Happy New Year! and Welcome to ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie for January 2005!
The film I have chosen for this chilly winter season is Jean-Jacques Annaud's 'Seven Years in Tibet', and a hearty menu of traditional Tibetan dishes to go with.

Based on a true story, the 1997 film stars Brad Pitt as Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who escapes from a World War II POW camp and flees to Tibet. There he enters the forbidden city of Lhasa, where he meets the young Dalai Lama, and eventually becomes his lifelong friend and confidant.

Heinrich Harrer wrote an account of his adventures, also titled Seven Years in Tibet, and later starred as himself in the 1956 version of the film, directed by Hans Nieter.

01:41 PM PST Permalink |

A Beethoven Bon Enkai
About five years ago, Mark Kent, one of my oldest and dearest friends, gave me a boxed CD collection of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies. Mark is a newspaper editor for the Mobile Register in my hometown. In fact, that's where we met 30 years ago. I was just out of high school, working my first job as a typist in the Classified Department. My desk had a view of the lobby through a glass divider, and every afternoon about 3:00, Mark Kent would come riding into the lobby on his ten-speed bicycle and carry it up three flights of stairs to his desk, where he worked as a night reporter in the news department. Over time and a mutual love of music, we became friends, and soon after I moved to California, Mark began making annual sightseeing trips across the country in the late summer, with my house in the Napa Valley being the turnaround point at which he headed home to Mobile via Los Angeles.

The year that Mark gave me the boxed set of Beethoven symphonies, he raved about the exhilarating experience of listening to all nine of them in a row on the long stretches of highway between Alabama and California. So, a few months later, on New Year's Eve, my son Will and I decided to give it a try. We calculated the length of each symphony, added them all up and discovered that if we began with Beethoven's First at about 6:00 p.m., Beethoven's Ninth would finish just after midnight. That evening, as we listened to all that glorious music, Will and I made a gourmet dinner of Roast Duck with Wild Rice and Haricots Vert. It was heavenly and has since become an annual New Year's Eve tradition for the two of us.

As a caricature artist and entertainer, naturally Rene always works on New Year's Eve. He's been working the same gig for several years now: an alcohol-free gathering at a community center here in Napa. He always finishes at 11:30, just in time to arrive at my place for a kiss and a glass of champagne at midnight. And, of course, I always have a portion of our gourmet dinner warm and waiting for him.

Here's the menu I have planned for my Annual New Year's Eve Gourmet Beethoven Dinner:

Appetizers: Puff Pastries filled with Bleu Cheese & Bacon; and Crab Croquettes with Lemon Caper Pimiento Mayonnaise

Soup: Creamy Potato Leek Vichysoisse

Salad: Mixed Baby Greens and Watercress with Maguro Sashimi, Daikon Radish and Wasabi Vinaigrette

Main Course: Grilled Petite Filet Mignon, Shrimp & Scallop Brochettes, Spinach and Mushroom Tart; Steamed Yams with Honey Butter; and a Sauteed Vegetable Medley

Dessert: Chocolate Coconut Pastry with Butterscotch Ice Cream

And...we'll be enjoying it on the first night in our new home. We've moved to a lovely Victorian duplex, just four blocks from where we used to live.

Here's wishing all our ThingsAsian readers a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

12:55 AM PST Permalink |

Memento Mori
I had a completely different entry composed for today's weblog. But in the wake of the tsunami tragedy in Asia, anything else I might have said would seem trivial by comparison. Instead, I ask that all visitors to my weblog today pause for a moment's reflection to honor the victims, to contemplate the fragile and ephemeral nature of life, and to pray that some greater good will come of this tragedy as nations join together in a shared effort to offer aid.
07:36 AM PST Permalink |

My 'American Adobo' Film Review
Meet Tere, Mike, Gerry, Marissa and Raul: five thirty-something, urban Filipino professionals living in New York City. Vexed by life's slings and arrows, and shadowed by their own shortcomings, every so often, they gather 'round the dinner table for a little intimate camaraderie and commiseration over a heaping helping of Tere's Chicken Adobo, the national dish of the Philippines.

