About Ovarian Cancer:
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women. The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease. It is an insidious disease that can strike without warning or cause.

To support the awareness for the OCRF even more, Foodbuzz is donating $50 for every post about Banana Splits with the Top 9 Takeover. With the Top 9 Takeover, Foodbuzz will be showcasing 9 blog posts that feature the same theme. We wanted to support the cause, so we decided to join in.

To get into the spirit of summer, we decided to come up with a Filipino style banana split. Instead of regular bananas, we used Saba Bananas that have been wrapped in egg roll wrappers and then fried. These little fried banana rolls are called Turon in Filipino cuisine. The classic Filipino Turon adds in jackfruit to enhance the sweetness of the bananas. We opted to use Nutella Spread instead of jackfruit in our recipe, for that hint of chocolate.

Ingredients
Egg Roll Wrappers
Saba Bananas
Nutella Spread
Water
Brown Sugar
Vegetable Oil
Ice Cream of Your Choice

Steps

First, divide the bananas in half, and slice them again, sort of into long strips. Next, begin wrapping the bananas in the egg roll wrappers.

Spread a little bit of Nutella inside the egg roll wrapper before placing a slice of banana inside. The inspiration to use the Nutella in our Turon comes from having Turon from Patio Filipino in San Bruno, where they use chocolate in their version. Take a slice of the banana and coat it in some brown sugar, place it inside of the wrapper, and roll.

Seal wrapped bananas with a touch of water so that they don’t open up when you fry them.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, fry the wrapped bananas until they are golden brown on both sides. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove them from the skillet and place them on a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

Keeping in with theme of the Filipino Banana Split, we paired the Turon with a scoop of Ube – purple yam and Mango Ice cream. Both of these can be found at your local Asian Market.

Just drizzle on some melted Nutella spread and sprinkle some nuts of your choice to top it off. And there you have it. Our twist on an American classic, summertime favorite…

If you too feel like joining in to support awareness for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, you can build your own banana split on Kelly Ripa’s website. For every virtual banana split submitted, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF.

Hotdog Roll-Ups Recipe with Nature’s Pride Bread For being a part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program, we are...

Rain or shine, we were going to cover the event as Foodie Correspondents thanks to Foodbuzz. Thankfully, the weather stayed dry throughout Saturday’s festival where the crowds of hungry chowder fans walked the Boardwalk in search of the best Manhattan and Boston clam chowders. Booths were all set up attracting crowds. Some simple, others with playful themes like dancing mermaids or Oompa Loompas complete with a Willy Wonka commanding the crowd. It was all about checking out each booth because to try out the chowder, you had to give up one of five of your precious tasting tickets from your tasting kit.

Just like last year’s festival, we walked the Boardwalk just before the public tasting began to see the final prep work being completed.

You could see contestants busily mixing up their batches of chowder, chopping the remainder of their ingredients, and setting up for the rush of people ready to come to their booth. I can recall the smell of bacon permeating the air at one of the booths. Seeing all of this action was enough to get anyone excited to eat.

Right when 1:00 P.M. hit, it was time for the public tasting. Armed with our tasting kits – which included 5 tasting tickets, a People’s Choice Ballot card, reusable chowder cup, and spoon – we began to line up. We sampled chowder from all three divisions: individuals, corporate/media, and professional, to get a balanced selection of different chowders. Below is what we were able to try.

Draeger Construction
Boston: This was the booth where I smelled bacon being fried, so I wanted to line up here first. Bacon fans would rejoice to the plentiful bacon bits. To complement the bacon, you had plenty of chunks of clams, potatoes, and celery.

Manhattan: Just like their Boston chowder, their Manhattan chowder was chunky. The taste of sweet tomatoes shined through.

Mom’s Clam Diggers
Boston: Right away, just visually the differences can be seen between Mom’s Clam Diggers’ chowder and Draeger Construction’s chowder. We noticed that their chowder wasn’t thick at all, but more of a lighter cream broth with a smokey and peppery finish.

The Clamtone Cruzers
Boston: It was back to the thicker Boston chowder with The Clamtone Cruzers. It seemed that the flavor mainly came from herbs they must have used.

Cabrillo Culinary Arts
Manhattan: Those who like a little heat would have enjoyed this Manhattan chowder. The chowder was bold and spicy.

