In elementary school there was a girl who would eat tomatoes out-of-hand, like most people crunched apples. I would watch her, slightly in awe, slightly in horror, as she reached into her lunchbox and pulled out a whole tomato and take a bite. It was so outré! Come on, this wasn’t a traditional piece of fruit! But yet! These were in the days that I did not fully appreciate the wonders of a perfectly ripe, raw tomato. I had yet to see the light. What can be said about youth?

Now I fully get the appeal. It is the height of tomato season on the East Coast. Each week, at the farmers market, I buy far too many, but I manage to squeeze them into every meal, every which way. There are salads and sauces, and quick sautés. Then there is one farmer at the market that sells “tomato with issues,” those fruits that look less than stellar. They may be bruised, or slightly blighted. Many customers wrinkle their noses at this box; they are looking for the lovelies. These people are not even swayed by the rock bottom price! But I love these seconds, they encourage me to make one of my favorites– Tomato Bread Soup or Pappa al Pomodoro.

TomatoBreadSoupSimple, bright, and fairly quick, for me, this dish is the epitome of summer! And this dish works under one of my favorite principles of frugality. Fresh tomatoes and torn bits of dried bread (left from yesterday’s bruschetta or sandwiches) are simmered together. The tomatoes exude their juices, the bread swells then falls apart– you can help this along by gently crushing the softened bread with the back of a large spoon. The soup cooks awhile, then the heat is turned off. A handful of Parmesan cheese, some torn basil, and a drizzle of good olive oil, and you’re ready to go!

The soup is like the best baby food known to man– soft and sumptuous. It’s filling though, with the consistency of a brothy risotto. When you’re making this at home, I urge you to only use water in the soup’s composition. I find that broth of any kind can be too strong in flavor. It masks the tomato, and they are the star of the show!

Exploring other food blogs is always a source of inspiration for me. I love tap-tapping on my laptop late into the night, or early in the morning when I have my coffee and all is still, surfing the ever-changing WWW-landscape, uncovering treasures at ever turn. The recipes file on my hard drive is bursting with deliciousness (and a tremendous back-log!) from all the picture perfect dishes I have picked up here and there fabric labels.

But I wonder how many of the not-so-perfect ones make it out here? Should we even bother putting out our less-than-stellar attempts? I think so. Once in a while I don’t mind reading about how this didn’t turn out quite the way it was expected to; or how that just seemed to go wrong at every turn. Why? Because the thing I like best about blog dishes is human on the other end – yup, that’s you! Yes, you without the test kitchen nor legions of assistants. You that sometimes produces moments of culinary brilliance, and sometimes just needs to get dinner on the table in 20 minutes after a stressful day at work. You who would love to buy organic and free-range everything, but sometimes has to make do with pre-packed flim-flam and parmesan cheese in that bright green container.
Here’s a less-than-stellar moment (one of many I tell you!), from my kitchen to yours…

My best friend K brought me back a hefty bag of Pancit Bato from her trip to Camarines Sur. After our first trip to Bicol, the magazine sent her back to do a more in-depth feature on the water sports complex at Camarines Sur. In between whipping around the cable park attached to a board, and exploring the gorgeous islands of Caramoan, she managed to get me some fresh Pancit Bato noodles. Bato in Tagalog (the Filipino dialect where I live) means stone (or rock). These aren’t noodles of stone tough…they are named after the town of Bato in Bicol, where they are made. After the noodles are prepared, they are baked for a bit in a pugon (wood-burning oven) giving it its special toasty flavor. The fresh noodles will only last 7 days at room temp – as K was advised not to place them in the fridge. So after their journey back with K, I was all excited to use them Ergonomic Chair!

K dropped them off at my place with instructions and tips, and I got to them right away. The instructions called for cooking them in water and Knorr Meaty Seasoning, then adding veggies and maybe some kind of meat or seafood. K said the one she ate had bits of pork and kikiam (the Chinese que-kiam – made of ground meat and vegetables and wrapped in thin bean curd sheets). C wanted chicken and shrimp. So I just tossed everything in – bits of pork belly, slices of chicken fillet, shrimp, and kikiam – along with some garlic and onion, and thinly sliced carrots and cabbage.

Perhaps the amount of my improvisation confused my poor noggin into forgetting some basic rules: Do not over-cook noodles. Do not over-cook shrimp. Do not over-cook veggies Day Trip to Hong Kong & Macau.

Do you all love Mexican food? Good. I’m glad you’re here. Because as much as I love Asian food, sometimes I just crave a good burrito, taco, or chimi. Or chips and salsa ahhhhve course. But I think there are two types of Mexican food Bo Ying Compound Eu Yan Sang. There’s the kind you get at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida where your meal is made fresh right in front of you. And there’s the old school type where it’s all delivered to you on a plate…say, at a sit-down restaurant. While the latter can taste good, I can’t say I’m a big fan of the presentation. In fact, I often refer to it as “vomit on a plate.” Everything is thrown together in one big, gooey, sloppy mess. Your burritos or your enchiladas are covered in sauce and cheese and are hardly recognizable. And oh, is that rice under that saucy, cheesy mess? And the beans are mixed in there somewhere, too. It’s like a casserole that’s not meant to be a casserole Bo Ying Compound Eu Yan Sang.

So if I had to choose, I would definitely opt for the fresh Mex…where you can savor the individual flavors and textures of the fresh veggies, meats, rice, and beans when they aren’t smothered in a gooey, cheesy blanket of sauce Veda Salon.

One of my favorite Mexican dishes is fajitas, and I love that they’re so quick and easy to make at home. Until this Chili’s copycat recipe for Marinated Steak Fajitas, I relied (gasp!) on a fajita seasoning packet for the extra punch of flavor. And don’t get me wrong, those seasoning packets are great. But I find that sometimes the fajita seasonings overpower the natural flavors of the meats and veggies. Ya know? All the exciting fillings you lovingly pile onto your tortilla end up tasting the same.

But not with these Marinated Steak Fajitas. The deliciously sweet-zesty marinade adds just enough zing to the fillings to make them interesting (and by interesting, I mean your mouth will be like, “Ole, baby!”) without detracting from their yummy natural flavors. This really has become a new family favorite. Sorry, fajita seasoning packets. Was nice knowing you Veda Salon…