Food Porn: Filipino food in honor of the Pacman

I honestly didn't mean to go search for a decent Filipino restaurant in the OC on the same week of the Pacquiao v. Cotto fight (aka the Philippines v. Puerto Rico ). But since it happened in such synchronicity, I'm doing this post in honor of Pacman and to wish him good luck! The fight is this Saturday and I'm sure almost all the Filipino and Puerto Rican families have already ordered it on pay-per-view. I'm pretty sure there will be a party at my uncle's house which involves a lot of meat and a lot of beer. While I'm a big boxing fan, it's simply phenomenal seeing how Pacman is THE national hero of the Philippines. I mean, a life-size cut out of him was in a McDonald's when I was in Manila. That's super-celebrity right there. Despite all the political crap that happens and the poverty, I'm just happy to see the Pacman give Filipinos hope.

And onto food...

After being referred to this restaurant by a 2nd year grad, my friend Gus and I went on a mission to eat at this place. The Bay Area is full of Asian restaurants and I'm still getting used to the OC's utter lack of them...well decent ones anyway. But our mission was successful and we ate at a nice Filipino restaurant called Kabit Bahay (my neighbor) in Anaheim. It's the typical Mom and Pop cafeteria style restaurant--basically the only style of Filipino restaurant you encounter in the US, aside from the rare sit-down places like Gerry's Grill and Max's. Apparently there's a "fancy" Filipino restaurant somewhere in the Bay Area I have yet to find, but I digress...

I grew up culinarily spoiled. Like any Filipino, I think the food made at home is THE BEST FOOD EVER. However, it is my Papa, not my Mom (sorry, Mom) that is the super chef. This means that I am ridiculously picky when it comes to Filipino restaurants. I can honestly say that Kapit Bahay has great food. And I know I'll go there often and not simply because I have the sudden urge to eat Filipino food. Since I'm lazy to cook meat (aside from chicken) I unleashed my urges and ordered lechon (roast pig) and pork adobo. My brain didn't register that I ordered two heavy pork dishes until AFTER I uploaded the food photos on Facebook. Not that I regret it, but now I have the urge to jog.

Calamansi juice, lechon, and pork adobo. Heaven.

I can happily say that the food was not greasy--a flaw of many Filipino restaurants. The lechon was the way I like it--crispy outside, tender inside. And the skin was nice, crunchy, and edible. I've had a lot of lechon where the skin was overly fried so the thing was so thick that it could chip your tooth, but this lechon was crispy in a wonderful way. If you've never had lechon and you're not a vegetarian, you MUST try it. Anthony Bourdain made the Philippines #1 on his Hierarchy of Pork for a reason. The pork adobo was also amazing and had a good tartness to it. Adobo's an easy dish to make, but it's also easy to ruin if you add too much vinegar. Yes, I ate two "dry" dishes, which is very un-Filipino of me, but dammit, my carnivore instincts were screaming inside me. And seriously, Mang Tomas brand lechon sauce on rice counts as sabaw.

Giniling and bistek

Gus ordered giniling, which is ground meat (this one was pork) sauted with veggies. And he also had bistek, a Filipino version of beef steak, but the meat is marinated with soy sauce and calamansi (Filipino citrus) juice. Gus seemed to love since he ordered a 3rd cup of rice. I'm guessing the food was good on his end.

Definitely coming back to this place. The TV alone with nonstop Filipino Channel is reason enough. They were airing the Filipino version of Ugly Betty followed by a a dramedy about nuns--oh Filipino media how I both love and hate you. Now all I need is to find a place that makes sisig. The menu for Filipino cafeteria style joint like Kapit Bahay change everyday, so there's a glimmer of hope that the restaurant makes it.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Kapit Bahay is in a strip mall that contains a Ranch 99 Asian supermarket, Filipino bakery, a Ten Ren tea shop, a Thai restaurant, and a Chinese restaurant. Basically I'm coming back to this place not only for food, but also grocery. It's a relief to know that I can get my Asian fix without driving all the way to Irvine. I'm so happy to find this place. It will ease the homesickness.

