A Taste of Home

The problem with being in another country is all the goodies which were just a stone's throw away back home are now beyond reach, either because they are not available here or because they are just way too expensive if you find them. As a result, whenever we have a yen for something from home, we check out the internet for recipes and determine whether they are feasible to make at home.

I know I would have no alternative but to shell out the money if I wanted to get MacGyver's favourite childhood snack of Jack 'n Jill Chippy, or to satisfy GI's yearning for Salt and Vinegar Cracklings or Nagaraya, or MyGirl's (and my) yen for Granny Goose Cheese Kornets.

Thankfully, many of the relations here are great cooks. They are able to whip up Filipino cuisine to match the ones we have at restaurants back home. So we do get the occasional sinigang, laing, kare-kare, dinuguan and crispy pata (not all at the same time, mind you) that makes us feel like we are back in Manila.

However, there are a sprinkling of items that are not commonly made. Some of these, we have tried to make at home ourselves.

After our taisan experiment, we tried another recipe and used muffin pans to make two dozen pieces of mamon. They were good chiffon cakes but still far from the ranks of Red Ribbon and Goldilocks. Nonetheless, I was brave enough to bring some to the office. (Sorry, no pictures this time.)

Last Saturday we tried to make lengua de gato for the first time. The recipe I used was truly excellent however the oven was quite uncooperative. (Did I mention that every First Saturday is 'test your smoke alarm day'? Well, as MyGirl said when we were making the lengua de gato, "We tested the smoke alarm on the designated test date ... again." Oh yeah. It seems I am the official smoke alarm tester since I do the job so well ... and so often.) We were able to salvage about half of the cookies although we had to work hard to peel them off the greaseproof paper in order to enjoy them.

On Sunday, which was Mother's Day, we made some siopao. I had previously tried my hand at making just the dough, essentially cua pao, and the kids were quite pleased. This time, I wanted to make it complete with the pork filling. The preparation for this meal had started the day before because the recipe called for the pork to be marinated for 5 hours. So I had purchased the pork on Saturday and it was marinating in the ref until Sunday. I made the dough on Sunday morning, let it rise in the oven for a couple of hours then cooked the pork filling on Sunday afternoon.

We assembled and steamed the siopao for dinner on Sunday night.

It was quite yummy.

Was it Kowloon quality? Did it taste like siopao from Chow King or Luk Yuen?

It didn't matter. The family enjoyed the siopao and that is what counts.

We made a total of 16 siopao (although the recipe said it could make 24). Sixteen divided by three equals five remainder one. We each had a "budget" of three.

MyGirl and I saved our third piece for our lunch the next day. RD was lucky, he claimed the 'remainder one' siopao. So aside from his alloted budget, he got a bonus siopao for his baon on Monday. (What can I say? He's a growing boy.)

I am quite happy I picked up that $3 steamer at the garage sale last February. Needless to say, the rest of the family agrees.