In addition to the familiar coconut products – grated coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut water – the locals produce coconut vinegar, coconut sap sugar and frozen coconut puree.
By FAYE LEVY, YAKIR LEVYBeef Shank soup with corn and baby bok choy.(photo credit: YAKIR LEVY)
At a press party in Beverly Hills to launch Food Philippines, which promotes exports from that tropical island country, we tasted some of its culinary classics. We enjoyed a hearty Philippine breakfast of fried rice dotted with vegetables and bits of egg, accompanied by grilled beef, grilled butterflied milkfish and sweet sausages. A highlight was a Philippine favorite, chicken adobo, in which the chicken is cooked with vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and sometimes soy sauce; the adobo we tasted was also flavored with fresh ginger and garnished with diced tomatoes and chives. (See recipe.)“Popularly regarded as the Filipino national dish,” wrote Gerry G. Gelle, author of Filipino Cuisine, “adobo is both a specific dish and a method of cooking” in which foods are braised in vinegar with garlic and pepper.In his book Gelle devotes an entire chapter to adobo. He makes adobos from meat, chicken, fish and vegetables such as eggplant and green beans. Filipinos have a “frequent snacking” culture, said Rosvi C. Gaetos, executive director of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, in her presentation on major food exports of the Philippines; these include bananas, mangoes, pineapples and coconuts. Among the indigenous snack foods we sampled were dried mangoes and banana chips, as well as traditional treats like coconut pudding and sapin-sapin, a three-layered cake made from rice and coconut milk.In addition to the familiar coconut products – grated coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut water – the locals produce coconut vinegar, coconut sap sugar and frozen coconut puree. Coconut oil is used throughout the Philippines, said Gaetos, while coconut milk dishes are more common in the south. Leo M. Herrera-Lim, the Philippine consul general in Los Angeles, told us that coconut sugar used to be considered poor men’s sugar but recently has been elevated to the status of a healthy ingredient.Bananas are so common that they even turn them into banana ketchup, which is easy to find in Philippine markets in Los Angeles. Robert Santiago, who was exhibiting coconut products, told us that people came up with banana ketchup when tomatoes weren’t available. He likes banana ketchup on spaghetti with ground beef.It’s not surprising that there were plenty of pancit, or noodles, on display, as noodles are one of the bestloved foods in the Philippines.“For Filipinos, at any gathering there is pancit; noodles are long and symbolize long life,” said the exhibitor of Fiesta Pinoy products, who presented rice noodles, mung bean noodles and pancit canton – yellow noodles that were labeled flour sticks.For export to various countries the yellow noodles are colored differently; for the US, they use yellow coloring; for Israel, they use turmeric; and for Europe, they use beta carotene. We saw green noodles flavored with malunggay (moringa), a medicinal herb.Noodles with vegetables were on our lunch menu; the tasty noodles were flavored simply with sautéed onions, garlic and soy sauce. (See recipe.) Along with the noodles came chicken afritada, made with tomato sauce. This dish was well seasoned but not spicy – the kind of entrée anyone would like.Manila-born chef Cecilia de Castro of the Academy of Culinary Education told us that this dish, with its use of tomatoes, is an example of the Spanish influence on Philippine food, which has elements of Chinese, Japanese, Malay and American cuisines. Usually, said De Castro, afritada includes peppers, peas and potatoes. (See recipe.)Another gently seasoned dish was bulalo, a soup of beef shank slices cooked with corn on the cob and baby bok choy (a kind of Chinese cabbage). Grilled eggplant came with a separate dressing of vinegar, shallots and chili peppers. To represent the category of ginataan dishes, which are cooked with coconut milk, there was seafood with green beans and yellow zucchini in a coconut sauce flavored with a touch of hot pepper.The delicious desserts included coconut cassava cake and ice cream made of ube, or Philippine purple yams, which gave the ice cream an amazingly bright purple hue. At Philippine restaurants we have enjoyed these yams in puddings, in fillings for sweet breads and in jam-like mixtures that garnished frozen desserts. Purple yams are so good that even when we cook them plain, they seem like dessert.