Poetry: Old Stuff

Out of boredom and my own curiosity I decided to delve deep into my external harddrive and read my old essays from college. I began to greatly miss my poetry class with the beautiful and inspirational Sandra McPherson. My Intro to Poetry and my Love and Desire in American Poetry classes were some of the best classes I have ever had. As I read file after file of English assignments I began to miss poetry. It has been so long since I studied and actually read poetry. I'm the type who believes poetry is everywhere, but I began to miss the words, to write the words...and it doesn't help to have Mazzy Star playing on my Pandora.

*

*

*

*

*

Ode to Lady Lazarus

Number 3
Number 3
Lady Lazarus you’re a pity

Three times done
Nine more left
Cat got your tongue?
You only smile from denial
that can only be felt when you
shed your skin to make a lamp
for the red light to
illuminate your prostitute self
Roxanne you don’t have to put on the red light.
I don’t want this strip tease
your entertainment melodrama of
red hair. red flesh. red blood
red rum red rum red rum red rum
That’s what you want
to become a phoenix
a Venus
from the seashell of sticky pearl worms
rising from the ashes of depression
with death as your mission
to eat men with your breath.
Breathe it in.
What’s the use of this rage
this obsession with your own oppression?
He was just one man
a singular artifact
allowed yourself to be
reduced
subtracted
to bipolar mind and
manic depression-
negative.
So I carry this Nazi lamp
of your Jew linen skin
that says BEWARE BEWARE
But I don’t care
it’s a mere mellow dim
No,
You do not terrify
me
I pity you
I merely sigh
Perhaps I’m too normal for you
Your Being
too tough to chew
these words
your own kidney curd
red and fleshy fresh
that is
Your Reality
which confuses me
with intriguing poetry of
pure insanity
becoming sanity
with each stanza
a line
of poetry that doesn’t rhyme
cannot rest and mold in my mind
the subjective. the relative. the reactive
relative reality
(un)reacted by me,
a little girl
who simply cannot understand

Number 3
Number 3
Lady Lazarus—
how ‘bout pitying me?

(Can you say EMO? Although I am proud to have written it...now for some real poetry....)

On The Stairs
Constantine P. Cavafy

As I was going down those ill-famed stairs
you were coming through the door, and for a second
I saw your unfamiliar face and you saw mine.
Then I hid so you wouldn't see me again,
and you hurried past me, hiding your face,
and slipped inside the ill-famed house
where you couldn't have found pleasure any more than I did.

And yet the love you were looking for, I had to give you;
the love I was looking for -so your tired, knowing eyes
implied-
you had to give me.
Our bodies sensed and sought each other:
our blood and skin understood.

But we both hid ourselves, flustered.




(I love this poem. Simple, and it goes beyond sexual and straight to desire. Not to mention the eye-lock super glance of possible sexual attraction but maybe isn't sexual attraction and I might be over-analyzing my own life but I might be too cynical-- has happened to me a number of times and I'm too stupid to do anything about it because I'm a doubting Debbie.)

Food Porn: Weekend of Great Food and Filmmaking

Last weekend I worked in the art department on the Dodge College 2nd year cycle film, Girl with a Camera. It was a truly great and amazing experience working with 2nd year students, and I learned so much from them both from a film production technical standpoint, and also how to interact and handle a film crew. The shoot occurred almost the entire weekend, Thursday-Saturday with 12-hour days. I've come to the conclusion that filmmakers are masochistic (myself included). After a hard days' of work, I was met with great and amazing food to keep me going. Here's a recap...

Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) night: Guppy House (Irvine, CA)
Price: basically everything is under $10 (yay!)

