The word “simple” evokes a sort of magical aura to me. Ironically enough, when I hear simple, I start to think of the most elaborate feeling of comfort and stripped, uncluttered bliss. The image of white makes an appearance, the sound of a Zero 7 track, the smell of freshly cut grass and the feel of clean crisp soft sheets underneath me. All this imagery by one term.

They say the best things in life are the simpler moments and fleeting emotions, here are some of mine:
– Seeing an old friend and still having the same rapport.
- Swimming naked.
- Receiving a letter by a loved one through snail mail, a couple of weeks late.
- Getting a postcard.
- When the right song plays at exactly the right moment.
- Finding money I misplaced and forgot about.

- The sound of rain on a tin roof.
- Completing a project.

- Bein with someone who understands the words behind your silence.

- Playing outside when the sun cooperates.
- Feeling exhausted after a workout.

- Uncontrollable laughter.
- Entering a house and smelling something cooking in the kitchen.

When I think of simple food, staples come to mind, good multigrain bread, olive oil, vegetables, herbs, cheese, etc, produce that you can find everywhere and that doesn’t need much alteration before eating it.
And what better way to compliment simple food but with great clean crockery. I love Muji because it has that uncluttered, practical and beautiful design, which only the Japanese can achieve. Here I use, there great flip out rubber bowl that’s easy to clean, a very helpful transparent chopping board and of course, my favourite, a small white plate. The perfect canvas.

Here is a quick and simple snack that I made with what I had in my fridge.

Zucchini and Avocado Bruschetta

Slice half a zucchini, in thin slices, fry off in Filippo Berio olive oil , add some chopped garlic. Slice half an avocado. In a bowl toss the cooked zucchini with parsley leaves, salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Take a thick slice of multi grain bread and toast in hot pan. Spread a tbsp of ricotta on the bread, season, top with sliced avocado, zucchini, more parsley and some lemon rinds.

Squash is one of those ingredients that you wouldn’t  automatically associate with asian cooking. You don’t see it in many dishes, yet it is grown widely and used here and there. In the Philippines one of these dishes is the Pinakbet, a vegetable stew with lots (i mean lots) of different vegetables, all muddled together. I really enjoy Pinakbet, my problem with it is that its too ambitious, it has a good number of vegetables fighting for the shinning spot, only to be overpowered by shrimp paste ( a staple in these parts). Remember on one of my previous post, i talked about how certain dishes get lost in translation, this is one of those, we can’t expect this cuisine to translate well, if it doesnt have any true definition (by definition, i mean defining flavour), so why not take some traditional dishes, revisit them, strip them down to bare essentials, and make a tasty alternative? This is what i did here, because i want to show people that even if its not done in the “proper” way, it can still be good, and still represent our nation’s flavour. Squash and Shrimp Paste, a little surprise, lots of love.

This recipe stemmed from a one minute conversation i was having with my pal when we were talking about our favourite vegetable dishes, he said: “i love pinakbet, but okra and bitter gourd (ampalaya) suck”. Well my friend, here is something you’ll love, without the “sucky” parts (i for one love okra and bitter gourd).

Chicken Pandan with Squash Stew

Marinate your chicken: I use pieces of chicken thigh with the skin removed. Pieces need to be about 2inch wide and thick. For about 500g of chicken, 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander root, 1tbsp of coco sugar, 2tbsp of chopped garlic, 1tbsp of rice vinegar, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 2tbsp of milk, sesame oil and white pepper. Warp in washed pandan leaves and close up with a toothpick. Marinate at least 2 hours, or overnight. Fry off in oil. To keep moist, when you flip them, add a little water and cover to help cook the other side a bit quicker. right before serving add in some chopped spring onions and toss around.

For the Squash: Take about 1/4 of a squash and chop into square pieces. Fry off in a pan with 2 chopped tomaotes, a chopped onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Once translucent add in the squash and a chopped green chilli and 2 heaped tablespoons of shrimp paste . When everything is cooked through, add a handful of chopped greens (chayote tops, chinese spinach…), 1 tsp of coco cream (optional) and 1 tbsp of fish sauce (or 2 to taste).

I luckily grew up in a household that believed in supplements before they became the rage of the decade, my mom has an incline towards natural remedies instead of relying directly on medication, so I was exposed to the beneficial effects of natural nutrient/vitamins and nutrition support.

