FOOD: Lucky Me! Supreme Bulalo
A couple of weeks ago, my dad and my brother came back from their vacation to the Philippines. Before they left I gave them a whole slew of pasalubong requests, pretty much all food. So, to commemorate this bounty of Filipino junk food and instant noodles, I'll be doing a whole series of food blog-ish posts, which pretty much means I'll be bombarding the journal with pictures of food and onom nom nom nom --enough talk, here's the food:
Today we have Lucky Me! Supreme Bulalo mami noodles from the Monde Nissin. Its nothing unfamiliar, its pretty much what it looks like: a paper bowl of instant noodles. The exotic hook here is Bulalo (beef, bone marrow and vegetable soup), a Filipino dish I know nothing about, and probably could not identify properly.
I've actually had this before in the Philippines, although obviously the packaging's changed. I think its funny how the top lid doesn't say what kind of noodles you're buying, you gotta peek down the side to see "bulalo" in teeny type.
As you see, its got all the cup noodle basics: dry ramen cake, flavor packet and a some dehydrated "meat" + veggies (lettuce?). Its not very obvious on the picture on the upper left, but the pack 'o dehydrated food bits has a third of it sealed off containing what I call "flavor lard." That's what those mysterious white clumps are on macro shot on the right. The mini fork is kind of a surprise bonus. When I had this last time, it was definitely sans mini fork.
Here it is, 7 minutes after adding boiling water and covering. The instructions say to leave the lid on for 3-5 minutes only, but I like my noodles a little softer. I started off trying to eat this with the fork, but it was seriously too small to comfortably use so I switched to chopsticks (my weapon of choice, when it comes to ramen eating). It wasn't bad over all, but I've definitely had better noodles -- and by noodles, I seriously only mean the noodles, not the noodle dish as a whole. The soup was a light beef broth, which I thought was just perfect for slurping. I can't really say much about the re-hydrated meat, since I hardly noticed them when I was eating.
This was a decent bowl, though some people more accustomed to "Top Ramen" and "Maruchan" might find it a little on the bland side. I ate every last bit of it, drank all the soup, and heck, the my cat Churps loved it (seriously, he wouldn't leave me alone. I'm sure he was enchanted with the beef smell). I can't really say how close it is to actual Bulalo since I really have no reliable memories of the dish. I'm sure I've had it before, since its a traditional dish, but its just the kind of ulam that doesn't stand out in my mind.
Anyway, I'd definitely have it again if it was available, but its not the kind of thing I would seek out if it wasn't easily attainable.
Today we have Lucky Me! Supreme Bulalo mami noodles from the Monde Nissin. Its nothing unfamiliar, its pretty much what it looks like: a paper bowl of instant noodles. The exotic hook here is Bulalo (beef, bone marrow and vegetable soup), a Filipino dish I know nothing about, and probably could not identify properly.
I've actually had this before in the Philippines, although obviously the packaging's changed. I think its funny how the top lid doesn't say what kind of noodles you're buying, you gotta peek down the side to see "bulalo" in teeny type.
As you see, its got all the cup noodle basics: dry ramen cake, flavor packet and a some dehydrated "meat" + veggies (lettuce?). Its not very obvious on the picture on the upper left, but the pack 'o dehydrated food bits has a third of it sealed off containing what I call "flavor lard." That's what those mysterious white clumps are on macro shot on the right. The mini fork is kind of a surprise bonus. When I had this last time, it was definitely sans mini fork.
Here it is, 7 minutes after adding boiling water and covering. The instructions say to leave the lid on for 3-5 minutes only, but I like my noodles a little softer. I started off trying to eat this with the fork, but it was seriously too small to comfortably use so I switched to chopsticks (my weapon of choice, when it comes to ramen eating). It wasn't bad over all, but I've definitely had better noodles -- and by noodles, I seriously only mean the noodles, not the noodle dish as a whole. The soup was a light beef broth, which I thought was just perfect for slurping. I can't really say much about the re-hydrated meat, since I hardly noticed them when I was eating.
This was a decent bowl, though some people more accustomed to "Top Ramen" and "Maruchan" might find it a little on the bland side. I ate every last bit of it, drank all the soup, and heck, the my cat Churps loved it (seriously, he wouldn't leave me alone. I'm sure he was enchanted with the beef smell). I can't really say how close it is to actual Bulalo since I really have no reliable memories of the dish. I'm sure I've had it before, since its a traditional dish, but its just the kind of ulam that doesn't stand out in my mind.
Anyway, I'd definitely have it again if it was available, but its not the kind of thing I would seek out if it wasn't easily attainable.