It was never the tradition of our family to celebrate Halloween. You will find most of the Filipino household, if not all, celebrating Halloween at the cemetery. We stay there for the whole lot of Halloween so we can pray for our dearly departed.

I once thought I could be a Playboy bunny or a whore for Halloween. Of course, my Mom said no. I also wanted to be Maria Ozawa or any porn star for that matter, again, my Mom said no. I know these limitations in our family makes Halloween sound so boring but it really isn't especially when you hear stories about mythical creatures and the (walking) dead. Ghost stories usually make Halloween exciting for people like me who don't get to go to parties. It's more fun especially when the story is being told at midnight and the wind is as cold as hell in the cemetery. Awoooooo!

In my kind of work, things get easily boring. Ciggies, food and coffee keep me up at night. If you're familiar with UP-Ayala Technohub, yup, that's where I work. Just right in front of UP Diliman. And you know what, the food chains can be pretty boring especially if you've been working at the place for 2yrs now. KFC, Reyes BBQ, Mini Stop, Ral's, Pizza Hut, Flapjacks, etc. This may look like a lot of variations including pantry food but believe me it gets tiring in the long run. #firstworldproblems

A different company has their own version of Banchetto and we go there every Friday to put some color into our lives. Imagine my excitement when I saw on Twitter that Mercato is going to be invading my workplace, yes, my workplace! Well, in entirety, it's not just my workplace but yeah. I was pretty excited because that meant a new selection of food to choose from. Knowing Mercato, it will be expensive. I guess that's the price we have to pay just to have some variation. And so we welcome, Mezza Norte!

                           

I tried googling what Tilapia is in English, for readers who are not from the Philippines, the closest that I got was St Peter's Fish. I hope you have it in your neighborhood so you can try this recipe too!

You will need the ginger, salt, vinegar and the tilapia. In our practice, we put ginger on the bottom of the casserole and on top of the fishes, basically smothering them in ginger. This will help get that fishy stink out. In kampangan cooking, or maybe just in our household (lol), we don't measure ingredients. We just gauge how much of this or that is needed. Hope that helps.

Wait for it to simmer down, you will see a change in color. The fish will slightly turn brown. It will probably take around 5 minutes depending on the kind of fish you're using. You can also use Bangus (Milkfish). I think for the tilapia, it took me 5 mins.

After it has simmered down, time to put the eggplants and add a glass of water. Use a small glass, you wouldn't want your paksiw overflowing with soup.

Wait for the eggplant and the fish to cook. Once the texture of the fish and the eggplant is fine with you, it's fine with me too. Hahaha! Add some salt or vetsin if necessary.

After step 4, you can put the sili (chili). Let it boil for 1-2 more minutes. The sili is optional, in our household we like it spicy. Yum. Ready to serve!

Btw, when I was taking photos while cooking this, I noticed that it's not that colorful. Then it came to me, I forgot to put the chili! Stupid. And now I'm doing this step by step tutorial on how to cook it. Lol.

With regard to the measurement, I/we don't really measure. We do the tantsa method. If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to holler. This tutorial is a bit vague but I hope it still helps! Link me your photos or entries if you're going to try it!

Happy Tuesday!

A couple of weeks ago, the boyfriend invited me to come with him to Baguio so I can meet his parents. His parentals have been in the UK for quite sometime, I met his dad when we were still in college but not his Mom. I was quite nervous, with the television feeding us with thoughts that our lover's parents are supposed to disagree with everything and they're not suppose to like you by default.

Before entering their house, I have tried every delaying tactic so we can prolong the agony, but alas, we had to come in. Upon going inside the house, we were surprised that his Dad was on his way out and his Mom is out. Yesss! I think God heard me. We slept for we were too tired from the trip, when I woke up it was already time for dinner. This time, I can't delay the meeting anymore because we will be eating in one table. When we went to the table, his mom was smiling and said hi. She was friendly. Contrary to popular belief, she's not scary after all.

The weekend was a blast and his mom was kind beyond words. His dad on the other hand is a natural comedian, he also told me stories about Mountain Province and I was a giddy little girl all ears. I couldn't be more thankful for the weekend. I also met his extended family, I hope the photos justify how good the weekend was for me.

 In this photo, you can see the birthday girl trying to dab some lip gloss onto her lips as if preparing for a debut party and the debutante is about to come out in her shimmering gown. At least that's how we thought it should go.