as you, meet up with former teachers and classmates, find contacts for collaboration but more importantly a time to update oneself with the latest in the field.  Like me for instance, most of my travels out of the country have been through attending workshops, presenting papers or giving lectures in the field of plant pathology and in molecular biology. The conference that I am looking forward to this year is the Centennial Meeting of the American Phytopatholigical Society (APS), the largest gathering of plant pathologists in the world. This year it will be held in Minneapolis, MN. This event is very special because it is our 100^th year anniversary and a lot of activities, interesting talks, and symposiums will be held. It would be a chance for me to go job hunting as well J 

The problem with travel to attend this kind of events is getting hotel reservations with the best price possible. Mind you, travel to the US can be very expensive so I need to get as much hotel discount as I can. Hotels near the venue usually get filled up easily and usually out of my budget range. But looks like I may do better this year! I found this website that offers as much as 70% discount in hotel reservations. Now isn’t that great? I am new to online booking and HotelReservations.com does a great job of helping find potential places to stay in Minneapolis.

With the conference of course is the opportunity to visit around Minneapolis, find restaurants to eat, must-visit places as well as cultural events happening. I really look forward to this side trip. So weeks ahead of the trip, I will surely look up destination guides to Minneapolis so I can make best of my stay.  

Now, I’ve got to get back to my research so I can have something to present!

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