Here is a link to my American Adobo Film Review.

12:22 AM PST Permalink |

'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner & a Movie Recipes & Photos
My 'American Adobo' Dinner & a Movie was fantastic. The menu included Chicken & Shrimp Lumpia Wrappers with Ginger-Lime Dipping Sauce, Empanadas Filled with Chorizo, Whitefish Kinilaw with Fresh Mango & Coconut Cream, Tamarind Soup with Shrimp, Tilapia Escabeche, Chicken Adobo and Jasmine Rice.

Here is a link to all the Recipes and Photos.

12:15 AM PST Permalink |

My 'American Adobo' Dinner & a Movie: How Everything Turned Out
After a lovely Christmas holiday with friends and family, my American Adobo Dinner & a Movie was an added bonus to the week's festivities. Although it meant yet another day in the kitchen, the Filipino banquet was well worth the effort. And if the dishes I made were even close to the real thing, then I love Filipino cuisine.

The Empanadas filled with Chorizo and Potatoes were savory and filling, even though I took a shortcut and used canned crescent rolls for the pastry dough. The Lumpia Wraps filled with Chicken and Shrimp were fantastic, especially with the Lime-Soy Dipping Sauce. The Tamarind-Ginger Soup with Shrimp and Spinach had an unexpectedly delicate flavor, although I was a little disappointed with the color of the broth. The tamarind paste caused it to turn kind of murky and it discolored the pink of the shrimp somewhat. I may try using tamarind powder next time instead. My favorite dish on the menu was the Kinilaw. I used White Roughy for the fish, which I marinted in lime juice and rice wine vinegar. Just before serving, I added freshly grated ginger root and cubes of fresh mango and gently tossed them together in coconut cream.

The Tilapia Escabeche was another unexpected treat. I opted for baking the fish instead of deep frying it, and the piquant sweet and sour sauce was a perfect compliment to the rich flavor of the fish. The title dish, Chicken Adobo, was another success. I was a little skeptical at the thrice-cooked technique, but the result was moist and tender with a slight tang of vinegar in the sauce. I knew I must have done something right when Will's friend Jordan remarked that it was the best chicken he'd ever tasted, and my confidence was further bolstered when I discovered that the Adobo I'd made looked exactly like the dish featured in the movie.

By the time dinner was over, we were all much too stuffed to enjoy the mango sorbet and the fresh watermelon I'd planned for dessert. So those were left to enjoy on another day.

Clean-up was easy, and once it was done, we sat down and enjoyed 'American Adobo', a thoroughly delightful film. I'll be posting a review of it in the next couple of days, but for the moment, I'm moving my household to a Victorian cottage a few blocks away and will be devoting most of my time and energy to that Herculean task for the remainder of the week.

So do check back in a day or two to read my film review and to see photos and recipes for my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner.
02:54 PM PST Permalink |

ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie will have a new home next month!
After ten happy and prosperous years at my current address, I'm moving to a new place tomorrow. Just four blocks from where I live now, it's a Victorian cottage in the garden district, with high ceilings and plenty of room to spread out, a spacious kitchen, a separate room off the kitchen for my office, a nice front yard, and a little private patio garden in the back with a flowering fruit tree and space for a vegetable garden. And just two blocks from the lovely Fuller Park.

It's a little scary to be moving after being comfortable for so many years in this old place, but it's so cramped here that the walls are beginning to close in on me. Yet, at the same time, I'm so excited about moving that my head is about to explode. I've been in limbo for several weeks with it, but I did put up some Christmas decorations to make the old place festive for the holidays, and I will be doing my Filipino Dinner & a Movie on Sunday evening, the day after Christmas, with a film called 'American Adobo'.

I've studied the 'feng shui' of the new place and have drawn up detailed schematics for where I should put all my furniture and artwork. And I have a five-day window for the move. I think some of Will's friends are going to be the muscles (for a modest wage and all the pizza and root beer they can consume, of course).

