Greg and Kat's blog

Now that me fried rice journey has ended, I find myself contemplating the next epic food journey. Having gone through one, I think I can handle another. The key is to only ask individual people, namely either my Aunt Daisy or my mom, very specific questions about whatever dish I am trying to make. I haven’t decided which dish will be next, but I thought I should write them down somewhere while they are fresh in my mind. So, here are some of the family dishes that I may want to try to make, and the person that I think knows how to make them:

My mom:
Pancit bihon, which is a Filipino rice noodle dish
Pancit sotanghon , which is more soupy than pancit bihon (I think) and made with a different type of noodle
Lumpia Shanghai (fried spring roll with meat in it)

My Ama:
Chow mein (I made this once with my Aunt Belen, so I think I can make it again, but I’m not totally sure)
Kiam pung (translation: salty rice), which is a form of fried rice that is brown (this one has soy sauce for sure!), and contains meat and sometimes hard-boiled eggs, and is flavored with spices like star anise and whole peppercorns. My Ama may have used adobo sauce from pork or chicken adobo to flavor the sauce. I think my Ama’s kiam pung is on the dry side compared to other people’s dishes (based on a Google image search of kiam pung). Also, it does not contain peanuts.
Fried meatballs

My Aunt Daisy:
Lumpia prito (fried vegetable spring rolls). She learned how to make these from my Ama. Learning from my aunt will be more straightforward. The only down-side of this dish is that it is deep fried. That’s a lot of work, and I’m not sure I’d ever really make it on my own because of that.

My Aunt Edna:
Kiam beh (translation: salty rice, but in congee-form). I loved my Ama’s kiam beh but I really don’t think I’d ever be able to learn that recipe from her. Luckily, my Aunt Edna has been making kiam beh for my Ama, and I had some last night. It’s close enough to my Ama’s (my mom’s version was good, but never quite the same), so I’m going to ask her to teach me how to make it. The linked picture of it has a recipe from a guy in Toronto. Maybe I’ll try his version and see if it tastes like my Ama’s! 🙂

The family in general:
Lumpia sariwa (fresh spring rolls). LOTS of work goes into making these. It’s more of a whole-family effort. I would just like to know the ratios of ingredients. I think that’s all I can really hope for.

That’s my list so far. Am I crazy for wanting to start what could be another soul-crushing experience?