I love tuyo. Salty sundried fish that’s lightly fried before serving, complemented perfectly by either tomatoes or vinegar, tuyo is an ubiquitous presence in most Filipino kitchens. Tuyo is such a welcome dish that what foreigners perceive as the stinky smell of frying tuyo is an appetizing mouthwatering aroma to us.
Recently, I’ve been considering making a conscious switch to healthier food. Little things like switching to whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta, low-fat, lite—small substitutions that don’t give the feeling of deprivation but could still contribute to overall well-being. So, upon learning of a Healthy Cooking seminar that involved saturated fat-laden coconut milk, I was intrigued.
Encountering Singaporean Chef and “Gourmetician” Lisa Leong was interesting. She espouses healthy cooking and efficiency in the kitchen through maximizing your body’s movements and smart use of kitchen equipment. She’s such a firm believer in the products she’s pushing—in this case a healthier alternative coconut milk, that she had me convinced as well.
Ah dessert. It’s one thing I’m not too keen on—a travesty, friends would insist. I wasn’t born with a sweet tooth and while I eat cakes and pastries as a snack, I almost never eat it to cap off a meal.
But even if I decline dessert a lot, there are still a few sweet treats I never turn down. Still, a fruitful visit to Salcedo Market gave me something to photograph for Lasang Pinoy – Sundays’ Dessert theme. In the form of a delightfully rich, yet plain looking butter cake.
Such a fruity confusion, grapples. When my mom brought home this lovely scented fruit, I was all excited. A cross between an apple and a grape? It surely looked like an apple yet smelled so divinely like a grape. What would biting into it be like? Would it be fleshy like a grape? Is it related to the guapple (guava apple hybrid) or the apple-mango (apple and mango hybrid)?
