Pinoy comfort food

A visiting relative from the US, here on an extended holiday, has been feasting on basic, good old Filipino food and on lazy days, she whips up good old American comfort food for the nieces and nephews to feast on as well. A contrast on the type of food we exchange on a regular basis during her Philippine visit shows the big difference between her idea of Filipino comfort food and our children’s idea of what fun food should be.

Linda Wehrman, a sister of my wife Babes, has been active in the local bridge circuit these last couple of months, meeting new faces in the local scene, enjoying afternoons of duplicate bridge with seasoned players like Pocholo Lozano. I myself don’t even know the basics of this card game, but I do know that the very tight circle of bridge players in the country are die-hards, and they regularly host or organize games three or four times a week. Most of them are seniors, quite a few even in their 80s, but sharp as a razor yet, according to Linda, who herself is a tournament player in the US, travelling to far places sometimes to engage in this highly cerebral game. She is hoping to be a part of the Philippine bridge team, but it seems that the schedule of qualifying matches does not quite jive with hers.

When she arrived, she couldn’t get enough of the mussels and clams and had these daily, enjoying the soup and the shells. Apparently, the mussels, clams and oysters in the US, though much bigger than our local ones, are more bland, less salty than ours. It was a daily treat for her, along with mongo, which she genuinely enjoys not just for the nutritional value but for the taste as well. The fried lumpiang gulay was also a mainstay on the lunch table for her, and she relished the mongo sprouts and the vinegar dip, which she terribly missed as well as the ginataang alimango with pako, those curly ferns, which come really cheap and are still a common sight in public markets.

 The tinolang manok she considers as genuine Filipino comfort food, enjoying the sharp taste of the ginger in the soup, very comforting on cold rainy evenings, which we have much of lately. But what struck us was her pronouncement that our chicken, bantam in size compared to their huge ones back home, definitely tasted better because theirs had a “malansa” taste. Really? I never knew that. Pinoys who grew up on Pinoy chicken can taste the difference, and as a matter of fact she can only eat the white meat of American chicken to avoid the “malansa” taste, unlike here. Really?

For our generation, these too count among the basics at home, along with adobo, sinigang na baboy and baka, and nilagang baka with lots of potatoes and big wedges of cabbage, and bistek tagalog. They never fail to comfort and are always a welcome, though common sight on the Filipino dining table. Even in my youth these dishes were staples and counted among our favorites and though I enjoy an occasional rib eye, these dishes I will forever hold dear. But it seems that the younger generation have been Americanized in their taste. Throw in Japanese, Korean and Italian as well, for I know that given a choice, they will ditch the adobo and tinola and without second thoughts go for the American steak and buffalo wings, the Japanese sushi and tonkatsu and lately the ramen, the Korean bibimbap and the endless varieties of Italian pizzas and pastas. What happened to good old Filipino food for this generation?

Linda, for her part, has been whipping up her spicy buffalo wings for the nephews and nieces who can’t seem to get enough of them, so she ends up doing a big batch for this set of nephews and another big batch for another set, and so on. Lately, she has been doing large pans of meat loafs, the quintessential American food which she said her children grew up on. When I say large, I do mean large because cooking for a family in the US means just that. They are meant to last for two or three days, getting re-hashed and re-invented, fried crisp on the second day and as sandwich fillers on the third day. I can’t say I’m a meat loaf lover, though I can eat it occasionally and enjoy it, but it seems that my kids can subsist on this basic American fare and not complain about it. Give them adobo or tinola more than once a week and they will holler for sure. Somewhere along the way, their taste preferences, along with many others in their generation I’m sure, have evolved and I’m not sure if the tinola can hold its own against these foreign dishes two generations from now.

We were in Batangas just recently and my wife suddenly remembered that this was the place famous for “sinaing na tulingan”. Every Batangueno worth his accent knows this, so we searched for it in the market in Bauan on our way back. The public market there, located just behind a big Jollibee store was where a row of old ladies sold their ware daily, pots of freshly cooked tulingan for P30.00 each. When you buy the cooked fish, they wrap them in banana leaves and throw in the sauce, which they said was the drippings from the fish simply flavored with patis. How basic is that, but the locals and visitors from Manila always come for this native, truly Batangueno dish that has withstood the test of time.

Seeing how my kids and their peers savor the international dishes that now abound here, I wonder when the good old Filipino favorites will stay as staples. We haven’t found our own identity in the international culinary scene, unlike the Thais and Indians, as well as the Japanese and Koreans who have found their mark everywhere in the globe. Fusion cuisine has also taken a foothold in the local culinary scene, such that the basics have been virtually forgotten. Oh well, give me good old adobo or sinigang na baboy anytime, and I’m sure many in my generation will toast to this, while humming a Beatles’ song in between big bites.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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