Friday, April 27, 2007

Power princesses!

CREDITS: Shrek.com


Ooooh, you better watch out for these kicking ladies!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Going nuts

A short trip out of the metropolis offered me a glimpse of the provincial life once more, which of course I always appreciate. The thing is there's always room to get to learn a thing or two about the simple ways of life -- the back-to-basics. To begin with, there were just the natural elements available all around for survival, long before push-buttoned and mobile technology ever invaded the urban homes. It's only sad that majority of today's "modern" people (including me) either at the very least lack the curiosity of things (how do they do it?) or are simply put: indifferent, as long as the microwave oven in the kitchen works.

This brings me to the main subject of this post (so much for that melodramatic intro). I didn't know how cashew nuts (kasuy) are cooked. Well, I do know that they're being cooked (winks) but I haven't seen how it's done and how a cashew tree looks like until last week. So when I finally got the chance to witness it, I didn't pass it up and documented everything (for the record).


Step 1: Roast cashew nuts on wood fire, atop a yero (galvanized iron sheet).

Step 2: Let it come to flames (oo, susunugin!). Careful not to go too near the fire as cashew oil squirts in all directions.

Step 3: Remove from fire and let the nuts (and the yero) stand to cool for a while.

Step 4: Time to begin the pukpukan session. Peel off the nuts’ burnt shells by lightly pounding it rock-on-rock. The idea is to shell them all off without cracking the bean shape apart.


I would complain at how much I find one pack of kasuy expensive. Supposing that one small pack went through the traditional process, such as the one above, there it leaves me with no more room for kiosk tantrums.