Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

I confess tokwa was not a frequent resident in my kitchen a few years ago. Let me say that again. I was not a tokwa lover before. I didn’t usually buy tokwa dishes. Is there any better way of saying that? Well, honestly I didn’t like tokwa very much. But one day, I had a chance of eating fried pork and tokwa (popularly known as tokwa’t baboy) prepared by Cafe 1475 in the hospital where I work. Oh, I hate to admit that I liked it! ;)

I couldn’t recall when I first had my first taste of Bulgarian sausage. What I do remember is that I fell in love with it at first bite. Since then, my freezer never ran out of stock. 

Saturday morning. Late breakfast... again! Not in the mood to go marketing but my hubby asks for fish for lunch. So to the market I must go! I really did. I was fortunate to buy my favorites--- tuna, salmon belly and white pampano.  Next stop, the veggie stall. But wait, my favorite veggie vendor is gone! Her stall is closed! Sad! That meant I really had no other choice but to visit the next stall. Looking at the vegetable display while thinking of a dish to prepare for lunch, a different kind of string beans caught my attention. The lady vendor said it's French beans (haricot vert or filet beans, ooopppsss, the veggie vendor didn't tell me that. I google searched for the term :)) Definitely not green ( Baguio ) beans. This type is longer, thinner and crisp. They look skinny and shorter than the regular long string beans ( sitaw ) commonly seen in the market, I was intrigued all the more when the lady said it's best for salads, though she gave me an...

Today, while reviewing some old posts in my dashboard, I came upon this article I posted almost three years ago. Click this link  A Legacy from my Mother-in-Law   to read. The post features a recipe book owned by my husband's mother that he (Billy, my husband) gave me after we got married. Tomorrow, being Mother's Day, I thought of making a sequel to it by featuring a dish I learned from this book. That is to honor its owner, the woman whom God used to bring to life my husband, even if I never came to see or know her in person.  So here, I'm featuring the original recipe of one of Billy's favorite dishes found in Aling Charing's recipe book. Oh, here's my disclaimer for you who might also own this recipe book. I took effort at translating the recipe because almost the whole book is written in Filipino. Kilawing Labanos Ingredients: 8 medium-sized radish, sliced thinly 1/4 kilo librillo at lapay ng baka  (may substitute shrimps or pork) 1 oni...