Do you know Charles Augustus Milvertone? He is a character from the Sherlock Holmes stories. A blackmailer and extortionist. Nearly as smart as Holmes – Milcvertone met his maker courtesy of a bullet from one of his victims.

I remember Milvertone because this weekend I received messages about an interesting story developing online. It concerned a blogger, a restaurateur and a pr company. And of course it involved a two restaurant reviews. Two offers, and tidy sum of money sought (Source: Please Don’t Give Blogging a Bad Name).

It is an interesting story because it is a story of abuse and corruption and at the same time also a mystery story. Who is the Big Bad Blogger? … Who is the PR Company? … and what was the restaurant or restaurants involved.

It could be called AC-DC strategy. AC -DC is a term in the Philippine corruptionary given to the practice of media to attack then collect and defend and collect a person or business. Hence, AC-DC.

There have been stories going around the Big Bad Blogger for months and perhaps years now. Unfortunately, most of the time the affected restaurants would decline to pursue it further because they would often claim that it would affect their business. No one was willing to come forward.

If you accuse someone one must have the proof. Specially in a case where there seems to be extortion involved.

Now we have this. Someone has finally taken the stand to complain. How I wished it had been more specific – we need what Rudyard Kipling one said the services of five men – wht, what, when, where and why.

Without it this will be story of corruption that will fade into the folds of anecdotal stories. And quite frankly I am not sure what it is to be afraid of the Big Bad Blogger and the PR company.

Specially, if you have the goods on them. would it be a question of legal consequences? or Would it be a PR problem? What is so fearsome about a PR company?

What is to be feared of the Big Bad Blogger?

Sadly, this maybe because of the myth that has been grown and fostered around blogging and social media. How many times have I heard someone introduce a blogger as some one who can make or break you? A person of influence online and offline?

Oh please.

A blogger or a online person’s interest (if any) comes from the trust and respect the readers have for him or her. Once, this is compromised – credibility and good reputation will slip through their fingers like sand. And they lose their clout.

So why be afraid of the Big Bad Blogger and the PR company?

No reason. Expose the crooked blogger and crooked PR company (if it is a pr company or someone

Pulutan has always been the food taken when drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages. It is said that the word is derived from the Tagalog verb pulutin or to to picked up or food eaten directly with the hands. Although in my country there is a tradition to eat food by hand, clean hands, called kamayan. It is a practical way of eating food and fun. And perhaps because of this pulutan, at least for me, seems to have veered off its original definition and more solidly rests with definition with usually eaten while drinking beer or any other alcoholic drink. During such occasions though not everyone on the table needs to drink and sometimes some diners even eat rice .

Pulutan can be taken in with beer or without. Beer served per bottle, per mug, or even per beer tower or with an imbudo or even via helicopter. It can be served with drinks served straight up, on the rocks or with friends sharing the rum, vodka or lambanong by passing a single cup to each member of the drinking party in a clockwise or counter-clockwise manner.

Pulutan though comes in many forms often depending on the culture and economic status of the drinkers. A person as he ages will notice that pulutan he or she encounters through the years changes.

The Least Expensive Pulutan then:

This was a time when you wanted to drink and had the money to drink but not enough money for pulutan. The joke back then was when you did not have no money at all you just had to drink and whistle. If You had more money then you could buy an array of not-so expensive food like legumes. crackers, chicharon (pork cracklings), besuto crackers ( which you had to cook) and reno liver spread.

The Healthy and Not-So Healthy Pulutan:

Healthy Pulutans included vegetable sticks and fish dishes like Tuna (grilled, baked, sushi, sashimi or kilawin). The happy but more deadly ones included the popular sisig, chicken wings, lechon manok, crispy pata, bical express, beef salpicao, bopis chicharon bulaklak, hungarian sausages, and binagkis = a dried from dinuguan from the Northern Philippines.

Most of these could be ordered from the food shops or restaurants or they could be cooked at home. Hungarian sausages bought by the kilo were cooked at home and served while drinking. Other dishes like crispy pata would require some more time in the kitchen to cook.

Beef Salad is a Thai dish that also makes good pulutan dish. The dish is composed of rump steak (any beef would actually do), green and red bell peppers, cucumber, coriander, onion, red chili, mint, basil and coriander. The beef is fried and mixed with the ingredients and seasoned with lime juice (dalanghita or calamani will do). sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and liquamen – fish sauce (patis).

The memorable Pulutan:

I encountered this one while spending a week in Rizal Province. It was drunk with lambanog coconut wine. This particular one was flavored with vicks vapodrops (normally it would langka or jackfruit, raisins or even chicklets) giving it an emerald color.

And the pulutan was boiled Ipomoea batatas or kamoteng kahoy pounded on a wooden pesltle which was mixed with butter would be pummeled and pemmeled inside the big wooden pestle. The macerated dish would then be served as pulutan to the emerald colored lambanog.

The Lambanog itself was served helicopter style.

What: Fried Chicken Place. Serves Chicken wings, legs and other chicken dishes.

Why: So far the best place in Metro Manila to get Chicken Wings. Also best priced Chicken Wings North of the Metro … Metro Manila. Cooked fresh so may require some time to wait.

Where:
592a N.S. Amoranto St. Cor. Banawe St. Quezon City
Telephone Number:
(02) 742-3333

15 J.Abad Street, Little Baguio, San Juan, Manila

Email address: inquiry@chickencharlie.net
website: http://chickencharlie.net/menu.html

One of the business I went into once was a small barbecue stand in front of our house along Harvard Street, Cubao. It was an interesting business in that the smell of meat cooking on the grill literally attracted people to the stand. We only served two types of barbecue then pork barbecue and pork intestine barbecue. Of course there was another type prepared but we did not do this often – because it was a by product of the intestine or isaw. This was the fat between the intestine. Separated and roasted this was of course very tasty and deadly – fat being a flavor enhancer and of course its cumulative lethal effect.

