Cooking Filipino

Mexica and I are working on our Filipino cooking skills. So far, we've developed a pretty good hand with Pork Adobo. Adobo is a basic Filipino food, and really pretty easy, pork, onion, garlic, soy sauce, water, bay leaf, whole peppercorns and something called "magic sarap" (which is an MSG-based flavor enhancer). Most recipes I've read for adobo call for vinegar, but Mexica's family recipe does not include vinegar. Either way, I do love adobo, it's not only easy to make, but it's delicious.

Yesterday I tried making spaghetti Filipino style, and that is a work in progress. I've mastered spaghetti in a more traditional Italian-American style, but Filipinos like their spaghetti sauce sweet and mine tasted too much of Italian spices. I'll have to try again. Today, I'm making Beef Mechado, which is a Filipino variation of a beef stew. I'll let you know how it turns out. It's been fun learning to cook in a new style!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo Beef chuck cut into large cubes
• 1 small onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 medium can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
• 2 potatoes cut into medium cubes
• 1 small carrots, cut in serving pieces
• 1 cup water or beef stock
• 2 bay leaves(laurel)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 sliced lemon or 2 tbsp lemon juice alternative
• 1 red bell pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• cooking oil

Mechado Cooking Instructions:

Heat cooking oil in pan, add in beef and sear until all sides are brown. Set aside.

In the same pan, saute garlic and onion until soft and fragrant.

Place the beef back in the pan and stir for few minutes.

Add in soy sauce, tomato sauce, bayleaves, water and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for at least an hour or until the beef is tender.

When meat is tender, add in sliced lemon or a drop of lemon juice. Place in potatoes, bell pepper, and carrots. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat.

More on "Life in the Philippines"-Rental Agent

The rental agent through whom I rented this apartment has been telling me she is in contact with the condo owner, an Australian, who insists on certain terms for the rental, which I found peculiar. She promised to clarify the issues and get back to me, but she never did.

Well, today I met the owner of the condo. He's an American (not an Australian) and until he arrived in Manila today he did not even know his unit had been rented out--he had authorized renting it, but didn't know it had happened. He had to ask ME how much my rent was. He was not asking for any of the unusual terms the rental agent had requested. One of them was that I would provide 11 post-dated checks to cover the rent from now through next year. Of course he found that as appalling as I did and said he would never do it. They had asked him for 5 years of post-dated checks, but instead he makes a payment each month. He was surprised to find out that he "insisted" that I pay the condo dues. He is paying those. He was surprised to find out that those dues are 2700 pesos per month, as he is paying only 2250 pesos.

Real Estate agents in the US don't have a high rating for honesty, but this woman we are dealing with here takes the cake.

Retirement

Well, I've retired now and I am living in the Philippines. Living here is presenting challenges all the time, but mostly I enjoy it. Nothing happens on time--and any of you know me, know that is a difficult thing for me to deal with. Things are on their own schedule.

We have an apartment on the 46th floor of the Grand Towers II on Pablo Ocampo Street in Manila. We have a wonderful view of Manila Bay. Our first big purchases were a bed/mattress and an air conditioner. The latter is absolutely essential for me, as the heat quickly makes me wilt. I'm getting better but I am not fully adapted yet.

We were supposed to move into our apartment on Monday, the 20th. Instead, we got into a different apartment on Saturday, the 25th. In between, we got delays and foot dragging and things got challenging. We couldn't really afford a hotel for an extra week, so we ended up staying with one of Mexica's aunts for a few days. They were very gracious. The pictures on my Facebook account of me reading to two little kids are of me reading to her aunt's two kids, Yuro and Reika.

Traffic in Manila is SOOOOOO BAD. I was looking out our apartment window and I can see our hotel from there. It is no more than 2-3 miles but driving would take us at least an hour.

I went the US Embassy on Wednesday to get paperwork, and that took me about 3 1/2 hours. Funny thing, the man in line in front of me was from Springfield MA. I never got his story, he was the one unfriendly man in the whole line. The rest of us talked and shared stories and it was pretty interested how we each ended up in the Philippines.

This is a little disjointed, and I am sorry for that. I will post more episodically now, if I can, as I have time. Once we have internet in our apartment, I hope to do better. Right now I'm in a public study room in the apartment complex. Next to the palm trees, the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi tub. More to follow from the Philippines, bye for now!

Courage

I have read several pundits lately who have credited Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) with courage for his budget proposals. If that is so, I guess I am confused about just what courage is. Ryan's proposals are based on attacks on the elderly and the disabled (Medicare and Medicaid), children and the poor (Medicaid). He caters obsequiously to the very wealthy and the very powerful (cutting taxes again).

In my world, it does not take courage to attack the weak, the old, the sick, the poor and the young. As far as I can tell Ryan and his ilk are the ultimate cowards.

Shutdown?

Well, the government shutdown bug is alive and well. It looked like it had died out in the 1990's but no bad idea ever really goes away, I guess. This one has been revived by the same kind of folks who were doing them before, only these characters are more thoroughly nasty than the Gingrich crew.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that every significant financial reversal in my life, except my divorce, has involved Republicans!

Boston at Seattle

For Father's Day, David took me out to the ballgame. We waited until the Red Sox were in town, which made it ideal. It was a great day for a ballgame, sunny, warm, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky. The game was tight, close all the way into the 8th, with the Red Sox hanging on to a 2-1 lead until their defense, primarily at second base, fell apart and they gave Seattle 3 runs. Seattle managed two successful bunts in the inning. Both were supposed to be sacrifices, including a suicide squeeze, but poor defense made them hits. Boston really misses Dustin Pedroia.

Seated behind us were a group of Japanese teenagers--junior high students. They were there to see Ichiro, and since we were in the right field seats, they'd come to the right place. It was not a great game for him--no great defensive plays and he went hitless--but they enjoyed seeing him, taking his picture, calling out to him and holding up their homemade sign that said "fight Ichiro."

Halloween Preparations at Ben's

I went to Ben's house Saturday and we went from there to a farm near Olympia where we got pumpkins. They had a petting zoo and a hayride and ton of pumpkins. The kids went and got started on that while I called AAA, since Ben had locked himself out of his car (I'm still not sure how that happened). I don't use AAA that often, but it sure is great to have. They came out and unlocked the car for no charge (it's good on any car I'm in!) and took care of the problem clean as a whistle. Then I was off to find pumpkins with the gang. Everyone found their perfect gourd and then we went back home to carve them. Sarah had stayed home and baked pita bread--made some great mini-pizzas with fresh tomato, red onion, feta cheese and herbs (WOW).

The Jack O'Lanterns were all really great. Each kid made one that reflected their personality and style. The bottom one is mine!