~ Best Filipino Food in Chicago ~

I am finally back home and will be posting regularly again! I had wonderful back to back trips and ate way too much everywhere I went. When I was in Chicago, I stopped by my friend's brother's Filipino restaurant called Isla Pilipina. It is conveniently located in Lincoln Square area at 2501 W Lawrence Ave.

We ate a lot there! I don't have pics for everything 'cause I was too busy eating :D This is my favorite! Little egg rolls that I can just keep eating non stop till I burst!

The sign is so cute. So, I just had to try some even though I don't really like fish. By the way, that's an award for the best adobo behind the sign. Adobo is an unmistakable Filipino delicacy; chunks of chicken and/or pork marinated in a special sauce of garlic, vinegar and black peppercorn.

It was surprisingly good! It had grilled veggies on the bottom. So delicious!

Even the rice looks awesome.

Yummy chicken.....I was too busy eating to remember what this was...

Super spicy sauce! Burned my lips, but it was a good kind of burning.

Famous dessert! Halo-Halo: A refreshing medley of crushed ice mixed with fruit and bean preserves topped with ice cream and rice crispies. It's going to be featured on ABC Midday News later on this month.

I love this Isla Philipina. From the outside, you may think it's the typical mom and pop's restaurant, but it's so much hipper than that. It features local artists' paintings on the wall and the decor is just very cool. I love how they present the food, the attention to the details and beautiful arrangment, that makes me feel like I am eating at a 5 star restaurant.

The restaurant was recently featured on ABC's Hungry Hound. Check out the interview!

If you can't see the video, click here.

They cater too! You can't have a party without their pancit (rice noodles) and mini egg rolls!

~ Fried Rice ~

Wow...been a while since I posted a recipe! My dad made my yummy fried rice today, so I thought I'll share with you all the secrets to making fried rice.


To me, fried rice is something I make when I mistakenly made too much rice the night before and have other leftovers. That doesn't sound that appealing, but it's a great way to turn left overs into an awesome lunch or simple dinner. The most basic fried rice contains 3 things:

• Left over rice
• Eggs
• Some seasoning like soy sauce or salt

You can put anything in fried rice, even pineapple. One of my favorite is pineapple chicken fried rice. I think my fiance fell in love with me over some of that yumminess. In this post, I am going to go over basic way to make fried rice and then some of my personal favorite ingredients.

Step 1: Heat up the rice
That's right! First of all, you have to use leftover rice from the night before. It's dryer. How do I know this? Well, at my parents' Chinese restaurant, the chefs take the rice out of the rice cooker and put it in the fridge for making fried rice the next day. So, yes, the rice would be cold when you are ready to fry it. It's probably all hard and clumpy, which doesn't mix very well in the wok. So, heat it up! It doesn't have to be steaming, just not clumpy and hard.

Step 2: Cut up the ingredients
Everything should be small, but not mushy

Step 3: Pan-fry eggs
How many eggs should you use?? Well, it's really up to you. There's not standard. I would say, about 1 egg per bowl or rice. More of less is up to you. Batter the eggs well. Heat up the wok, put some oil in and put the battered eggs in. You want to make it kind of like an omelette, so it looks like a big piece of flat egg. But, before its shaped is really set, break it apart and stir it around. You want to end up with little pieces, but not really fluffy. Put that in a bowl when it's done.

This is an action shot! See how the egg is not really fluffy like scrambled eggs?


Step 3: Stir fry the ingredients
If your ingredients are leftover stuff that's cut up, then you just have to stir it around a little to make sure it's warm. When I am lazy, I just skip this step. If you have fresh ingredients like cubed chicken or yummy sausage, then you should cook it a little longer. Put that in a bowl when it's done.

My dad just dumped everything in the same bowl.


Step 4: Integration
Sorry, a little bit of my work vocabulary slipped out. It's time to integrate all the ingredients together! First, you put oil in. Fried rice actually takes a fair amount of oil because the rice absorbs the oil really well. But, for health reasons, of course you only have to use as much as you like. Put about a teaspoon per bowl of rice. Don't worry about having too little. You can always add more.

When the wok is heated, put the oil in. Then, put the rice in. Mix around a bit. Ok, My dad put in some of the seasoning first. I don't know why.


Then, throw the ingredients in.


Then, seasoning.


Then, stir, stir, stir. Taste. Add more seasoning if necessary. Stir, Stir, Stir. Done.

See, that isn't that hard! Now, ingredient lists.... For the fried rice in these awesome pictures, my dad put:

• Squid (left over from stir fry for dinner)
• Smoked sausage (we just happen to have some in the fridge)
• Frozen peas, carrots and corn (easiest way to put veggies in and mashes well with the sausage and ketchup)
• Yes, that says Ketchup! I love ketchup!!!!! When you put ketchup in, it's often referred to as the Western fried rice. It's more like East meets West, which happens a lot in Hong Kong where I am from.
• Hot sauce. Just wanted a little kick.

