Sometimes, I just want to be done with it, preparing a meal, but it doesn’t mean I have to make a goddamned sandwich.

And so you pull out the familiar recipes and end up being surprised how for such simple things, there is so much satisfaction and flavour for so little effort.

Arroz Caldo
I like it thick which means a rice-cooker cupful (doesn’t seem like a regular cup) of rice to about four cups of water; this is about two generous servings. I don’t season it as much because I like to do the seasoning afterwards with lemon juice and patis. A dollop of garlic chili-oil gets it ready for eating.

Sinigang na baboy
I would prefer to use pork-ribs, but a $35 baby rack which we currently have in the freezer may be too rich. So I would divide a 1kg pork belly for this- the other half to be made into binagoongan- and simmer it in a sinigang mix (I like the Gabi variant). For the greens, it’s a mixture of swamp spinach and water-cress.

Binagoongan
It’s simply letting the pork-belly pieces cook in water until the liquid evaporates and it begins to render and fry in its own fat. A whole clove of diced garlic goes into this, and then the fish-paste. It’s not the best bagoong-alamang from Pangasinan, but it would do. I would do a fried rice with the leftover bits and pieces in the pan.