I have been tagged by Stel of Baby Rambutan. She is just curious how I learn to cook or rather she wants to know some gory details of my kitchen disasters. Ok then lets have some fun

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

Does cooking rice count? I mean before I learned to cook this was the thing I must learn foremost.
I cant remember how old I was, maybe around 8 years old or younger.
And we used wood for the dirty kitchen the typical one in Philippines that is outside the house.

I either have burnt it or undercooked it. Why? I was jealous with other kids playing and I have to keep an eye on the rice. Cooking then at that age wasn’t a pleasure but an obligation.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

Difficult question. My mother was a good cook but did not have much time, being a single mother she had to work but on weekends it was a ritual she cooked for us.
We had a simple life and that time to have pancit on weekends it was a treat.

My mother was the one who taught me how to buy fresh fish and to check the freshness of the produce.
My maternal grandmother was an excellent cook but she lived in Manila and we lived in the South.
We saw her once a year and I would be waken up early to go with her at Pasig Market.
Then I would watch her cook, I cant remember her teaching me but I kept an eye what she was doing.

Then we moved to Greece my mother didn’t work so she took the pleasure of cooking. We would experiment together in the kitchen. She ordered a series of Time Life Good Cook books. We would flip through the pages and see what we could do.

Lastly my husband … he has taught me a lot on western cooking and baking as well. He taught me techniques and am a good student. I give him ideas and we create things together. He is such a joy in the kitchen.


Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?

All childhood photos wiped out during a storm in the Philippines. Shame

But here is one of me Xmas 2001 Genoa, Italy on freezing day we were baking tons of cookies for the crew.


Baking christmas cookies.


Mageiricophobia – do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

Well nothing has made my palms sweat. I just panic and call my husband for help. But honestly there is a Filipino dish I can never get right.
MAJA BLANCA. I have tried and failed. And I will try again and again.

I was scared last Christmas if I could pull through with the preparation, my husband was away in the Caribbean and we stuck to the menu. Roast Duck, home made gravy, the night before I did a mental run what I need to do first in the kitchen.

Woke up early and with a military precision with notes of course which goes first.. I pulled it through!

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

My mother’s Phillips hand blender which we have for 20 years now. We really took care of that and its still working.
My Global knife which I hide from others only I could use it.
And the hand whisk I found in Switzerland.

Biggest letdown would be.. Cant remember we have thrown most of the junks. My husband keeps an eye what I buy for the kitchen since then I don’t have those junks.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like and probably no one else.

Well nothing really weird but I have come to love the Scandinavian way of eating meat with cranberries.

But we cook Western cuisine and always with a pot of soya on our table.
If you have to ask my husband this he probably would say WHY YOU PUT SUGAR ON THOSE AVOCADOS?

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?
Pasta, Fish, Garlic

3 quickies:
favorite ice cream – anything with coffee flavour
you will probably never eat – horse meat
signature dish – Noodle dishes (pancit my husband just said when I asked him)

tag 3 people

Everyone’s taken. Let me try ……….
CheH ,Petite