The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
If you Google “Hainanese Delights”, the results will give you the web sites of (1) a restaurant in Penang, Malaysia and (2) write-ups and the Facebook page of a Philippine restaurant with the same name. Whether the Philippine Hainanese Delights is related to the Malaysian Hainanese Delights, I do not know. But, judging from the ... (more)
I love pot pies. I love the surprise hidden underneath the golden crust, I love the steam that hits your face as you break through the crust, I love the contrast between the flaky crust and the creamy filling. In fact, I love savory pies more than sweet pies. And it doesn’t matter if the ... (more)
It was Sam who gave us our first taste of watermelon iced tea. She cut seedless watermelon into small cubes, dropped them into glasses of iced tea, gave Speedy and me each a glass and, oh wow, were we wide-eyed with surprise! So simple, so basic, so very refreshing. How could we not have thought ... (more)
Armed with the information that saluyot is slimy, I combined the saluyot leaves with spinach to make a chunky soup that wouldn’t be too slimy that Speedy and Sam wouldn’t touch it. As it turned out, Sam ate a little, then balked at the sliminess but at least she tried it. Next time, I’ll add ... (more)
It doesn’t have the prettiest name in the world. Even from the auditory standards of a native Filipino speaker like me, saluyot conjures images of something dark and musty and… Okay, maybe, I’m biased because saluyot sounds similar to kuyukot and I can’t shake off the association, even if only imaginary. The first time I ... (more)
If you follow health and medical research news, you might be interested in findings that drinking coffee regularly can lower the risk of depression among Asian women. It has to do with the effect of caffeine on the level of estrogen.
Some soups are so hearty that they can be the main dish. We have a lot of that in the Philippines where, as a practice, we don’t serve the soup ahead of the main dish. Soups dishes like tinola, nilaga (literally, boiled) and sinigang (a sour soup with meat or seafood), for instance, are normally ... (more)
We bought a pack of seafood balls and sticks — the kind one often finds at shabu-shabu restaurants. Then, I bought a pack of soup bones. When we got home, I made broth from the soup bones (like this), boiled enough Japanese noodles for four, microwaved the seafood balls and sticks, cut some vegetables and, ... (more)
The avocado was supposed to go into sushi but I cooked all the Japanese rice we had to make oyakudon. Sam looked at the lonely avocado ruefully, suggested that we make a salad with it then she commandeered my computer to search for recipes. But I didn’t need any recipe. I knew exactly how I ... (more)
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery — fish balls, squid balls, shrimp balls, prawn balls, crab balls, lobster balls… I always ask her to choose fish balls over the others because I am allergic to crustaceans. Last time, she wanted lobster balls and she couldn’t be persuaded to choose something else. ... (more)
An updated version of a recipe in the archive. Now includes additional … »»
There first time I served this salad at a dinner party, my friends were a … »»
Question: What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Oh, I'm sure you … »»
The most serious reason I missed my pressure cooker was because I love, … »»
The last time I heard the word batotoy, I was buying longganisa (native … »»
After a quick trip to the market, Speedy checked his Facebook account, … »»
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the … »»
If you're looking for the easiest cocktail drink recipe ever, you just … »»
Casa is Spanish for house. CASA is also an acronym for Connie, Antonio, Sam and Alex. We are all surnamed Veneracion. We all love to take photos -- of anything that catches our fancy. It's a family obsession.
This is a journal of how we live, eat, learn, play and have fun. Work? Work is part of playing and having fun. Seriously.
In 2003, a time when I hadn't heard of the term "blog", I started a recipe website at cooking.houseonahill.net using a now defunct content management system that ran on ASP. Ok, never mind the geek talk, I'm sure you're not interested in that. The contents easily multiplied and, in 2004, I moved the food site to pinoycook.net. Always unhappy with the fact that the dot com versions of houseonahill and pinoycook weren't … (click here to read all »)
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery -- fish balls, … (more...)
It has a graham cracker crust and it is baked but at a lower temperature … (more...)
If you Google "melon cocktail", you'll find that there are two categories. … (more...)
According to Tastefully Done, age means deep fried and dashi, of course, is … (more...)
Okra has a bad reputation in our house. So bad a reputation that I'm the … (more...)
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