Pineapple Chicken :

• Pineapple chunks
• Chicken breast cubed
• Lettuce
• Carrots (for color)
• Soysauce
  

Curry Seafood:

• Curry sauce or powder
• Shrimp
• Squid
• Lettuce (I like lettuce ok??)
• Scallops

Chinese American Restaurant style:

• Beansprounts
• Meat of your choice
• Soysauce
• MSG (haha I am just kidding, you don't have to put that in)

Don't be afraid to experiment! I have put asparagus, hot dog, crab, green peppers, red peppers, fish, white pepper, black pepper, and a whole lot of stuff in fried rice before. One time, I got really greedy and put way too much ingredients and didnt have enough rice. It was like eating stir fry with some eggs and rice in it. It was good though :) Have fun!!

~ Steamed Buffalo Wings ~

Buffalo wings are so good! But, it's fried, so it's not good for me. My dad decided that maybe he can make it healthier by steaming the wings or pan-frying instead. First he marinated the wings in Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce, available in most grocery stores and Costco.


Then, he put some oil and pan-fried the wings. The next batch, he put the wings on the plate and steamed them. Both ends up with more sauce on top. Somehow they ended up looking the same though.

Pan-Fried:


Steamed:


And, they basically taste the same. Is it as good as fried wings? No, but it's close enough for me. Both lacks that crunchiness for fried wings but they are definitely juicier. Some wings places fry the wings too much and it gets all dry.

In conclusion, if you want to eat healthy buffalo wings, you can try steaming on pan-frying them. Yum, looking at the pictures make me hungry!!

~ Balanced Dinner in 30 Minutes ~

You may be wondering why I haven't blogged any recipes lately?  No, I am not out of recipes.  I just haven't cooked lately.  You can guess why :)

I work a weird schedule...11pm - 7/8pm.  So, by the time I come home, I am hungry and just want to make something real quick.  So, this is what I made in 30 minutes last night.

Looks good?  Salad with raspberry vinegarette dressing, pasta with fresh veggies and parmesean chicken.  Yum!  I think it has all the food groups....

Does it look like a lot of work?  The chicken needs to be breaded and fried, things need to be sliced, boiled, drained.  How can I do it within 30 minutes??  The key is multitask.

Ok, I cheated a little bit too.  But, I like to call it preparation.  It's salad in a bag.  I usually don't buy that stuff, but it was on sale.  It's Prego pasta sauce, but I added green chilies (my fiance likes it spicy), red bell peppers, and onions.  Fresh veggies is healthy and doesn't take a long time to slice up.

The chicken was cut and frozen over the weekend when I had the time to do it.  I buy huge family packs when it's on sale ($1.79/lb for chicken breast), cut it, date it, and stick it in the freezer.  In the morning, before I got to work, I take a pack out and stick it in the fridge to defrost.

Now....the details....

Step 0:  Boil water for pasta

Add some oil and salt in the water.  Put pasta in the pot when it boils.

Step 1:  Beat an egg

Uh.....in a bowl.  Enough details?

Step 2:  Pour Parmesean bread crumbs into a big bowl

You don't need a lot.  Just pour like half a cup into the bowl.  You can always add more if needed, but you can't put it back once you dip the chicken in it.

Step 3:  Heat up the pan

Hight heat please.

Step 4:  Slice up garlic

Just a few cloves.  

Step 5:  Pour oil in pan and put the garlic in it

The garlic should sizzle.

Step 6:  Turn down the heat to medium high

Step 7:  Dip the chicken in the egg, THEN the breadcrumbs, then put it in the pan

Cover all sides evenly.  Do one and put it in the pan, every other piece, you should flip the previous pieces.  When all the pieces are in there, continue to flip the pieces till you think they are cooked.  Chicken breast doesn't take that long to cook.  Slice it open when in doubt.  The meat should be white.

Step 8:  Turn off the heat for the pasta

Step 9:  Pour the prego sauce in a pot and heat it up

Step 10:  Slice up fresh veggies and dump it in the sauce

Stir occasionally.

Step 11:  Drain the pasta

Chicken should be all done by now too.

Step 12:  Take out salad and dressing and mix

Chicken should be done by now

Step 13:  Try the sauce

Because you added stuff, you may want to add additional seasoning like salt, chili powder, oregano, and whatever else.  I like to add ketchup.  I love ketchup.

Step 14:  Put everything on a plate and eat!

I used 1/2 lb of pasta, 1/2 jar of prego and, half of a huge red bell pepper, half of a green chili pepper, a small onion, and about 2 chicken breasts (cut into 7 pieces).  That's enough for my fiance and I and lunch for me today.

It takes practice to get a good work flow going.  What can you make in 30 minutes? :)