Nacho Rice

There came a time in our family life when Mr. M. thought of nothing else to feed his family but tacos or nachos. We were having the same snack as a dish for 3 straight meals when I figured out “hindi lang sa nachos nabubuhay ang tao”.hehe Since I believe that rice is still the best option in filling one's tummy, I figured why not combine it with the only readily available resources we had - the nachos’ ingredients. I then accidentally discovered this dish.

Cooked Rice
Meat filling (see cooking procedure here)
Tomatoes
Onion (I didn’t put in in my rice meal though)
Chili Sauce
Cheese Spread
Oil, salt and pepper

1) Add a little amount of oil in a pan, break the cook rice, add a dash of salt and pepper.
2) Add the meat filling, tomatoes and onion, mix evenly.
3) Season with hot sauce and cheese spread. Mix well.

Pardon the photo, I was gearing towards the half of it when I though of taking a picture. ;) This dish was actually inspired by Shawarma Rice and surprisingly it was as good. Of course, you'll never go wrong with cheese, even on rice. Be very careful though because it will make you eat more without you knowing. But hell no, I still wasn't able to convince him to try this. He's loyal to his nachos, remember. hehe 

Mr. Chow Chinese Fast Food

During Master E’s party preparation, Mr. M and I stumbled upon this relatively new fastfood chain. We were hesitant to try at 1st but the menu board outside the store was rather inviting. Let me share with you our dining experience at Mr. Chow, SM North Edsa.

Mr. Chow has the usual busy-fastfood ambience. Customers have to line-up to give their orders and pay directly at the cashier, then food will be delivered in the table. They offer Chinese Food in very affordable prices. Their rice meals were as low as P103 which comes with unlimited serving of Youngchow Fried Rice. The crews were also friendly and attentive which will give you pleasurable stay. Here’s what we were able to try:

Pork Siomai (P52 for 4 pieces) 

Wanton Soup Noodle (P78)

Lechon Macau (P103)

Spicy Porkrib (P103)

Black Gulaman (P40)

I’ll be saying the same thing over and over again if I had to describe each item. For me, each dish we had captured the authentic taste of a Chinese food, it was nothing like a cheap version. Every bite has that umami factor you’re looking for in a Chinese dish. Though I have to say that the appearance/presentation was not enticing at all, (but of course you know that you should never judge a book by its cover. J), it was really delicious. At 1st sight you also might think that it has a small serving but it was surprisingly very filling, it will give you boated tummy as you leave. Since Mr. M is a solid Chinese Food fan, Mr. Chow was automatically added to his loyalty list, noticed that 2 table numbers? We had been there twice in a month, and yes, we took exactly the same foods.

Calamares Fritos

Mr. M and I had this practice of marketing together. We relied on the wet market when it was just the 2 of us, but now that we’re 4, grocery is more comfortable. But the grocery wasn’t as reliable as the wet market when it comes to sea foods that made us eat sea foods lesser. But when we discovered a meat dealer just beside our office, I grabbed every opportunity I got to get water-based meats. 

Squid, ink removed and peeled, cut into rings
Flour and Crispy fries breading mix mixture
Egg, beaten
Bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying

1) Season the squid with salt and pepper. In a container, toss in flour mixture.
2) Dip in egg, roll in bread crumbs.
3) Fry to golden brown. 

** Vinegar with diced onion is the best dip for me.

Cheese Sticks

Had it ever occurred that you over estimated your lumpia wrapper and you had a lot of left over? Well, you’re not alone. But there’s nothing to worry, in fact, you can turn this misfortune into a blessing with this easy snack recipe.

Lumpia (spring roll) wrapper
Cheese, cut into stripes (cheddar will do the trick)
Oil for frying
Cheese powder (optional)
Mayo-ketchup dressing

1) Roll a strip of cheese into the wrapper, sealed with water.
2) Fry into golden brown.
3) Toss in cheese powder.
4) Serve with mayo-ketchup dressing.

Home Made Nacho

I am blessed Mr. M. is one loyal man. That loyalty goes to as far as food choices. He sticks to his comfort food and very hard to convince to try other. He doesn’t mind repeating the same dish over and over as long as it’s the same dish. Like just recently, he had this love affair with nachos which we had for every single weekend for more than a month.