I believe in all natural supplementation that helps us maintain a healthy lifestyle and supports any hard efforts we encounter every day. If you are someone that is able to eat a huge variety of fresh vegetables, fruit and animal proteins every day, that’s great, you probably don’t need supplements, but the truth is as the world goes towards a hastened pace, we have less and less time to eat at home, prepare our meals, and get all the nutrients we need from our food, because we eat out or we don’t have time.

Secondly, if you are a very active person, your body is probably not getting the adequate support to replace what you are losing during those long hard workouts or it’s not getting protection against certain injuries/sicknesses you may encounter while training.

I started training for Triathlons in January; it was quite late to jump on the band wagon as I planned to race in May, June and August, and so I rushed my entry into the sport a little. On my 3^rd week as a runner, I decided to join a 21km run race with some of my more experienced runner friends, I paced with them and eventually decided to break away and push myself a little more, I got a good time for a first half marry, but I paid for it 1 day later (a day after buying my bike). When I started my recovery run, I realised I was limping, I strung out my IT band completely. For 1 month a half I stayed off my legs, only doing upper body gym work, lots of painful therapy and rest. I started training again, and every now and then I still had problems but with work and therapy we managed it. I still had to learn how to bike though!!!!

That injury has been on my mind endlessly because I know, if it comes back and I have to rest again, I will have to push back all my races. I recently competed in my first standard distance triathlon, and guess what? No injuries

It got me thinking though; maybe I need a new scientific approach to the sport, because the distances we cover and the way we expose our bodies, we need some support. And this applies to anyone who takes a sport seriously or people who just don’t feel their getting enough from the foods they are eating. So every week, I will talk about 1 supplement I take and how it might benefit you.

Joint Support Powder

If you use your body a lot in sports there will come a time where you feel your joints ache a little and if this gets any more serious, it is really painful. I don’t want that to happen to me, which is why I use Joint Support Powder.

The official explanation:

“Joint Support Powder is a superior combination of dietary supplements that have been shown to nutritionally support healthy joint function. Hydrolyzed Beef Gelatin is 86% protein, high in collagen and has been enzymatically predigested to enhance absorption. Glucosamine is an amino sugar derived from the chitin of shellfish. It is utilized by the body to support healthy joint structures.* Sulfate is the preferred form of Glucosamine and is a natural source of potassium and sulfur. MSM is a biologically active form of organic sulfur found in all living organisms. It is naturally found in varying amounts in raw unprocessed milk, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.”

I usually take this in my recovery drink after my workouts, a little milk, some protein powder, this joint support powder (no taste), some chocolate powder and berries, blitz and you’re good to go!

NOW Foods supplements can be found in Watsons all around Metro Manila.

I have serious beef with sugar.

Sugar is what made me fat, sugar makes me moody, sugar is everywhere like a sneaky little ninja (in white). If you take the time to read the labels of the products you buy at the supermarket, you’ll find that sugar is a main ingredient in most of them. Fine, from time to time, indulge. For example my homemade sugar has lots of sugar. But for 6 days a week, remember:

What’s an acceptable value? never buy anything with more than 5 grams of sugar/serving portion.

What are acceptable replacements: Well agave, natural honey, real maple syrup (dont be fooled by the cleverly marketed maple falvoured syrup – see what i did there?), molasses; but there is no clear winner, you see the only difference between these syrups and sugar is that they are less processed. So as a rule of thumb, use the syrups, but only use a tablespoon.

Cereals, granolas, “healthy” “low fat” grain breakfast foods, instant oats, all contain heaps of sugar (great you are low fat, but why is your butt getting bigger?) so why not make them at home?

Here is my simple recipe for a home made granola which is much healthier for you than your store bought brands. My sweetness comes from some dried cranberries, fruits, coconut sugar, and just a tad bit of honey at the end.

My measurements: 2tbsp of coco sugar, 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats, 1 cup of mixed chopped nuts salted, 1 tbsp of canola oil, 1 large banana and 2/3 cup of natural fresh apple juice (blended). Mix all together and bake on a sheet pan at 350 fareheit for 45 mintutes. Add 1/2 handful of cranberries at the end and let cool completely.

serve with a chopped banana and a tad bit of honey, if you want, and some unsweetened almond, coconut or regular milk.

It always surprises me as I step into a restaurant and they seem to have such limited seafood sections; some are limited in the sheer number of dishes they present, others by the variety, and mostly have uninspiring ways of cooking the produce.

It’s funny, when I have an eager persistent hankering for seafood I automatically start migrating towards Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai Cuisine (oh! And why aren’t there any Malaysian or Indonesian restaurants around the world more! Its great cuisine! I’ll save this rant for another post…).

