Some entries that I look forward to making:
- My disasterous attempt at Ginataan Halo-Halo (also known as Ginataan Bilo-Bilo), which was the dish that got my culinary muses bothering me in the first place because my family's cook, Minda, made just the best version of it. My version was... such a disaster!
- A comparison of San Marino canned tuna paella to Century canned tuna paella, but okay, I can give it away in one sentence: San Marino's tastes like it has pandan in it, which might be weird, but both are okay.
- Pumpkin spice!!! I love pumpkin spice. I'd flavor everything with pumpkin spice if I could, and I did...or, I tried to.
- Sibot soup with misua noodles and catfish.
- I compared two different kinds of patola, which even the grocer got confused with, "Wait, they're both patola? They don't look the same. Let me call my manager because the produce code must be wrong..."
- A restaurant review! Health Break. Z-Compound, 33A Malingap St., Teachers' Village, Quezon City. I had the golden-brown coconut-oil fried cream dory with potato wedges dusted with cheese. It was good. I shall post a real entry sometime.
- Macaroni pudding: macaroni boiled in milk with raisins, orange rind, spices and sugar (and an optional splash of brandy, but I used white wine instead because...)
- Comparison between mock and cheese (cheeseless macaroni and cheese, because I was broke then), a real macaroni and cheese that's sort of a cross between carbonara and hollandaise sauce (because I was up for cheap experimentation then), and a victorious final recipe to show how far I've come (macaroni and fondue cheese, with cheddar, emmental, white wine and cayenne pepper... because I was reckless then.)
But first: getting back to basics.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization defines a staple food as a food that is eaten routinely, and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet in a given population, supplying a large fraction of the needs for energy-rich materials and generally a significant proportion of the intake of other nutrients as well.
Most people live on a diet based on just a small number of staples.
Most of the time, I trust my body. It will express its need for iron by giving me a craving for a burger, for example. At other times, something like corn on the cob will make my hyperacidity act up, and I know this, but if I followed my craving for corn then I'd eat as much as I possibly can in one sitting--which makes me think that my body actually does not know what's good for us.
I try to develop better judgment by reading up on nutrition and seeing what's the best option that I can follow when I crave so-and-so food, or what's best to fill it while I'm hungry.
From my extensive research (meaning, Google and random health blogs)--everything is bad to eat. Everything. Every staple food.
White rice is pure carbohydrates that become indistinguishable to the body after digestion to just pure sugar. Not-white rice has phylates and lechtins that cause cramps and toxins to form in the body. Pasta has gluten, which even those without Coeliac's disease can suffer the effects of. Bread has gluten and is the same empty sugar-calories as rice and pasta that lead to sugar crashes and poor growth, healing, and organ development. Rice and wheat noodles have the same problem as rice and bread. Egg noodles, which at least have some protein, are more expensive. Oatmeal has been my default lately, although that's also relatively expensive and my godmother told me that they have something unhealthy that I forgot what exactly it was.
While I would usually conclude that we must have evolved by now to be tolerant of most aspects of stuff that keeps us alive, I did wonder what I would turn to if I listened to every dietary or culinary alarmist.
That's why lately, I've been having saba bananas.
My preferred method is to just wash them and stick them in a rice cooker with their skins still on. I used to peel them green and raw and slice them and fry them in oil, but I didn't like getting the raw sap on my hands. The sap turns black and sticks to the rice cooker pot, making for a lot of scrubbing later on, but overall I find this easier.
Note that the ones in the photo are already yellowing. When the saba bananas are very green, then they must be cooked thoroughly so that they can be eaten. Very green bananas have the taste and texture of a white kamote. Yellow saba bananas can technically be eaten raw because they're ripe, but I prefer just a little toastiness to them, and they can be slightly sweet to very sweet. A slight sweetness can add some interest to traditional dishes such as sliced, fried saba banana with sunny-side-up egg and garlic rice.
I prefer them either very, very green or decidedly yellow instead of something in-between, most of the time.
They turn black in the cooker pot. I turn them over after the rice cooker clicks, and wait until the cooker will let me set it to "cook" mode again. With the very green ones, I repeat the above process about four times so each "side" of the banana gets exposed to two cook cycles of heat, and then I keep them all on "warm" for about twenty minutes. Yellow saba bananas have a much shorter cooking time than the very green ones, maybe only needing two "cook" cycle repeats and no "warm" leaving.
Now to peel them! First, I begin by sticking a fork into the tip of the banana and prying the peel back:
Next, I pinch the stem and push the fruit out of the peel. If properly cooked, this should be very easy. Note that I do this all while they're still hot, because if I leave them to cool then they shrink a little like prunes or raisins, the fruit inside becomes slightly stiff, and more difficult to remove from the skins.
Because these bananas were yellow, I can eat them on their own. When they are very green, I can have them with blocks of commercial cheese, or peanut butter and raisins. Whatever goes with something starchy and bland.