Nacho Chips
Meat filling (ground pork, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, oyster sauce, chili sauce, ketchup)
White Onion
Tomato
Cheese Spread
Chili sauce
Ketchup
Grated Cheese

For the meat filling:
1) Place the ground pork in a pan, add water, salt and pepper. Break it until the water fully evaporates and the ground pork is brown.
2) Saute garlic, onion and ground pork. Season with oyster sauce and salt and pepper. Add chili sauce and ketchup to make more flavorful.
3) Arrange all the ingredients in a plate, preferably in the same order as the listing above. 

My take: Home made nacho is always way better than commercially bought. It's less costly and you can put or adjust everything you want depending on your taste (as the same way as you can omit what you don't like, sorry onion (me thinks)).

Tip: You can add cabbage or lettuce, no rule say you can't do that.

The verdict:  With this snack, who wouldn't be loyal?

Burgoo, Tomas Morato

Following my anniversary post here, our lunch date turned out to be so satisfying. I was really disappointed to begin with knowing Mister M. still relied on me on where to dine considering I gave him a list of restaurants to choose from a day before. It seemed he didn't bother to do his homework (it’s our 10th year, mind you, grrr!). Since I can't locate those that's on the list, we just drove along Tomas Morato and picked randomly a restau that we haven’t dine yet. So there, we saw Burgoo and we thought we’d try it (I was really holding my tears as he orders. grrr, talaga.hehe).

Burgoo is at 310 Tomas Morato, South Triangle, QC. It's a beach-sports themed restaurant that offers casual dining with very accommodating crews (the blueguard even fetched me from the car and shaded me against the mid-day sun). Every table was covered with Manila Paper that served as their table mats, it came with a cup of crayons. I wanted to write something “cheesy” on the paper but was still really feeling bad that I didn’t attempt. Funny how the wait staff was can write her name vertically.

 Here’s what he had for lunch.

Super Sampler, Regular P425 (Large was also available for P595). It was a combination of Buffalo Wings, Cheddar Cheese Fries, Mozarella Sticks and Onion Rings. It was so huge I regretted ordering the rest.hehe Every piece of it were good. Mister M. especially liked the Buffalo Wings, I liked the Fries more.  It came with 3 special dips.

I had Chicken Dianne Regular for P395. It had 3 slices of grilled chicken fillet along with garlic spaghetti in Diane sauce and a toast. It was served in big proportion, I guess it can fill 3-5 tummies yet it had a large-r serving for P595. I really liked it though I wasn’t able to finish it in 1 sitting. The creamy sauce was really creamy and cheesy and I thought that the chicken was very healthy.

Mister M. had Hamburgoo for P395 (sorry for the blurry photo, I guess you have to trust me on this.). It had 2 charbroiled patties which was apparently a mixture of pork, chicken and beef, to complete the entourage was onions, cheese, tomatoes and pickles in sesame bun. It also had an option of fries or potato wedges as side dish, since we already had fries, he opted for the wedges. The serving was so generous that Mister got intimidated at 1st, but he thought that it was so good to leave for later.

It was still a sweet day so we cap off our lunch date by ordering a Mississippi Mud Pie for P175. It was a chocolate ice cream on a crunchy biscuit base and sprinkled with chocolate bits. We both liked the merengue like biscuit base that complements the ice cream. And yes, dessert can be sweeter when shared. 

He had Sprite while I had Rootbeer both for P59 and already refillable.

Prices subject to 10% service charge.                 

My take: The food and the food proportion compensates its prices, so it was very worth it.  

Tip: No need to give TIP, I mean, that was included on your total bill remember? I’m now regreting about the loose change we left.lol

The verdict: Burgoo was good - food, ambiance, service and all, but I still don’t think its worthy for a 10th year anniversary celebration. Peace my labs! J

Ham and Cheese Bread Roll

It was a rainy week, and you know how they associate cold weather and food. The “infectious overeating bug” didn’t escape me and led me no choice but to crave for something laboriously-yummy merienda.

Loaf Bread
Sliced Ham, sliced lengthwise
Cheese, sliced lengthwise
Bread Crumbs
Egg, beaten
Oil for frying 

1. Flatten the loaf bread, we used a clean empty bottle since we do not have rolling pin. Others suggests removing the edges of the loaf, but since it is my favorite part, I included that.
2. Put ham and cheese on top of the bread and roll them together.
3. Dip the stuffed bread in the beaten egg and roll in the bread crumbs.
4. Fry to golden brown.

My take: Though this recipe requires a little more effort in preparing, this can really pay off in the end.

Tip: Remember, the more flatten the bread the less oil absorbent it becomes.

The verdict: I need another rainy week. J