You literally said "that worldwide love for the game and celebrations that will ensure those atrocities and corruption continue."

It's a picture of it on the kitchen counter.

It is quite a treat, isn't it? And bread does have more flavor than a wafer cone.

Oh, does that mean it's less likely you'll confuse it for milk because it's not in a bag?

According to Wikipedia, siling haba is 50,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) while Korean chili peppers are 1,500 SHU unless it's specifically a Chyeongyang chili pepper which is 10,000 SHU. I don't know if siling haba is quite that spicy since Serrano is supposedly 25,000-50,000 and I thought that was spicier than siling haba, so I think if it's a Chyeongyang chili pepper, you should go use that. 10,000 is only slightly spicier than a jalapeño (4,000-8,500 SHU).

I think I used to substitute a smaller Serrano (because I remember they can get quite big.) I think they might be spicier.

I've seen people use jalapeños for dynamite, though it's quite a girthy dynamite.

Have you tried checking the Hispanic or Mexican section of the regular supermarket or their markets? They use achiote powder, too. You may need to make sure you don't get one that's mixed with coriander or other spices.

Yeah, me too. I think I'll plan it for next time I go buy groceries.

You can skip the dried banana blossoms if you don't like them, especially since outside the Philippines I think the alternative you can usually find in Asian stores is dried lily buds which I think you definitely should rinse. But it's really not necessary. But definitely have whatever you use for siling haba cooking in there to add to your dipping sauce later on.

Yes, I think beef kare-kare is the standard version, especially oxtail and oxtripe, but certainly only using ribs or shank would be very good, too.

I think you can sometimes find annatto powder or achiote paste in the Hispanic or Mexican spice section of supermarkets. Maybe you have a Mexican market near you if not a Filipino one. I mention this since you seem to not be in the Philippines.

I suggested it because you did say you like crispy pata and you like the vinegar dip.

Batangas Style Paksiw na Pata is basically just doing the pork boiling step (same spices, basically) but with siling haba, optional banana blossoms, and with vinegar in the broth.

The pata is usually not whole. Sometimes when I make paksiw na pata, before I put more vinegar in, I set a slice or two aside to make into a sort of mini-crispy pata slice. It's not quite the same but it's close enough.

The broth gets quite sticky, as you might imagine.

Just to be clear, I meant the kind that doesn't have soy sauce or sugar.

In Batangas, Paksiw na pata is made kind of like how one would make a paksiw na bangus or isda but with no eggplant or ginger, though I guess ginger can be optional.

I like to rinse the banana blossoms first because I feel like the fine powder surrounding adds some sort of bitterness, but I suppose banana blossoms are optional altogether.

I do sometimes make humba out of pork shoulder instead of pata, I usually have tausi and I add whole heads of garlic so I have some braised garlic as well that I can squeeze nice whole delicious cloves out of. I like to eat it with scrambled eggs, though hardboiled eggs are good, too.

Obviously the paksiw with soy sauce or humba, I don't eat with patismansi.

Have you tried Paksiw na Pata, Batangas Style? Not the kind that's kind of like humba. The recipes online seem to be missing banana blossoms, if you ever want to try it.

I like to make a patismansi dipping sauce plus the siling haba you cook with the paksiw. It might already be sour but I think the calamansi in the sauce adds a different fresh tang to the experience.

True. Personally, I usually use both the kaldo or boiling broth *and* a broth cube, and both peanut butter (Right now I have some Lily's) *and* a kare-kare mix because that has the toasted ground rice and the annato color but the peanut flavor isn't quite enough. I think the annato is pretty important for the color of the kare-kare though, if I didn't have mix I'd probably use annato powder as well for that.

I hope it's not just the sauce in OP's "Crispy kare-kare" (Sidenote: Isn't it funny that it became kind of trendy to make a "Crispy" version of something and it just means it's Lechon Kawali in the respective sauce.) but also the vegetables.

Adding Banana Ketchup as well as using Filipino Style Spaghetti Sauce makes it extra authentic. I know the recipe on those packs don't include using extra banana ketchup, so that's above and beyond. Extra points if the 1/4 cup of water is first used to swish around the sauce packet to make sure you get every bit of it.

