one filipino dish a week

Filipino food as it is known by most Filipinos now is in its essence fusion food. The food has been influenced by the different colonizers (Spain and USA) and the merchant trade (China and Mexico). Chinese food is everywhere in the Philippines. It’s not like the Chinese food here in the US (you won’t find General Tso’s Chicken) and I’m sure it’s not like the Chinese food in China. It’s the Chinese food that has been adapted to the Filipino palate.

When I went home to the ‘rents house I was tasked to cooked pan fried flounder similar to the one we always get in Hop Kee in NYC’s chinatown. I don’t think you would really see this in Chinese restaurants in the Philippines but if you did I bet everyone would like it.

Here’s how I made it:

1 whole flounder
1 bunch scallions
ginger julienned
soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
canola oil for frying

Heat your wok or saute pan and have enough canola oil to fry the fish. Fry the fish until the skin gets light brown and crispy turning once. While the fish is frying, in a saucepan heat the soy sauce and ginger until it is about to simmer. Add the scallions and take off the heat. Mix in the sesame oil. One the fish is done pour the sauce over and serve.

It didn’t exactly taste like Hop Kee but it sure was a great lunch!

Eat (Chinese-)Filipino Food!

This is the stuff that keeps a lot of us going in the morning. Coffee. Some people are coffee purists. Some people are the Starbucks kind. Northeast people (of the US that is) are the Dunkin’ Donuts kind.  But I suspect most people don’t even know a lot about the coffee that they’re drinking. And neither did I. I didn’t even know the different kinds of coffee. I just knew of the places that there are certain climates that make the good coffee. What I found out was that just like wine there’s quite a few people that obsess about their coffee.

Here’s a couple of things I learned about coffee:

• There’s 4 major varieties Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa, and Liberica (aka barako). I’m sure most people have heard of Arabica because that pretty much dominates the market (i.e. your Starbucks).
• Buy coffee beans and keep them vacuum sealed. Oxygen breaks down the coffee and makes it go bad. And it goes bad quicker once it’s ground.

Filipinos are definitely coffee drinkers. I remember hearing about kapeng barako when I was growing up and I wanted to find out more about the Philippines and coffee. The Philippines being strategically placed in the Pacific was a major hub of commerce back in the day and like a lot of things the Philippines was once a major player in coffee industry. Now, Brazil has taken over the coffee world and produces a substantial percentage of the world’s coffee. Certainly just another blow to the once leading economy of Southeast Asia. The worst thing is that most Filipinos living in the Philippines don’t even know about the  once thriving coffee production in the Philippines because they’re too wrapped up trying out the trendy imported places (i.e. Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and Gloria Jeans). But that’s starting to dig deeper into the Filipino identity crisis and self-loathing. Let’s not go down that path.

During my trip to the Philippines, I picked up a book called Kapihan. Although this is published by Nescafe and they sure do push their product in this book, I still like how they captured a good chunk of the Filipino coffee story. It shows how the simple coffee bean brings people together. I also noticed that Filipinos drink instant coffee and they buy it in small amounts. By small amounts I mean 1 serving right before their drink it in the morning from their neighbor’s sari-sari store. This makes sense because of the cash flow problems that families face everyday. Nescafe is the brand of choice so they did a really good job in marketing to the Filipinos.

While in the Philippines, I asked around where I can get my hands on some kapeng barako. And all fingers pointed to Batangas. Thankfully, my best friend Jopey had a roommate that was in Batangas for the weekend and brought down 1 kilo barako beans! I’m very appreciative of that.

So what is barako? The word barako is some sort of male animal. My Tagalog isn’t great but barako definitely has connotations of masculinity. The coffee is called barako because of it’s strong taste and for the fact that the beans are bigger than the other varieties. This coffee is unlike anything that I’ve tasted and I love it! I’m certainly not a coffee expert but I know what tastes good to me. It’s certainly bold but it doesn’t have the acidity that I’ve tasted in other coffees which I assume contains Arabica beans.

