one filipino dish a week

Oh the wonderful sugar cane! Yes! Ohhh yes! It’s time for some rum tasting! On my recent trip to the Philippines I decided to bring back some goods. And now is the time to have a little taste test. Tanduay is pretty much synonymous to Philippine rum(I don’t think there’s any other brand that I can name). A little fun fact about the Tanduay name from the company website:

Tanduay have adopted its corporate name from its location, a triangular region encircled by the esteros of San Miguel and San Sebastian, which Spanish mapmakers referred to as Isla de Tanduay. The word “Tanduay” originated from the word tanguay, an old Tagalog term for isthmus or peninsula. It also means “low-lying land” because the entire area, including Quiapo, was frequently flooded during the rainy season. In the Cebuano and Visayan dialect, tanguay meant “a place where tuba, a local coconut-based liquor, is bought and sold”.

First up is the most commonly seen yellow label 5 year old dark rum. The color is dark amber. The smell? forget it about it. I couldn’t get past the harsh alcohol aroma that consumes your face.  It smelled like it was way higher than 80proof. How does it taste when it goes down the hatch? I can’t really tell you because it was just a burning sensation all the way down. I think this hairless Asian man just grew some chest hair after that drink. There is no way I will drink this by itself (unless I just want to get recklessly drunk). I do not enjoy this and it needs to be mixed heavily with something that has some taste!

Up next, ESQ. Extra Smooth Quality. I love the marketing on this one. Does it live up to the hype? Eh, It’s ok. The color is definitely lighter than the 5yr version and this is only 65 proof. The tast was definitely smoother than the first one. However, it had this medicine-y taste to it. I feel like this is just a less stronger version of the previous rum and that’s why I can actually taste something. The Girl liked it because it had a slight sweetness to it. I would also not drink this by itself. I would have to make some cocktail out of this to mask the weird taste to it.

There is a significant jump in price between the first two and the next two. The third in the flight is Superior, 12 years old.  I assume the price difference is because of the aging process and the quality of final product. The color of the Superior is golden brown and you can definitely smell vanilla and caramel. This is also 80 proof but with this one you can definitely put your nose in there and smell the rum without being overwhelmed by the alcohol. I still don’t think the 5yr old is 80 proof. This goes down nice and smooth (a lot smoother than the ESQ). The Superior can be drank by itself and is an excellent sipping rum.

The last of the bunch the Tanduay 1854, 15 years old. This is the top of the line and has earned a gold medal in the Monde Selection. The 1854 has a light gold color and has a wonderful aroma. The alcohol smell is very subdued and the caramel and vanilla smells comes out. The Girl described it best as vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce on top. The taste is absolutely amazing and I would drink this by itself any day. I’m not a rum expert by any means but I think this can definitely be put side-by-side with the best rums from the Carribean.

It’s actually quite interesting how the two higher end products have a black and blue label. What other popular spirit has a prominent black and blue label? Hmmm… Another “creative” copycat marketing scheme by the Pinoys!

Eat (drink) Filipino Food!

I’ve been thinking of ways to beat the summer heat and the first thing that comes to mind is a refreshing drink. Eureka! Sangria! Ok so it’s not that inventive of an idea. But it turned out to be the perfect bbq companion on a nice summer afternoon. I don’t think this is close to the traditional Spanish sangria but it’s the same concept. There wasn’t any red wine in the house so I decided to make white sangria which turned out to be a really great experiment.

Here’s how I made it:

Edna Valley Chardonnay (from Napa)
1 red delicious apple sliced
1 gala apple sliced
2 navel oranges sliced
1 lemon sliced
Sparkling Flavored Water (signature brand stop & shop) berry
Sugar

Mix all the fruit with the chardonnay. Mix in the flavored water and sugar to taste. The Edna Valley Chardonnay is slightly on the sweeter side and no oak-iness to it so it made the drink very refreshing.

Eat Filipino Food!

This is the stuff that keeps a lot of us going in the morning. Coffee. Some people are coffee purists. Some people are the Starbucks kind. Northeast people (of the US that is) are the Dunkin’ Donuts kind.  But I suspect most people don’t even know a lot about the coffee that they’re drinking. And neither did I. I didn’t even know the different kinds of coffee. I just knew of the places that there are certain climates that make the good coffee. What I found out was that just like wine there’s quite a few people that obsess about their coffee.

Here’s a couple of things I learned about coffee:

• There’s 4 major varieties Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa, and Liberica (aka barako). I’m sure most people have heard of Arabica because that pretty much dominates the market (i.e. your Starbucks).
• Buy coffee beans and keep them vacuum sealed. Oxygen breaks down the coffee and makes it go bad. And it goes bad quicker once it’s ground.

