Philippines Guide
For Travelers, Expats and Pinoys
Philippine Cuisine: Pickled Pork and Tofu
Looking for a super appetizer that also serves as a super meal viand? Then try this simple but heavy and healthy local dish. It has meaty goodness with a variety of other nutritious and delicious ingredients.
For this recipe we need three fourth kilo of boneless pork head, a fourth cup of red cane vinegar, a can (439 grams) of pineapple tidbits (drained), pineapple syrup from the tidbits, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, a fourth spoon of powder pepper, 3 regular squares of fried tofu or “tokwa” (sliced into cubes), a piece of chopped onions, 4 cloves of minced garlic, and one medium size diced red bell pepper. With these ingredients all ready, we can start cooking this dish.
We begin this recipe by cleaning and boiling the pork head in three cups of water and a half tablespoon of salt. Boil for 30 minutes or until the pork and meat are very tender. After boiling, drain the water and place in a container. Slice the meat and pork into cubes measuring about 2X2 centimeters. Then soak the sliced meat and pork in vinegar for 10 minutes for a slightly sour pork and meat dish.
Mix recipe of pineapple tidbit syrup, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir well. Put in tidbit pieces and other ingredients, including stew from the boiled meat and pork. This dish serves 7 persons.
The meat and pork of a pig’s head is tasty and delicately tender when boiled and soaked in vinegar. This includes the ear parts, the fleshy nape, the plump cheek flesh, and a part of the neck. When boiled the stew produces a pungent concoction perfect for this recipe. Partnered with the tofu and other ingredients, the resultant whole dish produces a sweet-sour meaty taste with everything tender to the bite.
This special dish is often a favorite finger food or “pulutan” that goes with special or local liquors. It is also a special appetizer before a major dinner meal is served, or a perfect dinner meal in itself in family or party dinner tables. This recipe of combined meat, pork, tofu, and vegetable spices is also perfect for athletes in training and who need large doses of protein, carbohydrates, and fibers.
This local recipe is easy to prepare and cook. It can be enjoyed as a party dish in outdoor picnics, elegant dinners, and as packed lunch in the office. It is one of the local flexible dishes in Philippine culinary art.
Philippine Cuisine: Identifying Prime Beef Cuts
Many Philippine native recipes and native cuisines are either enhanced with natural beef flavor or made primarily of beef. In cooking any beef or beefy recipe (casseroles, steaks, stews, grills barbecues) it’s also important to know what beef part should be bought.
The rib. Beef rib section is just at the back of a cow’s shoulders. It is almost in the mid section of a cow’s body. Beef ribs are extra delicious, very tender, and brings out the full savor of beef. They are best for beef native recipes that include boiling, grilling, roasting, and barbecuing. The stew of boiled beef ribs is perfect for all stewed beef native cuisines. Usually, in Philippine wet markets, beef ribs easily run out of stock. So the best option in buying them is go very early in the morning or have an order reserved in the evening for tomorrow.
Beef sirloin. Beef sirloins come from the lower mid section of a cow’s body. It has parts of the backbone and some portions of the hip bone. This beef part is also very tender, savory, and contains less fat. Native recipes for grilling, boiling, and frying are best with beef sirloins. Native cuisines like Beef Michado, SInigang Beef, Boiled or Beef Nilaga, and Beef Caldereta go well with sirloins. This beef part is also perfect for fried Beef Tapa and native cuisine Bistek.
Beef round cuts. This beef part is found in the leg part of the cow, with the shank and also part of the tailbone. Beef round cuts from the rear legs are more tender than those from the front legs. This beef part also has less fat and best for boiled native recipes. Native cuisines like Beef Nilaga and Beef Morcon are best cook with this main ingredient.
Beef brisket and Shank. This beef portion is found between the neck and front legs of the cow. Included with this part is the breast. Briskets are often tough and fatty. They are excellent for prolonged and slow cooking of stewed native recipes like Kare-Kare, Beef Nilaga, Beef Sinigang, and Beef Picadiso. Shanks, in contrast, are a bit more tender choice cuts and also best for shorter-time boiling of stewed native cuisines like some other Beef Nilaga versions and Beef Pochero.
Cooking native recipes for beefs also involves a basic knowledge of beef choice parts. Often, a particular beef cut goes more excellently with a particular native cuisine than other beef portions.
Philippine Cuisine: How Vegetables are Often Cut
In Philippine culinary practice, as in many places, vegetables are not just cut any which way. Some native dishes require specific cut styles. There are specific styles or kinds of cutting vegetables to go with specific native recipes.