Boston: On the other hand, Cabrillo Culinary Arts’ Boston chowder had a very sweet finish.

Aegis of Aptos
Boston: Strangely enough, the last Boston chowder that we sampled was almost a combination of every Boston chowder that we had. Both sweet and smokey, every bite reminded me of what I had throughout the afternoon. Almost the perfect way to end it.

We went to the festival not looking for the best… That’s left for the judges to decide. We were there more for enjoying everyone’s take on clam chowder and appreciating all of the uniqueness each competitor brought to the cook off. Whether they were cooking clam chowder based from passed down family recipes or just a plan amongst a circle of friends, everyone was out to have a good time.

Below is the list of the winners of the 29th Annual Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival:

Best Professional Boston
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Antonio Gomez (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Lil Biscuit House, Chef Martin Krawetz (San Mateo)

Best Professional Manhattan
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Miguel Ponce (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Cabrillo College Culinary Arts, Chef Danny Pena (Aptos)

Best Individual Manhattan
1st Place – “Little Kahuna” – Brad Winding (Castro Valley)
2nd Place – “Dragonmama’s Red” – Michelle Ber (Fremont)
3rd Place – “Mitchell’s Chowder” – Zack Mitchell (Santa Cruz)

Best Individual Boston
1st Place – “Ye Oldde Cape Codders” – Darin Wallace (Oak Grove)
2nd Place – “Clam Rock” – Chris Hirz (San Jose)
3rd Place – “Clamma Lamma Ding Dongs” – Amy Gilmore (Roseville)

Best Corporate
1st Place – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
2nd Place – Jerry’s of Hollister (Hollister)
3rd Place – MYC Delta Clammers (Martinez)

Most Original Team
1st – Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing (Santa Cruz)
2nd – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
3rd – Cocoanut Grove Castaways (Santa Cruz)

People’s Choice
Professional: Severino’s Grills (Aptos)
Corporate: Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
Individual: Grandma’s Clam Digger (Aptos)

Most Tasted
Professioinal: Carmona’s BBQ & Deli (Watsonville)
Corporate: Draeger Construction (San Jose)
Individual: Rosie’s Clam & Get it (Soquel)

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Morning at the Market and Afternoon Taste Pavilion Photos I’m sure all of the food bloggers who attended this...

This was one of my favorite dishes growing up. I haven’t had it in so long, so the opportunity to recreate a childhood favorite dish using Kikkoman’s Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce was something that I was excited to try.

Ingredients
1-2 Pounds of Green Beans
1-2 Pounds of Pork Belly or Pork Loin
1/4 Cup of Kikkoman Ponzu Lime Dressing & Sauce
1 Large Diced Onion
5 Crushed Garlic Cloves
2 tbs. of Honey
1 tsp. of Salt
1/2 tsp. of Pepper
Olive Oil
3-4 tbs. of Kikkoman Soy Sauce
Water (Optional)

Steps
First prepare the green beans by cutting the stem ends off and wash them under cold water. After they are cleaned, take a large pot and boil the green beans for 10 minutes. Strain them after they are done cooking and set them aside.

Take the pork and cut it into small chunks, about 1 inch in size. Place the chunks into a large bowl.

Combine the Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce, half of the diced onion, crushed garlic cloves, honey, salt, and pepper into the bowl of pork. Mix everything together and let it marinade. I marinated the pork for about half an hour. You can do it longer if you wish.

Now it’s time to cook the pork. In a large pot, heat up some olive oil under medium high heat. Pour the bowl of pork belly and marinade into the pot and let it all cook together. 5 minutes into cooking, place in the other half of the onion into the pot. Be sure to keep stirring everything together. After another 10 minutes of cooking, take the green beans and combine that with the onions and pork. The onions should begin to caramelize, which is what you want to do. You can combine the soy sauce with the dish now. You will notice a sauce forms from all of the ingredients cooking together. Let everything cook for another 15-20 minutes. In between that final time for cooking, continue to taste the sauce. If you feel that it’s getting too salty, add in some water to balance out the saltiness.

After everything was done, I finally sampled my recreation. It definitely tasted like what my Mom made years ago. It was funny how inspiration for cooking can come from looking at a label and just thinking back to food that you grew up with.

Cooking Chicken Relleno During special holidays, we often cook Chicken Relleno. Just this...