Filipinos are definitely coffee drinkers. I remember hearing about kapeng barako when I was growing up and I wanted to find out more about the Philippines and coffee. The Philippines being strategically placed in the Pacific was a major hub of commerce back in the day and like a lot of things the Philippines was once a major player in coffee industry. Now, Brazil has taken over the coffee world and produces a substantial percentage of the world’s coffee. Certainly just another blow to the once leading economy of Southeast Asia. The worst thing is that most Filipinos living in the Philippines don’t even know about the  once thriving coffee production in the Philippines because they’re too wrapped up trying out the trendy imported places (i.e. Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and Gloria Jeans). But that’s starting to dig deeper into the Filipino identity crisis and self-loathing. Let’s not go down that path.

During my trip to the Philippines, I picked up a book called Kapihan. Although this is published by Nescafe and they sure do push their product in this book, I still like how they captured a good chunk of the Filipino coffee story. It shows how the simple coffee bean brings people together. I also noticed that Filipinos drink instant coffee and they buy it in small amounts. By small amounts I mean 1 serving right before their drink it in the morning from their neighbor’s sari-sari store. This makes sense because of the cash flow problems that families face everyday. Nescafe is the brand of choice so they did a really good job in marketing to the Filipinos.

While in the Philippines, I asked around where I can get my hands on some kapeng barako. And all fingers pointed to Batangas. Thankfully, my best friend Jopey had a roommate that was in Batangas for the weekend and brought down 1 kilo barako beans! I’m very appreciative of that.

So what is barako? The word barako is some sort of male animal. My Tagalog isn’t great but barako definitely has connotations of masculinity. The coffee is called barako because of it’s strong taste and for the fact that the beans are bigger than the other varieties. This coffee is unlike anything that I’ve tasted and I love it! I’m certainly not a coffee expert but I know what tastes good to me. It’s certainly bold but it doesn’t have the acidity that I’ve tasted in other coffees which I assume contains Arabica beans.

Unfortunately, there’s no place that I know of that you can buy barako coffee from here in the US. I did find this website though http://www.gotbarako.com/. I haven’t bought anything from it yet so I can’t tell you either way. I’ll buy some when my supply is done and I’ll update.

Eat Filipino Food!

A trip to the farmer’s market always yields some amazing stuff. Case in point… milk! I’ve heard great things about Ronny Brook Farms milk but I’ve actually never had it. It comes in old school bottles. The cows roam free and eat grass! It’s funny how that’s pseudo-revolutionary. I have to say that this milk is leagues above any milk you can get at the grocery store. The taste is pure, creamy, and silky smooth. It has that wow effect when you drink it. So definitely seek out your small dairy farms close by you and get some grass feed, hormone free milk. Next stop I’ll have to seek out some raw milk. This however was a major upgrade to the milk that I’ve been buying and I will try to get Ronny Brook Farms milk whenever I can.

To spice up the normal Sunday breakfast, I bought some wild turkey eggs from the farmer’s market. Once I saw it there was no way I was going to leave there without buying some. The eggs are bigger than the chicken eggs (quite understandably) and the shells almost look like marble or some kind of stone.  I forgot to make note of the farm which these came from but I’ll update the next time I see them.

Continuing with the farmer’s market theme. The Girl and I passed the stall that had a sign that said ‘Seriously Good Bacon.’ Well, if the sign said so I had to try it. Who doesn’t love bacon? There are some baco-vegetarians out there (vegetarians who have exceptions for bacon). Now that’s serious bacon eating. This bacon is from Violet Hill Farms in upstate NY.

Of course being Filipino a meal isn’t complete without rice. So I made some garlic fried rice (sinangag). I know I should’ve probably made tapsilog (tapa (filipino beef jerky) +  sinangag (garlic fried rice) + itlog (egg)). Wow that looked like a math equation of a full stomach! har har har! As for now…the verdict: This was one amazing Sunday breakfast! The eggs were great although I didn’t taste much of a difference from chicken eggs. The bacon was simply yummy. I would get that bacon again and again. Tasted nothing like store bought bacon at least 10x better.

To finish one big asian pear chilled and sliced. What a wonderful start to a Sunday.

Eat Filipino Food!

When I saw “Chinese, Malay and Spanish Fusion: The Food of the Philippines” on the list of classes in the recreational division of The Institute of Culinary Education I was ecstatic. I said to myself this is what I need! I signed up myself and The Girl for the class.

When we got there it was kind of funny because we were the only Filipinos in the class. The class was taught by Chef Reeni Aragon Espino. She teaches mostly pastry at the school but represents Filipino cooking once a semester when she teaches this class. There were quite a few dishes that were presented to the class: Lumpiang Ubod, Ukoy, Pancit Bihon Guisado, Adobong Manok at Baboy, Sinigang na Sugpo, Kare-Kare, Kaldereta (Lamb), Bibingkang Kamotegkahoy, and Mango-Macapuno Ice Cream. She spoke about each one and what it’s made out of and what’s the significance of each.

