Philippines Guide
For Travelers, Expats and Pinoys
What is Hot and Spicy in Bicol?
Looking for something hotter than hot springs and volcanoes? Well, save that for other trips. But “hot” that tickles the appetite—one that’s spicy, creamy, a delight to the bone, and doesn’t add calories to the belly, something hotter than ordinary chili—that’s what they have in Bicolandia.
Say the magic word is “Bicol!” and it conjures pictures of platefuls of steaming hot Bicol Express–the premier Bicol food. This is a chili-flavored favorite in the country, a dish of pork ribs and siling haba or long chili, cooked in coconut thick cream–yummy Bicol cuisine.
Here’s the “secret” recipe. One part of long chili to two parts of coco thick cream—that’s the secret proportion that sends Manilans and many others scouring the region for it. Or, one kilo of long, native chili (especially the Bicol variety) to two kilos of the coco cream then mix in the pre-fried or boiled pork ribs and it sure makes for a very hot but equally tasty food.
Bicol is coconut country. It supplies the country (and the world) with coconut oil. Its natives are also famous for going crazy over native, super hot chili—munching them raw as a local past-time. Thus, it is known for its coconut- and chili-based cuisine.
The native long chili (about an inch long, some shorter, and the shorter the hotter) are so important to every household—when a typhoon strikes, Bicolanos are said to prioritize the safety of their chili plant over their houses.
The native chili has become symbolic of the fierce courage of the natives in times of calamities and war. They always bounce back after each vicissitude in life.
Aside from the fiery Bicol Express (named after the clunky train that used to run from Manila to Bicol), the laing is another hot favorite. Chunks of pork and shrimp are cooked with dried gabi or taro leaves, again with sliced long chili. All this in a thick coco cream.
There’s a so-called Camarines Sur Hotel and Restaurant Association that makes sure Bicol hot delicacies are well promoted in member-restaurants in Naga City. This way, the tradition of Bicol chili recipes stays on with all the superb qualities intact.
Bicol is well traversed by tropical typhoons the year round. Typhoons after typhoons the fiery courage and resilience of a kind but tough people are evident. And one easily find out why—after a well-appreciated Bicol meal, it becomes plain why Bicolanos hang on out there despite the odds.
Philippine Cuisine: Deep-Fried Vegetable Roll
Crunchy roll stuffed with spiced vegetable bits and other meaty ingredients. This is a special Philippine native cuisine, fried vegetable roll, or “Lumpia,” which is good as a native dish for dinner or an afternoon snack, or”merienda.”
To cook this native cuisine, we need the following ingredients: ordinary 15-piece “lumpia” wrapper, one pack sprouted “monggo” beans, one fourth kilo finely chopped string beans or Baguio beans or “bitswelas,” one fourth finely chopped cabbage, one fourth kilo beef, three bundles chopped “kinchay” leaves, four pieces chopped onions, 5 pieces mined garlic pieces, 5 pieces diced tofu, one fourth peeled and sliced shrimp, half cup of water, and lots of no-cholesterol cooking oil. With these ingredients, we’re ready to cook this native dish.
The first thing to do to cook this native cuisine is to sauté garlic and onions in about 4 to 5 tablespoons of cooking oil till light brown. Then add in the beef and shrimp, also till light brown. Then put in all the vegetables and diced tofu and stir cook on medium fire. After cooking, put everything in a clean container. We’re done with part one of this native dish.
Now, we prepare the roll wrappers of “lumpia” wrappers of this native cuisine. Careful separate the wrapper pieces from each other and place them on a clean, dry plate. Cut them in half. Get a half-piece of roll wrapper, spread it on another dry, clean plate. Take two spoons of the vegetables and place on the roll wrapper (at the edge where it was cut). Carefully cover it by rolling the wrapper over the concoction until it reaches the round tip end. Wet the tip end with water from the half cup. This sticking effect will seal the wrapped roll. Place the completed roll on a separate plate. Do the same with the rest. Thirty vegetable rolls—this completes the preparation of this native dish.
Now we go to the third part of cooking this native cuisine: deep frying. Get a deep pan where enough cooking oil can be poured. Make sure the rolls can be soaked in them. Heat the oil on high fire. Cut the rolls in half before deep-frying them in the pan till brown. A perfect dip for this native dish is a sauce of vinegar with minced garlic, powder pepper and a pinch of salt.
Philippine native cuisine, deep-fried vegetable rolls, is a special and healthy native dish variation with veggies and meats.
A Lot of Ado About Adobo
Philippine meat cuisine includes chicken, beef and pork as basic stock for its array of dishes. The dishes have East Asian Indian, Chinese, Malay, American, and Spanish influences and has evolved over the centuries. One very popular Filipino dish is Adobo, which may be served any time of the day.
