March 5, 2006 – Pinay New Yorker

Here’s a suggestion I just might try from our New Yorker food blogger, Ces:

hi dinna..
if you can’t find enough crab meat for the crabcake..you can substitute with salmon..er canned salmon..bumble bee is what i used..tastes great too!:)

I found my can of crabcakes and I got another one so we should be covered, but I think I will try doing salmon fish cakes next time. We are truly so fortunate that salmon is so abundant and far more affordable here than back in Manila. My mom and I love having Sinigang na ulo ng salmon which is so delicious. And very cheap, too! Salmon Head at Hong Kong Supermarket in Flushing is only 99 cents a lb and a head is usually a pound heavy only!

Right now Mom and I are trying to figure out if we can bring a few salmon heads home — but the question is if it can survive the long trip home without dry ice or what not. I have a few styrofoam coolers courtesy of Omaha Steaks and Tender Fillet which ship their gourmet beef cuts in these sturdy styro coolers — one of the important items on my “To do” list — find out how I can bring home some salmon heads. Strange pasalubong but with salmon such an expensive commodity back home, worth the try.

We had some friends over last night and I had to cook up an impromptu dinner for 5. Alan drove me to the grocery in the afternoon but I shopped for stocks for the week’s menu and some cheeses and other hors d’ouvres to go with the wine we intended to serve after taking our guests to dinner outside.

But since we weren’t able to get the double bunk bed we intended to get for the two grandmas which our friends were helping us to transport and assemble, we opted instead to just stay home. I started them out by microwaving some FRIDAY’s Chicken Quesadilla which was an instant hit. Then I put some nachos on a plate, spooned some CHEEZ WHIZ and microwaved for 30 seconds twice, spooned some Busch Chunky Chili and micowaved again for 30 seconds twice to make sure it was all blended. Nachos supreme home style.

I didn’t have time to whip up something fancy for dinner so I had some canned sisig I sauteed in onions which came out very well, and I whipped up some Adobong Puti (no soy sauce) based on a recipe by Gene Gonzalez in his LITTLE ADOBO BOOK.

I must say it came out very well after a few tweaks. We had a hearty meal and I serves the cheese and fruit for dessert afterwards like the French do. (The francophile in me again…)

It’s always nice to catch up with friends, more so if they had spent more than half their lives as children to my mother-in-law. Of course they were shocked to hear the latest developments that have unfolded in the last two weeks, but like us, there was a sense of resignation to what had taken place.

Angel, meanwhile, had a ball hamming it up for his Ninong and Ninang — the boy is so sociable he immediately warmed up to everyone even if he only saw them occasionally. We didn’t get the double bed yet, but we certainly had a fun night among friends.