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culinarykitten Once again, my friend Jo takes an idea I was toying with and says with confidence, do it. So call me the Culinary Kitten, and come away with me to an amateur foodie paradise...
I always work hard to make my first impression be "just so." There's an idea in my head of how I want to present myself, what I want the approach to be. In this case, as a blog, it's the theme. What colors do I want? What font? I start browsing the themes here and I find Manila Envelope.
It's perfect for me.
I'm a thirty-one year old half-Indian, half-Filipino woman, a professional lawyer, and an amateur writer and foodie. Manila Envelope is pretty much all of those things, isn't it?
I spend my Mondays through Fridays commuting and working in Manhattan, manila colored files and envelopes strewn in forts around me. I sneak bits of foodie in all week long, my emails a plethora of newsletters, recipes, restaurant reviews. My collection of lunch menus rivals the width of the phone book. Little tastes here and there keep me reasonably content.
But Manila is also the capital of the Philippines, and it's Filipino cuisine I first fell in love with. When I went off to college, it was my mother's recipes, full of "this" and "that" I craved. I got my ingredients home on break, and made my first attempt at what I would learn many years later (seriously, I always called it pork soup) was called sinigang na baboy. Then I was trying "steak with onions" (bistek tagalog). And then I was reading recipes like I hadn't since home economics, when Hilary Clinton's chocolate chip cookies were my claim to fame, and I haven't gone back since.
Nowadays the chocolate chip cookies are a rarity, and instead I'm making triple mocha cheesecake with chocolate icing, monkey bread for my boyfriend's family's annual Christmas Eve bonanza. Sinigang is a little this and a little that now, and I'm experimenting with our favorite shrimp Saganaki recipe, now featuring a homemade pepper paste and Sriracha. I'm taking down recipes to make my own paneer, and borrowing our favorite sushi chef's brain. Example: Yesterday. My day was spent going to our nearby Asian supermarket, acquiring Japanese ground chili powder (since, you know, I got Kewpie mayo, sesame oil, and Sriracha a while back), whipping up a batch of spicy mayo (spicier than our itamae makes it!) then going to the gym...Followed by a trip to our fish market to pick up some sushi grade tuna. We stopped by the supermarket to pick up some avocados, I stole a mango from my mom's stash, and we made a tuna tartare just by taste for dinner.
This is what I can offer you, reader -- a genuine enthusiasm for food in all forms. Consumption of it, preparation of it, experimentation with it, admiration of those who've mastered it, and hopefully some amusement along the way. You'll find tales of meals I've mastered, and I'll tell you the tale of one epic, epic fail. (Remind me if I haven't in a bit, it's funny -- it's when the amateur foodies tried to be the pros.) I've got a sweet tooth, a deep love of food, and the will to explore. Join me, won't you please? :)
I always work hard to make my first impression be "just so." There's an idea in my head of how I want to present myself, what I want the approach to be. In this case, as a blog, it's the theme. What colors do I want? What font? I start browsing the themes here and I find Manila Envelope.
It's perfect for me.
I'm a thirty-one year old half-Indian, half-Filipino woman, a professional lawyer, and an amateur writer and foodie. Manila Envelope is pretty much all of those things, isn't it?
I spend my Mondays through Fridays commuting and working in Manhattan, manila colored files and envelopes strewn in forts around me. I sneak bits of foodie in all week long, my emails a plethora of newsletters, recipes, restaurant reviews. My collection of lunch menus rivals the width of the phone book. Little tastes here and there keep me reasonably content.
But Manila is also the capital of the Philippines, and it's Filipino cuisine I first fell in love with. When I went off to college, it was my mother's recipes, full of "this" and "that" I craved. I got my ingredients home on break, and made my first attempt at what I would learn many years later (seriously, I always called it pork soup) was called sinigang na baboy. Then I was trying "steak with onions" (bistek tagalog). And then I was reading recipes like I hadn't since home economics, when Hilary Clinton's chocolate chip cookies were my claim to fame, and I haven't gone back since.
Nowadays the chocolate chip cookies are a rarity, and instead I'm making triple mocha cheesecake with chocolate icing, monkey bread for my boyfriend's family's annual Christmas Eve bonanza. Sinigang is a little this and a little that now, and I'm experimenting with our favorite shrimp Saganaki recipe, now featuring a homemade pepper paste and Sriracha. I'm taking down recipes to make my own paneer, and borrowing our favorite sushi chef's brain. Example: Yesterday. My day was spent going to our nearby Asian supermarket, acquiring Japanese ground chili powder (since, you know, I got Kewpie mayo, sesame oil, and Sriracha a while back), whipping up a batch of spicy mayo (spicier than our itamae makes it!) then going to the gym...Followed by a trip to our fish market to pick up some sushi grade tuna. We stopped by the supermarket to pick up some avocados, I stole a mango from my mom's stash, and we made a tuna tartare just by taste for dinner.
This is what I can offer you, reader -- a genuine enthusiasm for food in all forms. Consumption of it, preparation of it, experimentation with it, admiration of those who've mastered it, and hopefully some amusement along the way. You'll find tales of meals I've mastered, and I'll tell you the tale of one epic, epic fail. (Remind me if I haven't in a bit, it's funny -- it's when the amateur foodies tried to be the pros.) I've got a sweet tooth, a deep love of food, and the will to explore. Join me, won't you please? :)
