A couple of weeks ago, we were at the Mida Food party where they celebrated their 20th anniversary. Mida Food is the company behind the retail seafood brand Pacific Bay, which you may have seen at the supermarkets.
The anniversary party was hosted by Sam Oh, and had special seafood dishes from featured chefs like Chefs Maita Fores, Roland Laudico, James Ng and Miguel Vecin.
Today, Mida Food Distributors offers the largest seafood selection in the Philippines, and supply many of our local restaurants with quality seafood. Starting with tuna products, the business soon expanded to offering premium seafood items like Chilean Seabass and salmon to high-end hotels and other five-star establishments. Today, Mida Food also supplies to premium restaurants as well as casual grilleries and fast food chains.
Some of the seafood they offer now include varieties of crab (softshell crab, King Crab, and even snow crab!), lobster, shrimp, squid, octopus, bacalo, halibut, dory, cod, salmon, tuna, scallops, mollusks, and more.
A SEAFOOD FEAST
Okay, we only cooked 2 varieties of seafood for lunch, but we cooked the whole packs! It was Sunday lunch, everyone in the family was home, so it was a good time to bust out the Pacific Bay seafood to enjoy.
We received this box of seafood from Mida, and I was so excited to eat the scallops and the shrimps. I still haven’t figured out how to cook the other seafood.
I decided to do tabletop cooking, which I find is a lot of fun! Everyone can cook their own seafood, and no one will be complaining about anything being undercooked or overcooked, because they cook it themselves. They can blame themselves because they cooked it themselves. Wise, diba? Hahaha. People can cook their seafood however way they like it.
The Pacific Bay Jumbo Shrimp and the Pacific Bay Scallops defrosted in no time! They thawed very quickly – I just put the unopened packs in a bowl of water for a few minutes. I was in a hurry so when they were almost thawed, I opened the packs and just rinsed the scallops and the shrimp in clean water, and they were ready.
Inside the packs, the seafood are vacuum-packed. Look at how big the scallops and the shrimp are!
This tabletop cooking meal was totally unplanned, so if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to have something special on the table fast, this kind of meal is quick! I only started prepping 30 minutes before lunch.
Another thing that I like about the Pacific Bay Scallops and the Jumbo Shrimp is that they are already prepped. The shrimps are already shelled and deveined, the scallops are cleaned. All I had to do was to give them a quick rinse before putting them on a plate.
I have my Electrolux Induction Cooker set up on the table. I love my induction cooker, it’s awesome! I have been able to do table top grilling, as well as sukiyaki and shabu-shabu / hotpot using it! All that’s needed to set it up is an extension cord. It works great and I love using it for special occasion meals at home. Today, I’m using an induction-ready non-stick grill pan.
For seasoning, I have Weber Thai Chili Seasoning on the table, which I find is delicious with shrimp (also very easy, just sprinkle!) and I also have this Lavender Salt that I have been trying to use up. There’s also butter and soy sauce. And Himalayan pink salt which is not shown in the pic. But you can use whatever seasonings you want.
We also have food on the other side of the induction cooker but I won’t be showing them because they’re just some rice, vegetables and leftovers from the previous night.
First, we put some butter on the grill pan. When the butter is melted, it’s time to cook! Here are some shrimps sprinkled with the Thai Chili seasoning, and some scallops. If you have some of those wooden chopsticks that you get from restaurant takeouts, you can give each of the diners a set to use for cooking the seafood and to turn them around. I keep the extra chopsticks for occasions like these.
Brush with butter to your heart’s content!
The shrimp and the scallops are excellent! They were frozen, but still tasted very fresh, with no noticeable texture degradation from being frozen. The scallops were tender and briny (already slightly salty on their own even without added salt), the shrimps were amazing – springy and juicy. I think a simple way to cook them is best so that you can fully enjoy the seafood themselves without the distraction of sauces and other flavors. I think the shrimps are just so good with lots of butter!
Also, the Pacific Bay shrimps and scallops didn’t shrink. That means that the seafood was not injected with additional water or whatever to make them look bigger or heavier. Don’t you just hate it when you buy big size seafood and they sometimes shrink when you cook them?
Here’s the inside of the scallops. It’s so juicy! Take care not to overcook it!
Table top cooking is so easy, and such a nice way to spend a meal with family. Everyone gets to participate. Also, you don’t have to slave away cooking a special dish, because with table top cooking, people cook their own food!
Hope you enjoyed this post, and hope you try out table top cooking with your family.
