Lunch at Abe Restaurant in Serendra

We recently had lunch at Abe Restaurant in Serendra at the Fort. It's a good thing we came early because the place was soon packed with a line for waiting customers. The restaurant specializes in Filipino food with strong Capampangan influence.  The name Abe itself is Capampangan for friend.  

Walking into the place is like entering a time capsule. The walls of the restaurant were filled with photographs of famous Filipinos. We spent the time waiting for our orders to arrive identifying the personalities in those photographs.

For our food, we ordered the Klasik Kare Kare, which is a family favorite.  We usually compare the one we ordered with our family's version.  We find the taste of Abe's kare kare almost similar to ours. However, the one we ordered had ox tail and beef/

We also ordered for the crispy tadyang, which is actually marinated spare ribs deep fried until it's crispy.  It came with two dips: achara and vinegar with red onion.  It's best to eat without any of these dips to enjoy the taste and crispiness of the food.

Since every table seemed to order it that day, we also ordered the Binukadkad na Plapla. It's a big tilapia cut so that the meat from both side seemed to bloom (bukadkad).  It was flavored with different spices and deep fried to make it really crispy. It's so crispy that I wanted to eat even the fish head and the bones!  It also came in a platter with mustard leaves and with a definitely Capampangan dip, burong hipon (fermented shrimps).

You may also choose to have unlimited servings of rice.  The staff were so happy to fill our plates with rice that we had to ask them to stop after two servings.

The prices were just right given the quality of the food.  If you like to have a nice all-Filipino meal with your friends in a nice environment, with good food and service, try Abe Restaurant in Serendra.

Sto. Nino Exhibit 2013

January is the month of the Sto. Nino. As a sign of their love to the Holy Child, Filipinos hold many festivals in His honor during this month.  Once again, we went to the Sto. Nino Exhibit at the Philippine National Bank. Here are some of the sacred images that were exhibited there.

The exhibit was sponsored by the Congregacion de Niño Jesus, a group of devotees of the Child Jesus.

Serye's Boneless Crispy Pata

After visiting the orchid show last Sunday, we had our dinner at the Serye Cafe Filipino which was also inside the Quezon Memorial Circle complex.  I like eating here because they serve good Filipino food and the prices are just right for the quality of food and service they provide.

The star of our lunch that day was the Boneless Crispy Pata.  Every Filipino knows what a crispy pata is.  It's a pig's front leg or pata deep fried in really hot oil until its skin turns crispy.  Many Pinoys have their own version of how to achieve this crispiness but we love this Filipino food to go along with our other favorite ulam and drinks.  Pinoy drinkers also love this food as pulutan for their beer.

What made Serye's crispy pata different though was it's completely deboned.  It was sliced evenly and each slice are as crispy as the others.  I like this food because it's so easy to eat and there's no need to take the meat from the bone.  It's also not as salty or over-priced as the crispy pata offered in other restaurants.  Priced at PhP130 per 100 grams (we got a 700 gram piece so go compute), it's quite pricey than your regular crispy pata. But for a unique eating experience, I'd say it's still reasonable.  It also went very well with the laing and brown rice we ordered.

We will order this again when we visit Serye.

Orchid Show 2013

We were at the 2013 Orchid Show at the Quezon Memorial Circle this morning.  Thank goodness the weather cooperated and it was a bit cloudy the whole time we were there.  It was a bit humid but it didn't rain and the sun was covered by heavy clouds.

There were the usual garden and plant sales but the exhibit was quite limited.  Here are some of the pictures I took. I hope you like them.

 I also saw this charming pig family made of clay.

 We bought some soil for our home garden.

The Orchid Show is sponsored by the Philippine Orchid Society and the Quezon City of the Government.  It will run until March 11.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World

I came across some hunger facts recently and I want to share them with you.  Most of these came from the report titled, The State of Food Insecurity in the World published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2012.

The significant findings of the study are: 

from fao.org

• About 870 million people are estimated to have been undernourished in the period 2010–12. This represents 12.5 percent of the global population, or one in eight people. The vast majority of these – 852 million – live in developing countries, where the prevalence of undernourishment is now estimated at 14.9 percent of the population. Undernourishment in the world is unacceptably high. 

• The global number of hungry people declined by 132 million between 1990-92 and 2010-12, or from 18.6 percent to 12.5 percent of the world's population, and from 23.2 percent to 14.9 percent in developing countries - putting the MDG target within reach if adequate, appropriate actions are taken.

• Asia and the Pacific have the largest share of the world's hungry people at 563 million but the numbers have been going down for decades due to regional economic growth.  Undernourishment decreased by 30% in the past two decades and despite population growth in the region, the prevalence of undernourishment decreased from 23.7% to 13.9%.

• Developed regions also saw the number of hungry rise, from 13 million in 2004-2006 to 16 million in 2010-2012, reversing a steady decrease in previous years from 20 million in 1990-1992.

The report also noted that strong economic growth is important in the fight to reduce hunger. Regions that experienced growth in the past decades also rapidly reduced hunger incidence.  However, economic growth must reach and involve the poor through increased employment and other income-generating opportunities.

from fao.org

One of the areas the report pointed out is agricultural growth which is particularly effective in reducing hunger and malnutrition in poor countries since most of the poor depend on agriculture and related activities for at least part of their livelihoods.  Women should also be involved in these development, the report said, since they have more control over household income and more money tends to be spent on items that improve nutrition and health.

The report further suggested that social protection systems are needed to ensure that the most vulnerable are not left behind and can also contribute to and benefit from economic growth.  Programs such as cash transfers, food vouchers or health insurance are needed for the most vulnerable who often cannot take immediate advantage of growth opportunities. Social protection can improve nutrition for young children - an investment that will pay off in the future with better educated, stronger and healthier adults. With effective social protection complementing inclusive economic growth, hunger and malnutrition can be eliminated. 

You may download the full report from the FAO website here.