Interesting enough Adobo is Spanish, since Philippine cuisine has a huge Spanish influence. It is the word for seasoning or marinade. Though you’ll find a great variety of Adobo in the Philippines the dish is basically made from chicken, pork or both slowly cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper.
You’ll often be served Adobo well browned either off a frying pan or even from an oven and get that juicy tingle when the aroma gets to your nose. You can expect it to be a tad salty, but other variants of Adobo aren’t always as such when you get to go around the different provinces.
The perfectly awesome Adobo will have a perfect balance of the ingredients. The spices will kick in and will be well counter-balanced by the soy sauce and the flavor of the meat. Filipinos love to eat this mouth water maker with the regular staple — rice — to par off the tee on the taste.
Typically enough, Adobo is one of the very first dishes every Filipino learns to cook. It is pretty easy to make and only requires a few ingredients. Though most of the time there’ll be some slight variations to the ingredients, the ingredients we’ve mentioned are the typical ones we’ll need to make Adobo.
You’ll be amazed when you check out a Filipino cookbook and find different types of Adobo. That may well be the case. Now let’s consider one typical type of Adobo. The ingredients would be meat, minced garlic, chopped onions, vinegar, basil leaves/bay leaves, and black pepper.
You’ll have to marinate your meat for an Adobo using all the ingredients for at least an hour. One secret Filipino grandmas teach their daughters is to marinade the meat overnight to make the Adobo really adorable. The whole thing is then placed in a saucepan and broiled until the meat is tender. And there you have it — an Adobo masterpiece!
Adobo is the typical Filipino travel food. Filipino mountaineers, travelers, and folks going on long trips pack Adobo for the trip since the dish has a long shelf life. This is due to the vinegar (it inhibits bacterial growth) and is known as a preservative among Filipinos.
Other popular variations of Adobo include quail, beef, lamb, catfish, string beans, okra, eggplant, coconut milk, or squid.
Whenever you go island hopping or touring the different places in the Philippines take time to try out the different types of Adobo going around. It is a great big mouth watering welcome to Filipino hospitality.
[Tags]Food, Filipino Cuisine, Pinoy Food, Adobo, Philippines[/Tags]
Philippine Crunchy Vegetable Cuisine
Chop suey is a popular native dish in both classy and ordinary restaurants. It is one of the healthiest native recipes available. It combines choice-cut meat and liver portions, and the best of crunchy native vegetables mostly from the salad capital of the Philippines.
To cook this native recipe we need the following ingredients: one fourth kilo pork thinly sliced liver, one fourth kilo thinly sliced pork tender loin (or any pork cut), one fourth kilo peeled and thinly sliced fresh shrimp, one fourth small ball of chopped cabbage, some cauliflowers, some thin and flat string beans or “sitsaro” (or Baguio beans will do), a bunch of chopped “pechay” leaves, a small chopped carrot, a small chopped “sayote,” 4 small chopped onions for sautéing, 5 chopped small onions for later cooking, two bundles of chopped “kinchay” leaves, 5 pieces minced garlic, 2 cups water, four tablespoons flour, and one fourth cup soy sauce. With these ingredients all in, we’re ready to cook this native dish.
This native recipe needs sautéing of the garlic and onions until garlic pieces are brown,in a pan, on medium fire. Add in the meat and shrimp. Cook stir for a minute. Then put on low fire. Mix the water, soy sauce and flour in a cup until thoroughly dissolved. Then pour this mixture into the pan. Put on high fire. Put on the pan lid and cook till the concoction is boiling. When boiling, put in the rest of the ingredients. Put back the lid on and cook for a minute. This native dish serves 5 persons.
This native recipe is perfect with a sauce of soy and “kalamansi” or lemon squeeze. This native dish is perfect to go with fried or grilled pork chops or fish, or any barbecued dish.
Chop Suey sounds Chinese but it’s a Filipino native dish. Many Filipino tourists who visit Hongkong or mainland China are surprised to discover that both countries are strangers to the dish. It’s because it’s a purely Filipino native recipe. A tale goes that a Filipino who once lived a long time in China came back home and was asked to cook up a Chinese dish. Not knowing what to do he just threw various ingredients into the pan and called it “Chop Suey,” the native recipe.
Chop Suey is a well balanced native recipe of lean meat, fresh and crunchy vegetables, and natural spices. This native dish emits a subtle blend of sweet vegetables and the delectable taste of meat and liver for a perfect dinner meal.