But we have some amazing Filipino recipes for Fish and I want to start sharing more and more the intricacies and delicate characteristics of our local food that is more often than none overshadowed by heavy handed oily dishes, we all love to pig out on, because they emanate a sense of comfort or security but that we shouldn’t be basing ourselves on solely.

You don’t see American Chefs boisterously up selling their pancakes as their National Star Dish. So why do we do this with Diniguan for example (seriously I LOVE OFFAL and discarded animal parts, but this dish is nothing interesting, why should we be proud of it?).

We have so much more to offer.

Here is a great Oven Baked Maya Maya (Red Snapper) Recipe with some market fresh vegetables and a coconut lemongrass sauce.

Take one red snapper fillet and place  it in parchment paper or aluminium foil wet with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add a chopped red onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 3 tbsp of minced ginger, 2 tbsp of a chopped banana pepper, a dash of fish sauce, a heaped tsp of lemongrass (or 1 lemon grass bark bashed in), 3 spring onions, 6-8 cherry tomatoes, 4-6 baby carrots, 3 torn lime leaves, some coriander and top it all with more olive oil. Close it up and leave some breathing room.

Place in a 200 degree Celsius oven for about 18-24 minutes. Check doneness.

Tip: How do you know fish is done?: Fish should be firm but still moist. ovens, grills, pans and microwaves cook differently. 10 minutes per inch is a good start. How long it should stay in the oven or in a pan, depends on the fish species, temps and if there are any liquids involved. Basically start checking your fish after 6/8minutes per inch. Other ways: when you cut the fish it should be opaque everywhere. if you use a fork it should gently flake apart. Put a thermometer in the flesh and it should come out reading 137 farenheit. insert a knife in then put the knife to your lip, it should be more than warm but not hot.

While your fish is in the oven, take some green beans out. Heat a pan and fry off a small handful of almond slivers, add in 2 minced garlic gloves, and your 1 cup of green beans.

Place 4 tbsp of water to help soften them and cover with a lid, until all water is evaporated and the greens are properly cooked (still crunchy), season with salt and pepper.

For some added fun, plate your green beans in a young coconut shell that way you can scrape off some meat with your beans and it’ll tie in gloriously with the fish.

Plate, Zest, Eat and Love. (and sleep after)

Welcome to the new Series i like to call SKILL SHOP. Here i’ll cover through short videos, basic skills that will make you look like a rockstar in the kitchen. Nothing to elaborate, always simple, easy, useful and necessary skills people think are a usually a given, but once confronted, realise, damn, i should of learned how to do that. Now people will see *gleam of hope in my brown eyes*: “damn, i should of watched that The Fat Kid Inside video”.

So SKILL SHOP #1? Eggs of course. Scrambled Eggs to be exact. How do they get so creamy and unctuous, but each time your try it, they are either too dry, too raw, or have weird consistencies (long flaps, small shards, gu…). Well here you go: *tatttaaaaaaaa*

I know, i know, eggs again, well its the easiest thing to cook, but the most horrible thing to eat when done wrong, so start getting it right, most restaurants in know, don’t.

Mind Blown (no not really)

Summer Tricks and Indulgences

It is impressively hot these days; one can barely step out of a building for a couple of minutes without getting damped and quickly ending up drenched. When temperatures reach this certain plateau where crunching up a finger becomes impossibly uncomfortable, I turn to food and drinks for comfort.

You see, your body is like a machine or a car; you need to take care of what goes in and around it to make sure that it stays in a pristine condition. With all my triathlon training lately I have understood this concept more than ever. My muscles are in a constant state of stress and I limp half the day after a hard work out, during sport sessions I feel like I’ve stuck, prodded and placed in an over and my performance has varied greatly with the type of foods I eat.

This is why I will start talking about supplements in some future post, especially interesting for those who put their bodies through lots of strain and look for ways to help quicken recovery and find a successful daily upkeep.
But for now I want to discuss ways you can keep cool with food and drinks:

 1. Ice Cream, obviously. My pick: Magnum
If you haven’t tried Magnum Ice Cream yet, you are very late to the Party. The international brand was launched last month here in the Philippines and has set the tone in the market in terms of a very successful sales campaign and in the quality that can be expected from products of this low price (only 50Pesos, roughly 1 USD, meaning 3 times cheaper than anywhere else in the world). I know I mostly talk about being healthy and fit, but the worst thing you can do to your body is deprive it for so long and then crash and burn. So indulging from time to time is actually a good thing and is mentally helpful. I go for the creamy vanilla bar coated with rich Belgian chocolates that just brings me to a complete state of general tranquillity where I manage to forget about work, stress and everyday life. I’m transported back to days of simpler times and my childhood. Pick one up at your local convenience store in 3 flavours (Truffle, Almond or Vanilla).