Julienne cutting style is for native recipes requiring fine and narrow vegetable sticks. They are about 2 to 3 inches long and about an eighth inch square thick. Some native dishes may require finer julienne styles. This may be used for cooking fried potato or sweet potato as an appetizer, or as a side dish for several native dishes like fried chicken. It may also be used for stuffing vegetables in rolls, like fried or fresh “lumpya.”
Shredding is cutting vegetables into long, thin pieces like when a grater is used. This cutting style is used for cabbage or lettuce. Native recipes requiring shredding are sautéed and/or stewed cabbage, string (Baguio) beans, “pechay” leaves, “patani” flat beans, and sometimes even eggplants and “ampalaya” or bitter melon. Shredding is usually done in stuffed native dishes.
Sliced vegetables are also often used in cooking native recipes. This involves cutting the vegetables crosswise or lengthwise or even diagonally, thinly. This style of cutting is required in the following native dishes: “amplaya” or bitter melon “con carne,” choy suey, vegetable salads, the Ilocano “pinakbet,” some sautéed vegetable recipes, “sinigang” recipes, and vegetable omelets, among others.
Diced cutting is used for quick-cooking native recipes using tough vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, tubers, and some fruits used for salads. Diced pieces in native dishes often measure a fourth to a third inch square. Dicing, along with shredding and julienne cutting, is used in stuffing rolls and omelets.
Minced vegetables are cut much smaller than diced ones. Mincing is often done with vegetable spices to better bring out their flavors and better supplement a native recipe. Vegetables in native dishes often requiring mincing are garlic and ginger. Mincing in Philippine culinary often means crushing the vegetable first before cutting it in small pieces.
Chopping is often required in cooking most vegetable native recipes. Chopped vegetables are usually onions, string beans, some “pechay” and cabbage recipes, carrots, apples, onion leaves, celery, among others found in native dishes.
Chunked vegetables are for native recipes with potatoes, radish, carrots, and other tough vegetables. They are used for prolonged cooking of native dishes.
Vegetables ought to be cut as specified or required in a particular native recipe. Vegetable cutting styles contribute much to the precise cooking of native dishes.
Philippine Cuisine: Fried Dried Milkfish or Daing
A super spiced up ready-to-cook delectable fish dish is dried milkfish. It is a popular local and native cuisine that is a favorite on family dinner tables. How is this special cuisine cooked?
Bangus (or Milk Fish) is the Philippine’s National fish. The milky white scales on its body earned its name of being a “milk” fish. It can be found all over the country. They are raised in fish ponds in large amounts. It is one of the favorite dishes of Filipinos and “balik-bayans.” Its cooking versatility ranges from simple to superb menus.
A simple but delicious bangus cuisine is “daing.” For cooking this native dish, we need the following ingredients: one kilo fresh bangus (sliced daing-style or butterfly cut). Cut it in half at the middle of the body. Better still, have it sliced for “daing” at the wet market upon buying. Then mix into a marinade for this cuisine the following: three-fourth cup of red cane vinegar; one and a half teaspoon of iodized fine salt (or one and a half iodized rock salt); one teaspoon of peppercorn (crushed), and one ear of garlic, finely crushed. Once these ingredients are ready, we’re ready to cook this native dish.
The cooking procedure for this milkfish cuisine is as follows: first, combine marinade and stir thoroughly to mix everything evenly. Then, arrange bangus slices in a plastic container. Pour marinade in the container with the sliced milkfish. Cover and refrigerate everything at least overnight. Turn the fish over at least once. Lastly, fry the marinated milkfish with a new batch of minced garlic until brown.
This native cuisine is perfect when accompanied with a dipping sauce of say sauce and lemon, or a mix of fish preserve sauce and vinegar or lemon. Another option for a dip of this native dish is a mix of two tablespoons of vinegar, two chili pepper pieces (chopped), an ear of garlic (crushed). Mix all the ingredients in a saucer for a hot and super spicy sauce that further enhances the taste of fried “bangus” milkfish. This native cuisine also goes excellently with many native spice concoctions preserved with water, salt, and a little vinegar, like preserved or “buro” onions, mangoes, or “kamias.”
This native cuisine, fried “daing” milkfish, is a favorite on both simple and grand family dinner tables. This native dish is one of the cuisines that bring out the rich savory flavors of Philippine milkfish.
