Calamansi Juice

Why yes, it is a lazy "recipe" post. :P

Earlier this year, I met up with Pink Candles of Ridgemont High who was nice enough to bring me a bag of calamansi, these tiny sour citruses that are popular in Filipino cuisine. Calamansi are sour, really, really sour. In a pinch, my mom uses it in place of lemons or limes in Nuoc Mam Cham (Vietnamese Fish Dipping Sauce).

I don't cook much Filipino food, so the easiest thing for me to do was to juice them.

The Oinkster - Eagle Rock

When I first started blogging, I was sad if a restaurant didn't live up to expectations or felt I had to justify if I didn't like a popular restaurant. I guess I still feel that way because I really don't enjoy lambasting non-chain restaurants. When I like something, it's fairly obvious. There are few places that are so awful that there's nothing to recommend them. Rather, I think most of my dining falls in a huge gray area -- not horrible but not great either.



And yet, even with all the delays in posting, my blog has been a way for me to document where and what I've eaten. So although nothing compels me to blog the lackluster meals, I do so anyway. Or maybe I'm jinxed with restaurants I eat at right before Thanksgiving? I felt that way last year when I revisited and still felt "meh" about Charlie's Trio Cafe - Alhambra.

And I felt that way about The Oinkster.

Tiki-Ti - Los Angeles

If you're just tuning in, we started off the night at Indo Kitchen - Alhambra, then went to Silver Lake Wine before hitting up Tiki-Ti.



I'm not much for hitting up bars, even back in my younger days, but Tiki-Ti is seriously cute! It's also got a fascinating history. The cocktail bar was started by Ray Buhen, a Filipino immigrant who came to California in 1930. After working as a bellhop at the Beverly Hills Hotel and then attending bartending school, he started working at Don the Beachcomber's in 1934. After bouncing around several other bars (click on the above link for the detailed history), he finally opened Tiki-Ti in 1961. Today, his son Mike, and grandsons Mike Jr. and Mark, run the bar and mix the drinks.

Lumpiang Prito (Filipino Fried Spring/Egg Rolls)

When Marija of Palachinka, host of the beef round-up of Weekend Wokking, declared SPROUTS as the secret ingredient for this month's challenge, I wanted to do more than my usual preparation -- a simple stir-fry or tossing them into a bowl of soup.

I had been craving Cha Gio (Vietnamese Egg Rolls) for a while and figured it was a good a time as any to do a slight variation by making lumpiang prito (Filipino fried egg rolls). Of course, I turned to Marvin of Burnt Lumpia to get the basics. The Wikipedia lumpia entry was pretty useful for explaining all the different kinds of lumpia.

Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw (Filipino Squash and Long Beans in Coconut Milk)

In honor of Marvin of Burnt Lumpia's recent appearance on tv, I decided to finally post my recipe for Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw (Filipino Squash and Long Beans in Coconut Milk). (And whoohoo! I'll take credit for him very, very briefly mentioning Vietnamese food on tv. ;) That's one of the nicest aspects of food blogging -- learning about another culture through food. Beyond pancit noodles and lumpia egg rolls, my knowledge of Filipino food was very limited. But through Burnt Lumpia, I'm finding that there's actually quite a few similarities with Vietnamese food. Both cuisines have sour soups, sinagang = canh chua ca (Vietnamese sour fish soup). Both have shrimp paste, bagoong = mam ruoc. Both have coconut milk desserts, halo halo = che. So one evening back in November, when UnHipLA said she ate really yummy Filipino food and had leftovers, I told her to come on over. The lumpia and calamari (I'm sure my readers can tell me the proper Filipino word for this.) were good but nothing unusual. It was the squash in coconut milk with green beans, spinach, and fresh large chili peppers that really made me take notice. While I could see what the ingredients were and could probably figure it out on my own, a little Googling turned up some recipes as well as the name of the dish. I used the last of my precious sugar pumpkins that I had frozen for this recipe but it was so worth it. This recipe can easily be vegetarian by omitting the shrimp and substituting plain salt for the shrimp paste and fish sauce. Although the flavor is largely because of the shrimp paste and fish sauce. :P Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw (Filipino Squash and Long Beans in Coconut Milk) Adapted from Filipino Recipes For a 2-quart pot, you'll need: 1 lb squash cut into 2-inch chunks, or thick slices About 1 cup green beans As many shrimp as you'd like, peeled and deveined 1 to 2 cups of baby spinach leaves 1 16-oz can coconut milk 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 small onion, diced 1 small knob of ginger 1 tblsp shrimp paste (mam ruoc or bagoong) fish sauce, to taste Optional: I didn't have any on hand when I made this recipe, but I recommend adding fresh chili peppers. Look for large-sized varieties like the orange and white kind. Halve and de-seed them. If you're using a fresh squash, microwave for 5 to 8 minutes until softened and easy to cut into. Peel rind and cut into 2-inch chunks or thick slices. Don't shake the can of coconut milk. Skim the cream off the top and set aside. In a wok or saute pan on high heat, add a few drizzles of oil and saute garlic and onion until softened. Add shrimp paste and mash until combined. Add squash and quickly saute. Then pour the mostly clear coconut milk into the pot. Fill the can with water to rinse out the last bit of coconut milk and pour that into the pot as well. Turn heat down to medium-low and let simmer for 15 minutes to half an hour. The consistency should be similar to a thick Thai curry. Check to see if squash is softened and liquid is reduced. Add fish sauce to taste. When squash is softened, add the coconut cream that had been set aside, along with the shrimp, spinach, and green beans and let simmer another 5 minutes or so until shrimp is cooked and flavors have combined. You can also add fresh chili peppers at this point if you wish. Serve with rice. Enjoy! So Marvin and Dhanggit, how'd I do for my first attempt at Filipino cooking? And yay! I can now add Filipino to my recipe index. :) I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Herb Blogging, a world-wide food blogging event created by Kalyn's Kitchen celebrating herbs, vegetables, or flowers. If you'd like to participate, see who's hosting this week. WHB is hosted this week by Zorra of Kochtopf. ***** 1 year ago today, a mini tour of Chinatown, Los Angeles.