Unfortunately, there’s no place that I know of that you can buy barako coffee from here in the US. I did find this website though http://www.gotbarako.com/. I haven’t bought anything from it yet so I can’t tell you either way. I’ll buy some when my supply is done and I’ll update.

Eat Filipino Food!

While in Danao, we were very fortunate that The Girl’s neighbor Manang Clarita is a really good cook. First, she showed us to make puso. Then one lovely afternoon she showed us how to make puto maya. Puto maya is one of those kakanin or what I call awesome rice dishes to stuff your face! It is cooked in a claypot steamer (above). Yes, that is a claypot… Nang Clarita’s claypot has been well seasoned. She told us that you can use a regular steamer but just make sure to do something about the holes because the regular steamers holes are too big. I’ll have to give this a shot and let you know what works for me.

To make puto maya you will need the following ingredients:

1/2 kilo pilit (sticky rice) and tapol (black rice)
3 cups coconut milk
1/4 kilo sugar (this was an approximation… the number seems really big to me but the little plastic bag of sugar did seem like it was about 2 cups worth)
1 tablespoon salt
3 inch piece of ginger sliced thinly sliced

To prepare the coconut milk mixture: boil coconut milk. Add sugar, salt & ginger. Reduce the liquid until it is rich and thick (espiso).

Soak the sticky rice for about 3 hours. In a steamer lined with cheesecloth pour the pre-soaked sticky rice and black rice. Cover until cooked. Once the rice is done sprinkle the coconut milk mixture and folding the rice inside the pot. Continue adding the coconut milk mixture until desired texture is achieved.

Let the rice cool down a little bit. Rip banana leaves into pieces about as wide as your palm.

Twist the leaves and create a small triangular pouch.

Scoop in the rice (remember to take the ginger out! which I obviously did not).

Fold the top flap and voila! Puto Maya!

This is a wonderful afternoon snack or breakfast. The puto maya tasted amazing! The ginger is the key to the ingredient list because it gives off that aroma and distinctive taste. Puto maya goes extremely well with Filipino hot chocolate!

Eat Filipino Food!

Guso was one of the things that was heavily anticipated prior to the trip. The ‘rents, The Girl and I were all talking about having to eat this while we were there. Guso is a simple salad that is eaten as a side dish. I love the texture of guso because it is very much like jell-0 but with a slight crunchiness to it. Well come to think of it guso, I believe, is one of the seaweed that is processed to make agar-agar which is then used to make jell-o, toothepaste, etc. This is just the au naturale form of it

The key thing about preparing guso is to get it fresh. A trip to the market in the morning and then to prepare the the guso… Blanch them add vinegar, some tomato, red onion and salt. And enjoy!

The Girl’s uncle showing everyone the perfect way to enjoy guso!

Eat Filipino Food!

In the Philippines, puso or hanging rice is a Visayan thing if not a truly Cebuano thing. You won’t really see this in other parts of the country. It’s a pretty ingenious way of making rice portable. The lukay or young coconut leaves are weaved in such a way that it creates a little bag for the rice. When I was looking around online (aka wikipedia) there are apparently different shapes that are made for puso. I’m only familiar with the heart-shaped version which is the most common that can be seen. I imagine that the name puso came from the heart-shaped version because puso means heart in Filipino. The English term “hanging rice” pretty much comes from the fact that after it’s cooked the individual bags of rice are tied and hung up for storage like this (although the shape in that picture is called binaki or frog-style).

I associate puso with the beach and street food. We always used to bring puso and bbq when we went to the beach. The coconut leaves give a wonderful fragrance to the rice which makes it a perfect pair with the smokiness of the pork bbq. Eating puso and bbq with wrinkled hands and salty taste buds after hours of playing in the water… If only I can go back to those wonderful childhood memories.

Manang Clarita (who sells foodstuffs for a living) taught The Girl and I how to make puso. Although, she was trying her hardest to slow down it’s pretty much second nature for her so it’s still really fast for a novice.

Once you have all the coconut leaves formed you put rice, close it up by knotting the open end, and then boiling the rice. Make sure to only fill it up half way because the rice expands!

Eat Filipino Food!