About Julius Santos

A blogger and a freelance graphics artist who's undergoing dialysis treatment. Among his interests are blogging, writing, graphics design, reading books, cooking, listening to music, tinkering around, and doing research.
Website:
Man of the House has written 7 articles so far, you can find them below.

Best Market Practices

best practicesIn almost everything that we do, we tend to make a habit of ways that suites us well. May it be in blogging, cooking,designing, or doing household chores, we always employ methods that increases efficiency, quality, and productivity. This habit is best described as best practices.

In this article, I’m pertaining to marketing as the process of buying things from the public market, or any store for that matter. In this you could very much apply your best practices as a consumer to ensure the best quality for your money. I myself  employs these practices whenever I do my routine trip to our local public market .

Based on my experience, the best way to ensure the quality of the product you’re buying is to have your own favorite vendor. A favorite vendor or “Suki“, in local terms, is someone you personally know and befriended by being a regular customer. Someone you’ve actually built a relationship based on trust and friendship. More often than not, your Suki will see to it that you’re being given quality product, if not the best.

Continue reading →

My Wife’s Chicken ala King

I learned how to cook at quite an early age, and acquired a love for the culinary even earlier. In our family, the boys were the ones doing the cooking, so it wasn’t such a surprise that I inherited the tradition. I simply love rummaging around the kitchen, preparing ingredients and trying to concoct something delectable to serve to the family. When I entered the world of employment, I still find time to cook for myself, or the family, on weekends and holidays. Even when I was struck with CKD, my love for food and the kitchen never wavered.

Now, unemployed due to my medical condition and with a family of my own, the house is where my domain is. I do most of the cooking, and everything related to maintaining the house, except cleaning. I’d wash the dishes, go to the market, mend things around the house. But I don’t do the cleaning.

chicken ala king

I was recently struck with a viral infection that rendered me inactive for almost two weeks. Needless to say, my wife Gilda, who’s also the one working for the family, took over the chores I cannot do at the moment. She also knows how to cook, and even prepare dishes that I myself haven’t tried cooking before. One of them is her Chicken Ala King. I tried replicating her recipe once and didn’t even do it justice. I need more practice, I guess.

I’m now well again, up and running, and firing away at the kitchen once more. But from time to time I’ll ask my wife to cook something. I don’t know why, but I guess I just wanted to taste somebody’s cooking once in a while.

My Idea of Comfort Food

We once again venture into the wet and rainy seasons, with occasional servings of typhoons and tropical storms that tests one endurance to the limit. But ever an optimist, I see this damp and cold season as another chance to enjoy pinoy comfort foods like Bulalo, Pancit Molo, La Paz Batchoy, and the likes. I know you might be wondering “why, I’m sure you can enjoy it any time of the year. Why wait for the rainy seasons?”. The Pinoys in general, and me among the particular, tends to match what they eat on the overlying season, or weather. Would you be satisfied eating piping hot Bulalo (beef shank soup) in the middle of summer, or a scorching sun beating down your neck? I wouldn’t, and I have a faint inkling that you also wouldn’t enjoy it very much.

Enough. What I’m trying to get at, and probably meaning to ask you, is your idea of a comfort food. Our interest and love for food varies as much as characters do. I, for instance, seeks my moods as an inspiration for cooking, but would gladly eat up anything that looks appetizing. I might say that I’m sort of an adventured when it comes to exotic cuisines, but hey, who isn’t? My idea of comfort food during these rainy days is none other than …(drumroll)… Bulalo. Kinda having an anticlimatic ring to it? Well that’s me.

comfort food

I deign to prepare my own Bulalo, however, rather than buying those well-publicized and well-referred commercialones. I’m a firm believer in the virtues of home-cooked meals, and besides, it gives me a chance to experiment and try different things with an otherwise common dish. As I know any sensible cook would do, I do the shopping for ingredients myself. Bulalo, as most of you are aware, takes a long time to cook if you are preparing it the traditional way. However, you could cut the cooking time in half using a pressure cooker, which I sometimes use if the occasion calls for it.

The ingredients I use are mostly the traditional ones that goes into the dish: beef shank, potatoes, corn, cabbage, petchay, etc. Sometimes, if I could get my hands on some, I put some shitake mushrooms into it. I know that this might sound and taste weird to someone else’s palate, but for me, it lends the dish a more earthy tone to it.

Image credits: pinoycravings.com

Goat Innards Anyone?

Wait! This is not what you think and hold that urge to retch on my seemingly disgusting article title. Promise, it tastes nicer that it sounds.

