Travel the World by Food

Passport & Plate - Thai Chicken-Mango Salad

wanderlustfilmmaker — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:52:00 GMT

Ingredients
Thai chicken-Mango Salad

- 1/4 kg chicken fillet
- 1 medium cucumber
- 2 pcs medium mango
- 1 can sweetened corn kernels
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 cup crushed peanut
- ginger
- Romaine/iceberg lettuce
- Sweet and Spicy sauce

(optional)
- croutons

How to prepare this recipe
- Boil chicken fillet until cooked. Cool for few minutes, shred in to small pieces, set aside.
- Cut the mangoes and cucumber into small cubes, set aside.
- Shred carrot into small portions and mince ginger.
- Mix all the ingredients.
- Plate the dish with lettuce (or cut to small pieces, depends on your preference), then with the salad.
- Be generous with the sweet and spicy on top.
- Top it with crushed peanuts, croutons and pinch of black pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6 persons.

The story behind this recipe
I remember the first time I got to Thailand back in 2013. As me and my friend decided to take a stroll and find something to munch on downtown Bangkok (as we were so naive and indifferent with the place since it is almost the same as Manila), we were stopped and asked by some tourists (thinking we were locals just minding our own businesses) for directions. Like what any fools (we were) would do to help, we walked and took them to the place they were supposed to go (thinking this is just a few minutes away from our hotel and close to the mall we were heading to as well). Thanks to our basic "knowledge" of the place and streets through Google.

Then there we stumbled upon a sidewalk eatery where, unlike any other, offers some classy and dashing yet affordable cuisines like Peking duck, ice cream on fresh coconuts, noodles, and you guessed it, chicken-mango salad. We had our first Thai dish, a salad out of all the choices, and loved it that we had to look for it while traveling and filming to north. Unfortunately they only had them offered on selected spots and we only got to have our last plate of salad on our last day of stay.

And I, who were lucky enough to re-live my first Thai experience, bumped into this local restaurant that showcases southeast Asian dishes after almost 2 years, and had my mouthwatering, long awaited moment chicken-mango salad taste again.

Amazing Thailand!

wanderlustfilmmaker — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 21:21:40 GMT

My partner and I have been planning on filming so many short films since we got same field of courses in college but we find no time shooting any of it, he's been busy with his previous daytime job and extended school time for me. Now that we both have cleared our schedules, we actually listed some of our previous plans and try to make it happen this year. One is to go travel locally and find new paradise in different islands here in the Philippines, but the problem would be our budget issues since I'm going to graduate and haven't find job yet.

Winning and be chosen for this assignment would be a great help for us to start (honestly, it will be) because we've been dying to travel all by ourselves in a place where a different set of culture and lifestyle is awaiting for us to be learned, plus it is Mexico, they celebrate Dia del Muertos far way more different than here in the Philippines (us being too conservative about our sacrilegious rites).

Lastly, I have been dying to put my self-learned Spanish language course into action since no one here ever speaks in Spanish. Just try to put myself into a different challenge as well. Also, I have this principle whenever I'm traveling alone that I always wanted to get lost somewhere I have no idea of, and get back with a lot of experience and knowledge to share with others.

Photos: ATFC 2014: Take 2!

wanderlustfilmmaker — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 20:59:00 GMT

ATFC 2014

Amazing Thailand Film Challenge: Take 2!

wanderlustfilmmaker — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:02:00 GMT

A friend and I luckily got a spot to enter for the second time in this year's film competition in Thailand, all expenses paid! That's two year's in a row!

A year ago we trekked the beautiful ruins of Ayutthaya, just an hour and a half away from Bangkok. This year we had a longer road trip to Chumphon, Pala-U and Khao Yoi that took us roughly 9 hours. Lodging was not a problem at all because anywhere you stop there are possibly at least a five family hoteliers and, well, we got an awesome PA that took her way out to help us get a discount at every single transactions we had.

We enjoyed the bayview of Chumphon (farthest that we've gone) though we didn't get to island hop for we were only on a shoestring budget but nonetheless, the trip and experience was indeed amazing. The rocky waterfalls adventure in Pala-U, though the only problem we had was the park fee. They actually charge foreign tourists 100% higher than the rate for local tourist. Also, we weren't able to get to the highest peak of the falls because we got there a bit late in the afternoon and it was really risky to travel back to the front since the rocks were really slippery and the authorities actually warns all tourists to not overstay until 6pm because the elephants were supposed to walk down the rocks for their bathtime (or at least that was the story told to us). Lastly, Khao Yoi, a very peaceful place where a very mystical cave is situated (though forgot what was their local name for the cave). The tour guide says that the whole cave (there's actually lying one of the biggest Buddha I've seen in my entire life second floor inside this cave) was once underwater (which also made me think that the whole town/province was also underwater though) and through time the water subsides and gave them this huge sacred and mystical cave. Inside you could actually see some interesting rock formations, from an elephant to a hermit's head and the most awesome of all, and they believe it to be a sacred message to the Thai people, was a rock formation of a dragon covering the whole ceiling and walls of the inside of this cave (goosebumps when I hear this, for real).