Lydia’s Lechon: A Filipino Passion for Food
Lechon is the star of the Philippine fiesta. Lechon is Spanish for suckling pig. In the Philippines, however, it means a pig, beef, or chicken roasted slowly over charcoal. Cooking the lechon would sometimes take a whole day. But since the roasted pig’s moist meat and crispy skin is a mouth water maker, it’s worth the time and effort.
One of the famous restaurants in the Philippines is known as Lydia’s Lechon. The main dish, as the name of the place suggests, is lechon. Let’s take a look at how Lydia’s Lechon started and it’s eventual success today.
In 1968, a family’s lechon store in the Philippines, known as Mang Turing and Aling Ingga’s Native Lechon, was doing good business. They started with a modest store which was located at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Baclaran. The daughter, Lydia, helped out in the said store. This would be her introduction into the lechon business in the Philippines.
About a year later, after some courtship, Benigno de Roca (a son of another lechon business owner) and Lydia got married in the year 1969. The happy couple had a joyous occasion after their wedding and ended up Php 500 as starting capital. Guess what business they put up? They started Lydia’s Lechon.
Lydia’s Lechon started to gain a name and a good share of the market in 1971. It seems that the combined recipes from the two families worked out pretty well.
Customer’s would flock to Lydia’s Lechon to sample the good food sold there. A big break for the couple’s business came along when one day when executives from the Hyatt Regency Hotel came along to buy some Lydia’s Lechon specialties. From that simple visit came the orders from satisfied clients from the hotel.
The fame and praise for Lydia’s Lechon spread by word of mouth to many prospective clients, including other hotels and restaurants, and food caterers. From that time on, the Lydia’s Lechon’s business continued to prosper.
The Chef’s on Parade was an annual event featuring a competition of local chefs. In the 1970′s, the Lydia’s Lechon boneless with paella recipe got the first prize and it soon became one of the specialties of restaurant. It was a boost for the de Roca couple’s business.
The 80′s opened new doors for Lydia’s Lechon in the form of new branches in Metro Manila. Business looks good, and today, Lydia’s Lechon has grown to more than 21 restaurants.
You’ll easily find Lydia’s Lechon stores and branches in malls and town centers in the northern Philippines, especially in Metro Manila. Lydia’s Lechon specialties are sold either by kilo or as a whole. Prices would range from a little over a hundred pesos for a kilo of lechon to more than eleven thousand pesos for a whole roasted pig.
Lydia’s Lechon is a mark of passion for cooking and business acumen in the Philippines. Try one of the specialties of Lydia’s Lechon and have a taste of Filipino passion for food.
[Tags]Lechon, Filipino Cuisine, Food, BBQ, Philippines[/Tags]
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.
Mixed Beef and Sea Foods Kare-kare
Now here’s a variant of a native cuisine that put the Philippines on the culinary world map: the all-time favorite native recipe Mixed Beef and Sea Foods Kare-Kare. This recipe has been a hit in Filipino dinner tables since early times.
Watch these recipe ingredients. Be sure everything is accounted for before cooking this native cuisine: First, we need a fourth of a kilo of Tapa fillet (all lean beef), a fourth of a kilo of squid (cleaned and cut into rings), a fourth of a kilo of mussels, two-third cup of cooking oil, one piece of diced onions, two cloves of minced garlic, two-third cup “asuete” essence mixed with water, a half cup of non-greasy peanut butter, a half cup of string beans or “sitaw”, a half cup of diagonally sliced eggplant or “talong”, two cups sliced and boiled banana heart or “puso ng saging”, salt and pepper to taste, and one cup seafood stock, and one cup coconut milk. This cuisine also needs preserved shrimps or “bagoong alamang” as siding. With these ingredients all in, we’re ready to cook this native recipe.
This classy cuisine is cooked this way: first, we prepare the “asuete” essence or oil: Sauté on medium fire the two tablespoons of “asuete” seeds in two-third cup of cooking oil until everything becomes orange in color. Then, strain to remove the “asuete” seeds. After this, sauté onions and garlic in one-third cup of “asuete” oil. Then add the seafoods, with a twenty-second interval: the squids, mussels and the tapa fillet. Then mix everything in this recipe and cook on high fire for one minute until everything is half-cooked. Then, remove everything from the pan and set aside.
Next, to cook this native recipe, we add the remaining “asuete” oil in the pan. Then put the peanut butter in. Mix well. Then add the coconut milk. Stir well on high fire until it boils. Bring to a simmer until sauce thickens. Add the vegetables, with one-minute interval: the banana heart or “puso ng saging”, string beans or “sitaw”, and the eggplant or ”talong.” Cook for three minutes. Then add the seafoods and cook well for half a minute. After this, sauté in a separate pan the “bagoong” and minced ginger and garlic. This serves as the sauce of this native cuisine.
