Here’s a tasty, homemade twist to the canned kind. My picky 1-year old liked it and so will you!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup glutinous rice
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 can whole kernel corn or 2 cobs of fresh corn, scraped
2 cans coconut milk
Directions:
1. Combine glutinous rice, water and sugar in a deep sauce pan and keep to a boil.
2. After 5 minutes of boiling, add the coconut milk and corn stir well. If rice is tender and soup becomes thick, put off stove. Add a little water if it becomes too thick. Serve hot.
Ahh.. nothing beats a taste of home. Definitely brought …read more

..for the best tasting sampaloc (or is it sampalok?)!

The quest began 2 years ago when my husband and I settled in a foreign country we now call home. Back in the Philippines, it was easy to find the right variety — at the sari-sari store, the supermarket, even the cigarette vendor who sells them while you’re on board the bus to work. Nowadays, whenever we take a trip down the Asian grocery, we almost always check out the aisles for new varieties of the infamous tamarind candy. My sister likes it sour. My husband likes it salty. I like it sweet.
Funny how something I never bothered to …read more

Ingredients:
1 cup sweet rice flour (Mochiko is a popular brand)
3 cups water
3 cups grated fresh coconut
2 cups toasted sesame seeds
2 cups sugar
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the sweet rice flour and water to make a smooth dough. With floured hands, shape the dough into small patties, 3 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick.
2. Bring water in a saucepan to a boil and drop in the patties. When they float to the top, scoop them out and coat with grated coconut. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and sugar and serve immediately.
I didn’t know anything about Mochiko until I chanced upon …read more

Welcome once again to Trouble-free Thursdays!
In light of the big game coming up, here are some party snack ideas for the Asian food lover:
  
TOKWA’T BABOY  
TERIYAKI CHICKEN WINGS
SQUID IN SWEET HOT CURRY SAUCE 
SAMOSAS 
From my own experience growing up, I can just imagine my dad and his friends enjoying these appetizing pulutan with ice cold beer!
Now, if these are not your thing, why not try these other tasty munchies:
    
TOSTITOS WITH SOUTHWESTERN CAVIAR 
PRETZELS WITH BEER DIP
TORTILLA CHIPS WITH HOT BEAN DIP
EASY MEATBALLS 
TOMATO PIZZA BREAD
BARBECUE WINGS 

Happy cooking!

..to eat Takoyaki?

Believe it or not, these contain diced baby octopus coated in a specially prepared batter.
They immediately caught my eye when I took my son to town for a stroll and decided to have lunch at this small fastfood Teppanyaki eatery. I just had to tell my husband about it. And what do you know, he was excitedly fond of it too! We shared each other’s good old memories of our last helping of Takoyaki balls. I remember enjoying this tasty Japanese snack back in high school. Whenever the school fair is on, I look forward to finding the …read more

Here is another Japanese oddity.  White chocolate Kitcat with azuki (sweet red bean) bits throughout. Why I do not.  I could only taste the white chocolate.  Although you can see little bits of colour you can’t really taste them.  Good news if you like white chocolate.  Bad if you like azuki.

In Japan Genghis Khan is a style of cooking lamb.  It is sort of spicy and maybe includes ginger but I cannot be sure.  My only taste of this so far has been courtesy Hokkaido Original Genghis Khan Caramels.  Yes that is spicy lamb flavoured chewy caramels.  Are they a sweet or a savoury snack?  All I can say is that they are not a breath freshener.  I would like to say that everyone should try them at least once but I can’t think of any real reason why.

I am presuming that you still call this black sesame man like you would a niku man (meat bun) or a curry man (curry bun).  Either way this is a hot steamed bun made of light fluffy dough and filled with a sweet sticky black sesame goo.  Absolutely perfect for spilling in a shirt, filling up the gaps between your teeth and turning your tongue black, but still 99% worth it.  I can only handle one at a time because they are so rich but one is definitely worth it.

Here it is folks.  A perfect solution to your protective packaging problems.  Not only do they do the job of protecting fragile things from damage during shipping but they are cheese flavoured as well.  I don’t really know if they are an edible packaging product or a polystyrene foam textured snack.  Either way they are versatile and slightly edible.

What could be more ridiculous than a sweet snack called Fran.  This one is a chocolate biscuit/pretzel stick covered in a sort of white chocolate shell.  I guess that is alright if you like white chocolate but I don’t so I didn’t even try this.  Maybe it tastes better than it looks but it will take someone else to tell us if that is so.