Lasang Pinoy: Sandwich Spread Coming to a Storm Near You!

I grew up in pleasant California, where the fiercest storms are mere drizzles compared to the drenches here in Cleveland, which themselves are probably breezy showers compared to the typhoons of the Philippines, not to mention Hurricanes Katrina & Rita.

So I was sort of stumped by the latest Lasang Pinoy theme of storm food, and I turned to the 'rents, who grew up with the yearly Filipino typhoon. What I learned was that you don't eat fish during a storm. Why? Most all the fish in the Philippines is sold and eaten fresh, and if there's a storm a'comin, well, the fishermen decide it's not such a great idea to be out in the water. And you make rice right away, because who knows when the power might be knocked out, and who knows when it might be knocked back on.

So what are you left with? Like every place else in the world, they turn to the old emergency situation food standbys - canned food. They last ages, they don't need to be refridgerated, and they don't require cooking. In the Philippines and among us second generation-ers, the favorite canned foods are Spam, corned beef, and Vienna sausages.

But when I usually eat Spam or corned beef or Vienna sausage, there's not much to it: you open, you fry or otherwise heat up, you eat. Is that worth an entire post? WELL, IS IT, PUNK? Well, yes, but suppose you're feeling a little hungry after a natural catastrophe and you feel like something a little fancier than cold canned corned beef ... again?

You could mix up some Vienna Sausage Sandwich Spread.

First you get two cans of Vienna sausage.

Note that they are made of "Mechanically separated chicken". Maybe gourmet canned Vienna sausage is made from hand separated organic chicken?

Mash them up in a bowl. Try one or two. Not bad, eh?

Mix in some mayo, a couple spoonfuls of sweet pickle relish, a spoonful of sugar, a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Add chopped hard boiled egg if you're that kind of person.

I added diced cheddar. Some paprika. Chives. Olive oil. You know, whatever's handy. Chill if you like, or not, try to ignore its incredibly unappealing appearance and have on bread or crackers, and enjoy nature's destructive power!

Tagged with: Lasang Pinoy #2

Michael Symon, the Cleveland chef at Lola, will be on the Food Network's Iron Chef America! He's up against Iron Chef Morimoto. Alton Brown described him and his sous chefs as looking like a gang of motorcycle thugs.

This is gonna be good.

AIR TIMES:
October 02, 2005 9:00 PM ET/PT
October 03, 2005 1:00 AM ET/PT
October 06, 2005 10:00 PM ET/PT
October 07, 2005 2:00 AM ET/PT
October 08, 2005 7:00 PM ET/PT
October 08, 2005 11:00 PM ET/PT
October 09, 2005 3:00 AM ET/PT

Experimenting

Foodgoat and I have developed, how shall I describe it?, a taste - a habit. Our supplier knows us well - we've been regulars for months now - and we meet up with her every week, same time, same place. She bags up a pound of the stuff without having to ask what we want. What we need. Foodgoat can space himself out, a little bit each day, He's always had more self control. But me, I tend to go through my supply in just days, sneaking into it while Foodgoat is distracted, promising myself I'll indulge just this one time more. But recently - I don't know if I can say this - it's gotten worse. I've started trying it in ... other forms.

Now you know. I have a $10 a week pistacio nut addiction. We go through a pound a week. Then last week I pushed and shoved my way through the frozen food aisle of Trader Joe's to get at the chocolate pistacio mousse cake. It was bright green and didn't really taste that much like the fresh pistacio nuts, nor did I detect any nutty bits, but it was delicious and sweet, and for a minute, I was sated.

But was that enough? NO! The next day, I snatched up a pint of Haagen Dacz pistacio ice cream. This was not at all bright green - in fact, it was just vanilla ice cream with some (but not enough!) pistacio pieces spread throughout. Not bad, but I felt like I could have just as easily sprinkled my pistacios onto vanilla.

When I proposed making the package of pistacio pudding, Foodgoat drew the line.

Go Tribe

The Tribe are emerging as the team that COULD ... GO ... ALL ... THE ... WAY!

While the A's are sort of sucking. Which means it must be the end of the baseball season. You can set your clock by the A's wild card race meltdown, I tell ya.

A few weeks ago we went to an Indians-A's matchup at Jacobs Field. I'm all about baseball games, but let's face it, the food at the ball park sometimes not so good. Which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't also charge you an arm and a leg for a bleeaaah hot dog.

But Foodgoat and I outsmarted them! Ha ha! We ate BEFORE the game, OUTSIDE the park. Mwah ha ha!

Here we hit Foodgoat's regular stop before football games, Panini's, where the star menu item is the overstuffed sandwich. Overstuffed with french fries and coleslaw, those culinary renegades! Slapped together with the speed and finesse of a Jhonny Peralta and Ronnie Belliard doing a 5-4-3 double play!

Our server nicely smiled for me, and for his trouble I cut off his forehead.

So big! So good! So filling! And no, not all my sandwich descriptions end up sounding kind of homoerotic. Just most of them.

And now the view from our seats right behind home plate and surrounded by people, who, oddly enough, really knew their baseball. Even that one guy behind us who told his friend that football was boring because nothing happens (!!). But then Wedge got ejected and the lights went out for half an hour, and I got distracted by the beer guy.

Go Tribe! They won, and let's all hope they keep on winning (so I can move back to California ... okay, I have ulterior motives!).

Blog Party #2: Tiki

After my sorority initiation, we celebrated at the Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar in San Francisco's Fairmount Hotel. Amid the Bay Area fog and Union Square sophistication, it was a kitschy, campy fake Polynesian paradise, featuring a tiki-boat-cum-stage that floats across the pool with a full band, and a "monsoon" and thunderstorm that sprays the dance floor every half hour. I don't remember a thing about the food, but I do remember a partaking in a few gigantic tropical drinks for four people that might have been called a Scorpion Bowl. (Perhaps that explains why I do remember spending part of the evening sliding down the Fairmount staircase bannisters).

But the Tonga Room is hardly the best known of Bay Area's tiki attractions. That honor goes to Oakland's Trader Vic's, one of the original tiki-themed restaurants and soon after opening in 1936, one of the most popular watering holes of its time. Trader Vic's gave us the original Mai Tai. I've never been there, but the December 2004 Saveur has a delightful article on it, and more importantly, some intriguing recipes from the restaurant.

The one I wanted to try was Bongo Bongo soup. With a name like that, who could resist?

It is made of spinach, fresh oysters, and a bit of clam juice, in a lot of half and half, and flavored with hot sauce, Worcestshire sauce, and A-1 sauce ... a pureed spinach and oyster bisque, I suppose. It was creamy and delicious, and went well with our crab cakes to a light, sea-worthy meal. Easy to make, tasty to eat, and above all, fun to say. Bongo bongo!