Cooking in the Time of Covid: A Memoir with Philippine Recipes

A fun and inspiring tribute to the power of faith, food, and family

The year was 2020. With Covid lockdown restrictions, I couldn't easily find ingredients. Still, I took on the challenge. Week after week, I chronicled my latest forage out in the wilds, or discoveries in my qua-board. Soon, I realized that in doing so, I was assuaging the pang of isolation that the pandemic had forced all of us into.

I didn't cook just any recipe, but I picked foods that, as a child, had comforted me, just as we all needed comfort then. I also picked a few non-Filipino recipes just for fun. Each dish sustained not just my family's bodies, but our spirits. That year, my Facebook timeline became not only a quirky cooking journal, but a missive of hope.

Features 30+ recipes with photos, including:

Super-Spreader Siopao
Social Distancing Siomai
Anxiety-Free Adobo
Pandemic Puto
YOLO Yummygang
Bunker Biko
Last Chance Lumpiang Shanghai
Contagious Caldereta
Calamity Crepes
Believe-in-Him Buttermilk Biscuits
Fist-Bump Fried Sweet Plantain
4.2 Magnitude Monggo (Mung Bean Soup)
Corona-d Beef, Philippine-style
Self-quarantine Sonoran Hotdog
Homebound Jalapeño Flautas
Close-Call Cornbread
Lockdown Lava Cake
Comforting Champibubbles
Bonkers Over Bikol Express
Pandemic Pinakbet
Masked-up Mochi
Gather-Not Ginataang Bilo-Bilo
Hoarders Halo-Halo
Tough-times Tostones Cheesesteak
Lockdown Leftover Etouffee
Tenacious Tamales
Stay-home shrimp tacos
Contactless Cubanos
Curable Cuban Feast
Keeper Korean Fried Chicken
Miracle Macarons
Immunized Irish
Pasta Possibilities