Cooking for my friends

A few days ago Bob told me that our friend was coming for a quick visit before heading back to Manila. Bob said that he would stay here for dinner. So I was thinking of cooking  just a simple and quick menu.  So when our friend arrived at the house we talked for a awhile and later I excuse myself to start my cooking. Our friend wanted some fruits to bring to his family in Manila, so Bob took him and went to the fruit stand and see if they have what he is looking for. While they were out Bob called me up on the phone and asked me if I could order some clam chowder from Mamu restaurant. Their clam chowder is the best one I’ve ever tasted so far. The clams are really big and good.

Anyway, when they got home from fruit shopping, my nephew was out picking up the clam chowder that I ordered, while my niece and I started cooking the menu that I had in mind. Really the menu I was talking about is just simple a pounded chicken. So as soon as my nephew arrived we then served the soup.  Our friend really liked the soup.  The chicken is just so easy and quick to cook it was almost done by the time they finished up the soup.

With the pounded chicken I also cooked bake potatoes as a side dish. When our friend tasted the food he said he liked it. To be honest I didn’t know how much he like it until yesterday. I was shocked when his wife called me up and asked me what I fed her hubby for dinner a few days back?  His wife really is my best friend here in the Philippines. I just told her its pounded chicken and a bake potato. She said you have to tell me how to make them because that is my assignment right now to learn how to make them.  To be honest my dear friend is a very successful business woman and its not really her thing to cook.  She told me to just let her wash lots of laundry, but  just not put her in the kitchen. See we are totally opposite on that because you can put me now in the kitchen just not in the laundry department. So I told her how to make the pounded chicken and how to bake the potato. I could really tell she was having a hard time following what I was saying.  She’s used to having a brother who was a chef in the restaurant. He cooked all of their meals for a long time. She didn’t bother to learn from him before he went abroad. As I’ve said she hated to be in the kitchen. She didn’t cook yet because she’s always out during daytime, both the husband and wife really. They are out for meetings and will be home late in the evening. Maybe this coming weekend I will give her some lessons.

To be totally honest I was not a good cook when Bob and I lived in the States. He was always the cook. I was good in cleaning his mess in the kitchen and his helper too. When we came to the Philippines I started  learning how to cook. Bob did not ask me. I did it because I knew he really tried his best to even cook the Filipino food for me there in the States. We have Pinoy cookbooks. I just felt that it was time for me to try to do something for him. And you know what? I enjoy cooking now. And I think I cooked pretty good too.

I am not scared to try new ingredients. Luckily, most of the time it works. As you know not all the ingredients are available here, but thank God for the internet I can go to web now to find stuff to substitute. Here in Davao I saw lots of stores that are selling many  ingredients now. Still you have to look for it yourself. If you ask the people there at the store most of the time they will tell you they are out or we don’t carry that stuff. A lot of the ingredients are so foreign to them.  I can’t blame them they are not used to it.

To my friend I will call you and teach you how to cook some stuff. Don’t worry I will help you out. I do hope to see you soon.

Cheers!