I’m pretty comfortable in the kitchen, and I’m a decent home cook, but really, that’s about it. I don’t really have any signature dishes, I think. And I don’t really specialize in any type of cuisine, either. Rather, I tend to eat and cook a little of everything.
(This isn’t a bad thing. Mostly, it’s a disclaimer, so that you don’t expect anything fancy from my food posts!)
But anyway, the “little of everything” part? Not too surprising at all, given my upbringing and family and personal histories. I was exposed to a variety of tastes and ingredients and cuisines from an early age, and that tends to carry over into my meals.
For example, let’s take a look at this dinner I made recently. The meat portion is my take on bistek tagalog (Filipino-style beef steak). Unlike either of my parents, I tend to cut it in bite-sized pieces before cooking, mostly because I fail miserably at cooking whole steaks. And, half the time I have more onions than meat, because I’m a sucker for cooked onions. But these are pretty small variations; I still use basically the same marinade, which is the important part, really.
Bistek tagalog is a pretty clear nod to my Filipino heritage, as is the fact that I eat it with rice. (Although I favor short-grain brown, rather than the white rice I grew up with.)
However, the sauteed kale on the side? That’s a nod to… well, some other cuisine. I’m inclined to think American, because I don’t personally know many non-Americans who saute greens. But then, I don’t have a hugely international social circle, so that’s not much to go on.
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