Kids Try Healthier Fish Sticks - The Lunchbox with Isabelle Daza Episode 1

Hi, my name is Olivia. I like the color blue. I'm almost turning seven, but I'm still six. My name's Tufu Gajaj. Sometimes I don't also eat ketchup. One of my pain points as a mom is feeding my children. Especially Balti, he's becoming a toddler and he's getting a bit more picky. I don't like it. So I always end up feeding him the same thing. I want to do a little experiment because I want to change it up. Fish sticks is an item on every single menu around the world. When you go to restaurants, when you go to people's homes, it's always something that is readily available to be served to your kids. Even though it is reliable and tasty, I find that he doesn't really understand that fish comes in different sizes and has different flavors and textures. I want him to know what real fish tastes like. Today, we're gonna do a salmon katsu. Why salmon? This is something that Balti is already used to. He likes eating salmon. But here in the Philippines, we have lots of different fish that we can try. We have lapu-lapu, pampano, we even have tilapia, hasa-hasa. You can use whatever fish. It can be a white fish that your kids are used to. First thing we need to do is cut it up. Kids like to have small pieces that they can grab. Balti will get intimidated if the piece is too big. So it's something that for each child is adjustable. Okay, next thing, I'm gonna turn on the fire to heat the oil. And I'm gonna set up a really simple dredging station. You get a bowl, panko, flour, and an egg. So we're gonna start with the egg. I'm gonna crack it here, whisk it. And then the panko, I'm gonna transfer it here so that we could have more space for the salmon, okay? Take your salmon, put it in the flour, cover it, but it has to be a very thin layer because you don't want it to be overdone. Then you put in the whisked egg. And after that, just gonna cover it with panko. So if you don't have any panko, you can use pandesal and cut it up into small bits. It's something that kids are used to eating every day so they won't think it's too foreign. Okay, I think we're about ready to fry. Let me check the oil, if it's hot enough. It is. This looks so good and smells really good too. So I'm excited to let our taste testers give it a shot. But before that, katsu is nothing without a good sauce. It's very easy. All you need is ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar. Now you can buy actually a ready-made katsu sauce in the supermarket, but I like to give myself a hard time. So that's why I'm making it from scratch. Also, so you can control the ingredients. I don't love adding too much sugar, so I kind of hold back on that because everything else is a bit sweet. First, we're gonna start with the ketchup. Just put it here in a bowl. And then we have the oyster sauce, and this is the Worcestershire sauce. So this kind of gives the flavor a bit more depth. It's a little bit smoky. Mm, it's kind of like sour. It gives the sauce a little bit more rounded flavor because it balances the acidity with the salt and sugar. So it's really keen in making a yummy katsu sauce. Otherwise, you can just buy something store-bought. That's good, too. Okay, and now we're gonna add sugar. One thing I did learn after reading a lot of labels and also just from experience by tasting is that sugar comes in all forms, and it's usually in every single ingredient we have. So at home, I try to hold back on the sugar because there's already sugar in everything else. Okay, here we go, our katsu sauce. Let me taste it. Mm, so yummy. Look at that, perfectly cooked and still really moist. So now, I'm gonna taste it. I'm gonna be the judge. My God, it's so good. It's delicious. It's crunchy on the outside, but really warm and soft on the inside. I really hope our taste testers are gonna enjoy this. Everybody, close your eyes. I'm peeking. Don't peek. This is our next dish. Can you guess what it is? Chicken nuggets? Ooh, close, close. Mm. It's a batata. I think you just got it from McDonald's or Dolly Parton. Dip it in the sauce. This is the best food ever. I love it. I like it. I like it because it's crunchy. Okay, now I'm gonna give you guys the regular fish sticks that they serve in restaurants and stuff. Whoa. Tell me which one you like more. Malti, you're eating the fish sticks. I like this one. You like that one more? They both taste like the same. They both taste the same. I don't know which one's better. They're both so good. Yeah, I like this one more. Here, let me give you another one. Yum. Ta-da! That's right. I like this one more better. It's tastier? Yeah. Malti, try the salmon. You do it. I don't like it. Salmon's my favorite fish. Lift the plate that you like the most. This one. This. Yay! Why do you like the salmon more, Brayden? More ketchup. I like the regular stuff. One time I ate two tentacles for breakfast. Which one do you like, Malti? Ketchup. Sometimes I don't eat ketchup with fries. I eat this every day. I love the salmon, but this tastes the same, so I can like that too if you want. If you want me to eat it, I can eat it. If you don't want me to, okay.