I woke up early this morning just to go to our local wet market hoping to buy some goat’s innards that I would cook into Papaitan. It’s a local fare made from cow’s, or in my case, goat’s innards. I learned to cook this dish through my uncle who loves it. It’s often served as “pulutan”, or accompaniment to alcoholic beverages. But some eat it as a main course or a special dish served on special occasions.

Anyway, I went early because I wanted to be choose innards that are of good quality, for I will not settle with anything less. Not to mention the fact that for innards and the like, it’s good marketing practice to always settle for the best ones. I know, I know, innards is in itself disgusting already. But you wouldn’t want to have disgustingly disgusting innards, wouldn’t you?

goat innards

After purchasing my main ingredient, I went to get some radish, ginger, green chili, onions, and some garlic to complete my list. The moment I arrive home, I immediately washed the goat with running water, then soaked it in vinegar for a couple of minutes. I then proceeded on washing it with vinegar. Goat smells and tastes gamy, and I learned from past cooking experiences that you can remove this gaminess by soaking and washing them with vinegar. At least it works for me.

I then boiled the innards on water with a little vinegar, some ginger, garlic, and peppercorns. When partially done, Iproceeded further by mincing then sauteing it, added some seasonings like fish sauce and freshly ground pepper. I then boiled it again the second time, since I discarded the first boil, then left it simmering in the stove.

The goat’s gallbladder is traditionally used to lend the dish a bitter taste, hence the name, Papaitan. I don’t use it, however, simply because members of my family don’t like it, particularly my wife. Furthermore, I do believe that there is enough bitterness in the innards to make it, well, bitter. For the finishing touches, I put in the chili for some bite, added some more seasonings to taste, then served it hot.

Now, tell me. Still disgusting?

Ah well… all I can say is that Lunch is served. Bon Apetit!

Image credits: www.culinaryschools.org

The Pleasures Of Being A Homebody

In a culture where men are known to be the ones who earned the living for the family, the opposite would seem to be going completely against the grain of tradition. Well, I guess, not anymore. I think the idea of both man and woman, or in some cases, the woman alone, in a family working to earn the living is already widely accepted. In my case, my wife’s the one who goes to work everyday and I’m the one left at home to care for our daughter and do the household chores. Wait! Before you ‘defenders of the masculine pride’ react, just continue reading this post first.

homebody

First and foremost, let me tell you that this set up in my family is completely okay with me. I am a Kidney failure patient undergoing Dialysis treatment, and although I still have the means to seek employment, the fact still remains that I am at a disadvantage due to my current medical condition. So to make a long story short, my wife goes to work and I’m left at home. This does not bothers me at all. In a clan where the men in the family do the cooking, I was introduced to the pleasures of household chores at an early age in life. I’ve been already washing the dishes and accompanying household members to our local market while I was still in grade school. I also learned to cook at a young age, though not surprising because the love for cooking runs in the family.

I guess these experiences and my early awareness to the importance of learning to do household chores made thetransition from a working dad to a homebody smooth. It seems that nothing really change and I still feel that I’m just having an indefinite vacation from work. I go to the market on mornings to shop for things to have for lunch. I see a lot of my daughter and has the simple pleasures of taking care of her everyday needs. I cook for my family, which I have already been doing even when I was still working. The only difference is that I do this now full time compared to the weekends when I still had a job.

I know some people might still think this kind of arrangement still going against the grains of tradition. Well, I really can’t blame them, though I really don’t care either. Just as long as I’m happy doing the things I love doing, my life as a homebody would continue.

Image credits (Mario Batali): Sports Illustrated

The Switch

I started out this blog with the idea for it to be a generic one, meaning, it wouldn’t fall into a particular niche. I had this in mind because I wanted versatility on the posts that I would write, touching different subject matters that interests me, like blogging, writing, reading, cooking, graphics design, Egyptology, music, etc. I have to active blogs, Dialysis Postings and Private Corner. Dialysis Postings is a compilation of my experiences as a Dialysis patient, so it very much falls into the Health category of blogs. And Private Corner is more on the generic side of the fence, showcasing as my personal blog where I could assert my opinions.

So that’s the reason behind the switch of content on this blog. From a generic to a niche one, specifically theFoodcategory, to tribute my natural love for chow and cooking. I hail from a family where the men do the cooking, so I learned to cook early on in life and I’ve spent time in the kitchen much more earlier. As I grew older, I have developed a certain passion for the culinary arts, which, I might say, might already be in my genes, just waiting to be nurtured.

Ah well, just for the record, I don’t cook for a living nor I ever studied culinary arts. I really don’t know why, but I took up Architecture back in college. I also love the Arts and I guess it simply won over the other.