“One of the things I love about Filipino cuisine is its simplicity,” wrote Miki Garcia in The Filipino Cookbook. “The dishes were not developed in the kitchens of royal palaces or by wealthy aristocrats.... The food is instead the creation of the common folk.”Although Garcia has lived in Europe and in other Asian countries, she prefers to cook Philippine dishes whenever she entertains because she finds that “everybody loves the food.”Faye Levy is the author of Faye Levy’s International Chicken Cookbook.Chicken adobo Gerry G. Gelle recommends marinating food to be prepared as adobo, because the flavors become more complex. For marinating, use a saucepan that is not made of aluminum, because the vinegar would discolor it and impart a strange flavor.It’s best to cook adobo a day or more in advance, advised Gelle, so the flavors can meld. “Make some adobo today, and eat it tomorrow. It is well worth the wait.” Just before serving, you can reheat it on the stove or in the microwave, and serve it on a bed of freshly cooked rice. Leftover adobo can be mixed with leftover rice, heated and served for lunch, or for breakfast with eggs.When Gelle makes adobo with meat or with a mixture of meat and chicken, he flavors it with soy sauce. This adobo, made with chicken alone, is light in color as it has no soy sauce.Makes 6 to 8 servings■ 3 tsp. vegetable oil■ 3 garlic cloves, minced■ 1 tsp. grated ginger■ 1.1 to 1.4 kg.(2½ to 3 pounds) chicken, cut up■ ½ cup distilled white vinegar■ 1 tsp. salt■ ¼ tsp. black pepper■ ½ cup water■ 2 bay leaves■ Hot rice (for serving)Heat the oil in a large pot and sauté the garlic and ginger. Add the chicken pieces and lightly brown them. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, water and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.Uncover and continue to simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Serve with rice.VARIATIONS: Spicy chicken adobo: Add 1 whole jalapeño pepper to the liquid before simmering the chicken. For a really spicy dish, cut the pepper in small pieces before adding it to the liquid.Coconut adobo: For a sweet, thick sauce, add ½ cup canned coconut milk after reducing the sauce and simmer, uncovered, for a few minutes.Sweet-and-sour adobo: Add 1 cup drained pineapple pieces and 2 medium tomatoes, quartered, after simmering the chicken, and before reducing the sauce.Sautéed egg noodles – Pancit mami Adapted from Filipino Cuisine by Gerry G. Gelle. If you prefer, omit the chicken and make this dish with 1 or 2 cups of thin strips of carrots and cabbage; add them to the sautéed noodles along with the broth.Gelle prefers fresh Chinese noodles, but you can substitute dried egg noodles. Increase the cooking time and gradually add more hot broth (or water) as necessary, cooking until the noodles are tender.Makes 3 to 4 servings■ 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil■ 2 garlic cloves, minced■ 2 Tbsp. green onion, finely chopped■ 450 gr. (1 pound) chicken, diced■ 450 gr. (1 pound) Chinese wide egg noodles■ 1 cup chicken broth■ 1 tsp. salt■ ½ tsp. white pepperHeat the oil in a deep skillet and sauté the garlic and green onions for 1 minute.Add the chicken and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the fresh noodles and mix well with the vegetables and meat. Sauté for 2 minutes.Add the broth, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The noodles will absorb most of the broth. Serve hot.Chicken and vegetables in tangy tomato sauce – Afritadang manok In this dish, the chicken is first stir-fried and then slow-braised with sweet peppers and potatoes in a tomato-based sauce, wrote Miki Garcia.“Fritada means ‘fried’ in Spanish and manok is ‘chicken’ in Tagalog. Any part of the chicken can be used, but Filipinos generally prefer to cook with bone-in meat as it is more flavorful.”Serve the dish hot with steamed rice. This dish can also be made with beef or fish.Makes 4 servings■ 2 Tbsp. oil■ 3 garlic cloves, crushed with side of knife and minced■ 1 onion, minced■ 1 kg. (about 2 pounds) skinless bone-in chicken pieces (breasts, thighs or drumsticks)■ 1 tsp. salt■ 1 potato, peeled and diced■ 1 cup water■ 1 bay leaf■ 1 tomato, diced■ 225-gr. (8-ounce) can tomato sauce■ ½ cup (75 gr. or 2.5 ounces) fresh or frozen green peas■ 1 Tbsp. fish sauce or soy sauce■ 1 sweet pepper, deseeded and diced■ 1 tsp. sugar■ ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepperHeat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 Tbsp. oil. Add garlic and sauté until lightly browned. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Remove garlic and onion, and reserve.Rub the chicken pieces with the salt. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the same skillet over medium heat and sauté the chicken until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.Place the potato and water in a saucepan large enough to contain the chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Add the sautéed chicken, garlic onion, bay leaf, tomato, tomato sauce, peas, fish sauce, sweet pepper and sugar. Cover and simmer over medium to low heat for 30 minutes, or until tender. Add black pepper and simmer for 3 more minutes.
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