What Mica eats and the stories behind them.

Ethical Advertising We decided to have our dinner today,...

ohwowmica — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:56:24 +0800

Ethical Advertising

We decided to have our dinner today, January 17, 2013, at Karate Kid in SM Megamall as I am a fan of quick Japanese food at a good price. I believe we all understand it that in fast food, or any other dining establishments, we can’t expect the dishes served to us to look exactly the same as the one in their marketing collaterals.

I, myself, make a living out of taking photos of food and designing marketing collaterals. I admit, we fluff the food, give it better lighting and meticulously work on every detail of the product to make it look as good as it can. But we all have to have limits. We cannot cheat the consumers by marketing a dish which looks full and bursting with ingredients but serve something essentially different. It’s like marketing air conditioners but actually selling rectangular fans that you have to put ice in to make it cool.

As a food photographer, I admit, I do try my best to make the dish look as mouth-watering as possible, but I make sure to discuss with my clients (usually the establishment owners) regarding the size of the serving the consumers actually get. I work with that, the serving size of what you actually order and make the most of that. I guess you can call it ethical marketing.

But here before us sit a dish called “Spam Maki”. Staring at it, I thought “I would never have imagined that it is humanly possible to slice spam that thin. It’s like the cook used a vegetable peeler to make the slices.” I felt cheated, insulted. They marketed a dish to look like something so full and appetizing, and serving you some skin of spam between two slabs of rice, you might have as well served me extra rice instead. I was appalled. I felt like they made a promise and didn’t even try to fulfil it.

Luckily, after discussing with the manager, she nicely offered to take back the order and give us a refund. Yes, I believe we – the consumers – have all the right to be refunded if we find the marketing collaterals excessively misleading. Honestly, I never expect my McDonald burger to look like the one on the poster, I understand that. But at least I know my burger only looks like shit because of the hasty preparation. I’m sure the cook wouldn’t spend 3 meticulous hours on preparing a burger. But this one was just plain cheating. Even If I got the two slices of spam I received and stuck them together, they would be nowhere near what they “showed” it would look like.

I hope this article reach the right people, not just the marketing team of Karate Kid but anyone in the advertising industry. There is nothing wrong with making things look good, it’s our job to sell. Like putting on make-up before going out. But trying to look good and lying about how you really look like is an entirely different thing. We should set boundaries for ourselves. We should be ethical. We should create things we can be proud of. To sell is a challenge; to sell honestly is a greater but more rewarding challenge.

A simple creamy Carbonara for a lonely dinner. :/

ohwowmica — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:37:43 +0800

A simple creamy Carbonara for a lonely dinner. :/

My first attempt at trying to make Arroz Caldo. Apparently...

ohwowmica — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:30:00 +0800

My first attempt at trying to make Arroz Caldo. Apparently I’ve lost all skills in the boiling an egg department. Will be posting the recipe in a while, gotta eat first. :)

Chicken, why you so sexy?Manok na pinaupo sa asin for dinner. :)

ohwowmica — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:33:11 +0800

Chicken, why you so sexy?
Manok na pinaupo sa asin for dinner. :)

preparing dinner for tonight.

ohwowmica — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:15:24 +0800

preparing dinner for tonight.

Sardine Pesto (Spanish Sardines) I made a quick healthy lunch...

ohwowmica — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:52:00 +0800

Sardine Pesto (Spanish Sardines)

I made a quick healthy lunch because we were both feeling under the weather. It’s the end of a long weekend of family, eating and drinking ‘til dawn and along with the countless insect bites on my legs (oh my legs, my beautiful legs, they’re ruined!) I think we’ve caught another bug. There were coughing, headaches and a couple of stuffy nose, I don’t exactly know why I thought eating some spicy pasta with fish and a bunch of leaves would help but off I went to the groceries to buy some ingredients. Got the bug too?

Here’s the recipe below!

Ingredients

Spanish Sardines
Pesto Sauce (You can buy them in jars or make your own, here’s a link to that: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pesto-sauce/)
Spaghetti Pasta
3 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
3 medium sized tomatoes, sliced

Cook pasta using package instructions.
In a separate pan, saute the minced garlic and onion in the oil from the sardines.
add the tomatoes and let it sit there so that the juices would come out.
add 3-4 pieces of sardines, be careful of the oil that comes with it, you wouldn’t want to use too much and get an overly oily pasta since the pesto sauce also has its own oil.
break the sardines in large chunks while sauteing.
add pesto sauce, about 5 table spoons.
Mix pasta in and serve on a plate topped with Parmesan.

This recipe for the sauce is good for 2-3 servings. Enjoy! :)

Happy Merienda/Lunch!

ohwowmica — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:17:16 +0800

Happy Merienda/Lunch!