Fish in Ginger Stew or “Pesang Isda” Delight
The pungent flavor of ginger stew and the savory taste of native fresh water fish—combine this and we have the unique, delightful tang of the native cusine, “Pesang Isda.” This is a highly nutritious recipe popular in the Tagalog regions.
Don’t pre-judge this Tagalog cuisine. Many disagree with the fish usually used for this recipe. It is often cooked using fresh water “mudfish” that once loitered freely around rice paddies and streams and rivers in the region. Today, mudfish or “dalag” are cultured in fish ponds or caught fresh from clean rivers, streams, or rice paddies—which is a rarity. For those wary about mudfish, the fish for this cuisine may be substituted with milkfish or “bangus,” or “tilapia,” another fresh water fish for another recipe variation.
We need the following ingredients for this native recipe: two cloves of minced garlic, one medium-sized and thinly sliced ginger, one quarter of medium-sized onion, one large mudfish (“dalag”) cleaned and cut into serving size, two cups water used for washing rice or ”pinaghugasan ng bigas”, two fish broth cubes, two bunches Tagalog cabbage chopped in big sizes, two stalks green onions, and pepper to taste. With these ingredients in hand, we’re ready to cook this cuisine.
In cooking this recipe the following is the procedure: sauté the garlic, ginger and onions till light brown. Add the fish and rice wash. Drop the fish cubes to bring out the taste of the savory mudfish, and then bring to a boil. When the fish is cooked and tender, add the pepper, cabbage and green onions. Wait for the vegetables to cook, then serve hot. This cuisine serves 5 persons.
Some “pesang dalag” cuisine variations add in a lot more vegetables than are found in this recipe. Vegetables like green leafy “pechay” Baguio, ordinary “pechay,” potatoes, or “malunggay” leaves. Last but not least, this Tagalog cuisine has a special sauce or side dish that makes it doubly stylish. We need a cup of tofu putty and a few garlic and onions for the side dish of this cuisine. To prepare this added recipe, sauté a cup of tofu putty, or “miso” with a few minced garlic and chopped onions. When light brown add in the cup of tofu putty. The “pesa” is eaten with teaspoons of the tofu now and then.
The Tagalog native cuisine, “Pesang Dalag” or Fresh Water Fish in Ginger Stew, is a rare recipe of fish and healthy veggies that is cooked mostly by pure Tagalogs.
Philippine Cuisine: Common Pork Cuts
Native dishes using pork are excellent viands on the dinner table. But a secret in cooking native recipes with pork as main ingredient is knowing what pork cut to buy for a particular native dish.
Shoulder pork cut or popularly called “Kasim” in the wet market is that part from the upper foreleg to the shoulders of a swine. It is sometimes also called “picnic.” This portion is usually best for native dishes like pork Adobo and pork Estofado. Stewed native recipes like pork Nilaga and pork Picadilio also go well with shoulder cuts.
Pork chops. Chops are found near the nape of the swine. They are pork portions attached to inverted T-shaped bones with a layer of fat and skin on top. Pork chops are very versatile cuts and can be used as a primary ingredient in most native dishes using pork, or as substitute ingredients for the same. For instance, if no “Kasim” is available for pork Nilaga, pork chops may be used instead. Pork chops are best for native recipes like fried or grilled or barbecued pork chops.
Tenderloin. Pork tenderloins are boneless, chisel shaped pork portions found in the upper mid section of a swine. As the name goes, they are super tender and super tasty. They are perfect as main ingredients for native dishes like roasted, baked, grilled, fried, and barbecued pork dishes. Tenderloins also go well as main ingredients of sauced native dishes like pork Mechado, Dinuguan, and Menudo.
Leg cut. Pork legs are often classified into the following: ham, leg, and ground pork. The ham part is often from the hind legs. It contains the edge bone, rear shank, and bulky muscles. Ham parts are one of the leanest parts of a swine. They can be used for stewed native dishes and native cuisines that need curing or smoking like native spiced or sweetened hams. Leg parts are best for native dishes as Paksiw na Pata, Crispy Pata, or Pata Roast. Ground pork from the leg part is good as a main ingredient or as supplementary ingredient.
Pork belly is a cut from under the loin. It is lavish with fat and contains the spareribs with strips of meat attached to the ribs. This is one of the tastiest parts of pork and is best for native dishes like Sopas (macaroni soup), pork Sinigang, and the native cuisine Chop Suey.