I hope to be settled enough in my new place to enjoy my annual New Year's Eve Gourmet Beethoven Dinner with Will. Every New Year's Eve, we put on Beethoven's First about 6:00 p.m. As the music unfolds, we prepare and enjoy a gourmet dinner together, and the Ninth finishes just at midnight when Rene arrives for a kiss and a glass of champagne after working his annual event at a local community center.

Can't hardly wait!
01:10 AM PST Permalink |

Merry Christmas
In the spirit of this sacred holiday season, let us pray for peace, and above all, tolerance and acceptance of humanity in all its glorious diversity. Peace and Blessings to my precious family and friends, and to my readers, one and all.
09:55 AM PST Permalink |

Christmas Eve
This Christmas is going to be different for me in so many ways. My son's father is traveling for all but two days of the winter break, so Will is with me 'til New Year's Day. Will, Rene and I usually open gifts on Christmas Eve morning, then go to Rene's for another celebration with his family in the evening, after which we take Will to his dad's around midnight. The day after Christmas, Will usually goes to L.A. to visit his grandpa and cousin Josh.

But this year it's all going to be different. We will have Christmas Eve at Rene's sister's house (the same one with the big Halloween party), and then we will spend the night at my place and open gifts here on Christmas morning, just like regular folk :>) I'm going to make French beignets (little deep-fried pillows of heaven, dusted with confectioner's sugar) and fresh fruit for brunch.

For my contribution to Rene's Christmas Eve family gathering, I am going to revisit a couple of recipes I've made in recent weeks. I've decided to make the Stuffed Mushrooms and the Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese and Capers from my Thanksgiving feast, and the Kufteh Sabzi Meatballs in Tomato Sauce from my 'Children of Heaven' Iranian Dinner & a Movie. They were all so easy to make, and all so delicious that I have no doubt they will disappear from the buffet table faster than you can say 'Feliz Navidad'.
12:07 AM PST Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients & a Tally of the Cost of Dinner
I went shopping for all my fresh ingredients today and got very lucky at one of our local Mexican groceries. They have an in-house butcher shop with fresh meats and seafood at some of the lowest prices in town. I also found many of my specialty items there, including jicama root, tamarind paste, chorizo, jalapenos, and fresh mangoes. I had to go to another grocery store for the Asian items like ginger root, bok choy, bean sprouts, and oyster sauce.

Since the holiday weekend is upon us, I had to shop a couple of days early, as all the grocery stores will close early on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Christmas Day. I'm going to make my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner the day after Christmas, and since the produce at the grocery store on Sunday won't be any fresher than what's in my fridge, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything will keep in my crisper and freezer until I'm ready to use it.

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner

The cost of the ingredients for my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already have in my pantry. Of course there will be lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Filipino cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Tamarind paste or powder - .75
Jicama Root - .57
Oyster Sauce - 2.59
Chili Garlic Sauce - 2.49
Patis - 2.49
Cinnamon - .99
Pastry Crust - 3.58
Palm or Rice Vinegar - 2.49
Coconut Milk - 1.49
Sesame Seeds - .99
Sesame Oil - 3.59
Soy Sauce - 1.99
Bay Leaf - .99
Chorizo - .91
San Miguel Beer - 4.99

Fresh Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts - 1.41
Chicken Legs & Thighs - 2.99
Ground Beef - 6.22
Shrimp - 3.99
Fresh White Fish - 4.99
Whole Fish - 1.07
Limes - .50
Onions - .48
Garlic - .66
Carrots - .29
Scallions - 2.07
Potatoes - .35
Jalapenos - .07
Butter Lettuce - .99
Vinegar - 1.19
Ketchup - 1.49
Ginger - .50
Red & Green Peppers - .94
Green Beans - .81
Napa Cabbage - 1.15
Bean Sprouts - .49
Bok Choy - 1.61
Tomatoes - 1.49
Spinach - .99
Rice - 1.49

Basics:

Eggs - 1.12
Cornstarch - 1.19
Flour - 1.99
Cooking oil - 2.49
Sugar - 1.59
Brown Sugar - 1.19

Total - (in U.S. $) $78.70

12:30 AM PST Permalink |

Taking Photos of My 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner
This month, both Will and Rene will be joining me for my 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner & a Movie. We have also invited Will's best friend Jordan. So, I will have plenty of help with taking photos of all the dishes as they come out of the kitchen. Again, we will probably be using Rene's digital camera, as his photos always seem to turn out the best. Something tells me however, that it's the one holding the camera that makes all the difference.
12:22 AM PST Permalink |

Revisiting My Filipino Recipes
Since I research recipes and decide on the menu so early each month, I always like to go back and review them just to be sure I've included all the ingredients on my shopping list, and that I have a preparation plan clearly fixed in my head.