Spicy Maple Pork Ribs, Bacon Asparagus Wraps and Home-made...

ohwowmica — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:03:13 +0800

Spicy Maple Pork Ribs, Bacon Asparagus Wraps and Home-made Mashed Potatoes. Happy Dinner!

Find the Recipe for the Spicy Maple Pork Ribs below.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo of pork ribs

Sweet and Spicy ketchup (UFC)

soy sauce

vinegar

1/2 red onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

coarsely ground pepper

rock salt

chili flakes

butter

water

rub all dry ingredients (pepper, salt & chili flakes) unto pork.
add garlic and onion and rub into pork as well
add ketchup, soy sauce and vinegar and massage all ingredients together.
marinade for at least 30 minutes.
mix 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup soy sauce in a pan. Add marinated pork and let it simmer. keep marinade aside.
turn pork after 15 mins and let it sip in the juices.
remove pork from pan.
on a different pan add 2 tblsp of butter and fry pork.
add left over pork marinade and toss it around the pan for about 5 mins.
remove from heat and serve.

Hope you love it as much as we did. yum! although we over ate again, try not to do that. :(

Perfect way to wake up. She prepared breakfast and served it by...

ohwowmica — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:54:00 +0800

Perfect way to wake up. She prepared breakfast and served it by my bedside. <3

“Trust in what you love, continue to do it & it will...

ohwowmica — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:35:32 +0800

“Trust in what you love, continue to do it & it will take you where you need to go.”

And this is us, scampering to fix what is the remainder of hazy dreams.

And I will not give up, for the sake of breakfasts in bed and how great you make instant coffee.

I’ve posted this recipe earlier but it only had a shakey...

ohwowmica — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:47:00 +0800

I’ve posted this recipe earlier but it only had a shakey video along with it. Here’s a clearer photo for those of you who have no time to click the play button.

All Veggie Pesto

Ingredients:

Olive oil
4 cloves Garlic (chopped)
1 small white onion (chopped)
Shitake Mushrooms (sliced to bite size pieces)
1 medium Tomatoes (sliced)
Pesto Mix
Tomato Paste (3/4 cup)
Veggie pasta (cooked with directions in package)
Chopped Basil leaves

To taste:

garlic powder
pepper
chili flakes/powder
salt

1) Cook pasta according to instructions.

2) Saute garlic, onion in olive oil.

3) Add tomato and let it simmer to release the juices.

4) Add mushrooms and let simmer.

5) Add Pesto Mix and tomato sauce and stir everything. Let it simmer.

6) lastly add basil and serve.

Pan Grilled Pork marinated the best way I know how, the Filipino...

ohwowmica — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:41:00 +0800

Pan Grilled Pork marinated the best way I know how, the Filipino way.

Of course Filipinos do have different ways of cooking the same dishes depending on which region you’re from. And I do have learned that most Filipino cooking is largely dependent on just estimating the amount of each ingredient by taste. There’s no exact measurement for any certain dish, it really depends on the cook. Now that explains all me other recipes, why I keep saying “put as much as you’d like”. That’s really how I do it, sorry!

Now of to the roughly measured recipe.

Ingredients

2 Thin long slices of pork belly.

Crushed pepper

Rock Salt

3 calamansi

For the Marinade:

Half a cup of Soy sauce, I believe Silver Swan brand really works for this.

Coarsely chopped onion and garlic

A couple of Siling Labuyo (or depends on how spicy you want it)

1/3 cup of Vinegar

1/3 cup of Water

A tbps of brown sugar

Rub pork with salt and pepper. Squeeze calamansi directly on the pork.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and massage the pork in. Leave it for at least 30 mins-1hr.

Heat pan to med-high heat and brush with a little oil. (oh and im using a thick teflon pan)

Place pieces of pork in the pan and let it cook for 2-3 mins depending on how done you want your pork. Brush the top part of the pork with a little marinade and turn. Cook for another 2-3 mins.

Serve with a dipping sauce with the same ingredients as the marinade minus the water and sugar, plus calamansi.

Another good dipping sauce is just vinegar with chopped garlic.

Enjoy! :)

My Special Meatball Pasta I must say I did make this a while...

ohwowmica — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:32:00 +0800

My Special Meatball Pasta

I must say I did make this a while back and it was a huge success. Everybody loved it. Now, let me scavenge through my brain on how I did this.

Ingredients: (Thank god I made a grocery list of this on my phone!)

1/2 kilo of ground beef
Fresh parsley
tomatoes
garlic
onion
salt, pepper and chili flakes
mushrooms
tomato sauce
cheese
olive oil
penne pasta

1) Cook pasta according to instructions on the pack. Cook as much as you’d like. I would measure one handful of uncooked pasta is good for one person.

2) Kneed the ground beef together with a bit of salt, pepper, finely diced onions and half a cup of fresh chopped parsley.