Don’t think about the calories! But if you are obsessed here are easy ways you can work that bar off:

46 mins dancing, 102 mins signing, 82 mins cooking, 186 mins kissing, 46 mins shooting hoops, 26 mins Frisbee, 24 mins beach football, 21 mins breaststroke, 20 mins free-running.
Not too bad ey?

 2. Refreshing Hydration

When it comes to hydration I’m pretty much a purist, because the more you alter the state of water or pure juice the more it takes away from the actual hydration of your body (replacing lost fluids). When it is a scorcher out or if you are doing sports outdoors in this heat, water is your best friend, so take your hand away from artificial juices/sodas and the likes and opt for these less boring water alternatives:

- Flavoured Syrups: It’s very easy to make syrup that you can just mix in with water to give the extra zing. Some good examples that I like doing is, using teas, herbs (mint is a personal preference – boil some clean leaves without the stock until the water is well-flavoured 1cup is to 1 cup. Then add it to natural water until the desired strength is achieved), natural sweeteners (honey, agave, keep it to a tsp per serving), fruits (use oranges, lemons.. cut them up and drop them in ice-cold water)

- Jamba Juice: Jamba Juice is like a saviour to me, seriously. After all my hours spent painfully training under the sun and getting all these different types of really strange timelines, a nice heaping of ice cold frozen fruit turned into a smoothie makes me tingle all over in this 35 degrees c. weather. The menu is quite daunting and all of it is great, but they all contain different ingredients inside. So if you want to stay as healthy as possible, go for the all fruit smoothies, because they contain only fruits (well duh) and are a great carb replenishment; i usually order the five fruit frenzy with a double whey protein (for my recovery) and some boosts (antioxidant, fiber…).  Check them out at Bonifacio High Street, Alabang Center and soon to be in Mall of Asia.

3. Food

To those who don’t know food can actually affect your body core temperature in 3 ways mostly, regulating it, cooling it or warming it up. So if whatever country/weather you find yourself in, now you know what to do if you get too hot or too cold:

- Regulate: wholegrains, black sugars, grapes, honey, pumpkin, sweet potato, strawberries, apples, cherries. Most yellow/orange colour foods help maintain a normal body temp.

- Cooling: sugar (which is why you see a lot of athletes take different forms of sugar during races), processed snacks, green vegetables, tropical fruits, water rich vegetables (cucumber, courgettes..). Green and white foods will cool you down. If not, there is always beer.

- Warming: Alcohol does not help. I learned this the hard way when I was in Siberia. Mostly salty foods or those high in protein (meat, fish, chicken), help a lot in making your body temp rise. Or simply a good glass of red wine.

Heat can be dangerous. Keep Safe. Wear a hat.

What do you do to stay cool?

IT IS HOT!

Seriously, we’ve been nearing temperatures close to 38 degrees i’m sure. But, who are we to complain, weather in Europe and North America seemed to be going haywire last week as it dipped past seasonal norms, so i’ll take the heat over temperamental cold anyway. We are dead smack in the middle of summer and countless of you are headed to the beach and getting tans (i hope, don’t hide from the sun, accept it, bathe in it, get brown!!!!!); you are hopefully surrounded by topless people a lot nowadays and even though it is vacation time, which usually translates into major pig out sessions, you still want to try controlling yourself. This is how i view both Vietnamese and Thai food, they are probably two of the most healthy Asian Cuisines (Except for the deep fried stuff or when they add too much sugar), and most of their national dishes are packed with good for you nutrients. So if you want to indulge and watch the waist line this week, gravitate towards this type of food.

I’m a BIG fan of Thai salads because they usually are filled with hydrating ingredients filled with vitamins (fruit), lean protein, and a wide array of vegetables, all topped with a simple dressing full of zest. A salad like this helps me beat the heat by reducing the time i take in actually cooking my food, being refreshing and simple, as well as a good compliment to a tough workout.

This is me dying on my bike:

Apologies to my foreign friends, but it truly is #morfuninthePhilippines , this is what we do when it gets too hot out:

Now on to the food!

