PPPans

There's a thread on cooking pig's ears. I'd still say cook sisig! You can use the ears and the face.

Arroz con mango... sounds so Southeast Asian or at least Filipino. A bit off the intent of this thread but I thought I'd just mention how eating fruits with plain rice is very common in the Philippines. Earlier I thought it was just an annoying habit of my grandmother but when I asked around it seems to be very normal. So there's arroz con watermelon, arroz con banana, hehehe! Then of course there's mango with suman...

You're welcome Ludja! I forgot to say you can also add thin slices of hard boiled egg. A few drops of fish sauce and freshly ground black pepper completes it. Mmmm...

Most traditional Filipino food was made from home at one point in time. We didn't have large-scale native industries. If you mean to ask if it can be made at home in the present, yes it can. Like what I said, it's coconut milk simmered till very thick then add the sugar. A bit of calamansi juice is sometimes added to cut through the too rich taste.

Pound or use rolling pin to crumble then sprinkle on noodles, soup and rice porridge or congee. As a topping, it goes best with fried garlic, chopped spring onions and a squirt of calamansi.

I think so, except that recipes for kaya that I've seen include eggs, some whole, some just yolks.

Oh, Stef (stef_foodie on eG) just made some for the Filipino food blogging event. She says it's akin to cooking bacon. Here's a link to Stef's version Lasang Pinoy 3: Streetfood: Tsitsarong Balat ng Manok Chicharron may have been inherited from the Spaniards/Mexicans but it has been embraced so well by Filipinos, there are now so many variations of chicharon perhaps found only in the country - chicharong bulaklak = made from pig's intestines, snail chicharon, etc., etc.

Wow! Matamis na bao in Canada? It literally means sweet coconut shell after the original packaging - empty coconut shells filled with the confection. Also called coco jam, it is coconut milk simmered with molasses or raw sugar. How do we usually use it? Spread over bread, like you do. In some provinces, it serves as a topping for rice cakes. My grandmother used to eat coco jam with rice for dessert. Children spoonsful of it alone, hehehe! I have not heard of it used for drinks. Won't do for cold drinks, the oil will harden. For hot drinks... hmmm...

We had a wonderful time going through Filipino streetfood. Kai's round-up for Lasang Pinoy 3 is now online. Minnette at Lafang List is hosting Lasang Pinoy 4 with It’s All Pinoy Soul Food! Come and share your food stories with us.

We're on our third month! Kai over at the sweet blog Bucaio is hosting and she asks: "If you were a Pinoy streetfood, what would you be?" It could be something we ate at school, was forbidden, eaten in the provinces or streetfood we closely identify with as Filipinos. We hope to have many participants join in the fun. For the details, please read Kai's announcement. This month’s theme is so interesting that I’ve caught myself wondering about the street food culture in other countries. It would also be nice to hear from our friends from the rest of the world. Do join in the fun!

Citrus i.e. kalamansi/calamondin is commonly used with seafood in the Philippines. Not only in kilo/kinilaw which is a type of ceviche but also as a dipping sauce. It is even combined with bagoong or fermented shrimp fry to make an excellent condiment for steamed or broiled fish and vegetables.

Hmmm... not exactly ugly but perhaps you mean not smooth and symmetrical. In our part of the world, the sweetsop is called an atis. Until very recently I thought it was also the same as the custard apple until I came face-to-face with another custard apple which is called anunas/anonas in Filipino. I think the anunas deserves the name custard apple more than the atis does. Here's a link to a picture of the anonas and the fruits on the tree. Below are atis: Both are very sweet with fragrant flesh as you said, browniebaker. sugar/custard apple, sweetsop, atis = Annona squamosa custard apple/anunas = Annona reticulata cherimoya = Annona cherimola LOL Abra! I can imagine a spitting contest. You can eat them in decent company with the aid of a spoon. Tee hee! Edited to add the atis picture.

One danger we're facing everyday is the loss of recipes that have not been commercialised. Remember that these are not coded. I was so happy when Apicio not only obliged to join Lasang Pinoy 2 but contributed an endangered recipe as well! See the recipe and pictures for cookng gulgoria/gorgoria!

Reminder: the deadline for the second edition of Lasang Pinoy is in two days (29 September). Head to Celia Kusinera’s English Patis for details of Cooking Up a Storm! We hope to have you join us! Let me or Stef know if you need a blog to host your entry. We're more than willing to post them for you.