3) Heat enough olive oil to cover half the meatballs and place the meatballs in, browning each side on high heat and lowering the heat a bit to cook the insides as well. Cook all the meatballs.

4) Remove meatballs from the oil. Also remove most of the olive oil from the pan and place it aside, leaving only about 3 tables spoons of oil in the pan. Enough for sauteing

5) Saute about 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic, a small finely chopped onion and the mushrooms. Add the sliced tomatoes on top and lower heat to let the juices out. Cover the pan and let it simmer.

6) Place the meatballs back into the pan to let it sip all the juices.

7) Slowly add tomato sauce, as much as you want. I used a pouch (500g) I believe.

8) Add a cup of freshly chopped parsley.

9) Add salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste (we like it a bit spicy).

10) Pour sauce over pasta and top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Made this out of the left over Spam from yesterday. Para di...

ohwowmica — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:26:50 +0800

Made this out of the left over Spam from yesterday. Para di naman nakaka umay. :)

Do you know how I like my eggs? Medyo basag ang pula.

ohwowmica — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:51:23 +0800

Do you know how I like my eggs? Medyo basag ang pula.

Creamy Pesto Pasta with slow cooked Garlic Chicken. This dish...

ohwowmica — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 22:42:00 +0800

Creamy Pesto Pasta with slow cooked Garlic Chicken.

This dish brings back memories of when I first started to learn how to cook. It’s fairly easy to do and full of flavor.

Ingredients: (Good for 2)

For the Garlic Chicken

2 pcs of quarter cut chicken. Preferably the thigh-leg part, but any part would do.

Soy sauce

Black pepper

Salt

3 garlic cloves, diced

Coat the chicken pieces in pepper, salt, garlic and soy sauce. Rub them in, yes rub it in. Massage your chicken with love and lotsa garlic.
Put them in a thick pan, over really low heat. If you’re using an electric stove, 80° celsius would be right.
Cover your chicken and leave it for about 1 hour.
After an hour, flip your chicken and leave it for another hour. (You can cook your chicken in a turbo broiler too, I just dont have one)
And done! Enjoy. ;)

Creamy Pesto Pasta

Ingredients

Penne Pasta
Water
Oil
All purpose cream
Sugar (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Butter
Garlic (finely diced)
Onion (finely diced)
Bolognese Sausage (sliced)
Fresh Basil (coarsely chopped)
McCormick Pesto Sauce Mix

1. Boil penne in salt and oil according to instructions on the packaging.

2. On a separate pan, sauté garlic, onion & Sausage in butter.

3. Add water, cream & McCormick Pesto Sauce Mix, mix well and let it simmer. Add sugar and/or salt as needed.

4. Add fresh basil.

5. Drain pasta and add to the sauce in the skillet. Mix well.

6. Serve hot, top with cheese and garnish with Italian seasoning or fresh basil.

That’s it, happy eating!

Spicy Tuna Sandwich for brunch on a lazy sunday...

ohwowmica — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:37:00 +0800

Spicy Tuna Sandwich

for brunch on a lazy sunday afternoon.

Ingredients (makes 2 sandwiches)

Wheat Bread (4 slices)

Butter for spreading

Chili powder

pepper

A can of tuna chunks in water

olive oil

onion (finely diced)

garlic (finely diced)

green bell pepper (finely diced)

lettuce

Spread butter on your bread, as much as you want. Spread that butter around.
Sprinkle chili powder and pepper on top of the butter. Seriously, I’m no good with measurements, I pretty much just put as much as I like, you should too.
Throw them slices of bread in to the toaster and, well, toast em.
Meanwhile, go put your tuna in a bowl. Dont forget to drain the water first!
Add 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise. (finally, a unit of measure. but yeah, because everything else before this you could use common sense.)
Add a pinch of sugar, a tablespoon of olive oil a dash of pepper and chili powder. (there’s some units of measurements for you)
Also add in the garlic, onion and green bell pepper. But you can saute them in olive oil first if you don’t want the taste to be too strong.
Mix!
Now take out your bread from the toaster and plop in as much tuna spread as you want on the bread.
Add some lettuce and cover with another slice of bread (yes, that’s how you make a sandwich.)
Repeat the same for the other sandwich.

Enjoy!

My first time trying to cook afritada -a popular Filipino dish....

ohwowmica — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:17:38 +0800

My first time trying to cook afritada -a popular Filipino dish. yum, not bad. so very full though. good bye swimming tomorrow :|

Food Photography for Tower Club while I was working as their...

ohwowmica — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:47:34 +0800

Food Photography for Tower Club while I was working as their in-house artist.

So i started doing official food photography gigs and this was...

ohwowmica — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:45:20 +0800

So i started doing official food photography gigs and this was my first client as a freelance featuring a filipino staple food - Pancit! Let me know what you think!