SIMPLE FLANK STEAK AND POMELO SALAD

1. Take some flank steak, trim the fat off, coat in peanut flour (or ground peanuts) and spot fry until medium rare.

2. In a bowl, mix a tsp of coconut (or muscavado) sugar, with 3 tsps of fish sauce, 1 tbsp of rice vinegar, some chopped chilli and garlic, a dash of water and some pepper. Add to the sauce, 3 small tomatoes cubed, a handful of shaved cabbage, a small handful of sliced raw beans, a pinch of soya sprouts (togi), 3 pomelo slices cut up and mix it all together, taste to make sure its all right and make modifications if needed. Add some honey to bind it all together. Place the beef on top and enjoy!

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Lots of love,

I’ve never really been a big fan of pasta, ever since I was kid actually, I wouldn’t take much pleasure in a big bowl of noodles with sauce, it just lacked a little luster or just seemed dull to me. Another reason why I never really jumped on the band wagon was because, in the Philippines, pasta is hardly ever done right; we have come to adopt the belief that the seemingly italian dish we serve in most of our local restaurants needs to be sweet and contain some kind of processed meat.

Of course, nowadays with some very decent Italian restaurants: Carusso on Nicanor Garcia Street and Va Bene at the Petron Gas station next to the Dasmarinas village entrance, are my two favourites; people are starting to understand the art of the dish.

My eyes were only opened  during my first trip to this nation of terrible drivers, overhyped male flirts, gorgeous passionate women, and well, Monica Belluci. I was back packing around Europe with my friends at the time and we spent a couple of days in Europe. One death-defying cab ride from the airport and we found ourselves in a very local hostel, dropped our bags and headed down the street to the first hole in the wall trattoria we could find – Yes, the restaurants serve specific food, if you ever find yourself in a place that seems to have the whole of Italy’s culinary heritage in one menu, run far and fast, tourist – We find ourselves in a tiny room surrounded by dinning Romans as the waiter approaches us and asks for our order. ‘Could we see the menu’ we ask, he scoffs at our ignorance and tells us he doesn’t have one, ‘well what do you have today’ we persevere, he taps his watch, ‘we will have 3 fettucine carbonaras and cokes per favore’ we retire, I see a smirk of satisfaction creeping up his lips. I hate ordering under per pressure. There we were, two French-Pinoys and one full Belgium guy, all ordering the same thing. Talk about a target.

The dishes come very quickly and I can barely see the sauce, there’s a line of extra virgin olive oil glimmering down my noodles and instead of thin bacon, I see thick cuts of smoked pork belly. I taste it. Suddenly, I get it. I was eating it wrong my whole life, pasta, is about tasting all the elements of the dish. I need to taste the fresh rolled out noodles, these are the stars of the dish, which are complimented by the earthy olive oil and subtly married to the sauce (no cream of course, just an egg yolk grazie).

This is how pasta should be treated: flavorful noodles, a balanced sauce and some good quality cheese. For those of you who still want a heavy ladle of sauce to cover everything up, let me try to convince you:

Whole Wheat Gomito with a Quick Basil walnut Mushroom sauce and Stripped Chicken

First and foremost, when cooking pasta, the water which you’re going to boil it in, needs to taste like the sea, so salt that mother water. Next add a little olive oil to help with the seperation a little (some people say it helps, others say it don’t, i don’t really care, i just add it in case it does make a difference). Third, dont drain your pasta, you want to add your pasta to your sauce with a little of that yummy well seasoned pasta water. Fourth, do not over season, your pasta should have a strong taste already, so balance out your sauce.

Simple Recipe: Cook your pasta according to packet instructions and until al dente. Season and make slices with your chicken breast, half cook on high heat (nice colour). Next chop some basil, garlic, a red onion, some walnuts as finely as possible and fry in some olive oil. Add the chicken, with a little chicken stock to bring it all together. when it’s cooked through, add your pasta and make sure the water evaporates with it. Serve immediately with some freshly grated parmesan.

A little side note for health: Pasta is a carb, so go easy on it, whole wheat pasta is better than white flour pasta, multi grain is slightly better and there are other of other variations claiming to be better, just read the label, look for the ingredients, and the nutritional values and make an informed choice. I only eat some when i know i truly deserve it and need to recover from a tough workout. But even then im conscious about the serving size. ALL pasta servings should be kept a 1/2 cup. Yup, you heard it right, 1/2 cup of pasta is just right, that still within nutritional balance, anything more will eventually get you fat (if eaten regularly).