R&G Reviews Taylors Eye Witness Veritable Sabatier's Cooks Knife

One fundamental requisites of cooking is cutting. In some food preparation, this accounts for more than 50% of the entire time required in the cooking process. Therefore, a good cutting and slicing implement is an important component of anyone’s kitchen. Seriously, if you have a strong passion in cooking and food preparation then you should have a keen eye in finding a good, not necessarily the best, chef’s knife or cook’s knife………one that could safely and effectively respond to your specific kitchen requirements ………… it may not always be true or applicable to others but particularly tailored to your needs.

As mentioned in my post about CSN Stores’ offer last month, I am to review one of their quality products which as per my sharp choice is a 25-cm Taylors Eye Witness Veritable Sabatier Cooks Knife. I love outdoors……..I love cooking ……..I love fishing……….I love camping………I love hunting (although it’s been quite a long time since our last expedition….:-( )………of course, it should follow that I love knife…….especially high quality cutlery that could withstand the rough and tough demand and condition of outdoors environment.

To provide a good review, I tried to understand the over-all components and mechanics of a chef’s knife. And in order that even non-chef or non-foodies for that matter, could understand the technical terms that I will be using when referring to particular part or parts of this Sabatier Cooks Knife, let me provide you an illustrative guide on the basic parts of a typical chef’s knife.

Abraw o Inabraw (Vegetables Stewed in Fish Paste)

Another popular regional dish from the northern Luzon area in the Philippines is “abraw” or “inabraw”. I believe the other Ilocano term “dinengdeng” also refers to the same dish. “Abraw” is a simple vegetable dish where several types of vegetables are stewed in a small amount of water and seasoned with “bagoong” or fish paste. Sometime during the cooking process, a flavoring meat usually fried or grilled fish or dried shrimp fry or krill are added to further improve the taste of both the broth and the cooked veggies.

For me, this dish is not really something we can brag about. After all, from its original and humble inception, it is prepared in a simple, easy and straightforward procedure utilizing simple ordinary vegetables and inexpensive local seasoning. That’s all. It is basically intended to be a simple meal of a rather simple, and probably frugal, family. But out of its simplicity, the dish is tasty and satisfying…… not to mention very healthy. That it has become popular not only in the Ilocos region (Philippines) but also in other neighboring regions and even in the Manila Capital area.

Being a vegetable dish using fresh local harvests, it is best eaten with some fried or grilled fish along with lots of steamed rice. But it also goes well with other seafood dishes like the “halabos na hipon o sugpo” (steamed shrimp or prawn) which we ate alongside "abraw” and posted here before. If you like grilled or boiled or steamed veggies dipped in “bagoong” in your meal (like me), then you will appreciate this dish and probably love it later on.

Swimming and Ultra Light Shore Fishing at Kahawa Beach, Sri Lanka

As a part of our group’s rest and recreation, we decided to make a short swim on one of the many beautiful beaches of southern Sri Lanka last Sunday. Since we were at the Koggala Beach Park the other week, where I did some quick shore fishing as well, it has been suggested by some members to re-visit Kahawa Beach this time. We have been to the nice and highly visited swimming place one time and would like to check it out once again.

Like Koggala Beach, Kahawa Beach is particularly a safe, easily accessible and highly suitable swimming area, even for kids, frequented by many locals due to the natural pool that the rocks on the water several meters away from the beach creates. Basically, the place is offering quality swimming opportunities for families and friends, uninterrupted by the roaring waves pretty normal to most Sri Lankan coastlines. The enclosing rock is serving as a natural breakwater, providing protection for the pool of crystal clear water over fine white sand.

As featured before, Sri Lanka is a beautiful tiny island surrounded by rich waters offering an abundance of white sandy beaches, lush greenery, exciting water adventures and amazing marine ecosystem. It has a very healthy coral reefs and wide oceans providing shelters to numerous varieties of coral and sub tropical fishes and other astounding marine life. Kahawa Beach, though public and not really a top tourists destination, is aptly one of them.

While I have mentioned in my posts some well known and popular beaches in the past such as Hikkaduwa Beach, Unawatuna Beach, Bentota Beach and Koggala Beach, I considered Kahawa as also important and worthy of praises. Its fine white beach and clear blue water pretty much support that statement of mine.

Homemade Tuna Sandwich Spread

Our group has been consuming a lot of chicken meat for the last 5 years that we’ve been assigned in a highway project here in Sri Lanka. It’s mainly due to the scarcity and high cost of pork and seasonal availability of fish. In my estimate, out of the 21 main meals that we have in a week, considering 3 meals per day, more than half of the meals are made up of chicken either as the main viand or major ingredient in cases of vegetable dishes. Obviously, there were days when we have chicken for both lunch and dinner. We love chicken, right! :-)

So when I again decided to prepare a homemade sandwich spread the other day, I opted to use canned tuna meat instead of the usual boiled chicken flakes. While chicken sandwich spread which I featured here before remains my most favorite amongst other sandwich spread variations, we felt using tuna will serve as a sort of reprieve for the many days of continuously over-indulging into the reliable chicken.