Going to the Guppy House greatly appeased my Asian food withdrawal. My fellow art department buddies, Chih-Hao and Meng brought me here and I am most grateful. Good Hong Kong tea house style joints are hard to come by in Orange, but thanks to the high Asian population in Irvine and UCI, there are plazas filled with Asian restaurants and grocery stores. It's heaven. I was greatly craving a tea house staple, popcorn chicken. They're not just Asian style chicken nuggets, and it's utter and complete blasphemy if you think so. Popcorn chicken is given enough spice and topped with crisp, fried cilantro and garlic on top. While Guppy House's version was basically the popcorn chicken I've tasted at boba places like Quickly and Davis' Old Teahouse, Guppy makes it into a cheap, yummy entree, adding sides: rice with pork on top, sweet corn, potato salad, and cucumbers drizzled with some rice vinegar.

I totally forgot to take pictures of the place, but this is basically what I ate.

Next time I head over there I'll definitely try the Kimchi fried rice. There's also something called Shaved Ice--very similar to Filipino halo-halo. It's basically shaved ice topped with ice cream, fruit, and other things like boba or sweet beans. It's about $11, but it comes in a ridiculously huge bowl that you can easily split among friends.

Oh god how I want you, shaved ice.

Saturday night: BCD Tofu House (Garden Grove, CA)
Price: $8-9 for tofu soup, about $12 for bulgogi (Korean BBQ)


This is my new favorite place. It was the last day of the shoot and we striked set. To celebrate, Chih-hao bought me dinner here. It's great, cheap Korean food in a restaurant that's open 24 hours! It doesn't get better than that. This place is definitely the spot for tired, sleep deprived film students who finished a 12-hour day on set. Like any respectable Korean restaurant, they serve you unlimited banchan, or sides for free (!). I definitely ate a few servings of much needed kimchi.

Assorted tofu soup with banchan in the background

I ordered assorted tofu soup, and by assorted, the soup had beef, shrimp, and clams in it. The sides and the soup were just yummy and a great thing to have in your tummy after a long day's work. A fresh egg is included with the soup, so you have the option of cracking it open and putting it in the soup. The soup is served sizzling hot so the egg becomes poached in just a few minutes. The order also includes a side of rice with peas in it. The server scoops the rice out of a bowl and transfers it to a different bowl. With the original rice bowl, you have the option of having the server put barley tea in it. The remnants of rice and the barley tea make a great drink to end the supper and settle your stomach.


Sunday lunch: Blue Bayou restaurant (Disneyland)
Price: $20-30

Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the distance...

This is definitely the kind of restaurant for those "once in awhile" moments. It was great sitting very close to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Next time I want the seat closest to the ride just so I can stare blankly at the people passing by on the boat. Since it was lunchtime, we all got the dish the restaurant is most famous for--the Monte Cristo. That sandwich alone was $21. It's a pricey place, but after all it is Disneyland and you are partially paying for the atmosphere, which in my opinion, is worth it. The meal starts off with bottomless bread and butter. Then you have the option of starting your meal with either a salad or gumbo. I chose the gumbo and it was absolutely delicious albeit the small portion. We decided to use our rolls of bread to create a bread bowl--best impromptu dining suggestion I was ever give. The Monte Cristo itself was absolutely delicious and I tried to forget the amount of calories and oil that was used in the making of it. There was also a very sweet/sour berry sauce reduction that enhanced the sandwich's taste. The meal also included scalloped potatoes and sauteed asparagus and broccoli rabe. The sides were also very delicious, especially the potatoes. Yummy creaminess. The meal gave me leftovers that lasted 3 other meals, so my $21 was used quite well.

Lusciousness...

My only real complaint would be the random blue M&M that was in my scalloped potatoes. I complained to the waitress who was very gracious and who immediately gave me a new plate of food that was freshly made. She even added an additional 10% off to our existing 20% from our season pass. Strangely, the waitress asked the chef about the M&M and even he didn't know how it got into my food. It will forever remain an amusing mystery whose story will be used in many cocktail parties to come.

Yep, that's an M&M...in my potatoes.

It was definitely a weekend full of great filmmaking, great people, and great food. Now that I know these places exist I actually feel better about myself.


scribbler-chan.blogspot.com