Healthy Shabu-Shabu

After going around in circles, finally we found it! Healthy Shabu-Shabu! Shabu-Shabu is a one pot meal where you blanch several ingredients right at your own table. Thinly sliced food is submerged in boiling water or broth or whatever then move in back and forth until it is cooked or simply leave it boiling. The back and forth movement makes a swishing sound. Shabu-Shabu directly translates to "swish - swish", hence the name.

The menu, apart from the cooked meals, are platters of raw ingredients. There are a bunch, actually. As you can see above, there are meat, vegetables, sea food, noodles, etc. It was my first time to eat shabu-shabu style so I was very much excited.

It actually took a while before our orders came in so I took the chance to take a photo of myself, hehe. And observe!

The utensils: there's a small bowl on a plate, 2 small spatulas at the left, one with holes in it. A pair of wooden chopsticks and a ceramic spoon for the soup. At the upper right, is a special sauce for dipping or for soup seasoning. It's pretty much an all-around sauce. As you can see there is a medium sized pot built in the table, that's where everything is cooked by no other chef but yourself. Isn't it nice? Then after a while, the waiter came and handed some more seasonings.

One raw egg, a small plate of minced garlic, spring onions, red and green chilies and an unknown brown paste. My brother said it was bagoong or fish paste, but it didn't taste like one. Then our pots were poured with a special broth. I don't know what it's made of but it's actually good, you could eat it on its own.

As soon as my pot was filled, I immediately seasoned it with garlic and spring onions. You know me, I hate spicy foods so I threw my chilies to my mom's plate. Gahaha!

Then, our orders finally came! Here's what we had..

The first one is a platter of fresh cabbage, lettuce, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, carrots silken tofu, sliced corn on the cob, fish balls, squid balls, white noodles, clear noodle and crab sticks. The next one is the seafood platter. It includes prawns, salmon strips, chopped squid, scallops and sea cucumbers. And the last one is the beef platter. These are fresh, thinly-sliced beef.

As I sip my papaya shake, I took the time to look around. The ambiance was okay. It did felt like a zen garden though it lacked a few more decorations. I love the wheel fountain. For my first time, I took whatever I can and dumped it in the pot.

Noodles and Crab Stick

Shiitake Mushroom and Squid Tentacles

Salmon and Beef

Add a few more, increase the temperature and let it cook!

I suddenly came up with an idea. I will make my own soup version and give it a name. It didn't took so much time for everything to cook. So I came up with these:

"Prawn-tastic!"

I mashed a few silken tofu, folded in some beef, added a leaf of cabbage, a slice of corn on the cob and topped it off with a giant prawn!

"Oriental Brown Soup"

For this one, I selected anything that has a brownish hue on it. Those that I found were shiitake mushrooms, sea cucumber, some scallops, beef and topped it off with some onion springs.

"Soft Soup Fast"

The ingredients in this one doesn't really have anything in common except for the fact that they are the first one cooked among the stuff I dumped in the pot. Cabbage, tofu and squid.

"Mini Seafood Ramen"

And my favorite creation! I had to arrange the noodles in a way that they won't tangle too much then cut the crab stick into thin sheets and delicately arrange them around the bowl and topped it off with a sea cucumber and some spring onions.

I had too much fun creating bowls, mixing possible combination and experimenting on a lot of stuff that I realized I haven't eaten much yet. When I looked around, there are a few ingredients left so I grabbed a few of what's left and again, dumped it in my pot!

I was enjoying every minute of it! Doesn't it show? Haha!

And for dessert, we had Halo-Halo. Yes, it's Halo-Halo. it's the first time I've seen one with very little shaved ice. A serving only had about a tablespoon of shaved ice and my jaw dropped to my amusement. At first I was disappointed but when I tried it, it was really good! The contrast between the sweetness of the banana and watermelon contrasted well with the zest of the kiwi, grapes and mango. The texture of black gulaman made everything nicer.

I really had a blast with my first Shabu-Shabu experience, I think I ate too much but it's okay, I didn't feel too much bloated because everything is boiled, not fried. Most of the time, I was asking my mom, who is sitting beside me if my sea food is already cooked. Honestly, most of them turn out either completely raw or half cooked! But you know, I can say, I have never ever enjoyed raw food this much since sushi. The most time I had waiting for my food to cook is about 3 minutes and for that, I could also say, Shabu-Shabu is not for everyone. Specialy for those who hate sushi but you'll never know! Try it!