Foodbuzz Dinner & Awards Ceremony at the Green Leaf Produce Warehouse Just when you thought we couldn’t eat anymore… Foodbuzz treats...

A special thank you goes out to Foodbuzz, Outstanding in the Field, Green Leaf Produce, and the team at Namu.

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Morning at the Market and Afternoon Taste Pavilion Photos I’m sure all of the food bloggers who attended this...

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Rose and I started off with a little breakfast from Rose Pistola & Café at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, followed by a California olive oil tasting session, and then finally we ended up at the Metreon for the Afternoon Taste Pavilion event. Here, there were plenty of goods available from Foodzie vendors to sample, wine seminars, food demos by several Foodbuzz Featured Publishers, and plenty of eating going on. Here’s a look at some of Saturday afternoon’s events.

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

Feasting the Streets of San Francisco’s Street Food Festival The crowds were in full effect on Saturday at San...

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Below is just a sample of how the night went during the Taste of SF Street Food “Fare” event at the Ferry Building. Lots of…

… great food. It awesome to see food bloggers all come together to celebrate our passion and dedication to writing about food. What’s the best way to reward our hard work? By eating and drinking, no doubt. By the looks on everyone’s faces, everyone looked like they were having a good time just being a part of the event. I have to hand it to Foodbuzz for starting the festival this way. It gives other food bloggers who aren’t from the Bay Area just a sample of how San Francisco does street food. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the weekend will unfold. Cheers to more good food and drink…

Below was taken from my attempt to do a live blog coverage for the event:

The first annual Foodbuzz Blogger festival is about to kick off in just a few hours. First on the agenda is a meet and greet at Hotel Vitale at 5:00 P.M.

We’re going to try to do a live blog coverage of today’s festivities as the night carries on. See you all there.

Check back later for more updates.

We just arrived at the Hotel and checked in. The give away bags they are handing out are stuffed with some good things.

Going to the Ferry Building next!

Chowing on so much food. The Hog Island Oysters are delicious.

Tacolicious!

Feasting the Streets of San Francisco’s Street Food Festival The crowds were in full effect on Saturday at San...

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

I’ll have the Cubana, and That’s It. Last Saturday while driving around Mission Street looking for parking...

With the First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival approaching, an opportunity arose to become Nature’s Pride brand ambassadors. To become eligible, we had to come up with a recipe featuring slices of Nature’s Pride bread. Rose and I sat around thinking how we could best feature the bread by making it one of the major components in the recipe. Then, Rose suggested a recipe for a dish that she did years ago for Roll-Ups. Her description of Roll-Ups reminded me of Pigs in a Blanket, but instead of using regular hotdogs, it uses classic Filipino hotdogs. Filipino hotdogs have a distinct sweeter taste and just catch your eyes with their bright red color.

With this recipe, we ended up using the 100% Whole Wheat bread.

Ingredients
2-3 Slices of Nature’s Pride Bread for Breadcrumbs
3-5 Filipino Style Hotdogs
3-5 Slices used for the Wrap
2 Shallots
Mayonnaise
Your Choice of Cheese
1 Egg

Steps
Begin by first preparing the breadcrumbs. Take your slices of bread and cut it into smaller pieces. Preheat your oven to 350°F and bake the bread pieces for 10-15 minutes or until they’re toasted.

Grind the toasted bread pieces in a food processor until they become breadcrumbs. Spread out the breadcrumbs on a flat baking tray and set them aside for later.

Next, it’s time to prepare the wrap, which is made by using a flattened slice of bread. With a rolling pin, take a slice of bread and flatten it as much as possible. For every hotdog you have, make the same amount of wraps.

After you have the wraps done, in a pan, cook the hotdogs and shallots together over medium high heat. Once they are cooked, set those aside and prepare for the rolling.

It’s time to assemble the final Roll-Up. Take a wrap and spread it with a layer of mayonnaise. Then, take a slice of your choice of cheese and place that on the wrap. Place the hotdog and some shallots on the edge of the wrap and begin to roll it tightly together.

In a large bowl, beat one egg. Dip the Roll-Up into the beaten egg, coat it on all around, and roll it onto the breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should begin to stick to the Roll-Up and will be ready to be fried.

In a pan, fry the Roll-Ups until they are a golden brown. Try to make sure it fries completely all around. You will notice that the cheese will begin to melt and the wrap begins to get toasty. When that happens, the Roll-Ups should be ready.