Yipes! Apicio's citing my Lola! Here's what I wrote - more for a Filipino audience: Food for Our National Soul Our pindang was just meat and salt then fermented in a pot by putting a stone weight on top of the meat. One recipe variation was something a bit sweet with the addition of a little honey, which also acts as a tenderiser. Saltpetre or salitre was optional, even when it was still legal. Now they use prague powder but we don't, since it's only for home use. Longanisa had lots of garlic and black pepper with some other spices. I suppose a preview of what I found out about tocino is in order. According to the long-time meat sellers, it was actually an attempt to sell cured meat during hard times (late 1970s). Add more sugar, the meat is heavier. No wonder they can sell tocino at PhP90/kg when the pork is priced at PhP120 nowadays. Same with longanisa. It's also sweet now. As for the reason why it's red, someone said it's actually an imitation of the pindang usa of old - the venison would still be reddish even after curing.

Hi Rona, Roughly, I'm midway between Manila and Pangasinan. I think your uncle and auntie's wishing to plant again is an excellent decision. Let me get back to you on other decent rice varieties. I'll check with a friend who used to work in IRRI. Hmmm... non-democratic terrorists might be going too far. Much as they used armed struggle as a means, they're far from being your usual suspects. They have splinter groups though, and some have gone the way of terrorism.

Hi Rona, Your mom wintering in the Philippines reminds me of my aunt who comes home from Canada when it gets cold. We call her a migratory species. I notice a difference within the last ten years although one can still get good rice varieties. A friend's German husband actually wants to import Philippine rice to Germany. However, the qualification is that we are in Luzon, I am specifically within the central plains, the traditional rice granary of the Philippines. What I notice is that some rice varieties spoil faster, even if we cook it over wood (this used to prolong the shelf life). It's also more mushy, not fluffy as your mom says. One of the reasons is that rice grains used to be dried longer, under the heat of the sun while now they take shortcuts sunning it and then it goes to an artificial dryer, if I'm not mistaken. I won't go into the other reason - new rice varieties developed. I might have to write a treatise if I start. If your mom buys the traditional (but more pricey) varieties such as milagrosa and dinorado, perhaps she'll be satisfied. I am not sure about the rice supply in Negros though. She can purchase a sack in Manila. That would surely be better than hauling one through Customs. Your friend's project is wonderful! I wonder if it's part of the cooperative of organic rice growers. Could be!

Hi Brian, Subic indeed! I should've remembered it only takes around 3 hours to get there now, after the expressway was rehabilitated. (Apicio, faster travel time to Bataan!) After the Dos Palmas incident, most resorts have taken extra precautions, hence the shotgun. I am almost sure that's the reason, especially that Subic faces the South China Sea. More rice next time?

Quote mizducky: Mizducky, if you meet our champurrado and tamales you might find them "different creatures" too! Soba, you mean it was your first time to eat kare-kare with bagoong or just the way the bagoong was cooked? Stef, those do look like talangka. Crispy crablets usually are. Another one of our similarities: Rice with bagoong and calamansi! I used to do that too, especially on rainy days. My mom tried to limit it but because of the salt intake, not for the carbo-loading! Hahaha! We also have an expression for eating rice with just salt - magdildil ng asin and I've always heard it used dramatically. Example: Kahit magdildil na lang kami ng asin, hindi ako magnanakaw. (Even if my family just eats salt, I will not steal.) Still on menudo: Rhea, we don't use raisins either. I don't know if this is just personal preference because we use raisins in other savoury dishes. Hmmm... come to think of it, I've never eaten menudo with raisins - at least not in Pampanga. Like Stef's grandfather, my Lola was very strict with sizes and textures. For menudo, the meat, potatoes and carrots had to be uniformly cubed. The capsicum had to be in squares. We could vary the ingredients i.e. subtract one or two on ordinary days (omit chick peas and/or capsicum) but we can never change the form like use ground meat for example. If we did, then it becomes another dish, like palaman torta or omelette filling (similar to Tagalog picadillo or giniling, Cebuano ginaling) or another one, pistu (picture below). Different dish because technically speaking, changing the size/form would also vary the cooking time of the ingredients. Cubed meat needs to be cooked longer, meaning the garlic, onions and tomatoes would be simmering longer and would thus taste more mellow than a ground pork menudo. I think this logic comes from the time before refrigerators, when they still slow cooked in clay pots over wood-burning stoves with fresh ingredients. Meat for menudo, was also parboiled or sinangkutsa in just plain water, garlic, salt, herbs and very, very little vinegar if at all while the sangkutsa for afritada had a little more vinegar because of the bigger slices. How interesting to compare notes!