Mom and Dad's Paluto

There's a fresh way of eating here in the Philippines, and I mean literally. We have here what we call, "Paluto" restaurants. "Paluto" equally translates to: "let someone else do the cooking for you". Now, the fresh part is, those restaurants are only a stone-throw away from the market whereas seafood is guaranteed fresh! I personally love eating here. You could ask the chefs how would you like it cooked and additional ingredients are provided by them by request. Of course, they don't have everything so you have to buy some yourself. Last time, our family ate at Mom and Dad's and after buying still breathing sea critters, here's what the resto came up with:


(Left to right, starting at the top) Calamres, Shrimp Tempura, Fish in Miso Soup and Shellfish. Calamres is also Calamari, I just don't know why it's called such here but what the heck as long as it taste good. I love their Shrimp Tempura, too. The breading is crunchy like that of the Calamares' and the meat is soft. I find it very surprising. Almost all Tempuras and Calamares that I have eaten have a harder meat texture because it's deep-fried, but theirs is different. It looks like the meat was steamed, then deep fried. Fish in Miso Soup was also good. I can't recall what type of fish it was but I think it's tuna. Miso soup is widely known for its health benefits to regular consumers so every sip of the soup was revitalizing. I also loved the shellfish. I think it was first baked, then stir fried with the shell on.

And of course, a feast is not a feast without Sisig. As seen in the photo, I mixed the sisig with raw egg. Sisig is really delicious but this one had too much chili.

And there's the rice. Garlic and plain rice. I should've ask them to put more garlic.
I just love garlic. This one had enough garlic but I wanted more.

These are the hearty soups I tried. The first one is a Chicken and Broccoli soup. It had, well, chicken and broccoli, some minced carrots, a few noodle strands and other small vegetable bits that I couldn't identify. It was by far, the most flavorful soup that I ever had. I liked it so much that I had two servings of this one. The next is Miki Noodles. Miki is actually a large type of noodle. It is thick and delicious as well. And lastly...

This is "Lato". It is sea weed, eaten as it is when harvested. It's like a soft stem with many sacs attached to it filled with gooey stuff. It's not really a "fear factor" food. I actually enjoyed eating this. The slimy whatever that oozes out when bitten is actually like salt water but not really salty. Lato is best eaten with vinegar.

Carnitine (L-Carnitine)

According to this site...

Carnitine is a nutrient that helps the body turn fat into energy. It is produced by the body in the liver and kidneys and stored in the skeletal muscles, heart, brain, etc.

Usually, the body can make all the carnitine it needs. Some people, however, may be deficient in carnitine because their bodies cannot make enough carnitine or transport it into tissues so it can be used. Some other conditions, such as angina or intermittent claudication, can also cause insufficient carnitine in the body, as can some medications.

Here in the Philippines, L-Carnitine is widely marketed as a weight loss supplement. Check out the video. Bottled iced tea is as popular as canned soft soft drinks here, if not, maybe even more popular than those sodas. Iced Tea brands included L-Carnitine in their drinks and claim drinking their products regularly will help you slim down faster, with the help of proper diet and exercise. I've been drinking one of these for some time now and I was surprised one day at the office when my colleagues told me that I am losing weight! I was like - "What?!" Yeah maybe it's because of L-Carnitine. I still have a lot more weight to lose, let's see how good L-Carnitine is then.

Japanese Food for Lunch

Okay, I didn't eat all of this in one sitting, haha. We have Sakura nearby, it's a Japanese fast food chain. I usually buy something here every pay day. (Haha, I assume you already know why.) This one here is Katsudon.

Katsudon is a popular Japanese food - a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet, egg and condiments. In my katsudon you see above I had worcestershire sauce and a small service of katsudon sauce in a separated small tub. Katsudon is very special to me because me and my close friends were eating this regularly for lunch back in my college days. Katsudon has a very interesting texture - crispy on the outside and soft and chewy in the inside. Combined with egg, a few caramelized onions and spring onions, it was heaven to me. Since then I have been trying other "don" meals.

Tonkatsu is invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or garlic soup. It is like Katsudon in terms of texture and appearance minus the egg and worcestershire sauce. The Tonkatsu that I had was really crispy and the tonkatsu sauce was really delicious - even on its own! Together with the meal, instead of having miso soup, I had garlic soup!

The soup was okay, it's not too "garlicy". It had a few spring onions, minced sauted garlic and a few onion sheets at the bottom of the cup. By the way, I eat while I work most of the time that's why you could see my keyboard. ^^

I also had this one - Tensildon!

Okay, I am not really sure if this is what it's called. I tried searching it up on Google and wikipedia but I got zero results. Anyway, if this is what the menu says then so be it. Tensildon is like an omelet. It has squid, sting beans, bean sprouts and other vegetables in it fried altogether with some worcestershire or soy sauce. It was good, but not as good as katsudon and tonkatsu but it was really filling. A serving of this could be enough for 2 people but I managed to finish everything, haha. And of course, Japanese food wouldn't be Japanese food if there were no sushis involved. So here they are - California Maki and Mixed Sashimi.


