espiriFOOD: Little Bad Asses

Huh? Whuh?

What is this, you ask? It's a little slice of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area with food as the epicenter. I'm Filipina American so food is always at the center.

I'll share some old family recipes and new ones from my ever expanding extended family, experiments that panned out well and some that just couldn't make the cut, juicy bits on Bay Area restaurants and food adventures, and my musings here and there. I live in a region of California that's such a confluence of a large number of cultures. What you'll see on this blog is reflective of that but from a Filipino lens. (Think Asian Fusion/Asian Confusion.)

On top of all that, my father was a cook in the US Navy so he's got some really interesting takes on gut-filling American faves all hues of Asian fare, and various sorts of European food. So, expect some guest blogging from ol' pops.

Thanks for stopping by and as my beloved mom used to say the moment I walked in the door, "Did you eat? You eat now!"

Blessings,
Monica

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Little Bad Asses

Gregorio, my dad, aka O.G., Big Guy, Pops or more formally Tatay, which means "father" in most Filipino dialects, is on a sojourn to the town we came from in the Bicol region of the Philippines. Bicol is notorious for its heat, not so much climate-wise (it's equally freakin' hot all over the Philippines all the time) but food-wise. We love our sili or tiny peppers akin to the eensy red or green Thai chilies. We also love hearty dishes of fish, shrimp and pork with taro leaves bathed in rich coconut milk. (My favorite is pinangat: ground shrimp and coconut wrapped in dried taro leaves and simmered in coconut milk. I can make it here in California but alas, it just isn't quite the same. Our town's version differs from other town's as well. More about that at another time.)

Back to the photo of the peppers. Tatay has an incredible green thumb. He can grow just about anything from seed, which he did with these little crimson guys. All the foliage had fallen off these plants but the peppers just kept coming through the SF Bay Area quasi-winter. I was planning to use some of them for some dishes I wanted to prepare at my own home but he warned me to stay clear of them. Apparently, they pack so much fire that even the well-seasoned palette of a 77 year-old Bicolano can't handle them. I imagine using one in a dish might incur the wrath of five Scotch Bonnets. So, all we can do is look at them.

Gotta call Pops to ask him to smuggle some pinangat in his check-in luggage somehow...