Philippines : Tiny Bites

For Coca-Cola in the Philippines, happiness is reuniting OFW families

2 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 7, 2011

Coke has been my drink of choice since I was a kid, and it’s my family’s fault. Every one of my Pinoy brethren is addicted to the stuff. It was the drink habit that was hardest to kick when I was pregnant. My aunts show up to family potlucks with their own 2L stashes to avoid shortages. I even link it to my identity as a Filipino; if my motherland ever sunk into the depths of the Pacific, I suspect Coca-Cola’s stock would take a severe nose dive.

Unsurprisingly, it was my cousin, who is just an avid a Coke fan as yours truly, who brought this video to my attention. She got teary-eyed watching how Coca-Cola reunited several Overseas Filipino Workers with their families at Christmas, saying how lucky she feels for having been born in Canada and having her family intact throughout her childhood.

This ad hit closer to home for me. My father moved to Vancouver in 1981 when I was 14 months old, preparing a Canadian life for my mother and I in Manila as he struggled to fit into a foreign land. We didn’t see each other again until my mom and I immigrated late in 1983, when I was 3.5 and was suspicious of him and his intentions towards my mother. Being too young to miss him or understand the sacrifice, I can only imagine how painful the separation must have been for my parents.

So thanks, Coca-Cola, for making Christmas a little happier for those OFWs this year. I’ll drink a can or twelve this holiday season in your honour.

Categories: Food, Philippines, Yummy Products

Tortang talong (eggplant omelette) in 5 easy steps

5 Comments Karen HamiltonFebruary 23, 2009

My husband doesn’t care much for eggplant. Unfortunately, this meant that one of my favourite vegetables became unwelcome in our home. In the eight years that we’ve been together, the only times I could use it in the kitchen was during tax season (when my husband disappears into the void for 3 months) or on nights where I’m left to cook for myself. What a terrible dietary restriction.

Since our trip to the Philippines, Kurt has happily relaxed his scorn. His new interest in eggplant is thanks to a simple dish that most Filipinos know and love: tortang talong. Below is a visual recipe of the dish that is no longer blacklisted from our household.

Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette)

Step 1 – Torch Eggplant

My favourite step. Using a gas stove, roast eggplant on all sides until skin is puffy and charred. If you don’t have access to open flame (like our kitchen, sob) you can use your oven’s broiler, set on high. It’ll take a little longer to do.

Optional Step 1b – Steam Eggplant

If you are finding it difficult to peel the blackened skin off the eggplant, you can wrap said eggplant in foil and let steam a few minutes. The skin will peel off like panties at a Tom Jones concert.

Step 2 – Peel Eggplant

Remove the skin from your roasted eggplant. It should look like this. Having trouble? Try Step 1b above.

Step 3 – Egg eggplant

Scramble an egg in a bowl and submerge your eggplant into it. Fan out the eggplant fully with a fork. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Step 4 – Fry Eggplant

Heat a frying pan with a smidgeon of olive oil (low-med heat). When the oil is ready, use the stem of your eggplant to lay it onto the pan. Make sure to fan the body of the eggplant out and use extra egg to fill in any gaps. Fry for 1-2 mins on each side or until each side is a toasty golden brown.

If you have extra egg left over, you can fry that up separately. It’ll taste like the eggplant omelette but without the veggie bits.

Step 5 – Eat Eggplant

Blot excess oil off the omelette with paper towel if desired and you are done!

In my family, these omelettes are served over steamed rice and accompanied with some sort of pork. I usually eat it with pork chops but have been known to eat it with (gasp) Spam as well. If you want to be truly Filipino about it, create a dipping sauce of equal parts bagoong and white vinegar and spoon a little over each bite.

Categories: Asia, Breakfast, Dinner, Filipino, Food, Philippines, Recipes, Travel

Bites of Asia Series: luxuriating in the waters of Bohol

2 Comments Karen HamiltonJanuary 8, 2009

This post is part of the Bites of Asia series – a set of posts I wrote in December 2008 before we left for 27 days of exploring the Philippines, Macau, and Hong Kong. If you’d like updates of our trip as it happens in real time, subscribe to my Twitter feed or better yet, follow me on Twitter.

Rather than roughing it for a few days in the Bohol interior, we chose to ensconce ourselves for the full week at Bohol Beach Club, one of Panglao Island’s favoured Philippine beach resorts. We don’t plan on doing much besides playing in the water and getting 3 shades darker (redder in Kurt’s case). Here’s a bit about the place we’re staying at plus another agricultural point of interest that I hope to make time for.

Bohol Beach Club (+63 038 411 5222)

RoughGuides: “Spacious cottages with big verandas right on beautiful Bolod Beach, a short distance to the north of Alona Beach. A range of five-star facilities and services.”

Our impressions: After the run-down “resort” we stayed at on Lake Taal, we worried that Bohol Beach Club would be less than what its website promised. Happily, our concerns were unfounded. Beautiful estate with plenty of pools and white sands for days of sunbathing and relaxation. Staff are attentive and well versed in English. Not a note of over-enthusiastic karaoke to be heard, even though the karaoke room available for rent is in the Games Hall far, far away from any of the suites.

Good food despite being a little too buffet; you can usually ask for the menu and order a la carte. Wifi is not advertised but you can buy 1-hour cards at P90 a pop from the front desk. Much cheaper than the P200 they charge at the business centre on their computers that seem to run at a snail’s pace.

Bohol Bee Farm (+63 38 502 2288)

True to its commitment to promote organic farming, Bohol Bee Farm is evolving a unique, eco-friendly line of food products that contributes to the health, integrity and dietary balance of the body. Home baked bread, squash muffins, pure honey, honey spread and bee pollen are some of the products being produced by the Bohol Bee Farm.

Organic foods, originally uploaded by lolay.

Visitors to the Bohol Bee Farm are also immersed in various farm activities. Well-informed staff will demonstrate and give inputs on the process involved in each activity. Farm activities include:

Farm tour
Raffia making
Furniture making
Sewing/craft
Paddling
Basket making
Organic farming

I read a recent article in Smile Magazine, the in-flight reading on Cebu Pacific Airlines, that describes Bohol Bee Farm as “Best Breakfast” and “Best Dinner Experience” when travelling to Tagbilaran (Bohol). While we had already planned to visit this farm before coming across this article, my eagerness to dine there has now increased by threefold.

Bites of Asia photos now available

Would you like to see highlights of our trip thus far? Visit the newly created photoset on Flickr, which I will attempt to update as we jump to Macau and Hong Kong.

Categories: Asia, Beyond Vancouver, Food, Philippines, Restaurants, Travel

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