The recipes I use for each meal are derived from a variety of cookbooks, as well as from the Internet. Once I research the cuisine in general, along with dozens of specific recipes, I have a strong a sense of the way the ingredients are combined to produce the unique flavors of each culture. And as I prepare each dish, I improvise and personalize the recipe so that it becomes my own.

I'm kind of a 'kamikaze cook', in the sense that I dive headlong into a recipe, making things up as I go along, and therefore it is extremely rare for me to follow a recipe to the letter. There are also certain foods that I can't or won't eat, so I sometimes have to adjust a recipe accordingly, by either omitting or substituting certain ingredients.

The menu for this month's 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner features Lumpia & Empanada appetizers; Sinigang, a Tamarind Seafood Vegetable Soup; Kinilaw, a Spicy Fish Salad in Coconut Cream; the two-dish main course will be Chicken Adobo and Escabeche; with Fresh Tropical Fruits and Coconut Sorbet for dessert.
12:16 AM PST Permalink |

Deciding What to Wear
The weather has turned quite cool here in the Napa Valley, so my kitchen attire will have to be somewhat more insulating than usual. But given the tropical nature of the meal, I still want to keep it colorful. I have a leotard with long sleeves, and several brightly patterned skirts and sarongs. One of them is bound to strike my fancy on the day of the dinner.

Traditional Filipino garments were strongly influenced by the presence of the Spanish during Colonial times. For women, an ensemble called the Terno was customary. It consisted of four garments: a long-sleeved blouse called camisa; a shawl called alampay or panuelo; a long skirt called saya, overlaid with a shorter skirt called tapis, which was worn mostly by servants and peasants. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, women wore a Chinese-style kimono over the saya skirt.

For men, the traditional garment is called the Barong Tagalog, an embroidered tunic with a round neckline and long sleeves, made of fine, translucent cloth called pina, woven from the fibers of the wild pineapple plant using a treadle-powered loom. The finished Barong Tagalog is embellished with delicate embroidery, and each region has its own distinctive style. The Barong Tagalog is worn over loose fitting trousers.
12:05 AM PST Permalink |

Special Cookware
As best I can tell, Filipino cuisine requires no special cookware. Of course, any meal is always easier to prepare with modern conveniences such as an electric rice cooker and grill, both of which I have. And I will probably use my tabletop hot plates to keep some of the dishes warm throughout the meal. But other than that, I think my set of garden variety non-stick cookware, plus my wok will serve me just fine for this meal.
12:20 AM PST Permalink |

Beverages to Go With My 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner
With the exception of the Muslim population in the south, the consumption of spirited beverages is an integral part of everyday life for the inhabitants of the Philippines. Bars and outdoor beer gardens are popular meeting spots for the locals, where Tanduay is a favorite brand of rum, and San Miguel beer is not only the most prevalant local brand, but is also exported to countries all over the world.

The rural areas are known for several types of home brews, including a wine called tuba, made by extracting the sap of the coconut trees, which is then allowed to ferment. This same coconut sap can also be distilled into a stronger spirit called lambanog. In the Cagayan Valley, the Ybanag people make a very strong corn spirit called layaw, and in the northern province of Luzon, a wine called tapuy is fermented from rice. The Kalinga and Ilocano people make a sugarcane wine called basi, and the vineyards of Cebu and Ilocos produce wine made from grapes.

The coconut wine sounds especially appealing, but if I can't find any, a nice cold San Miguel will do nicely as an accompaniment for my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner.
12:06 AM PST Permalink |