The Engineers Hit the Kitchen

For expatriates struggling to survive the lonesomeness of working in a place far from love ones, cooking serves as a therapy. It offers ways to combat the feeling of solitude and sadness and it gives comfort and relief to a stressed body and mind. So wonder not if most of my colleagues in our construction project here in Sri Lanka have somehow developed knowledge or improved their skills in the kitchen. Under the circumstances, cooking is a worthwhile undertaking that could make one forget worries and loneliness and at the same time attain fulfillment upon creating the much sought Filipino foods we grew up with.

Alright, enough for the dramatic plot, let’s take a peek at the culinary skills of Engineers as they try their hands at food preparations. And allow me to do this by featuring some of their recent cookery as they apply the engineering knowledge in the most popular part of the dormitory – kitchen. We are in a construction site so please understand that the preparation may be rustic and too rough for some of you. :-) But I can assure you they are quite tasty and delicious.

Ok let’s start with “crispy pata” (crispy fried pork knuckle). This is one dish everyone loves; well for a group of predominantly hungry male this is expected. Though we seldom prepare this due to degree of difficulty, it’s always a knock-out every time we manage to do one, even if sometimes, we have to double fry. With the popular dipping sauce made from soy sauce, vinegar and minced onion, it’s a frontrunner. Just like the “lechon sa hurno” I made before, the crispy skin of this dish is fantastic.

And if the above dish is still insufficient to provide you with your needed dietary level of fat to boost your energy, here is another appetizing pork entrée which would complete the requirement, “chicharon” or pork skin cracklings. It’s truly yummy and mouth watering. With vinegar + garlic + ground pepper + chili + salt dipping sauce, this is awesome and gone in no time. :)

Then we have this outdoor prepared pork chop barbeque. Who wouldn’t be excited with this? Just like what I said on the pork barbeque post before, there is something in barbeque that stimulates one’s appetite by the sheer smell of its aroma while grilling. The same dipping sauce for the “crispy pata” above is great for this dish though it’s already superb on its own.

You’re probably asking where is the adobo, the most popular Filipino dish made famous by Filipino groups abroad. Well we have one special adobo for today, chicken liver and gizzard. A rich and extra tasty adobo lethal on rice and yes, drinks too.

To balance the diet though, we also have some fresh vegetable salad. And its one healthy salad – made from “ampalaya” or bitter melon, some chopped onion and tomato plus light vinegar and seasonings. Surprisingly good.

And finally, to complement the above dishes, sliced oranges are just ideal to provide the little sweetness at the end of the sumptuous meal.

There it is! A sneak preview on what the Engineer’s in our company can prepare in the kitchen during special Sunday meal. With such additional kitchen prowess, we know they could make a better husband back home.

To take a look at the Engineers responsible for the foods mentioned in this post, click here and here. c“,)