Filipino Food
Filipino Food
We all love lechon. We’ll see it parties, in people’s homes, at a fiesta, a restaurant and so on. But an airport luggage carousel? To see a lechon boxed up and sweeping past in the airport’s luggage conveyor belt was a new one for me. Every region has their own lechon specialty and claim to fame. Cebuano’s take such great pride in their lechon and judging by the number of lechons that arrived on our flight from Cebu to Manila, I’d say many people think so too!
While we were in the Philippines traveling around to look for new inventory, we were in and out of airports quite a bit. We didn’t see this happen at any other airport but in Manila returning from our jaunt to Cebu. I asked the guys at the airport and sure enough they said….
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Filipino Food
I’m from the Visayas so we call it budbud but others call it suman. Either way, it’s sticky rice rolled in a banana leaf. It’s tasty with a hint of some ingredient…. hmmm???
This is what I had for breakfast one morning, budbud! Not only that, it was the striped kind with chocolate! Oh my! Be still my heart. Thinking about it now makes me want some more.
Dip the budbud in some sugar and wash it down with some chocolate, the real chocolate made from tablea. Pair that up with some sweet juicy mangoes and you’re in heaven!
This reminded me of being a kid and going to church with my lola, my great-grandmother actually. On our way home, we would stop and buy some budbud from the food vendors at the church. Then we would take it home….
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Filipino Food
Other than empanadas which is a self-contained meal in itself, Filipino barbeque must have been one of the earliest “to-go” food invented. Meat on a stick and puso, which is rice wrapped up in leaves, makes for perfect to-go food.
We went on an island hopping trip in Cebu. While we stopped to snorkel around, the crew cooked up our barbeque on board the boat. On a little grill, they had pork, chicken and squid making some lovely mouth-watering scents drawing us out of the water for a lunch break.
Of course, Filipino barbeque isn’t complete without rice. Puso, also known as hanging rice, is an easy way to transport rice for any meal. Coconut or pandan leaves (I’m not sure which) are woven into a diamond shape, which they fill with uncooked rice before cooking.
Puso also means heart….
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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….
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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….
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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….
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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….
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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….
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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….
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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….
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