Ensaymada

We discovered this very delectable snack item - ube ensaymada, only available at Lola Lilia's Cakes and Flowers at the Courtyard infront of the "simbahang lingin" along Airport Road, Tagbilaran City.

It looks like a regular torta, but actually, it is an ensaymada. Sugar are sprinkled on top and when sliced you can find the ube filling inside. And when you eat it, hmmmmmmmm.. it melts in your mouth. Very delicious indeed. For those who are sugar conscious, the sweetness is just enough.

These ube ensaymada are available in small and big pieces. The big ones are priced at P46.00 per piece and I don't know how much the small ones are because we prefer to buy the big ones.

Jumping Shrimps

Here in where I live (Bohol, Philippines), I consider myself lucky because I can still enjoy getting real fresh seafoods to cook for our favorite dishes. One of these simples joys is being able to buy these 'jumping shrimps' in the wet-market.

Few days ago, me and my husband were lucky to be able to buy 1 kilo of 'jumping shrimps' at P300 / kilo. Quite expensive at this price though because we we bought the shrimps, it was the morning after a typhoon. Normally, this kind of shrimps are priced at only P180 - P250 / kilo.

They are called 'jumping shrimps' because they literally jump because they are live shrimps. Real fresh.

Preparation

Using a pair of scissors, the whiskers and the thorny tip of the head of each shrimp are cut. The shrimps are washed and cleaned thoroughly. The batch is washed at least 3 times, until the water turns clean.

Cooking

The batch is tossed to a pre-heated wok. I placed the cover on the wok right away to prevent the shrimps from jumping off the wok. Due to the heat, the shrimps kept on jumping inside the wok and it sounded like I was cooking popcorn.

Once the shrimps stopped jumping, I sprinkled salt & pepper and squeezed 3 pieces of calamansi. The shrimps are left to cook until the shells looked separated from their meat already or the color turns dark orange already. I didn't add water anymore since the batch has enough water content to cook the shrimps. I took out some of the excess water and added about two tablespoons of Anchor butter and tossed. Cooking is done in less than 15 minutes!

Wet Market Visit

Last weekend, my family drove to my mother's hometown in Ubay, Bohol. We always look forward to going there for its fresh seafoods, available in the public market. Minutes after we arrived town, me and my husband were already at the wet market,trying to find some good deals of the fresh seafoods. And indeed we were lucky to buy at least a kilo of blue crabs and another kilo of mud crabs.

Few years ago, these kinds of crabs were sold at P80.00/kg. However, since there are already commercial buyers of these crabs in this town, prices has gone up.

Current prices of these crabs: P150.00/kg for both blue and mud crabs.