California Maki is a kind of sushi roll, usually made inside-out, containing cucumber, crab meat or imitation crab stick, and mango rolled in caviar. Unlike the traditional sushi, the seaweed wrap is inside. It has a very appealing color. The yellow-orange hue is so pleasing to look at. The sushi chef prepared infront of me and I could say making sushi is an art! I had mine with a little spread on top, I don't know what it is but it makes everything really great! The taste of mango plus the sauce made it even better! The sashimi is also great. In the picture you can see crab stick, tuna, the white stuff is squid, egg, sliced cucumber and shredded carrots. One thing that is good about these raw seefood is that there's absolutely no hint of mercury, and if a sushi is mercuryless, it means it's fresh! How about you? Have you tried Japanese food?

My Siomai Addiction

Shaomai (also spelled shui mai, shu mai, sui mai, sui maai, shui mei, siu mai, shao mai, siew mai, or siomai) is a traditional Chinese dumpling. It is very popular here in East and South East Asia. Through the years, siomai (I'll use this kind of spelling since this is how it is spelled here in the Philippines) varieties have evolved. From the standard Cantonese filling of ground pork and mushroom - to the exquisite and sophisticated mixture of other kinds of meat (like beef, sea food and chicken) and vegetables.

I personally love them. Here in the Philippines a lot of vendors selling these on the streets like in the picture...

It's a mobile steamer! With either a bamboo or aluminum container, they sell siomai by the bunch! For only 10 pesos you could have 5 pieces, unlimited supply of toothpick and your choice of a dipping sauce. Ususally a combination of soy sauce and calamansi (local lemon) with or without chili.

We have Ministop at my workplace and they sell siomai. I frequently buy a bunch and eat it with rice.



I switch between steamed and fried. I have already tried mushroom, sharksfin, pork and shrimp. They are really good when drenched in soymansi (play with words - a combination of soy sauce and calamansi). I don't use the chili though. See that small packet of orange liquid? That is the chili with a few hot pepper seeds and it's really hot! A drop of it stings!

Random Cooking: Fried Chicken and Tofu

The first food I learned to cook was an omelet. Very easy huh? Since then my fascination in cooking grew! Here in the Philippines there are a lot of foods that are cooked the traditional way using native and indigenous ingredients. Although I am really interested in cooking, believe it or not, I don't know a single Filipino dish. My approach to cooking is different, I like it unplanned, unmeasured, unexpected and unknown. I cook with my instincts. So last weekend I was assigned to prepare lunch. My mother defrosted portions of chicken the night before and I began the operation. I call this "Operation Randomness". Cook with whatever I see.

First off - boil the chicken in a mixture of lots of cane vinegar, ground pepper, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

then drain it

Before frying, I gathered anything useful in sight for the breading. In a bowl, I mixed flour, a little baking powder, a few or rather lots of turmeric powder and cinnamon powder! Haha! What a mix!


As for the rice, good thing I found this Clara Ole's instant java mix. So I just chopped up some onions, mushrooms and lots of garlic.. I just love the taste of garlic in fried rice!

When the rice is halfway cooked, add them all to the pot.

I still have a few breading mix left and it would be a waste to throw it away. Good thing I saw a pack of tofu at the fridge. Like what I did to the chicken, after slicing them into thin parts, I dipped them in egg, rolled them in the batter and in to the oil.


Lunch is served! The chicken had the aroma of cinnamon and the tangy flavor of turmeric. It was crisp and well done. The rice was a bit lacking in flavor. Maybe I should've put more java rice flavoring. I love how the tofu turned out. I increased the heat and fried it in less than 3 minutes. It was perfectly crunchy on the outside and really soft inside! Let's eat!

Korean Food - Chap Chae and Tofu

I love my workplace! Lunch is definitely something to look forward to. At the food court we have lots of options, lots and lots of food! This time I want to try more Korean food. So I ordered:

Chap Chae


Stir Fried Tofu

Chapchae is the most popular noodle dish in Korea. Adding a little cornstarch helps the marinade adhere to the beef mixture so that a little beef goes a long way. At first sight, it looks messy and unappealing to me. Well, that's how the lady served it. The clear noodles are tainted in dark sauce and mixed with lots of cabbage. I had my first taste and later on I realized I was eating it non-stop! It was really good! I like how the noodles stick together but it goes down really well, the sauce is somehow sweet, just the right sweetness and I really enjoyed it. I'll give it 8 out of 10.

I love tofu! So I got excited ordering this stir fried tofu. This one is stir fried with cabbage and carrot strips. The tofu was great, together with the vegetables, it was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. The whole contrast worked well even though the soy sauce is a bit strong for me. I'll give it 7 out of 10. I just had another taste of Korean food and I can't wait to come back for more!