Pang Bahay Filipino Blog
Filipino Food
I don’t claim to be a great cook. I just cook because I like to eat and because I don’t want to feed my kids the frozen stuff. So bear with me as I share with you my limited recipes and cooking abilities.
The adobo pinauga style is the dry kind of adobo is another really easy adobo recipe. Similar to the original, it just takes a bit longer to dry out the sauce and let it all soak into the meat. The best part are the little bits that are left at the bottom of the pan!
Ingredients
Pork cut into squares (fatty ones work really well)
Chicken pieces
1 cup vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Put it all into a pan to boil. Once boiling, turn down to simmer stirring occasionally. Cook through until sauce dries out and meat gets tender. Stir
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Filipino Food
Adobo for me is the easiest dish to make. I’m no gourmet cook, I cook because I like to eat and I have to feed my family. I cook because I just have to, out of necessity. I much prefer to eat other people’s cooking (tastes better at other people’s houses? Right?).
I was taught how to make adobo by my mom when she realized I needed to fend for myself when I left for college. She taught me the quick and easy chicken and pork adobo.
Ingredients
Pork cut up in cubes (fatty parts with some skin are best)
Chicken thighs with skin
4 cloves garlic chopped or minced
1 cup vinegar
1 cup soy sauce (filipino brand would be better)
1 cup water
1 bay leaf (optional)
Salt and pepper
Throw it all into a pot to boil. Once boiling, turn it down to simmer for
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Filipino Traditions
Karakoe in Manila is a breed of it’s own. We all know that Filipinos love to sing and its a pasttime that’s become so competitive for some.
Singing the same favorites and not doing it “well enough” or up to par can result in jeers or laughter from the crowd. Sometimes these reactions can be downright obnoxious or perceived to be mean-spirited and starts a fight among its patrons.
In Manila some karakoe bars have solved the problem by creating private rooms to lessen the issues resulting from the competitive nature of some patrons. Here’s an interesting article about the extent of the competitive nature of karaoke in the Philippines.
Here in th US we carry on the singing traditions in our own homes with increasingly popular products such as the Magic Sing and the Magic Mic. Inevitably a party
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Filipino Food
There’s nothing like warm bread right out of the oven. It’s even better when it comes from a Filipino bakery.
I don’t have a favorite because I just love them all! There’s ensaymada with all it’s rich buttery goodness topped with more butter (margarine) queso de bolla shavings and sugar. Best eaten with some coffee or hot chocolate the kind made with tablea, the real kind of chocolate beaten with milk.
Then there’s pan de sal which is the go to bread for any meal, whether it be breakfast to go with my coffee and tocino, lunch for my sandwich, merienda with my butter and cheese or dinner as a roll.
Pan de coco is just as it sounds. It’s bread with some coconut in it and sometimes, on it. It’s a delicious soft sweat bread with coconut and sugar in the
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Filipino Stuff
I’m really lucky to live in an area where Filipino stores are so easy to find. To find a Filipino store I drive less than 10 minutes and I’m surrounded by Filipino shops. These Filipino stores are owned and operated by Filipinos for Fililipinos.
It’s wonderful to see products known to me while growing up in the Philippines. In a Filipino store, I typically look for snacky type food such as bags of Boy Bawang, chicharon and sweet things like polvoron. Some Filipino stores will have a fresh fish section where they will clean, gut and fry the fish for you. This comes in real handy during Lent when Friday afternoon finds you among a other Filipinos debating the merits of different fish or waiting to get their fried fish.
When I want some fresh bakery items, I go searching for a
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Filipino Food
When I was a kid in the Philippines, birthday parties party food wasn’t just pizza and cake. There was red hotdogs on a skewer with a marshmallow at the end, rainbow bread and palayok pots for hitting.
I’m not sure why hotdogs are made with so much red food coloring. Sticking the hotdog on a stick and topping it off with a marshmallow in the end is just what a kid would love! Especially for the marshmallow part.
Cheese pimento and tuna sandwiches on rainbow colored bread with the crusts trimmed off were another standard in birthday parties I remember attending. I really wish I could find that bread here, my kids would get a kick out of that (and the parents too).
For “long life” sweet spaghetti with hotdogs were served. Thinking back I’m not sure why the spaghetti was
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Filipino Food
Some of my fondest memories of growing up in the Philippines is around food. It’s just so comforting and nurturing and oh so delicious.
Each afternoon, after school my mom would pick us up from school and stop at the bakery on the way home. We would swing by the bakery at four o’clock in the afternoon when the fresh bread came out of the ovens and the bread was still warm and soft. We’d get some bread to take home and inevitably eat some of it on the way.
Once we’d get home, we would have warm bread with cheese and, or butter for merienda. It was a ritual my grandfather did with his own children and my mom continued with us.
I have to improvise a bit with my own kids because we don’t have a bakery that sells hot bread
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Filipino Food
A mixture of Spanish, Chinese, Malaysian cuisines, Filipino food is tasty, tangy, saucy and absolutely delicious.
The dishes vary by region. Some regions rely heavily on fish others on pork and some have a more vegetarian slant.
Lechon, pancit and lumpia are the most well known dishes. Most recognizable influences of the Spanish and Chinese culture.
Depending on the area, the lechon is prepared differently and has a distinct flavor. The lechon from Cebu is seasoned (sometimes stuffed) with lemon grass. I was in the Manila airport one day collecting my bags at baggage claim and among the suitcases were several long boxes of packaged lechon flown in from Cebu! An everyday occurrence according to the porter.
For special occasions here in the States, we still search out the lechon (whole of course) for parties. We’re lucky that we have several sources nearby
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Filipino Food
Pica pica is to eat small bites… sorta snacks or refreshments before your meal. At least that’s what I was taught growing up.
I was thrilled to find a kiosk at the mall called Pica Pica by SLERS. They just happend to serve my favorites; chicharon, peanuts and banana chips. Probably THE best tasting chicharon I have ever tried. Perfectly crunchy with just the right amount of fat in each bite. Just thinking about it makes me want to have a bag of chicharon and a glass of regular coke on ice right now.
The chicharon was very fresh and tasty without leaving a waxy feeling in your mouth. It had a nice crunch to it that didn’t make me wince. The banana chips were a nice surprise. It tasted really delicious. It was perfectly golden, tasty, sweet and it had a
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Shopping in the Philippines
Malls are such a treat in the Philippines. There are so many malls, so many people in the malls, and the size of the malls is just enormous. I went to a mall that had a roller coaster on the top floor. There are many large malls and they always seem to have many people strolling. Perhaps it’s an escape from the heat outside? Are they really shopping? This post won’t get into the economics of the country. I just want to write about going malling.
Upon entering any store, you’re immediately greeted with a “Good afternoon Ma’am Sir”. I’m not sure if it was because my husband was with me, but I’m left wondering if that line would be the same if I were alone. It seemed so automatic, somewhat like a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the greeter,
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