The Fat Kid Inside
Erwan Heussaff
History and culture is embedded in the food that we make. From the choice of ingredients to the method of cooking, we are told stories of those that came before us. Interestingly enough, some dishes possess similar characteristics and even presentation across different countries. This implies either past relationships between countries, ancient trade routes or…
In the Philippines, there are a lot of words for rice. Uncooked rice is bigas, cooked rice is kanin, burnt rice is tutong, and the list goes on. Another example is laruk-laruk: unhusked rice or palay that’s toasted and pounded. One of those dishes is tinupak. Quite interestingly, tinupak’s texture and overall appearance (minus,…
You Have To Try This Spicy Filipino Curry from Mindanao [With Homemade Palapa] When we think of Filipino cuisine, more often than not we’re quick to mention Tagalog dishes like adobo, sinigang, and bulalo. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Filipino cuisine is as colorful and diverse as the hundreds of indigenous cultures…
How to Make Binakol, A Healthy Filipino Chicken Coconut Soup Coconuts have countless purposes in Filipino households. Add to the list this beloved chicken soup from Western Visayas: Binakol. What is Binakol? Binakol is similar to tinola, another popular Filipino chicken soup. Traditionally, this Ilonggo dish is cooked in bamboo tubes over an open flame. This…
We mixed things up (quite literally) in The Fat Kid Inside kitchen with an epic cook-off between The Juicy Vlog and Making It Happen Vlog. I challenged the two couples to recreate my Loaded Pancit Recipe, judged by our special guest Kyle (aka Becoming Filipino). While both teams have proven to be worthy competitors,…
Thinking of a traditional Filipino Christmas? Picture this. Your elders wake you up before dawn for church, which you groggily sit through. Never mind that it’s before 5 am and you haven’t had breakfast. What keeps you up is what caps off the usual Simbang Gabi haunt: the bibingka. A local vendor stations himself outside the church…
Filipinos just love rice. We love it so much that we want to eat it for dessert too! So any Filipino knows what suman is. It’s a sticky rice dessert wrapped and cooked in banana leaves. It’s not too sweet, so while eating you top it with muscovado sugar, coco jam, or dip it in…
Now that we got the mains and appetisers out of the way, what’s for dessert? Filipino cuisine is just loaded with amazing dessert recipes. After all, we love our sweets! Many families around the Philippines have their own dessert specialty. Whether it’s puto bumbong, leche flan, or yema, there’s bound to be something sweet at…
The holidays can get very busy. When it comes to cooking for a Christmas dinner or Noche Buena, you’ll want quick but delicious recipes that everyone will love. So far, my Christmas recipes have been full of pork or heavy meat dishes. I decided to add a seafood dish because it adds that special feel,…
A staple at any Christmas dinner or Noche Buena is ham. When paired with toasty pieces of pandesal, a Christmas ham is perfect for either a light snack or as part of a hearty meal. It’s also so festive and celebratory, that every Filipino home should have some sort of ham on their table this…