Trying My Hand At Beef

So far, my kitchen meal skills in the protein department are eggs, chicken, and fish fillet. With the higher cholesterol-ladden protein, i.e. beef and pork, I have deemed scared and unsuccessful either my beef is too tough. But fear should be conquered right? Right! So indeed, I tried my luck at steaks today.

Too cheap to buy t-bone or sirloin, I went for thinner round cuts. Nasa timpla lang 'yan. And speaking of marinade, I just dunked meat tenderizer then washed it then the basic marinades - spices, lemon, olive oil and grilled it after letting it sit for a while. Oh, and this had no recipe in mind. I was just inventing as I go. I'm a rule-breaker that's why.

Needing veggies, I grilled the carrots, tomatoes, and olives and sprinkled my can't-live-without Italian Seasoning on them. The green stuff are olives. I bought them in the vacuum-packed plastic containers. Rustans, I gotta love you for selling these but I wish they came without the stone. The stone annoys the crap out of me.

Revamped rice by making it herbed butter rice, which basically means I sorta fried the rice with a teensy pat of butter and sprinkled rosemary and Italian seasoning on them plus a smidgen of pepper. I wanted potatoes but I didn't want good rice to spoil. So just revamp it instead of letting it sit on the ref.

This my dears, is a recipe with no name.

Yummy Tuesday Crispy Pata at Max's

I've heard of Max's Crispy being the favorite among those who go to Max's. A close second to the famous Max's fried chicken (if not a tie), this is also one that's always being ordered. For some reason and my personal experience, Max's at Tagaytay has this as their specialty. The richness of crispy pata goes and balances well with one of their bestsellers - sinigang -a steaming and sour soup with veggies in a tamarind base.

From January 20 to February 20, 2011, Max's has a promo called the Crispy Pata Feast, an affordable and perfectly planned set meal good for four with this bestseller. Last Tuesday, Max's invited a few of their blogger friends to taste test this at their Greenbelt 1 store.

First up, is the famous Crispy Pata served hot, steaming, and crisp.

This also comes with spices and sauce, which we ordered seconds as well. We love slathering the meat in sauce before pairing it up with a cup (and a half) of steamed rice and chasing that down with an ice-cold Pepsi glass. If your BP readings allow it, have some skin and fat as well. To totally wipe out the bone, you could split the two bones in half, since there's still meat wedged inside.

Since the Crispy Pata is fatty and rich, a hot bowl of Sinigang na Bangus would be a good accompaniment for this. You could either slurp this as a "warm up" for the stomach which would work hard. The tarty soup balances the richness of the Crispy Pata, and the bangus and veggies bring health to our diet too. As our gramma says, we should not miss our veggies, even with a sinful dish like this.

Buko Pandan for dessert? Why not!

This feast for 4 is quite affordable, costing Php865 for the whole thing. During the event, we were told that not only is it available for dine-in but you could order to go online by logging on to www.maxschicken.com to place orders online (yes, they accept credit cards).