UH, OK? (DEUX)

Just caught the women's vault final in Beijing, and I am - once again - baffled by this Cheng Fei chick from China. She did a kick-ass first vault, but her second one --not so much. She even fell on her landing. But still, her non-pretty ass still beat Alicia Sacramone, who was edged out for the bronze. I'm sorry, but this Cheng Fei chick is way whack. I'm convinced that she's getting extra points because she isn't cute.

It's ok, Alicia. At least you're pretty. But still, you were robbed.
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This was a chill weekend for me. After having my parents and sister over last weekend, I needed some time to do absolutely nothing. I was able to finally go to the beach both yesterday and today, worked out, and I cooked tinola. If you're not familiar with Philippine cuisine, tinola is one of the staples. But for some strange reason, I've always felt like it's such a difficult dish to make. But, as I realized, it's super easy. Here's what I did...

Ingredients:
- chicken (I used drummettes)
- papaya (peeled and sliced into wedges)
- garlic (minced)
- onion (sliced)
- ginger (sliced into thin strips)
- water
- patis (Philippine fish sauce)
- ground black pepper and whole peppercorns
- cooking oil

I also tend to use something green - as in leafy and green. But I didn't have anything in the fridge. Oh well.

I pre-heated a pot, and added some cooking oil (not a lot). I sauted the garlic until it started to brown a little. Then I added the onion, the chicken, and the ginger. I stir-fried these items, and then added pepper and some peppercorns. When the chicken started to brown, I added enough water to just submerge everything, and I added patis for taste. Once the chicken started to look close to done, I threw in the papaya wedges, and let the stew cook some more. Next thing you knew, it was done! And it was GOOD. Actually, at first it was a little tabang (bland), so I added more patis.

I need to cook Philippine cuisine more often. I just get super lazy. My next venture will most likely be ginataang manok sa pina... I'll explain later. Hee.

This isn't my a pic of my dish, nor is this my picture (thanks to nicoteena from flickr.com...!). But this is pretty much what it looked like.