With native dishes that use pork as main ingredient, it is important that the right pork cut goes to the particular native cuisine being cooked.
Philippine Cuisine: Chicken Parts
Many Philippine native dishes have a lot to do with chicken. Native recipes can exploit the potential of chicken to further bring out its savory qualities. But a primary factor in cooking a native recipe using chicken is knowing what appropriate chicken part goes with a particular native dish.
Chicken breast is found between the neck and abdomen of the chicken. It is a white, meaty part that often needs boiling before cooking. It is best for cooking native recipes like fried chicken, chicken “apritada,” “tinola,” fried or sautéed chicken fillet, chicken balls, chicken “mami,” and for preparing chicken sandwich spread. It can also be stripped for supplementary cooking of vegetable stews and sauced carrots and potatoes. For a low cholesterol diet, breasts minus the skin is often what dieticians and doctors prescribe because native dishes using chicken breast has high meat and almost zero fat content.
The drumstick is a very versatile chicken part. It is possible with any native recipe using chicken. It is a favorite packed native dish for taking to work, school, outings, picnics, and field trips. Slightly of dark coloration, the drumstick is the foreleg (or lower leg) of the chicken. It is best for cooking native recipes like fried chicken in garlic and soy sauce, sauced or sautéed chicken, chicken barbecue, boiled chicken or chicken “nilaga,” chicken with “sampaloc young leaves or chicken “sinampalucan,” and also “tinola,” among other native dishes.
Thighs are also a popular chicken part in native recipes using chicken. They’re the upper portions of the leg, or sometimes called the main leg. They’re perfect for cooking native dishes like chop suey, chicken with “sotanghon” (smooth noodles), chicken noodle soup, chicken curry, chicken barbecue, “adobo,” among other native recipes.
Chicken wings are very popular among native recipes. They are also an all-around part of a chicken. Filipinos love them best as a fried native dish dipped in a spicy concoction of cooked vinegar and vegetable spices. Some native dishes using chicken wings are chop suey, “aroscaldo,” chicken “adobo,” and chicken “sarsado.”
In the Philippines, native recipes using chicken are often from two chicken types: white leg-horn or native. White leg-horn fowls grow faster and bigger and mature in 45 days. Native chicken takes more time to raise up, and their meat is tougher as native dishes.
Native recipes using chicken are delectable native dishes, but it’s a basic principle to use the right chicken part for the right native recipe.
Luscious Cuisine: Pork Liempo with Langka
A special recipe of tender and mouth-watering pork “liempo” mixed with sliced jackfruit pulps, all floating in a thick, delectable tomato sauce. What could be more tempting at dinner time than this native cuisine?
Pork “liempo” is that portion of the pig’s belly near the ribs. It is mixed with tender pork’s meat and fat. In the Philippine wet market, it is often times referred to as “sigangin” or that part of the pork suitable for the native cuisine, sour stewed pork, or “sinigang na baboy.” Just say “sigangin” and “sliced” and wet market butchers will do everything as specified: the right pork part sliced to the specification of this recipe. Unripe jackfruit, on the other hand, is found in the fruit section of the market or grocery. It can be ordered peeled and sliced, ready for washing and cooking.
To cook this special recipe, we need the following ingredients: 350 grams pork “liempo” chopped into serving portions, another 350 grams of sliced unripe jackfruit (langka), sliced medium-sized onion, one cup white “kadyos” (pigeon peas) soaked in water for about twenty minutes then drained, one can (227 grams) tomato sauce, one piece native finger chili or “siling haba”, and two bunches swamp cabbage or “kangkong,” leaves and tender stalks only. With these ingredients prepared, we are ready to cook this native cuisine.
This native recipe is cooked this way: combine all ingredients except swamp cabbage or “kangkong” in a casserole. Add five cups of water, one and one fourth teaspoons iodized fine salt, and a fourth teaspoon of peppercorn. Simmer everything on low fire until pork is tender. Then add the swamp cabbage. Simmer for another five minutes or until swamp cabbage or “kangkong’ is cooked. This native cuisine serves 5 persons.
This cuisine is best when dipped in preserved fish or “patis” with crushed native finger chili from the recipe. Having been cooked just right with the pork and jackfruit, this finger chili minced in the fish sauce gives off the right hot chili flavor. The delectable blend of pork, jackfruit, tomato sauce, and chili flavor is what makes the palate crave for more servings of the cuisine. Thus, this recipe is best simmered patiently. Quick boiling might ruin the blending potential of pork flavors and tomato sauce.