Quote Apicio: Apicio, do you mean the term papak? Yes, it's a mild disapproval especially when a mother admonishes a child: "Bakit mo yan pinapapak?" (literally 'Why are you eating that without rice?") It may be a question but a Filipino would know the mother isn't waiting for an answer! One thing I notice about western critiques of Filipino food is that it's too salty. That means they really don't get the whole point of it being eaten with rice - precisely because we come from an agrarian society. Meaning? Carbo-loading is necessary to accomplish all that back-breaking labour under the heat of the sun, plus humidity! Soba, ground beef aside from the diced/cubed meat? That's the first time I've heard of that although menudo recipes vary from place to place, between households and even between ordinary days and special occasions. Did you try asking the eateries why they don't carry menudo?

What a mouth-watering post, Brian! You seem to have gone on a seafood extravaganza. The restaurant's indeed called Red Crab. Here's the menu. It's relatively new but has gone on to expand successfully. If the beach was three hours away from Manila, that must've been in southern Luzon, in Batangas. Over the mountains could be Nasugbu. So you've been introduced to the Filipino past-time of singing in karaoke bars. I haven't been to a formal bar like the one you went to but in overnight seminars and workshops that I've gone to, chances are one room would be converted into a karaoke joint after dinner. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in the Philippines. Alert us next time you go. Perhaps we can draw up a menu for you. After Stef's exposition on kalamansi names, I thought it deserves to be seen up close and personal, tee hee! Actually, I've seen a lot of questions on how it looks like on other threads I thought I'd post it here. Kalamansi/calamunding on the tree. A few more days then they're ready for picking Ripe kalamansi: for juices, marinades, sauces, dips, dressings, etc.

Our mangoes and bananas of course! Like Apicio, I just keep silent when others rhapsodise about their 'best' mangoes. I was oblivious to our the carabao/Manila cultivar's reputation till a Mexican colleague told me sometime back how the best ones in Mexico are called 'Manila' and then some African colleagues jokingly called me a fruit snob because I won't touch mangoes and bananas out of the Philippines (the refrain was: "how could you offer the Filipina inferior bananas? sub-standard mangoes?") . For me, I just wanted to explore fruits not commonly found in the Philippines, little did I know it was interpreted differently, hehehe! I was discussing general food topics with an Indonesian and she mentioned how ketan means sticky in Javanese, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps that's close to our mother language and we just placed a prefix la- in lacatan from Spanish. My clue to this how we also call glutinous rice or malagkit lacatan. FYI: A link to the Austronesian language family tree. Most Southeast Asian languages are classified under the Malayo-Polynesian branch, hence the similarities.

Cook sisig! That's ceviche-style pork ears and cheeks. Boil meat in just enough water to submerge it - with a little salt, pepper corns, oregano and bay leaf - till half-cooked. Broil meat (others would deep-fry instead) then slice thinly (approx 2x1cm). Dress with calamansi or lemon juice, chopped onions, chilies, black pepper and a bit more salt if desired. Some would serve this on a hot plate and call it sizzling sisig. Optional dressing can be mayonnaise (not me) and a raw egg mixed while the meat is still piping hot.

Oooppsss... made a boo-boo (thanks for the notice, Malawry!)! Am re-posting: Ah, so to 'kulti' something is to alkalyse them? Hee hee! Sorry for the awkward translations. I've always been grasping for words when I try to explain what kinulti is, like binatog and our sweetened kundol candies. By the way, I found this interesting, History of ‘Manilamen’ of New Orleans lost to ‘Katrina’. That's from yesterday's edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Would anyone know if they really served 'paksiw' in New Orleans restaurants?

Thanks for the historical notes, Apicio! I read similar details in researching about corn/maize. I'm due to post about binatog, suam and lelut mais (ginataang mais) on my blog. I think I had that binatog picture since last year. Still, I haven't found the English term for cooking in lye water. Hmmm... not pickled, not lye-preserved... but then my English culinary vocabulary is extremely limited. Stef, I think so. They're small, around 6 inches in length on the average and very moist. Suam mais is similar to cream of corn soup. Saute garlic and onion, shredded chicken then grated corn. Season with patis then add chilli leaves (dahon ng sili) five minutes before it's done. Clams can also be used instead of chicken. I've tried using golden sweet corn in the city, the soup turned out 'dry' - er, how do you say when the corn kernels don't end up creamy? Oh, someone has to do a comparison and contrast and I'm counting myself out.