Tuna are massive, fast swimming sea water fish with muscle tissue that ranges from pink to dark red. The fish are highly sought-after by both fishermen and anglers alike either for commercial consumption or sports and recreational pursuit. While there are over 48 different tuna species, the term tuna generally refers to those that belong to the family of “Scombridae” and particularly under the genus “Thunnus”, which includes 9 species. The yellow fin tuna is the most prominent specie and probably among the most important in terms of culinary application, although not the most expensive.

Tilapia in Oyster Sauce and Veggies - Escabeche Style

Like many other people all over the world, Filipinos extensively eat tilapia because it is a good source of protein; especially one with a low saturated fat, low calorie, low carbohydrate and low sodium. Additionally, tilapia meat is a sure provider of essential vitamins and minerals such as phosphorus, niacin, selenium, vitamin B12 and potassium. You are right, that’s half truth. Not many people knew about that health benefits stuff. We eat tilapia because it is delicious, widely available and relatively inexpensive, sort of within the Third World’s average family budget. Okay, okay, it’s cheap. That’s it! :-) But tasty, huh!

Tilapia, St. Peter’s fish and pla-pla when large, are just some of the names referring to the third most important fish in fish farming or aquaculture worldwide, next to carps and salmons. The top three fish, along with European seabass, catfish and cod, comprised the top six farmed fish in the world feeding hundreds of millions of humans, for quite a long time now.

However, due to large size, rapid growth, easy production, tolerance to high stocking density, high profitability and palatability, tilapia have been the focus of major farming research and developments and it will just be a matter of time before they become the leader among the most important cultured fish all over the world.

Another good thing about tilapia is that it can be cooked in so many ways. I have previously featured one way to enjoy this farm’s bounty by cooking it into zesty “paksiw na isda”. Similarly, like pony fish, “pompano” and “talakitok” it can also be cooked as “pangat" or "pinangat” or “pesa” and “ginataan” like “dalag” or mudfish. Even simpler, the fish can also be grilled, fried, steamed, stewed and baked, all requiring very few basic ingredients.

Coleslaw or Slaw (Cabbage Salad)

If you like KFC coleslaw, then you will probably like this coleslaw version of mine. I thought of making this salad as an accompaniment to the fried chicken dinner we had last Sunday. With a deep-fried chicken that taste like Max’s and coleslaw that taste like KFC’s (that sounds very boastful though, not very like me) what could we possible ask more for a dinner? None really, except for a cool cola drinks and probably some vanilla flavored ice cream at the end of the meal. :-)

Coleslaw or simply slaw in some American dialects is a vegetable salad mainly consisting of shredded raw cabbage. Sometimes different varieties of cabbage, such as red cabbage, as well as shredded carrots are used for better color and texture. Other variations of the dish include the addition of other ingredients, such as pepper, onion, grated cheese, pineapple and apple. What distinguishes coleslaw from cabbage as a condiment is that it is mixed with a dressing which traditionally consists of vegetable oil and vinegar or vinaigrette.

Coleslaw is a side dish generally eaten with fried chicken, barbecue, fried fish fillet and potato fries. It is also widely used as a sandwich ingredient like in hamburgers and hotdogs. With its popularity, many variations exist. Some U.S. variations contain buttermilk and/or mayonnaise, prepared mustard and sometimes ketchup and vinegar in lieu of mayonnaise. In Sweden, there is a version that is made with vinegar and oil and usually served with pizza. Interestingly, there is another variant called broccoli slaw where broccoli is used in place of the cabbage.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce and Chicken Barbecue

I love barbecue. I love grilling. Yeah, I know the blog title says it all. I gain joy while barbecuing. In spite of the process being somewhat messy, it’s fun and rewarding. There is something in it that lightens my spirit. The smoky smell that it generates while the meat cooks. The dripping sauce that causes the familiar barbecue aroma as droplets touches the hot coal. The gorgeous lightly charred skin of the meat. The tender and luscious meat with a combination of sweet, salty, sourly, earthy and many other flavors quite difficult to describe which all-together, encompass that exquisite taste that can only be experienced in a true barbeque. Expectedly, I have been preparing this dish on a regular basis.

Recently, I prepared a chicken barbecue which I marinated overnight but due to heavy rain, I was not able to grill it outdoors over charcoal fire and settled to cooking it inside the oven instead. Remarkably, the chicken came out still very juicy and delicious. The recipe I used there is basically the same as the one I applied in my pork barbeque post long time ago with just slight improvements, particularly on the amount of brown sugar.

Since I am now very pleased with this barbecue recipe, I decided to transform it into the next level; by creating a barbeque sauce which can be prepared early on, keep ready inside the fridge and use any time when the need arises……simply and easy. It will serve as a handy topping or dipping sauce and a marinade at the same time. Pretty much like the usual barbeque sauce we can buy from groceries and supermarkets, except that it is homemade, using all-natural ingredients, no extenders, no added preservatives, no artificial coloring and most importantly, it does not cost a fortune. You can use the huge savings in buying more meat instead. :-)