Coming Home to Mooli

In a previous post I’ve mentioned that Mooli is another name for daikon (white radish). Little did I know that Mooli has a deeper meaning to anyone who speaks the Visayan dialect. A fellow blogger (Edik Dolotina of The World According to Melchizedik) has kindly informed me that Mooli (read as moo-lay in Tagalog) also means “to come home”.

pre-dinner chaos

The name is very apt for what you get at Mooli, Mermaid Beach. Having a meal there is less of a restaurant experience but more like visiting one’s aunt to share a sumptuous meal of aged old Filipino recipes that have been passed on from generation to generation. Thanks to Tita Liz Solatan who highlights the experience by being the warmest and most welcoming host. Tito Rodi Solatan, on the other hand, says it all with the food that he serves.

more pre-dinner chaos

So for the second time in as many months we went to Mooli for a special Queen’s Birthday weekend dinner. The experience was not worth keeping to oneself so I brought some more of my dearest friends on this follow up visit.

post dinner smiles

We had the requisite longanissa, adobo and siopao. They are consistently good, of course. We also ordered some fresh lumpia, fried lumpia, pinakbet, chicken teriyaki and fried rice with prawns. To finish the meal we had halo-halo (in the middle of winter, I know but that weather didn’t matter). Everything was good!

fresh lumpia

longsilog

halo-halo

But what made that dinner more impressive were servings of fresh octopus ceviche (kinilaw na pugita) and jack fruit salad (langka na may gata). We did not order these as they were not on the menu but Tito Rodi gave us generous helpings of these delectable dishes…gratis! Them, being complimentary, did not mean they are less scrumptious. In fact the opposite is true. I could have had another bowl of the ceviche and still want more! My wife specially enjoyed the jack fruit salad. According to her it is reminiscent of a favourite Laguna dish. This salad together with pickled bitter gourd (ampalaya) is normally served with lechon (which we should have ordered as well!). I did not know you can actually pickle ampalaya! You learn something new everyday, they say. A taste of the pickled ampalaya was definitely a first for me. And it was also very good!

octopus ceviche

green jack fruit salad

Sweet sourish ampalaya pickle

There was certainly one fault that evening and it wasn’t on the Solatans’ part. It was our failing for not being more specific with the dishes we want at the time of booking (to include even those not on the menu). Another lesson learned! We’ll be better next time!

So thanks once again to the Solatans! A big thank you to all my friends (the Adinas, the Mendozas, the Samsons and the Vicencios) who drove quite a distance to join us!

Chef Rodi in his domain

Chef Rodi & Me (& mini me) - unprecedented access to the control centre

P.S.

By the way, thanks also for the Sharon Cuneta tapes playing on TV that evening. That made the wife very happy!

Litsonero and other Food Movies

I am big fan of movies about food. No surprise there, I know.

But I don’t think there’s ever been a Filipino film of the that genre. I’m not a movie historian so do not quote me on this. That is why I’m quite pleased to hear of a new film by Lore Reyes titled “Litsonero”. According to the news it is supposed to be the Filipino version of the 1987 Oscar Best Foreign Film winner Babette’s Feast (Denmark). I just hope Litsonero would be able to live up to the original and not just become a poor imitation.

Litsonero, by the way, literally means lechon cook. Lechon, for the uninitiated, is the Filipino version of the spit roasted pig. It has been named as the Best Pig in a recent Time Magazine article. Famous foodie, Anthony Bourdain, put lechon as number 1 in his Hierarchy of Pork. It is therefore just natural for lechon to be the main focus of what I believe to be the first ever Filipino food movie.

In the meantime I’ll just share with you a list of my favourite food movies of all time:

1. Babette’s Feast – 1987 Oscar Best Foreign Film winner. I don’t think I need to say more.
2. Eat Drink Man Woman – A film by Ang Lee focusing on man’s two main desires. A Latino-American version was made in 2001. I still think the original was far superior.
3. Like Water for Chocolate – Based on Laura Esquivel’s novel titled Como Agua Para Chocolate.
4. Ratatouille – 2007 Pixar animated film that both kids and adults can enjoy.
5. Vatel – starring Gerard Depardieu as the legendary 17th French chef.
6. Chocolat – Based on Joanne Harris’ 1999 novel of the same title.
7. Dinner Rush – food and the mafia.
8. Soul Food – love this movie but I’ve never had authentic “soul food”.
9. Waitress – Starring Kerri Russel. Competed in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
10. What’s Cooking? – focuses on diversity and yet how one and the same we are.