I remember one of the Italian youtubers whose job is partly to be upset at cooking Italian food wrong being pretty okay with it because it's not trying to be anything Italian as it's called Filipino-style Spaghetti.

Though I did once see an Italian person at a Filipino restaurant being teased by some of his Filipino friends by saying they're going to order him some Spaghetti and he was, I'm sure half-jokingly, yelling in maybe mock terror that "Please, no, no pasta. Everything else is good, but no Filipino pasta."

But I imagine that was also because he was also exposed to what we call carbonara, etc.

On the other hand, there are those whipped cream and fruit sandwiches from Japan or those "dirty" ice cream sandwiches using hamburger buns from the Philippines.

Maybe it's a sweeter Asian loaf, I think it probably works.

I know mango and cream works with cake or graham crackers, toast seems like there could be potential there.

Sounds good, is the bread lightly toasted?

>Asian Tamarind powder

It sounds like you'd enjoy Filipino food.

Not OP, but yes, they're bought salted and dried.

We fry them in a pan with some oil, being very aware that it will cause a strong aroma of frying dried fish to fill the surrounding area. It's not that offensive to fellow Filipino neighbors because they know what it is but it is something to consider when outside the Philippines. I've heard a possible trick to distract neighbors' noses from the smell is to burn some toast, but I don't know if that really helps.

After it is fried - it doesn't take long - you remove the skin by lifting it or scraping it off, remove the head and then fillet it by running your spoon down through the belly, and then once you have butterflied your fish, you lift out the spine of the fish. There may be some small pinbones, but they are kind of negligible.

You can then take very small pieces of the dried fish meat to eat with rice.

People will often also place the tuyo in a saucer full of possibly spiced white vinegar with a piece of smashed garlic, the preferred condiment. This softens the tuyo and the vinegar cuts through the salt as well.

Or instead of vinegar, you can have it with some fresh tomato as seen in OP's picture. The fresh tomato adds a different fresh slightly tart juiciness to the bite of food. The head of the tuyo is also eaten by some people, especially if it is well fried.

Of course, this assumes one is using a spoon and a fork as people may eat barehanded.

A somewhat recent development is jarred "gourmet" tuyo, which is prefilleted pieces of fried tuyo preserved in oil, usually sunflower or corn oil but sometimes olive oil, with maybe peppercorns, chilis, bayleaf and garlic.

That doesn't require any frying and doesn't cause the smell of frying tuyo to emanate from your home and so may be less offensive to one's neighbors.

They are delicious, if you ever find a Filipino store you can probably try gourmet tuyo before going for the dried fish you fry yourself. People make pasta dishes with it, too.

Mm, spritz of calamansi/lemon, pepper, bit crispy fried garlic, maybe extra fish sauce or soy sauce, maybe some chili oil. A hardboiled egg, some chicken. Nice.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go... chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose... Jingle bell jingle bell Jingle bell rock...

I wonder when we'll get the yearly post accusing that cold outside song of being abusive.

I don't think this song by Mariah has ever taken over Christmas airwaves in the Philippines where I'm from, though, as a local artist released a song in 1990 ("Christmas in our Hearts") that is the country's preferred memed song that means Christmas has arrived. Which is around September.

It isn't a pop r&b track or whatever All I Want for Christmas is You is, though, so it's not quite so tiresome unless, I guess, one's not particularly into Jesus.

It's okay, Aeon, not everyone wants to spread their wings like a butterfly.

Don't let their disdain be a heartbreaker that gets the best of you.

(I think those are references to Mariah Carey songs. After that my aunt's mixtape I used to overhear switched to TLC.)

Yeah, are public places not just playing it as one song in a massive playlist of Christmas and other seasonal holiday songs?

Surely, without it on a loop by itself, the attribution for whatever lack of mirth one feels about the music is spread out to several songs.

Oh good point, sovereignty over Christmas wouldn't just be limited to music.

Ah, I consider Michael Buble the second Queen of Christmas.