Mida Food Turns 20 + Dishes I Made with Pacific Bay Seafood

Last June, Mida Food Distributors celebrated its 20th year anniversary with a Feast of the Pacific at The Tent at Enderun. Mida Food Distributors is the leader in the Philippine seafood industry. Together with its sister company, Mida Trade Ventures, they offer the largest seafood selection in the Philippines! They also offer retail seafood specialty items under the brand, Pacific Bay Seafood, which I will tell you more about later and what I cooked.

Mida Food Distributors treated its guests with dishes specially made by our country's top chefs: Chef Miguel Vecin, Chef Roland Laudico, Chef Jonas Ng and Chef Margarita Fores.

 One of appetizers served was this baked oyster. I love oysters and this was good!

This was what Chef Margarita Fores prepared: Barramudi, Orange-fennel Confit, Black Olive Soil and Carabao Butter.

Chef Miguel Vecin made Pulpo A La Gallega which is composed of Pulpo with Potato Foam, 

Jamon Serrano Crumbs, Pimenton Powder.

This was my favorite. Chef Roland Laudico's Hamachi Kinilaw which has Hamachi, Coca-cola Espuma, Candied Ginger, Spicy Capsicum Puree

 Another favorite was Chef Jonas Ng's Prawn Pomelo And Crab Salad which has Prawn Crab, Pomelo, Peanut, Toasted Rice, Coconut Milk Cilantro Salad.

Love how everything was so fresh and hearing stories from the chefs prove that Mida Food Distributors is a trusted company by professionals! Congrats again on your 20th, Mida Food!

Pacific Bay Seafood sent over a bunch of frozen seafood to my house a day after the event. Pacific Bay offers freshly-packed seafood items like peeled & deveined shrimp, tuna belly, tuna steaks, scallop meat, salmon steaks, whole clams, crabstick, and cream dory fillet, as well as Atlantic cod portions, bacalao loins, Chilean seabass, softshell crab, Gindara steaks and halibut fillet and steaks.

I don't really cook with seafood (other than fish that I am familiar with, shrimps and tahong) that often because I'm afraid I'll ruin a dish or make palpak but I was up for the challenge! They sent shrimps, mussels, bacalao, scallops and soft shell crabs and here's what I whipped up. I did not cook this all in one night ha.

Baked Bacalao

This was my first time to cook with bacalao. It's a lightly salted fish. I've never baked a fish as well so I looked for a recipe on the internet and this was what I came up with it the available ingredients I have. I mixed lemon, olive oil, pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika then put it over the fish then popped it to the oven. I think I overcooked it but otherwise, it wasn't bad. Haha! Ate it with rice and stir-fried upo.

Gambas

This was my second time to cook gambas. The first time was maybe 9 years ago. Haha! Gambas is easy to cook. You just need lots and lots of garlic, paprika and lemon. I am really impressed at how plump the shrimps were considering they were frozen. It's peeled and deveined as well so it made my life so much easier!

 Green Mussels or Tahong

I cooked the mussels two way. Half of it I made it into soup and the other half I baked it. The soup came out just okay. I think the frozen is not meant for making it into soup.

While the Baked Cheesy Tahong was a winner! It was also my first time to bake mussels. I mostly make soup but I will definitely make this again. It was really good!

 Soft Shell Crab

Another first too! I just dredged it in egg and flour and deep fried it.

 Scallops

For the scallops, I bought steak to go with it. I just sauteed the scallops with lots of butter. It came out yummy and so perfect with the steak.

I probably winged 3 out of 6 dishes and I was so happy and impressed with what I made. A challenge to my cooking skills! I was always scared to buy frozen seafood because I'm not sure how it would taste vs fresh seafood but after cooking all the dishes above, now I know what brand to buy! Pacific Bay is available at any leading supermarket nationwide.

Facebook: Pacific Bay Seafood

Instagram: @pacificbayseafood