Honorable mention goes to:
Fast Food Nation
Supersize Me
Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

Movie: Fierce People (Nothing is more savage than high society)

Synopsis from facebook:

Sixteen-year-old Finn (Anton Yelchin) wants nothing more than to escape New York and spend the summer in South America. But Finn's dreams are shattered when he is arrested in a desperate effort to help his drug-dependent mother, Liz (Diane Lane). Determined to get their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them into a guesthouse on the vast country estate of her ex-client, the aging aristocratic billionaire, Ogden C. Osbourne (Donald Sutherland). While Liz battles her substance abuse and struggles to win back her son's love and trust, Finn falls in love with Osbourne's beautiful granddaughter, Maya (Kristin Stewart), befriends her charismatic older brother, Bryce (Chris Evans), and even wins the favor of Osbourne himself. But when a shocking act of violence shatters Finn's ascension within the Osbourne clan, the golden promises of this lush world quickly sour. Both Finn and Liz, caught in a harrowing struggle for their dignity, discover that membership always comes at a price... Contrasting the mores of high society with the blunt savagery of primitive tribes, "Fierce People" takes an inside look at the upper classes, examining the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of good manners. Sporting a biting wit, and featuring charismatic performances from Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland, this unflinching drama exposes the trappings of wealth and privilege, and their overwhelming power to both seduce and corrupt.

This would have to be one of the more interesting films I have seen in a long time!

It shows the paradox between the Ishkanani tribe and American high society and how in the end they are no that dissimilar. Their lives basically evolve around 2 things, f & k, f & k, f & k (as mentioned in the film, not my words).

There’s an interesting surprise for the Filipino audience around the 90 minute mark of this film. It is worth sitting through the movie for that reason alone.

The actors are all very believable. Special mention goes to Elizabeth Perkins who seems to have the role of a “drug addicted mom” down pat.

Chicken Karaage

Chicken Karaage is a better alternative if your kids love chicken nuggets. You can make it as low fat as possible by using skinless chicken breast and using less coating. The other bonus, you’ll be guaranteed you’re actually eating chicken and not some composite meat product.

It is also quick and easy to make which is another plus for busy parents. The most difficult part is cutting the chicken and grating the ginger. Other than those it is just a matter of combining the ingredients together and frying the marinated meat.

I think traditionally this is served with mayonnaise but we’ve opted for Tonkatsu sauce for that extra Japanese kick. It’s a fruity sweet sauce not very dissimilar to ketchup.


Chicken Karaage

2 pieces of chicken breast cut into nugget size
3-4 tablespoons soy sauce
3-4 tablespoons mirin or sherry
Walnut size ginger grated finely (it’s best to use a ginger grater if you’ve got one)
Cornflour
Oil for frying

Combine the chicken, soy sauce, mirin and grated ginger and marinate for half an hour.
Heat up the oil to about medium heat.
Coat the chicken pieces in cornflour and fry until golden brown.
Serve with rice and miso soup. It also works well served with salad.

Home Made Pizzas (with the kids)

I have failed so many times in the past in making edible pizza dough that we’d have pizza at home only if they are delivered by an acne-faced uni student or I pick them up myself on cheap Tuesday nights! But thanks once again to Ms Eufemia C Estrada’s Baking Made EC cookbook this situation has now changed for good. For the first time ever we’ve made our very own pizzas from scratch. I say we, as I did ask the kids to help out. We’d still have cheap Tuesday pizzas, of course, but we now have an alternative when we have more time.

All weekends are good but the last one we had was more suitable for indoor activities than anything else. It was the perfect occasion to get the kids involved in the kitchen. They were only too happy to help as they have been looking forward to this since I mentioned “make-our-own-pizzas” months and months ago.

I made the dough and blind baked 5 mini pizza sizes. It was then the kids’ task to finish off their own versions. I try to limit the choice of toppings. We almost always order only pepperoni pizza so a very good mild Hungarian salami was on top of the list. There was cheese of course, a good blend of tasty, mozzarella and a bit of parmesan. Then there were ham, bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, onion and basil. They pretty much ignored everything else and concentrated on the cheese and the salami.

Chichay's Alien Pizza

Yaya's Pricess Pizza

Kiko's "No-Name" Pizza

The end result was pretty good. The kids ate theirs with gusto. Them taking part in the cooking made the pizzas a little bit tastier!

The recipe below is copied, verbatim, from Ms Estrada’s Baking Made EC cookbook.

