The Ilocano empanada comes to Manila
April 6, 2006 | 12:00am
When couple Carlo Romualdez Ocampo and Antoinette Enciso-Ocampo recently wed in picturesque Ilocos, they didn’t just bring back photos and memories of a happy union. They returned home with one of Ilocos’ widely-kept secrets: the Ilocos empanada. Bearing only a slight resemblance to its pastry sibling, the Ilocos empanada is fried to a crisp, not baked in an oven. Instead of a thick flaky pastry shell, the version from Philippines’ northwestern region comes in a thin crisp dough fried to a bright saffron-colored finish. It makes a satisfying crunch with each bite. Though Ilocos’ many regions have different versions – others are much lighter than Laoag’s where the recipe originates from – the variant the Ocampos hawk from their brand-new empanada station is a delicious tummy-filler that hits all the right notes.
Called the Taco Ilocano Empanada Station, tucked in a corner of Fiesta Market! (the food court that serves Filipino food from all over the country with a concentration on grilled meats and seafood) in Market! Market!, the modest stall is manned by several capable cooks, one of whom was born and raised in Ilocos Norte. Cook Marie Bonoan mastered the recipe through years of practicing, making and selling the meat pie to students heading home or to the plaza from class in search of inexpensive yet filling food. "We wanted to keep it as original as possible," says Carlo. "We went to Ilocos and really researched the recipe, and made sure that we perfected it before we even thought of selling it."
The owners don’t meet the usual stereotype of empanaderia owners – if there even is one. Antoinette is one of the top models in the roster of the Professional Models Association of the Philippines (PMAP), who began her career at 12 modeling for commercials. She hit the runways of Manila at 17, modeling high fashions and ready-to-wear apparel for the country’s biggest retailers, bagging a couple endorsements here and there along the way. Carlo works in marketing for Joey 92.3 and does a little DJing on the side. They’re a dynamic couple with a four-year-old son, devoted to each other – as many newlyweds often are – and to their recently-started business. You can usually find one of them on site every day, helping with orders or with preparation.
Made of longganisa, mongo and papaya, the empanada is folded into the orange dough that’s been rolled to a not-quite-wafer-thin consistency. Then a fresh egg is cracked over the middle of the heaping filling and then sealed in. The entire thing is dusted with a little salt and then slid into a deep-fryer filled with piping-hot oil. In a few minutes, the empanada is cooked through and then placed on steel slats for the oil to drain through.
Served with suka flown in from Ilocos, which packs quite a punch (the flavors are reminiscent of a stronger red wine vinegar kept in bottles for a longer period), the trick to eating the empanada, according to the owners, is to take a good first bite, then pour in some of the vinegar. The flavors are distinctly Filipino: meaty and hefty, and balanced with the strong sour tang of the Ilocos vinegar. It’s difficult to define what makes the empanada so good. The ingredients are rustic, homespun stuff anyone can find at any huge high-end supermarket or humble neighborhood palengke. The secret is the dough, some claim. The bright orange color, which many familiar with local street food find comforting (it’s similar to kwek-kwek or deep-fried quail eggs sold from rolling carts that show up on busy street corners at dusk), comes from a secret ingredient the couple says adds an extra something.
For Carlo, it’s the first bite that he finds the most enjoyable – when the freshly-made meat pie is placed in his hands, still warm from the deep-fryer, and he gets to sample the crust that crumbles delightfully with that first bite. "But," argues Antoinette, "the middle part is great, too. Once you get to the center, you can get a good bite of everything: the egg, longganisa and vegetables. It’s all there."
Though Antoinette originally tried the empanada in Manila, she considered the original from Ilocos a much better version. Carlo originally tried the meat pie sometime in 2001. Though he doesn’t hail from the region – he has relatives there that he visits often – he felt an affinity for the still-relatively-unknown dish. "I was eating it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, even merienda," he says. Fans of the dish consider the food substantial enough for lunch, although some with larger appetites order two or three more with the following orders sans egg.
Business, though new, is doing well. The original customers consisted of family and friends who would make their way to the stall to purchase their favorite version of the empanada. Today, the range of customers has increased dramatically from blue-collar workers in need of a meal on the cheap to affluent Ilocos natives looking for a taste of authentic homegrown food. Even picky eaters can have a taste of the stuff. Vegetarians can opt for a longganisa-free empanada, while meat-lovers can double the meat filling and skip on vegetables all together.
"My yoga teacher actually comes in and orders the meatless empanada," says Antoinette. And her son? "Oh, he eats anything as long as it’s salty and garlicky."
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