Mixed Beef and Sea Foods Kare-Kare is a unique rendition of the native cuisine Kare-Kare, and has been a favorite recipe in Filipino homes.
Sweet and Sour Adobo Pork and Chicken
A sweetened and all spiced up pork and chicken adobo is another variation of the general native cuisine adobo. This native recipe caters well to those who prefer a subtle blend of sweet, sour, and spicy pork and chicken.
To cook this native cuisine, here are the ingredients we need: half a kilo of Pork Kasim chopped for adobo, half a kilo of fresh chicken chopped into serving pieces, four pieces of sliced hotdog, three tablespoons minced garlic, one tablespoon ground pepper corns, two tablespoons sugar, one piece laurel leaf, half cup of soy sauce, three-fourth cup of cane vinegar, 2 cups of boiled water, and a dozen hard quail eggs. With these ingredients ready, we’re all set to cook this native recipe.
To cook this native cuisine we first combine all ingredients in a saucepan (except the quail eggs and hotdogs). Then boil the mixture on high fire. On boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover with the lid for some forty five minutes. Then, remove the lid cover and simmer again for some five minutes to reduce and thicken the sauce. Check the tenderness of the pork. If the meat and skin of the pork is tender enough, the rest of the ingredients should follow. Check also the sweetness and sourness of the sauce. Aim for a balanced sweet and sour flavor. Lessen the taste by adding a little water. Add to the taste by adding either more sugar or more vinegar. Finally, when everything is balanced, add the quail eggs and hotdogs for another two to three minutes. This native recipe serves 5 people.
This recipe is a favorite native cuisine in picnics and outdoor potlucks, as well as in elegant dinner meals for the family and guests. Because of the introduction of vinegar into this native recipe, sweet and sour pork and chicken adobo lasts longer than other native cuisine. Hence, it is suitable as a picnic viand for a packed dinner when traveling far to eat out. It goes well with sliced and salted tomatoes on the side, coupled with some sliced preserved eggs with chopped onions and tomatoes. This native recipe is also partnered with chopped green mangoes and onions with a dash of native preserved fish or “bagoong.”
Sweet and sour pork and chicken adobo is a popular native cuisine almost always present in every Filipino dinner table, at home or in native restaurants. It is one of the Filipinos’ culinary legacies.
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.
Influence of Other Countries to Philippine Cuisine
There are a lot of dishes in the Philippines that lends different experiences to your palette. Foreign countries have influenced a lot of these dishes. This is due to the fact that traders and colonizers have visited the Philippines for centuries. The American and Spanish colonizers, and the Chinese and other Southeast Asian traders influenced and brought about a kaleidoscope in the Filipino way of cooking.
One of the contributors to Philippine cuisine are the Chinese. Chinese influence on Philippine cuisine is found in noodle dishes such as bihon, miki, mami, lomi, sotanghon, and miswa. These are generally called pancit. For instance, in the town of Molo in Iloilo, the Chinese influence on their type of noodle known as pancit molo is an adaptation of wonton soup with an Ilonggo twist.
For many years that Chinese people interacted with the Filipinos. Many of them even decided to stay and live with the Filipinos. Chinese contributed to Philippine cuisine a rice cake made from Philippine ingredients called “hopia”. The making of Hopia was inspired and influenced by the Chinese rice bean cake. The Chinese usually use rice-bean cakes during special occasions.
Unlike other people in Southeast Asian countries, most Filipinos aren’t fond of eating chili. But there is a part of the Philippines, the Bicol region, which uses a variety of spices. Like the folks in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, the people in the Bicol region use chili and coconut milk for a lot of their delicacies.
When the Spaniards came to Philippines, they introduced the Spanish culture. The many Spanish colonies often influenced the Philippines in many different ways. Historians say that 80% of the Philippine cuisine originated from Spanish dishes. For example, Adobo (a well known Filipino dish) is actually a Spanish word for sauce. Adobo means marinated sauce for pork (though there are also other adobo dishes that don’t use pork).
Although Americans didn’t make that much of an influence in Philippine cuisine, they certainly changed the way Filipinos dine. The Americans introduced fast food to the Philippines. Fast food chains are now found almost everywhere in the Philippines nowadays and is a favorite among Filipino children.
These are the influences of many different countries that contribute to Philippine cuisine. That’s why Filipinos embrace the ideas and influences of the other countries. If it were not for these influences to Philippine cuisine there would not be a wonderful array of dishes to delight the palette.