The team was actually planning on making various movie genre to be fitted in 7 minnutes though unforseen problems has taken our cameras and laptops, we had to stick to just one video. And that was actually this music video we made. We didn't (and we weren't actually expecting) get to win anything, but hey! Getting to this competition all expenses paid is a win already. Hope to get another chance next year and bring home the bacon this time, or eat some there and bring home the leftovers.

'Til next time!

ลาก่อน!

Amazing Thailand Film Challenge

wanderlustfilmmaker — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 02:02:00 GMT

This was the most shocking and unexpected event (well, second best as well) in my entire life. I can't believe that I have been selected to compete last year for Thailand Film Destination Festival for short film category.

From over 200 teams to apply, I was miraculously selected and fly to Thailand for free. And to make things better, they funded us ThB30,000, a seed money we could use to create or film promoting Thailand's travel and tourism.

I'd say best travel ever!

Photos: Profile Photo

wanderlustfilmmaker — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 01:45:00 GMT

Passport & Plate - Empanada Filipiniana

wanderlustfilmmaker — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 01:23:25 GMT

Ingredients
Fillings:
• ground pork/beef/chicken
• minced onion
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• raisins
• bell pepper
• potatoes, cubed
• green peas
• salt and pepper to taste

Dough:
• 5 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 medium egg
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• pinch of salt

Salsa:
• tomato, crushed
• lime/lemon/calamansi
• onions, minced
• bell pepper
• pinch of sugar, salt and pepper
• coriander/cilantro

How to prepare this recipe
To prepare the filling:
• Sauté onion and let it caramelize for a minute or two, then put garlic. Add the ground pork until garlic is brown. Let it parboil or as we say it "sancochar" for 10 minutes.

• On a different pan, fry potatoes until half-crisped then add it to the sautéd pork.

• Add salt and pepper.

• Put raisins, green peas and bell pepper when potatoes are cooked.

Dough:
• On a bowl, mix the egg, vinegar and water.
• Place the flour on a clean and dry table, make a center hole.
Put all the wet ingredients at the hole then start to mix it manually until dough is formed. (It is advised that you put a little pours of water if dough is starting to get dry)

• Once the dough is fluffy and stable, cover with a plastic cling wrap or a dry cloth and let it sit for at least 30 min in a cool dry place.

• After 30mins, unwrap the dough, then sprinkle flour on a dry, clean countertop or table. Dump your dough that forms a loose stickyball into the surface.

• Start kneading into smaller flat circular pieces with your desired size.

Salsa: (which is kinda my own recipe)
• You can either use canned crushed tomatoes or fresh tomatoes.
-If you prefer using fresh ones, clean it with water thoroughly. Cut it into small cubes or another option would be by boiling it for 2-3mins and put it on a separate bowl and crush it using a fork.

• Add the remaining ingredients: calamansi/lime juice, minced onions, cubed bell peppers, sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and lastly your coriander/cilantro. Mix it all up and put it to fridge until before serving.

The story behind this recipe
When I was a kid, empanada was introduced to me by my grandfather. He always tell me stories that when he was a kid, it was his favorite afternoon snack. He said that it was abundantly sold in their province and he always asks his parents for extra change just to buy one. And everyday after my school, I go to their house and always share and enjoy this delightful afternoon snack. I always insist him to teach me how to cook this one in particular so when I grow up I'll just prepare for the two of us. Now that I'm thinking about it, I sounded so innocent, which is kinda funny because I remember always asking questions when I was a kid.

Years has passed and my grandpa died. I never knew how to cook our favorite shared food. Not until I got in college where I found a lot of extra time in my hand. I went out one time and found an empanada stand which got me thinking that it's probably for me to finally learn how to cook one. By accident, when I was planning to cook a pancake, I discovered how to prepare the dough just by mixing flour, egg and a little amount of water. And the rest is history.

Now, I can finally say that wherever my grandpa is, I'm proud that we shared his favorite stories and snack. I promise myself, that in the future, I'll make sure to share my recipe to my kids and grandkids as well, just to continue the great story legacy. ?