Sisig

I grew up eating Filipino food and many of the dishes have created great life memories for me and Sisig is one that stands out.

The first time I had Sisig was when I visited the Philippines as an adult.  My friend and I thought it would be a great life experience to visit the Philippines on our way to Ireland.  We spent two weeks in Manila, the capital of Philippines with my uncle and cousins.  It was then that I was introduced to Sisig and the delicacies of Filipino bar food.

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Crispy Spatchcock with Pineapple & Capsicum in Shaoxing

Photo By Jun Pang

When I was a kid, I used to eat a lot of Filipino food.  I found that they used to fry a lot of food like pork belly, fish and chicken until it was really crispy, so crispy that you can eat the entire thing, bones and all.

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Seared Prawns with Noodle Salad, Asian Herbs, Vietnamese Dressing

Photo by Jun  Pang

Time is a major constraint when it comes to cooking.  I know my self that it is hard some times with such a busy life style.  I cook as often as I can but usually it is a massive cook up of wet dishes which I freeze and eat later, this enables me to eat home cooked meals at a minimal cost and time.  Apart from that, I cook really easy stuff like this noodle salad.

The beauty of this dish is that you can use prawns as the recipe suggests or you can choose to use marinated and grilled chicken thigh or breast if you have more time or additionally put more vegetables in like soy beans, snow peas etc and even marinated tofu, the choice is endless.  It is easy, the only real cooking element is the blanching of the noodles and the the searing of the prawns.

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Pho – Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

I started working as a chef in a hotel that is right next door to the Adelaide Central Markets and China Town.

As a young chef learning their trade, I could not have asked for anything more.  Imagine seeing your states best produce on the walk to work.  Can’t get any more inspiring and educational than that really.  You see the freshest ingredients and also learn about the seasonality of many fresh produce.  You get to talk to vendors and build that ever so important relationship between producers and cooks.

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Vegetarian Green Curry

Photo by Jun Pang

Lets not forget about the vegos hey!!

it seems that there are more vegos out there in the world.  I don’t know why and hey, it’s not a bad way of eating, it’s just that the world doesn’t really accommodate for them as easily as we would expect.  I’m not a vego but I can sympathize for them though.  So many times I’ve been out at a restaurant and the choices for vegos are very limited.  I like to change that as much as I can in the restaurant, I mean why wouldn’t you do it, there’s so many fresh indgredients grown from the ground that it would be sacrilege not to use them.

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Red Braise Beef

Just about every Asian country has a version of this dish.  Most use the same spices to flavour the braising liquid and the end result is subsequently similar in taste and appearance.

This is a Chinese version, using many and very different spices.  It is a very simple dish, simply place all ingredients in a pot and let it braise away for a period of time, perfect for those people who love on pot wonders.

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Braised Pork Belly

Braised Pork with Udon Noodles & Spring onion & Black Vinegar Dressing

Serve6

What is it about braised pork?  I love it but I guess it is because I grew up with it.  In Filipino cooking, braised pork is a norm, like in adobo or sinigang, a dish cooked in tangy clear broth seasoned with tamarind juice, a dish so clean in flavours, light and not too “porky”.  Seriously, you can braise pork and drink the juice!?!?  Think about it, you wouldn’t drink the juice off a roast pork now would you?

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Adobo – WARNING once you start eating this, you won’t be able to stop……………

One of the best things to eat is a Filipino chicken Adobo! Adobo is as Filipino as it can get, it’s like the curry is as Indian as it gets and tacos are as Mexican as it can get. If you ask “Filo’s” what a typical Filo dish would be, most will say Adobo. Teamed with garlic fried rice, all you’ll need is warm weather and straw hutts and you’ll think you were in the Philippines.

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