This was then. Now when the taste for isaw strikes one went to UP in the afternoon in front of the Kalayaan Dormitory to buy and eat all sorts of barbecue and isaw.

One Saturday though I chanced to be in Home Depot to join friends for some after dinner talk. They had gone to the Dampa at Home Depot. While searching for them I came across this stall selling barbecue – that goes by the name Joe Isaw. BBQ Pork Isaw or Gringo as they call it is priced at 20 pesos per stick – a bit more expensive than the one at UP but then again consider the overhead.

Fortunately my guardia civil Fritz was not within the vicinity. And the isaw beckoned. It was delicious and was not bitter – meaning it was cleaned well. And apparently you can have the isaw delivered where you are at Home Depot or whatever restaurant you are at Home Depot.

And they have a Facebook Page here.

For Isaw I still go to UP but if I am at Home Depot … ah well there is Joe Isaw.

Skip a decade or two to the present and we see two families eating Crispy Pata, Kare-Kare and other Filipino dishes. The first one is eating near the Manila Bay just in front of the Mall of Asia in a restaurant named Ibayo. The second family eating a restaurant along Edsa but near Greenhills – the place is called Barrio Fiesta or loosely translated as the community feast or festival.

Both restaurants come from one family and one restaurant – Barrio Fiesta. Ibayo , which loosely translates as the other Barrio, is a re- envisioned restaurant. It has white adobo and gargantuan sago drinks. And also offers alcoholic beverages. Whereas the branch of the family that operates Barrio Fiesta decided to continue the traditional business of the family. And this is not surprising since the proprietors inherited it from the Matriarch of Barrio Fiesta, along with it the original recipes and descendants of the cooking staff of the old restaurant.

And the top dishes is as always the Crispy Pata and the Kare-Kare.

The Crispy Pata came into the restaurant when Sixta Evangelista Ongpauco owas looking for a way to use the Pata, which was left-over from the lechon. And by accident the pata fell into the deep fry cooker and voila the Crispy Pata came to be. Today the Crispy Pata is cooked a full eight hours before it can be deep fried. And this I why when eating the Crispy Pata it is both crispy and can easily be divided without the need of a knife – a simple fork would do.

And today it is available in three sizes or three parts so that it would not require a family to eat the Crispy Pata.

As for the Kare-Kare, the restaurant has maintained the old formula. No need to fix or revise a hit And it still as tasty as it was several decades ago and still is a dish that will make you eat more than a cup of rice.

Ibayo is a bit of the old and bit of the new. And whenever you are in the San Miguel Bay in front of the Mall of Asia one can try it, Good old and reliable Barrio Fiesta though is still available aside from Greenhills along Edsa, there are branches along Valero and Dela Rosa.. and they just opened or rather re-opened their branch at Ali Mall, Cubao.

It is fortunate that Barrio Fiesta has a new face and more lucky that they still have the old trusted and familiar restaurant whose dishes have become part of memory. And un-surprisingly because the Crispy Pata is crispy and tender, while the Kare-Kare is tasty and a delight to eat.

The present-day sushi we are familiar with was developed as a sort of fst food by Hanaya Yohei during the last years of the Edo Period in Edo, Japan. Originally called Edomae Sushi because the fish caught came from Tokyo Bay or Edo Bay. Although today the fish does not come from Tokyo Bay it is called Edomae Nigirisushi.

Sushi differs from Sashimi in that aside from the raw sliced fish it is also made up of cooked vinegar rice. There are four distinct forms : (i) Sushi – which is cooked vinger riced topped with sliced seafood; (ii) makisushi or maki – which is cooked vinegar with seafood and other ingredients served as rolls; (iii) inarisusshi – seafood and other ingredients stuffed into small pouches of fried tofu and (iv) chirashi sushi – cooked vinegar rice in a bowl topped with seafood and other ingredients.

During the Red Kimono anniversary we were witness to a contest between Maki dishes. All sorts of Maki seem to come out of the woodwork. I wonder what Hanaya Yohei would think of these forms of maki sushi.

The Winners:

1st Place
Thai Mango Sticky Naki
Michelle Paulino
Irene S. Fernandez

2nd Place
kurt’s Wheel maki
by Kurt Oliver Go Ho

3rd Place
Kiyomi Maki
(vegetarian Entry)
by
Ryan Morida

4th Place
Kuniko Maki
by
Eunice A. Campana

5th Place
Cherry Blossom
by
Christine Alcardo

All winning dishes will be part of the menu of Red Kimono.

Sushi is one of those interesting dishes that have gone all over the world. There is one that used Spam as its main. Here are two videos that might interest you – The first is from Red Kimono on how to make Maki and the second one is funny documentary on – well you will see.

Red Kimono How to Make Maki

Japanese Sushi Documentary

Kwak

Kwak which would cost around and little beyond three hundred forty is served on a very unique glass. The amber liquid which is 8.4% is served in a round bottom hour-glass shaped glass and is held upright by its own wooden stand. The distillery claims the glass and the beer had its origin during the Napoleonic time when the Inn Keeper Pauwel Kwak devised the glass for coachmen who had time for beer but no much time to drink it inside the pub.

Whether the tale true or not it is an interesting tale. It is an interesting drink.

Beers Paradise
Polaris corner Durban Streets, Makati Makati
Contact Details
8959271,/ 8960193 (Phone)

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