I didn’t get to make everything since this was only a 4 hour class. Chef Reeni divided the class and assigned dishes to each group. Don’t worry I’ll be making each one again in the future. My group got to do Sinigang na Sugpo, Kare-Kare and Ukoy.

Sinigang na Sugpo (Prawns)
You can check my previous post on sinigang na baboy (pork). I was quite excited because I was about to make this with a real souring agent and not the chemical fake mix. Here’s how we made it:

A few kamias (depending how sour you want)
1 T vegetable oil
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1 T garlic minced
2 cups diced tomatoes
6 cups water or rice washing
1 Asian eggplant, sliced
1 medium taro, 1 to 1.5 inch cubes
1 medium white radish, sliced
12 to 15 large head on prawns
1 bunch water spinach (kangkong)
2 long hot peppers

First, simmer the kamias in water until tender.

Mash into cooking liquid (You gotta put your back into it). Here’s where disaster struck. As we were mashing the kamias, we tasted to see how sour it was. It was not at all sour. The freezing probably took away all the sourness out of it. On to plan B, let’s take the guava out. That was also not sour. In fact, it was quite sweet. On to plan C, green tomatillos. They were barely sour so we put a lot of it. Once you’ve mashed the juices out you strain the liquid and add it later to the mix. Okay, so in the end we succumbed to using the packet mix because it just wasn’t sour. One of these days I’ll make a real sinigang.

Saute the onion and garlic then add the tomatoes until they start to break down. Add the sour liquid. Add the water and salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Add spinach, eggplant, taro and radish. Cover and return to a boil. Add prawns and peppers.

Simmer just until the prawns turn color and vegetables are cooked. One thing that caught me off guard about this was the taro made the dish a little cloudy. I kind of like sinigang to be a clear broth soup.

Ukoy (Shrimp Fritters)
The fondest memory I have of ukoy is that there used to be this carenderia (aka lunch spot, cafeteria, etc) near where I grew up called Ben-Jo’s that had ukoy and we always bought it there. Their ukoy was good. I can’t wait to have a taste of it again in the near future ;). Ukoy is best as an appetizer or pulutan (beer drinking food).

The Girl grating some sweet potatoes for the ukoy.

Mmm deep fried shrimp!

I’m going to have to make this again because I didn’t get to do any of the making of this.

Kare-Kare (Oxtail Stew)
Growing up I never really liked kare-kare. I don’t know what it is but it must be the yellowish-brownish tint to the sauce that deterred me. Kare-Kare which sounds like curry is pretty much like a curry and was most likely borrowed from one of the neighboring countries. This is how we made it:

3 to 4 lbs oxtail, cut in serving pieces
1/2 lb pork belly, cut in serving pieces
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
3 T annatto seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups broth
1/2 cup raw rice
2 cups dry-roasted peanuts
2 T finely chopped garlic
1 cup chopped onion
12 ounces long beans cut in 2in lengths
2 Asian eggplants cut in diagonal 1/2 inch pieces
Salt, fish sauce and black pepper to taste
1 bock choy, cut in 2in pieces

Boil the oxtail and pork in water, bay leaves and salt to taste until tender. This is The Girl checking if the oxtail is tender with a knife. Watch out now.

Heat the annatto seeds and 1T oil until heavily colored. They pop and splatter everywhere so make sure you have a cover. Add the broth. In the meantime in between time as the great snoop dogg would say, toast the rice in a dry pan until lightly browned. Transfer to a spice grinder/food processor and grind until fine. Also grind the peanuts to a paste.

Saute the garlic in remaining oil until soft. Add oxtails, pork and annatto water and bring to a boil. Mix the rice powder, peanut and 1 cup broth and add to pot. Add 3 cups broth, beans and eggplant. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender and sauce has thickened.

Serve with rice and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste). I’m quite sure that this was not THE perfect kare-kare. So I will make a second attempt at this.

Other Dishes
The fruits of the labor of the other groups.

Clockwise: Pancit Bihon, Bibikang Kamoteng-kahoy, Lumpiang Ubod

I’m definitely going to make the Lumpiang ubod.  It came out excellent. And I finally saw how you make the wrapper!! I didn’t get to take a picture of the ice cream but I think I can definitely make a much better ice cream than what was made. It’s all in the ingredients too. The mango used was the red Mexican mango (I don’t really know what type of mango it is… the red kind.). It would be so much better if the yellow champagne mangoes were used. In the summer time when those mangoes come out I’ll make mango ice cream.

What better way to accompany all this food but with some San Miguel! Great Great class! If you are in NYC and would like to learn more about Filipino food first hand check out this class. I will definitely have to make each one of these dishes again though. So look for futures posts with these dishes again.

Eat Filipino Food!