Sabrina is a young lady who belongs to our Wednesday group. One day she came, excited about the refreshing starter she made called chicken rosemary salad. This certainly has a new taste, blending the natural flavors of olive oil, chicken and spices. Sabrina generously shares the recipe with all of us.
You need about 150 gms of chicken breast fillet, cut thinly; one fourth cup olive oil; three sprigs of fresh rosemary (discard the stems), rind of half an orange, sliced long and thin; half a native garlic, crushed; 2 tablespoons honey; one and a half tablespoons mustard and a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar. Sauté all ingredients, except the chicken and the honey, over slow fire. After a while, add the chicken and honey. Mix well. Arrange lettuce leaves on a salad bowl and pour in the chicken mixture, lacing it with the mustard and balsamic vinegar. You may use the peeled orange as garnish, cutting it into small pieces. Now you have a delicious and healthy meal starter. This can even be a full meal if taken with bread and soup.
Sister Emma Alday owns and manages Casa Rap on the San Jose highway, leading to Batangas City. The place is a haven of lush trees, shrubs and plants, most of them bearing fruits and providing edible leaves. She is eco-friendly and serves lunch while conducting various seminars on subjects that range from clay-making to breeding swine. Realizing that what some people consider ‘trash’ can still be re-cycled, she is mounting a one-woman exhibit which aims to show that left-overs and remnants can be made into items of value. She is calling the event “Tira-tirahan”, scheduled for the morning of October 25, Saturday starting at 10 a.m. The show is being held in support of the Slow Food Center (Natural Farming) in Behia, Tiaong, Quezon. Call Sister Emma at 0905-3213068 if you are interested.
Grocery chains have ‘invaded’ gasoline stations, providing convenient shopping for people on the go. They also carry much more than meat and frozen seafood. They’ve got bottled seasonings, fresh garlic, onions, eggs, and prepared meals. Such is Irene’s Monterey Meat Shop at Petron Filinvest on Commerce Avenue (tel. 474-1400/771-1503). We chanced upon this store one day after filling up and surprisingly found Mercy, a lady who has helped us in many of our shopping trips in the past. Happily, they have our required chicken, one that weighs at least 1.5 kgs, at P118.00 per kilo. There are the usual meat cuts, rib eye, sirloin, pork kasim. They have a selection of meals ready for take-home from P55 to P75, including pork BBQ, chorizo de Cebu, and sisig, among others. Another line is called the Single Serves which sell from P18 for the chorizo to P35 for the liempo.
Anybody interested in cooking classes (even household help) can still catch the next session conducted by The Friends of the Narra-Househelpers Group at 109 Marcos Alvarez street in Talon, Las Piñas, tel. 806-7273. This will be on Thursday, September 25 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Gourmet salads and soups are on the agenda.
Empanada Mas is now at Makati Supermarket in Alabang. We are happy to note that they have not increased prices and the filling is still generous. Chicken pie sells at P25 per. Le Coeur de France at Shopwise in Muntinlupa has renovated its area. It is bigger, airy and brightly lit.
The public official who is supposed to mind the traffic situation (among his other duties) should seriously monitor the roads under his jurisdiction instead of posting his face all over town. A very problematic area is the Muntinlupa highway, from the exit (after the Filinvest area) through to the Skyway entrance. Sneaky motorists get away with initially driving on the extreme right lane, then a few feet away from the Skyway entrance, swerve to the left, because they would not want to pay the corresponding toll fee. Unfortunately, because no one monitors the area, traffic mounts and those in a hurry, who go up the Skyway to save time, are delayed. If we may make a suggestion, barriers should be placed from as far as possible to avoid all those who abuse traffic rules.
E-mail comments and questions to: lydia_d_castillo@yahoo.com