A Scientist in the Kitchen

I must admit that Filipinos don’t drink wine that much. It is usually served during special occasions such as weddings and birthdays and perhaps during Christmas and New Year dinner. Until recently, the availability of Italian wine importers brought us easy access to wines. Mind you, the more acceptable wines are usually the sweetish type. Me? I’ve been fascinated with wines, not so much for drinking but for cooking. I’ve read a lot of recipes that call for white or red French wine in stews, pastas and seafoods. It does make the dish better flavored. I especially enjoy wine tasting in grocery stores, take note of the wines I like, and when I get the chance, get a bottle or two.

Perhaps because we don’t grow grapes here in the Philippines that we don’t have wine in our cuisine. We do have a lot of fruit wines, from mangoes to pineapples. I have yet to try them though, as they are not often available in the local stores. To learn more about wines, I rely on an online wine guide.

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If I have enough time and enough money, I would buy myself a Class A motorhome and travel around the Philippines. I’ve done some land travel by public transpo and it is not really comfortable. Wouldn’t it be great to go from one place to the next, stop when you want, go to the market and cook it in your kitchen, find a place to picnic? If I were to do, here are some of the dishes I’d like to cook:

- Buy vegetables from the Trading Post in La Trinidad, Benguet and cook chopsuey
- Make kinilaw/tuna ceviche in General Santos, Zamboanga or Siargao Island
- Make seafood paella anywhere near a seafood place
- Cook Bicol Express in Bicol (where else?) and pinangat in Albay
- Cook different rice cakes from different areas in the Philippines such as puto maya in Iligan City, Tupig in Pangasinan, Moron in Leyte…
- Indulge in bangus belly in Dagupan, dried fish in Bantayan Island or pyannggang manuk in Zamboanga or Jolo?

My list would go on. How about you? If you were to go places, what would you like to cook?

The next time I go to California, I would go beyond Disneyland and perhaps check out culinary schools in the area. Wouldn’t it be fun? Probably, checking out culinary schools would be like searching for fashion schools in California. There are many to choose from, such as the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley or the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, which is an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu.
In the fashion world, the fashion schools in Los Angeles would be the way to go with their Los Angeles Fashion Week, where usually in March the fall collections are unfolded. In as much as fashion school in California is the way to go, food lovers would also find a haven of culinary schools in the state.

Today is D-day for Filipino boxing fans as Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao takes an old foe, the Mexican champ Juan Manuel Marquez.  I am not much of a boxing fan, but my dad is. Everytime Pacquiao has a fight, he and his elder brother would watch together, beer in hand and appetizer to boot! Even if the fight is scheduled 8am Manila time (we are more than half a day earlier than Las Vegas), he want’s his beer as it’s the only time he’s allowed. He’s been excited about this fight.

Guess what he wants for appetizers? Pork and tofu stirfry with lots of Chinese celery. Lately he has been really crazy about tofu, or tokwa, as we call it in Tagalog. I like tofu but not almost everyday. And we’ve come to a point, at times, not to ask for his suggestion on our meals as he would always ask for this pork and tofu stirfry dish all the time!

At the rate that the Filipino frenzy for Manny Pacquiao boxing, there should Manny Pacquiao boxing parties all over the archipelago. Even the police is predicting that there’ll be a dip in crime stats while the game is ongoing. Perhaps if I sell Manny Pacquiao boxing party invitations (something similar to Kentucky Derby Party Invitations) I might earn big bucks. But probably not, as I can not stand to watch a boxing fight.