a hearty bowl of pasta: a recipe

A couple years ago I saw an episode on the Food Network featuring spaghetti carbonara... I can't recall if it was Rachael Ray or Giada De Laurentiis... either way, I've seen this classic Roman dish featured on numerous shows with different variations. I had never had it before then but it looked tasty and simple to cook... and really, you can't go wrong with pasta and bacon. I've been cooking this regularly ever since. It was one of my go-to meals while living in Los Angeles in my early 20s, because nothing can be cheaper than cooking any pasta dish. This is something that my tummy craves on a cold, rainy day (besides pho, of course). So here's my simple version...

Spaghetti Carbonara:

Serves 2 (or 1 with leftovers).

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup half and half or heavy cream
• 1/4 grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less according to your spice intake)
• 4 or 5 slices of bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup of chopped onions
• 1/2 lb of spaghetti (half the box)
• liberal amount of salt for flavoring water to boil spaghetti in
• sprinkle of dried or fresh parsley
• fresh cracked black pepper (optional)

Directions:

Start cooking the spaghetti in a big pot according to package directions in salted boiling water. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, parmesan and half and half or heavy cream, set aside. In a separate pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and add in the bacon. About half way through, add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook until bacon is brown and crisp. Spoon out any excess oil, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Set the pan aside, off heat. Once the spaghetti is cooked to al dente, add it to the pan with the bacon mixture, sprinkle in the parsley and black pepper and toss together. Pour in the egg cream mixture and immediately begin mixing and tossing together, this will allow the cream to thicken and not scramble, about 5 minutes. Serve with extra parmesan dusted on top.

If you want to live dangerously, eat with crusty bread... but try not to pass out from carb overload! Seriously, don't say that I didn't warn you! Hope you enjoy this comfort food favorite. :)

like a kid in a filipino candy store

I am filipino. I am a filipino who grew up on mom and dad's cooking... I've got patis, soy sauce, MSG, and bagoong running through my veins. So when my family and I heard that they were opening the filipino grocery chain, Seafood City in the Southcenter Mall, we were pretty giddy. I know right, a grocery store in a mall... it's pretty weird. Filipino cuisine is not well known. Sure, every person I've met has tried lumpia, pancit and adobo at their friend's house, but not at a filipino restaurant. Somehow we haven't quite made it into the culinary world. A few mom and pop restaurants here and there, but certainly not like a Starbucks on every corner. I'd like to call our food "con-fusion"... chinese-spanish-malaysian-indonesian-american-andwhoknowswhatelse influences.

Filipino ingredients can be purchased at virtually any asian market, but with Seafood City now open, we now make monthly trips to stock up on goodies... snacks, hopia, ensaymanda, empanada, pan-de-sal, ube/macapuno ice cream, lumpia... OH MY!

The wonderful thing about having Seafood City, is the food court. Yes! There is a mini Filipino food court! Years ago, my family and I went to one of the big malls in Manila, Philippines and I remember having had a pretty good lunch at the famous Jollibee. I had to have it again...

See what I mean by "con-fusion" this is fried chicken, corn and mashed potatoes with gravy! But the yummiest thing in this photo happens to be that dessert right at the top... halo-halo: sweet beans, jack fruit, coconut gels, creamy milk, slushy ice topped with ube ice cream.



Ice cream is the one dessert that I crave the most... macapuno (it's like young coconut) ice cream is the yummiest of all, nutty and sooo creamy!

Puto is the best when warmed and dipped into freshly grated coconut.

Durian... not my favorite. Tastes like mushy, sweet garlic-onion... and did I mention that it's really smelly? So smelly that it's illegal to cut this open in public in certain countries.

Ready-made, frozen lumpias for the lazy cook. It's a pain in the ass to make your own lumpias at home (plus it comes with making your hands smell like garlic for the next week) but homemade is worth it.

There's nothing like frying a whole fish and eating it with rice and diced fresh tomatoes in patis. This is the kind of meal my mom craves the most.

It's almost time to stock up again...