Basic Pizza Crust

½ cup scalded milk or ¼ cup evaporated milk plus ¼ up warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup warm water
2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 ¾ cup all purpose flour, sifted

1. To scalded or warm milk, stir in the sugar, salt and olive oil. Cool to lukewarm.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Let stand to rise. Add lukewarm milk.
3. Stir in sifter flour. Turn out on lightly floured board or tabletop and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl; turn over to coat dough in oil. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. It is double in bulk when indentation made with two fingers do not fill up again.
4. Punch down dough and divide into half. Shape each half into a ball and roll out into a 13-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.
5. Place on two lightly greased pizza pans or cookie sheets. Fold under ½-inch all around edges. 6. Bake immediately in hot oven (425F to 450F) for about 5 minutes or until dough is firm but not brown.

Finish off with your choice of toppings and put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes!

Hainan Chicken Rice ala Beancounter

It definitely wasn’t love at first sight but my heart definitely did melt after the first bite of Hainan Chicken Rice. In the beginning, I could not see the attraction people have for this dish. Nothing by the way it looks strikes me as spectacular. I mean it’s just poached chicken and rice… But my opinion did a big turn around after tasting this quite unimposing but magnificent dish!

I first had it back in my university days. It was heaven on a plate (1 plate and two bowls actually) for a student on a very limited budget. I remember tagging along with some friends to this hole in the wall restaurant called Tak Chee (don't know what it means but it must be along the lines of "double happyness" or something that's supposed to bring good luck) to have their famous $5 chicken rice.

I paid an homage to this same restaurant where "we first met" years after I've left Perth. But sadly though, on my most recent visit early last year it was shut ...permanently (probably to make way for new apartments).

Like anything really good I was a little bit intimidated by Hainan Chicken Rice. There’s at least three parts to it (the chicken, the rice and the soup) that made it seem daunting to try at home. It took years before I even attempted it. I had varying degrees of success in the beginning but I eventually got it right, to my taste that is. Well, my friend Patrick thinks it’s the best chicken in Brisbane so I must be doing something right! *LOL* another shameless self-promotion!

Hainan Chicken Rice

Chicken

1 very fresh chicken (preferably free range)

6 slices fresh ginger 2 cloves garlic, slightly bruised

2 spring onions1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp light soy sauce

Some sea salt

Some ground white pepper

Poaching Stock

Chicken bones a kilo of chicken wings or legs

3 pieces of ginger

2 spring onions

Chicken Rice

3 cups jasmine rice

Some chicken fat taken from the whole chicken

2-3cm ginger finely chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped very finely or grated

3 ½ to 4 cups of poaching stock

1 pandan leaf

Chilli Sauce

10 fresh red chillies, seeds removed

1-2 cloves garlic

5cm fresh ginger

2 tsp poaching stock

Lime/Lemon juice to taste

Sea salt to taste

Ginger & Spring Onion Sauce

Walnut size finely chopped ginger

2 cloves garlic finely chopped garlic

½ tsp salt

Chopped spring onion

Oil (not Olive oil)

Chicken Soup

Poaching stock

Chopped spring onion or small amount of shredded lettuce


1. Firstly, make the stock to be used to poach the chicken. In a large enough pot (to fit the whole chicken) put some water and add some ginger and spring onion and the chicken bones/wings and bring to a boil. You can use already made chicken stock if you like but still add the ginger and the spring onion.
2. While waiting for the stock to boil prepare the chicken by rubbing it with salt and a bit of white pepper inside and out. Place the spring onion, slices of ginger and the garlic inside the chicken.
3. After letting your stock boil for a couple of minutes lower the heat to the lowest setting. Place the chicken in the stock breast side down. Let it poach (the water should be barely boiling) for about half an hour. Turn the heat off and cover and leave for another half an hour.
4. Remove the chicken from the stock and set aside. You should chop it just before serving. Dress it with some light soy sauce and sesame oil.
5. Next prepare the chicken rice. Wash the rice then drain well. Render the chicken fat in a little bit of oil in a pan.
6. Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic.
7. Add the rice and stir fry for about a minute or two.
8. Transfer the mixture to a rice cooker and add enough stock as recommended by your rice cooker brand. Place the pandan leaf in the rice cooker as well.
9. For the chilli sauce combine the chillies, garlic and ginger in a blender. Add the stock, lime/lemon juice and some sea salt and blend together.
10. For the ginger and spring onion sauce, heat up some oil in a pan in very high heat. Add the ginger, garlic, spring onion and salt and fry for a minute. Take off the heat and set aside.
11. For the soup, adjust the taste of your poaching stock to your liking. Add some chopped spring onion/shredded lettuce before serving.

