Time for Filipino Food

By: Bob Boyer

 

I recently emailed my Sheboygan, Wisconsin nephew Nick (not his real name) who has a Filipino fiancée. The subject was food. He replied promptly and enthusiastically. This made me happy for a couple of reasons: 1) Nick and I both love Filipino food; 2) I promised some months ago that I would write at least one column here about food. I am now indulging myself.

Nick and fiancée Clara (not her real name) from central Mindanao have been going together for several years now, so I was curious to know what their favorite Filipino foods were. In looking back now at Nick’s email reply, I can see that my nephew was writing at the end of a tiring day. He was thinking about my question, but his answers were coming to him slowly at first. Thus I was not surprised that his first thoughts were about baked goods since Nick is noted for his sweet-tooth. “In terms of my favorite Filipino recipe,” he said, “I would have to say Puto.” (Nick has adopted the common Filipino culinary usage for ‘puto’.) “That’s the steamed muffi n-type snack commonly served with cheese on top. Clara makes some great puto and she makes it for sale.” Nick then adds that “chicken or pork adobo are good served with rice. These would be Clara’s favorites,” that is the adobos and puto.

“Clara sells baked goods to earn a little money,” continued Nick, and now I could see that he was warming to the topic. “Puto and chocolate moist cake are the favorites of her customers.” He and Clara are, of course, in good Filipino company with these selections. Two very popular Manila restaurants, and personal favorites, are “The Chocolate Kiss,” on the UP-Diliman campus, and “Cravings,” on Katipunan, not far from the UP campus. A third is “Blue Bacon and Green Eggs,” a bit further from campus, but with a deli that features amazing bakery. I frequented all three twenty years ago when I was a visiting professor at UP. A friend has told me that “Blue Bacon and Green Eggs” has possibly closed, or moved from “my” location. I hope she is wrong.

Nick went on to describe some of his own sweet-type recipes that he shared with Clara and her family. He was clearly on a roll now, to my delight. “I enjoy cooking, and when I travelled to the Philippines I thought it would be good to cook some of my favorite recipes from the USA for Clara’s family. For years I have been travelling to the Philippines just prior to the New Year. As you may already know, Filipinos enjoy celebrating the New Year by partying all night long with fi reworks and a lot of food. I offered to cook some food for the occasion. One of my kids’ favorites is my homemade pizza and bread sticks. It also seemed to be a favorite of Clara’s family too. It seemed they like many of the recipes I brought with me . . . angel food cake, chocolate chip cookies, homemade cheese cake.” A sweet-tooth indeed.

Reading his next food observation, I could tell that Nick’s food recall was in race mode. “In many celebrations in the Philippines it is common to roast a pig. Families would raise a pig until it was big enough to slaughter and roast over a big fire. Clara’s daughter did just that. She got a pig and raised it for months. The last time I visited, the pig was there at their house, kept like we might keep a dog. But the pig was meant for a feast. I witnessed the roasting of one of these pigs for one feast. It is a major undertaking. Getting enough wood together, setting up the pipe for the spit that will be able to hold the weight of the pig and be able to turn. Then roasting the pig for hours until it is fully cooked. They would take turns turning the spit by hand. Serving the pig was just a matter of putting the whole pig on a table for everyone to carve off a piece of meat.” Nick’s description of the pig roast resonated with me entirely. I particularly enjoy Filipino pork adobo and have made it myself on a couple of special occasions, though I have never attended a pork roast such as he described.

Nick then ended rather abruptly: “Unfortunately it is time for me to sleep.” I smiled and decided, “perfect ending, Nick.” In my reply, I thanked Nick for sharing his late night “yummy-food” memories. I also realized that he had whetted my appetite for a follow-up article on Filipino food. In fact I had originally intended to combine Nick’s “favorites” here with selections from an article entitled “Filipino Flavor.” It is about how “2019’s hottest food trends” frequently mention Filipino cooking, and it shares a couple of samples from an actual “Filipino-Wisconsin fusion dinner.” Next month is for recognizing veterans, but look for more festive food items in December, right on time.

Bob Boyer welcomes your thoughts and questions at Robert.boyer@snc.edu.