explanations, apologies, mish mash and the tropics

hello readers,

i do not blame you if you have abandoned me. i have neglected this blog for far too long! i feel guilty, i really do. the longer i take in updating, the worse i feel, making it always harder for me to bring myself to update. things build up and the going gets tough and the debbie carlos shuts down. why does it always seem like whenever i promise an update 'soon', said post never comes. on the other hand, when no promises are made, i do rather well with this thing. what can i say? it is my process. how are you?


fanore beach, ireland

my europe trip after ireland was a bit of a disaster in some ways but also really great in others. i did sample some great food and took your advice on things to try and places to go (thank you so much for all your suggestions if i hadn't thanked you already!). Though about a week after I arrived back home in Chicago, I found I had to leave almost straight away, staying awhile in L.A. and then back to my parent's house in the Philippines where I am now. I have been on the move now since July though I have stayed in Asia now for about a month which is the longest I've stayed anywhere since I left Chicago last summer.


rainy season in the philippines

One of the nicest things about coming back home especially after so long (i have stayed away for almost 3 years) is eating food you could never get or could never be as well made elsewhere, discovering food you thought were 'gross' as a child, and just generally being open to new experiences that makes home both comforting and exciting.

by the way, one of those gross foods that i did try for the first time is balut which i think a lot of people are familiar with if only by hearsay. anyway, it was not that bad and really just tasted like egg with an..er..aftertaste. or more gamey perhaps? i had mine in soup form with puff pastry covering the bowl from the restaurant Via Mare. the soup was actually quite rich and tasty and of course who doesn't love puff pastry. as if to hide the shame! asians really dig the shame.

anyhoo, going to the market is one of my pleasures even if it is just to a boring supermarket. but going to the supermarket here is really incredible which made me think about doing a series of posts about various fruits and veggies native to the philippines or asia and are perhaps hard to find in the US or other places though NO PROMISES. we all know how unreliable i am. regardless, i guess we can count this post as the first in the 'er maybe, we'll see how i feel - philippines produce series'. or PPS for short. or Pee Pees for fun.

but there are some really amazing produce here and strange things like "banana hearts" that no one in my family knows how to prepare but it looks like huge jungle flower buds about to burst open and i would love to even keep one in a vase as decoration, they look so great. but if anyone knows how to make anything with this, please let me know! some other really great fruit that i will miss when I go back to Chicago and might even try to smuggle seeds into the US are philippine mangoes (BEST mangoes in the world), and mangosteens (obviously i like anything with the word mango in it), the last one of which i will talk about. (see below)


mangosteens!

Mangosteens are red/purple circles with lime green spherical leaves aka they are totally cute! they come from a tropical evergreen tree which only begins to bear fruit after 15 years which is probably why they are one of the more expensive items on sale at the market (food here is often quite cheap). Wikipedia also notes that it is related to the button mangosteen and the lemondrop mangosteen which sounds SO FUN!

The outer skin is rather thick and you have to press down on the tops and bottoms to crack it to find white fleshy edible pods inside. The actual edible part is surprisingly tiny when you look at the size of the fruit. the thick skin is quite deceiving so i end up eating about a million of them. they are really rich in antioxidants so i suppose i can be relatively guilt free on that account. you can even get mangosteen juice - perhaps the asian version of POM?? the fruit is sweet and tart, citrusy and creamy. very juicy and even has a slightly crunchy texture. all these wonderful counterpoints! how can i leave the tropics now??

I have only been enjoying mangosteens in its pure form as I have been with all the fruits I've been eating but it makes me wonder what else i could possibly make with it. the first thing that comes to mind is a sorbet or perhaps a granita since i don't have an ice cream maker. or maybe even concoct a mangostini though i feel those are perhaps quite obvious things one can do and have all been done a ton of times and probably much better then i could ever attempt. i feel like it could go so well paired with berries but alas i have not spied any around these parts yet. any suggestions?

well this has been an incredibley long post that i hope can only begin to make up for the months and months of neglect. well i am here, i have no school and i am just mostly loafing around my parent's and buying food and then eating it. i guess i don't really have an excuse to not share things with you (and making most of you jealous if i am doing my job right). i will for sure try to write here more often.

no promises.