I’m Connie Veneracion
I’m a retired lawyer and journalist, mother to two grown daughters and wife to a man with a curious nickname.
Born and raised in Metro Manila, I’ve been home cooking since the fourth grade. My brother and only sibling was the first guinea pig for my kitchen experiments.
After I moved with my husband and daughters to a hilly suburb, I discovered blogging, bought a digital camera and started publishing recipes online. That was way before social media and AI ruined the web with mediocrity and inauthenticity.
The web may not be what it used to be, but I still love the creative process of cooking, taking photos, writing and publishing. Umami Days is the fourth incarnation of my food blog.
The photo above was taken at a cooking class in Chiang Mai in February 2020 on the last trip I took before international borders were closed.
And this is me in August 2023. I stopped dyeing my hair when the first COVID lockdown was imposed. I’ve been wearing my hair Targaryen-style since. That’s my daughter’s dog, by the way, and his name is Chicken Joy.
Now that you know what I look like, here are a few more things about me to help you understand my approach to cooking and recipe publishing.
My day always begins with strong brewed coffee with sugar and milk.
I love fatty red meat, skin-on chicken (except the breast) and runny egg yolks.
I revere offal (organ meats).
I favor butter, full-fat milk, cream and cheese over low-fat and / or low-sodium alternatives.
I cannot survive a day without bread, rice or noodles.
I adore wine.
I worship coconut and extol its virtues.
I will never ever be a vegetarian.
My blog is Umami Days
Umami Days has three sections: recipes, cooking tips and food stories.
Recipes
The recipes here are for dishes cooked in our own kitchen — dishes we found satisfying enough to want to share with the world. (My daughters and I do the cooking, take the photos and do the occasional video and my husband is the designated dishwasher. I do all the writing.)
The recipes are an eclectic mix of Asian and non-Asian — (a) food we share in common with Asian neighbors, (b) food and cooking techniques acquired from our centuries-long interaction with Chinese traders and Indian migrants, and (c) dishes adapted from the cuisines of Spain and the United States, our former colonizers.
Cooking tips
This section is divided into ingredients, how-tos and tools.
The subsection “ingredients” focuses mostly on meat cuts, vegetables, herbs, spices and condiments commonly used in Asian cooking. “How-tos” is about techniques. “Tools”, the least populated subsection, includes both traditional tools (like mortar and pestle) and modern equipment (such as an ice cream maker).
Food stories
The subsection I enjoy doing most. I do love reading and what I learn I share to readers. I especially love food history, and debunking myths and hypes.
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Meaty with a dash of veggies
