Restaurant-style dishes from Anthony Pangilinan

Anthony Pangilinan is one of the most vocal advocates of the family in the country. Today, when kids idolize movie stars, international singers and other celebrities, Anthony works hard to remind parents of the joy of being their kids’ idols. He recalls those days when children used to look up to their parents and would answer that their parents are their heroes in life. As a parent himself, he is saddened that this is not the case now.

As a well-known family man, he espouses the values he learned from his Christian faith and from growing up with eight siblings, namely Angeli Pangilinan, popular talent manager and wife of singer Gary Valenciano; Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, who is married to megastar Sharon Cuneta; Joseph, a brother involved in real estate; Maricel, a sister who’s into advertising; Nenette, who’s now based in Germany; Dona, a doctor; Felichi, who also dabbled in the entertainment world and is now into desktop publishing and publicity; and John, who is an architect by profession.

The values that Anthony adheres to recently took center stage in a unique parenting convention at the Edsa Shangri-La. It was the second Philippine parenting convention he initiated with his celebrity wife Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan.

Maricel was active in show business before she decided to go fulltime in raising her family. However, she is often seen on television and writes a parenting column for The Philippine STAR.

The two have partnered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a number of private schools in the Philippines, CEFAM (Center for Family Ministries), evangelical churches and other celebrity couples like Dodot Jaworski and Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, who helped make the two-day parenting convention a success.

Now that the convention is over, Anthony attends to Businessworks, his 15-year-old management consultancy business, which is a major player in training and seminars for various corporate clients. They do sales, team building, as well as time and stress management, among other worthwhile endeavors.

In his younger days, he served as the first Filipino president of AIESEC International, a non-profit international organization whose niche is the international exchange of students and young adults all over the world. As an active student leader in the University of the Philippines, he met Maricel.

Maricel was just visiting the school for an on-the-spot face-painting contest, where she was a special guest. He did not see her for a year after that, but he approached her at a bar the next time he saw her. He invited her to campaign for his brother Kiko, who was then running for Congress, and the rest, as they say, is history. Maricel, a best actress awardee, left show business to raise four wonderful children with Anthony. Ella is now seven years old and stars in a commercial with her mom and does ballet. Donny is six, Hannah (the most showbiz among the kids, according to Anthony) is now four, and Benjamin is a shy boy at two.

Anthony says, "Before you came, Hannah and I were just doing our version of the ginger-man pancakes," he shares with a twinkle in his eye. Anthony’s love of cooking was greatly influenced by his dad.

"My dad taught me to try anything and everything. I am not choosy when it comes to food or ingredients. Dad is the most critical among eaters. He knows when something’s kulang in a dish," he shares.

Anthony’s culinary adventures include: Cooking adobo in Belgium, where he served as AIESEC International president, and eating at Carnivore, an all-meat restaurant in Kenya that serves the meat of alligators, zebras and giraffes. He is also good at prodding chefs in some of Manila’s restaurants to share with him recipes of dishes he likes.

He has been cooking the family noche buena for five years now. Last year, he made some mushroom risotto and carrot pumpkin soup. Today, he shares with readers a recipe he got from Ebun Restaurant. This is just one of the recipes he has managed to gather to recreate restaurant-style dishes at home. Now, you can, too!

BALUT A LA POBRE
2 tbsps. white vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2-3 tbsps. corn oil
1/2 tbsp. chopped garlic
1/2 cup chicken broth
pinch of black pepper
chili-garlic powder to taste

Open a balut on the flat side of the shell. Discard the juice of the balut and set aside the balut. In a saucepan, sauté the garlic in corn oil, then add white vinegar and soy sauce and wait for it to brown. Add the balut and leave for a minute to cook the vinegar and lessen the pungent smell. Add the chicken broth and pinch of black pepper. Simmer until the sauce thickens. Put chili garlic according to taste.

GUINATAANG GULAY
70 g. string beans
50 g. squash
2 tbsps. corn oil
1/2 tsp. garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp. onion
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp. fish sauce
pinch of white sugar
Half-cook the vegetables by blanching them. In a separate hot pan, add the corn oil and sauté 1/2 tsp. garlic, onion, coconut cream and chicken stock. Add the half-cooked veggies. Add the fish sauce and white sugar. Lower the heat. Mash 20 grams of the squash and add this to the sauce to thicken. When it thickens, the dish is ready to be served.

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