Caprese Salad with California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil Mario Batali believes that olive oil is precious as gold…...

Right from the moment you enter the venue, you are surrounded by all of the food, wine, and cocktail booths. To put it simply, “Where do I go? What do I eat first? Cocktail? Sure!” is the first thing to spring up in your head. With so much to choose from, several tours around the venue was the best approach. A little bite here. Stop. A little cocktail there. Stop. With of course, the occasional water break in between.

Throughout the night people rocked out to a Bay Area chefs band, The Back Burner Blues Band, for the Gumbo Jam. Not your ordinary jam session, but a food inspired session, where each member of the band contributing ingredients to a batch of gumbo being cooked. You also had several Bay Area artists busily working on pieces of art on their canvases as the night drew on.

Music and art may be one slice of this party, but you can’t have a barbecue without…

You can imagine seeing everyone bouncing booth to booth, eager to try what was available.

Cocktails from some of the city’s bars were also available to sample. The sound of cocktails being shaken can get you thirsty.

Just before the night came to a close, Chef and DJ Hubert Keller took the stage. Not only can you see him slicing it up on Top Chef Masters, but you can catch him on the turntables and hyping up the crowd, bringing on good vibes until the night came to an end. By looking at the expressions on the faces of those who attended, you could see that everyone was having a good time.

If this is what to expect if you invited some of these chefs to your own backyard, then by all means come on by place and I’ll provide the grill. I could only imagine if my own barbecues were as exciting as this one.

Just when you thought the evening was over, the Chocolate Enchantment after party was getting started atop the Westin St. Francis Hotel which gave a breathtaking view of city.

A decadent selection of Recchiuti and Ghirardelli chocolates were available. And any dessert lover would’ve been astounded by the beautiful display of chocolate confections by Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Houdre.

This was only one part of San Francisco’s, SF Chef. Food. Wine. event, that took place August 6th to the 9th. A special thanks to Foodbuzz for allowing us to provide coverage of last night’s event.

No related posts.

One thing for certain is that the Bay Area is home to the one of the largest Filipino communities in the nation. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to over 321,333 Filipino Americans, according to the 2000 Census. Somebody has to be cooking good Filipino food in the area with that many people. There’s one standout Filipino dish that I was in search for here in the Bay Area – sisig, a sizzling pork dish that blows your senses away with its taste and texture. It’s the quintessential dish to pair with beer. It’s that dish that brings you and your friends together.

The Story Behind Sisig
Anthony Bourdain was right on point when he described the history of sisig on the No Reservations Philippines episode. Clark Air Force Base commissaries in Angeles City, Pampanga were disposing unused pig heads. They had no use for them. Local Filipinos were purchasing the heads because they were readily available and cheap.

Lucia Cunanan, better known as Aling Lucing, of Angeles City is known as the sisig queen because it’s believed that she invented the dish. She created sisig by taking chopped pieces of pork ears and cheek meat, marinated them in vinegar, and combined them with onions and calamansi juice. She then served it on a hot skillet, creating a sizzling mural of sweet, tangy, spicy flavors of taste and texture. While Aling Lucing may have created the dish, over time, other Filipinos began to come out with their own variations.

This inspired us to search the best sisig in the Bay Area. I was fortunate enough to try the sisig at Aling Lucing’s during my last visit to the Philippines and ever since then, I missed it. This would be a way to temper my cravings. This leads us to the question, is there a spot in the Bay Area that comes close to Aling Lucing’s sisig? Could there be a spot that would be actually better than the Queen’s?

There’s something about the sound of sizzling pork bits that brings a smile to my face. With an, “Oh, yes,” moment that follows after seeing the dish. Grab yourself a beer and get ready to embark on a pork nirvana with us…

The Search Begins
A group of our close friends who all love pork and sisig were invited to join us. The idea of trying sisig at several restaurants fueled our excitement. It even got to the point where we looked at each other’s faces and questioned our ability to achieve the task. I selected five different restaurants, each having their own characteristic from the hole in the wall restaurant to the modern lounge, just to get a general mix of how each place makes sisig.

