Today is my flatmate's birthday and I feel so lucky to try her homemade food. She did the food prep the night before and spent the whole morning cooking all of these amazing foods. Believe me when a Filipino cooks, they can feed the whole village.
We had spaghetti bolognese, creamy mushroom and cheese pasta, spring rolls, grilled chicken wings, grilled pork, BBQ pork, burger steak with creamy mushroom sauce and sour jackfruit soup with pork roast. The pasta and jackfruit soup turned out to be my favorite. Vietnamese also have our jackfruit soup but the Filipino version is quite different. It is sour due to the vinegar addition. The special thing about this soup is we cannot use ripe jackfruit because of its sweetness, instead, young unripe jackfruit leaves the soup a mildly fruity flavor that can be easily seasoned according to one's taste. Have you ever tried jackfruit before?
My flatmate also received two cakes from her co-workers as her birthday gifts. One is a rainbow layer cake and another is a chocolate cake. I prefer the rainbow layer one as it was spongier, moister and on top of that, not overly sweet. The chocolate cake was too rich and sweet for me.
What food interests you the most? What would you like to try?
Also, what does the birthday celebration in your culture look like? Feel free to leave a comment below to share with me your wonderful experience with cuisine from your culture and around the world as well.
Stay safe and have a lovely week guys!
Kia ora Trinity,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I agree. The photos should have been put closer to give the whole post a more condensed look. I will pay more attention to my photos set out in my next post. Great job for spotting that out Trinity!
Jackfruit is mainly grown in Asia so it is impossible to find fresh jackfruit here, though you can find the canned or frozen ones in Asian stores sometimes. However, the fresh jackfruit still tastes much better. My grandma has a few jack trees in her front yard so my family gets to eat homegrown fresh jackfruit all year round.
If you have a chance to travel to Asia, give the jackfruit a try!
Stay safe.
Miss Helen
Kia ora Miss Helen!
ReplyDeleteThis looks so incredibly delicious! I really like the way you've set this out and used lots of visual guides. I want to try everything cause it just looks so tasty!!
Did you manage to eat all the food? Does you flatmate cook food from their culture often?
Great post!
-Miss Mathieson
Hi Miss Mathieson,
DeleteThank you for your comment. I am glad you liked the foods my flatmate had made. She is an amazing cook and she cooks twice to three times a week depends on how busy she is. She shared all the food to her colleagues as well so we did not get to finish them all, though we still had them for lunch and dinner the next 2-3 days.
Have you tried Filipino food before?
Stay safe,
Miss Helen
Hi Leandri,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. The lamb roast sounds amazing! It would be lovely if you can post it to your blog and share with us your family's recipe. I am looking forward to it. When did the tradition start and how come do South African people choose lamb roast for their Sunday meals?
I am thinking of making one Vietnamese dish by the end of this week and I will share with you the recipe. I know you love to learn more about other cultures' cuisine.
Jackfruit is mostly grown in Asia so it is impossible to find fresh jackfruit here, though we do have canned or frozen jackfruit in Asian stores, yet it's not as good as the fresh one.
Do you know back then my grandma had a few jack trees in her front yard so my family always had fresh jackfruit to eat the whole year round.
Stay safe,
Miss Helen
Hi Zara,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. It's interesting to know you tried the jackfruit before. How did you find it?
My flatmate shared the cakes for her colleagues as well so we didn't need to finish them all by ourselves.
I remember last Christmas I went to Oriental Bay back in Wellington and had a lovely afternoon swim with my friends. I didn't know that was part of the Christmas tradition as well. I might give it another try this year.
I can't wait to see what you will have for your Christmas Eve's dinner this year. I am sure it will be much bigger than my flatmate's birthday feast.
Thanks for the slideshow suggestion Zara. I will keep that in mind in case I have more photos to post in the future.
Take care,
Miss Helen
Kia Ora Ritchie,
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely to see your comment in my post, and I am glad you liked the foods too.
It is tricky to decide what I liked best but if I had to, I would go for the pasta. It was a bit crunchy on top but creamy underneath. Have you tried any of the foods above before?
Stay safe,
Miss Helen
Kia ora Miss Helen,
ReplyDeleteWOW, just WOW! That is a feast indeed. My partner is from Samoa and when his family have a gathering they produce an amazing feed as well. Sene's family also have dishes with pork and chicken wings. In Scotland a traditional dish is Haggis - have you heard of it before?
What are some traditional Vietnamese dishes? We are hoping to get a day at the end of term where we have French, Spanish & Japanese foods for our languages topic, but would be great to have some Vietnamese foods too?
Stay safe,
Miss McCombie