This recipe is a subtle combination of tasty pork “liempo,” jackfruit, tomato sauce, and native finger chili. This delicate blend results in a delectable native cuisine.
Common Techniques for Cooking Native Cuisines
Philippine native and local cuisines are always special dishes worth serving on elegant dinner tables. They will never let us down even in dinner banquets. Here are some basic culinary techniques for cooking some local dishes.
Baking. When food is cooked in dry heat in an oven, modern or stone ovens, the cuisine is baked. With modern ovens, it is important to keep track of the oven heat with the use of thermometers. Most ovens, though, have built in varying heat degrees. Baked local dishes are baked spaghetti, lasagna, creamed lapu-lapu, and other delicacies.
Braising local cuisines is when the meat or veggies are cooked to a brown in some amount of fried fat. Then it is followed with simmering with some water, slow cooked for a long period of time. The lid is kept tightly closed over the food. Braising is done especially with dishes that have tough meat cuts to tenderize. Braising, with its slow cooking, also allows the full flavors of cuisines come out and mix thoroughly with other flavors from the spices.
Sautéing is a popular Philippine cooking procedure for cooking native cuisines. It often involves minced garlic and chopped onions and sliced tomatoes sautéed in an amount of cooking oil. When light brown, other ingredients—meat, fish, vegetables and other spices—-are poured in and mixed with the sautéed ingredients. Sautéing brings out the savory flavors of dishes and blends different food flavors into a subtle mix. Butter is also a favorite for sautéing dishes and other classy cuisines.
Simmering takes a longer time to cure and cook some cuisines. It is slowly cooking local dishes with the use of water that later turns into s savory stew. It is cooked on low fire. Simmering meat often takes long hours, while fish and veggies often take some minutes. The longer simmering takes, the better the local cuisines are bound to come out.
Boiling is another popular cooking technique. Boiling tenderizes and blends cuisine flavors with a shorter time span. Boiling is often just a matter of 3 to 5 minutes. Longer than this, it means simmering the local dish is what’s needed. Long hours of boiling may spoil food flavors—or even burn the food—not to mention the enormous and impractical electric consumption.
The techniques for cooking local cuisines are varied, and one cooking technique is often specified for cooking a particular local dish. It is a culinary wisdom to learn them all.
Chicken Cuisine Binakol Wonder
Chicken Binakol Wonder is a unique native cuisine that brings out the charged-up taste of an all-spiced up chicken, and then everything presented on the dinner table in a very indigenous way. This native recipe has the potential to drive the appetite and imagination crazy. Here’s how this native cuisine is cooked and presented.
For this native recipe, we need the following ingredients: one kilo chicken chopped into small pieces, two chicken broths or cubes, two cups water used in washing rice, or”pinaghugasan ng bigas”, three cloves of minced garlic, two teaspoons of sliced ginger, three cups of water, a half cup of green peas, one medium sliced onion, one potato cut in six, and two tomatoes sliced thinly. Now, for a little variation and unique savor, we add into this native recipe about a half cup diced sift meat of coconut. This addition perks up the flavor of the dish sauce and the cuisine presentation. With these ingredients prepared, we’re ready to cook this native cuisine.
Here’s the procedure in cooking this native recipe: First, we combine all the ingredients in a small pot, stir a little to even up the cooking, and bring everything to a boil on high fire. Then once boiling add the chicken broths or cubes for that extra zing, boosting further the flavor of chicken. Then set the fire low as soon as the cubes dissolve. Then, to further achieve a subtle blend and thickness in the sauce, this native recipe needs to continue simmering until the chicken is completely tender and cooked. The sauce is perfected by the continuous but slow action of low-heat simmering. Check the tenderness of the chicken meat occasionally with a fork. When the chicken meat is done, serve this native cuisine while hot. This chicken “binakol” cuisine serves 5 people. An optional food presentation is to give it an exotic twist by serving it in clean coconut shells.
This native cuisine, chicken “binakol” wonder, goes perfectly with a dip of native preserved fish sauce or “patis” and a piece or two of crushed native chili pepper. It also combines well with a sauce of preserved (“buro”) mangoes or onions on the side. Also as an option, and to avoid wastage, mix the coconut juice with some water and sugar. Then chill and serve in glasses.
Chicken “binakol” wonder is a unique native recipe that reflects Filipino ingenuity in cooking native cuisines and in food presentation, having as little food wastage as possible.