Gerry’s Grill
First stop, was Gerry’s Grill in Union City. Gerry’s Grill originated in the Phillipines and opened their first U.S. branch in February 2006. Not only does Gerry’s Grill specialize in barbecue, they serve plenty of traditional Filipino dishes as well. They pretty much cover their bases of being that restaurant you go to if you want to sit down and enjoy a full meal, or just to go to have a drink and few appetizers.

It was time to start with the first sisig of the day. We asked our server about the sisig at Gerry’s Grill. He told us that they used plenty of pig skin in their sisig. When the dish arrived at the table we could all see the mountain of pork. Time to dig in.

The sisig at Gerry’s Grill had hints of sweet flavors shine through. The pork skin was chewy which complemented the sizzled bits of pork and chicharrón.

Patio Filipino
We took a short ride across the San Mateo Bridge and headed towards San Bruno to Patio Filipino. We all took our seats ready to take on the next sisig dish. The first thing that we noticed was how different the sisig looked.

I wanted to know more about the sisig so I asked Betty of Patio Filipino, “What makes the sisig at Patio Filipino special?”

Betty replied, “Our sisig is made fresh. We use the pork belly from lechon.”

Tribu Grill
Since we were still in San Bruno, we wanted to check out a Filipino restaurant that was in the same area. With several restaurants being all nearby, I wondered if the sisig dishes would be that much different from one another. Opening the menu at Tribu Grill revealed the answer. I saw that they used pork face, which our server explained was the combination of the cheeks, ears, and snout. So far, this usage of pork in this sisig was closest to Aling Lucing’s original recipe.

The sound of this sizzling sisig was music to all of our ears. After tasting the sisig, we all noticed the flavors of vinegar stood out the most. Texture wise, the crispy bits were the best parts. Knowing that Tribu Grill used pork face was a plus.

The House of Sisig
We headed towards Daly City to The House of Sisig, a small family owned and operated restaurant. My curiosity sparked and assumed that if you have a restaurant name like that, you’re serving up a rocking sisig.

They used a cut of pork different from the first three restaurants. Here, they used pork butt. When the server approached our table with the sisig, they also brought along extra chopped jalapeño peppers and onions on the side. The sisig here was very meaty. I noticed a strong grilled flavor coming from the pork, which we all agreed was the way The House of Sisig stood out from the other restaurants.

Poleng Lounge
The final stop on our search led us to the NoPa neighborhood in San Francisco to Poleng Lounge. From the outside, you wouldn’t expect this restaurant to be serving Filipino fare. When you step inside, the feeling of being in a laid back modern lounge captivates you.

Poleng Lounge uses pork shoulder and pork face in its sisig. They bring the balance of chewy pork fat with the crisp piece of pork meat. Keeping the dish traditional as possible was their goal. Whatever marinade or selection of spices they used for the pork definitely is making this sisig scream with robust flavor. After the last bite of pork bits, we all raised our glasses in celebration for accomplishing the goal we set out to achieve.

The End Result
We ate our way across the Bay with our minds set on finding the best sisig. What we all discovered is that every restaurant featured their own take on sisig, crafting it into their own. There’s that impression that there are different sisig recipes that can satisfy anyone’s preference. The sight of seeing how each restaurant doing a different sisig fascinated us and we applauded their adaptations of the dish.

Many might think that only adventurous eaters like Andrew Zimmern would let such a thing pass through their gullet. It’s only when you actually get a taste of sisig when you can appreciate the flavors. Just eat. You won’t even flinch or think twice about this classic pig head dish. Your taste buds and stomach will thank you. Your rising cholesterol levels will forgive you. It’s worth it.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, take a look the this map as a guide to the spots featured on this sisig search. Thanks Foodbuzz for the chance to share this special sisig search with the world.

Dining For Dim Sum in Milbrae Food memories have always been a big part of me,...

Feasting the Streets of San Francisco’s Street Food Festival The crowds were in full effect on Saturday at San...

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

To celebrate the relaunch of Mother’s Cookies, I received a sample of the newly relaunched Circus Animal Cookies from Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program. They taste the same as I remembered back in the day. These lightly sweet frosted cookies took me back. Being grown up, it’s a good feeling that you can still enjoy something fun like pink and white animal cookies.

If you haven’t done so already, head to your local grocery store and pick up a bag of Mother’s Cookies. Special thanks goes out to Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program and Kellogg’s for the sample of Circus Animal Cookies.

Hotdog Roll-Ups Recipe with Nature’s Pride Bread For being a part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program, we are...