Longsilog @ Mooli, Mermaid Beach

It saddens me to know that Filipino restaurants have been less than successful in Queensland. I’m aware of at least four which have folded in recent years. I’m sure they’ve tried their hardest but the market was just not buying. Some more obscure cuisines (in my opinion) are faring much better. Why? I don’t know!

So it pleases me to no end when I find out about new Filipino restaurants that are doing well.

On our recent trip to the Gold Coast I became aware of two new restaurants. One is called Sampaguita and the other is Mooli, both located at Mermaid Beach.

The focus of this post though is Mooli. Mooli, according to Chef Owner Rodi Solatan, is another name for daikon or labanos. The reason being, Mooli is a joint Filipino-Japanese restaurant. The Gold Coast being a “tourist” area has got a sizeable Japanese population so it makes business sense to combine the two.

After a full day at the beach Mooli’s range of traditional Filipino breakfasts (available all day, I should add) were exactly what we were craving. We ordered Tapsilog (pan fried sirloin served with garlic rice and egg) and Longsilog (Solatan sausages served with garlic rice and egg). We also tried their Adobo (Pork Stew in Soy Sauce), siopao (steamed pork buns) and empanaditas (Solatan fried pasties). To top it all we also tried their JFC (Japanese Fried Chicken).

The tapa was a bit dry but the rest of the dishes we ordered were excellent. The Adobo is more Chinese style with the strong presence of star anise but it is very good nonetheless. High commendation goes to their Solatan loganissa and Siopao! The longanissa was so good I could eat a dozen and still want more. Their Siopao reminded me so much of how it tastes back home! Mooli is worth visiting even just for these two menu items!

We intended to eat at the restaurant’s premises but there was no space available for us as there was a party being held on the same night we visited. Mooli is actually on the small scale. It can probably fit only about 20 people at a time. It’s designed more as a take-away café rather than a full on eatery.

I am extremely grateful though to Tita Liz and Chef Rodi for accommodating us despite the busyness of that evening. It’s clearly printed on their menu that “bookings are essential” and I can understand why...they serve excellent food!

Mooli is about an hours’ drive from where we live but we’ll surely be back very soon!

Mooli
Rodi & Liz Solatan, proprietors
6-2529 Gold Coast Highway
Mermaid Beach 4218 QLD
07 5575 6974

Thanks also to Patrick & Pilar for their generosity that evening

Australia - The Food Icons - ANZAC Biscuits

As much as I’d like to think that a whole nation stops to celebrate my birthday, the 25th of April has a much deeper significance to the Australian people. It is the day when the country commemorates the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey in World War I. This day of remembrance (ANZAC Day) then evolved to include all those who've been involved in other wars and military operations Australia has engaged in since the Great War.

ANZAC biscuits (originally called ‘soldiers biscuits’) were supposed to have been sent to the troops by their loved ones as they kept well during the long and arduous naval journey. From that description alone you can probably infer how much a “tough cookie” the ANZAC biscuit is. It maintains its “crunch” in spite of. (By the way, you should never refer to it as a “cookie” as the term is American and not Australian. I didn’t know this till recently. Some are actually offended by this.)

ANZAC biscuit is quite “hard” as you can imagine. It had to withstand elements other biscuits are not normally exposed to. It’s mainly made of rolled oats, desiccated coconut and golden syrup.

I couldn’t say it’s one of my favourites. The biscuit is fine on its own but experts recommend you dunk it in a hot beverage to fully appreciate it. If you’ve read my past blogs you’ll know that I have an aversion to soggy bread/biscuit. So, no thanks.

I bought a packet of these biscuits solely to write about it. But don’t worry; they did not go to waste. My two school age kids have developed a taste for them and finished them with gusto!

Unlike Hot Cross Buns, ANZAC biscuits have no restrictions and are available all year round.

Below is a recipe from Australia’s multicultural TV station, SBS:

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup of rolled oats1 cup of sugar

1 cup dessicated coconut1 cup flour

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 cup of butter

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Mix oats, flour, sugar, and coconut together. Melt syrup and butter together. Mix soda bicarbonate with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup. Add to dry ingredients. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture on greased tray. Bake in a slow oven for 20 minutes.