Farmer's Beef Stew

This is a dish that I first cooked in 2010, and has since forgotten about when I relinquished my small kitchen to the help after I gave birth to my daughter.

By way of a first post after a long hiatus from this food blog, I thought it would be nice to start out with something that I actually prepared. This is my take on the farmer's beef stew recipe that I found from a mini-cookbook that I purchased way, way back.

Farmer's Beef Stew

Serves: 4 to 5
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 small onion, chopped
500 g beef, cut into small cubes
1 can whole corn kernels, drained
1 can crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper, to taste
sliced spring onions

Tokyo Cafe

This was our second time to visit the restaurant in Mall of Asia, and as per usual, we love what we had.

Their two-piece Hamburg Steak (really just your ol' familiar hamburger steak) with gravy is of course a delight. Archie had this before but with demi glace sauce, which is also good. The patties are not as thick as I'd like, but juicy and tender nonetheless. Trademarks of a worthy hamburger.



We also had their Pescatore, which is essentially seafood pasta with tomatoes and olive oil. It had a generous amount of clams and shrimps in it, and the tomato sauce wasn't too sour (some people like the Italian-style sour sauces... I like mine tempered).



Down it all with peach iced tea, and we're good to go! Price is reasonable and the wait staff are courteous, too, so we'll definitely be going back to this place.

Next time, we'll try the crepes. ;-)

Are you looking for:

a restaurant with wonderful ambience, with a magnificent view of the Taal Volcano and Lake, and the tastiest, juiciest steaks ever?

The answer is here: FIRE LAKE GRILL in CLIFFHOUSE, Tagaytay City.



Archie took me here for my birthday dinner. :) The moment we saw the place, we fell in love with it! Quiet, romantic, classy, and definitely a far cry from the tumpok that is Starbucks, Hen Lin, Pancake House and Cafe Lupe nearby. As for Fire Lake Grill itself, grabe. I was never a fan of steak, but when I had a taste of their house specialty, I knew I'd gladly eat a whole slab anyday. Ang sarap! Our very gracious host, Gilbert, recommended our dinner: Archie had the porterhouse steak, which had a red-wine demiglaze sauce, and "made it a meal" together with potato wedges for siding, and pumpkin soup. At first, Archie wanted the steak well-done, but Gilbert offered that the beef would be juicier and tastier if it were made medium-rare. I, on the other hand, wanted to try their pasta: Gilbert recommended the new pasta their chef made, which was linguini in cream sauce with white truffle (OMG!) and mushrooms...

Wow. Wow wow wow. Wow.

The only downside for those who would like to dine on a budget, however, is that the food is a bit expensive. I won't mention how much our dinner cost that night but all I can say is, it was worth every cent. :) Also, parking's a bit expensive if you're going to just park and enjoy the not-so-crowded area: it's P100 per hour, and a fraction of an hour is considered an hour, anyway. But if you dine in any establishment, parking's for free. :)

Need I say more? Super-duper, very highly recommended!