What's your favorite Filipino dish?

I can never survive on long trips abroad without having Filipino food. After a few days, I crave for sinigang na hipon and adobo. With our passion for eating, our country has produced world-class chefs here and abroad — some of them have even worked in the homes of famous personalities like President George Bush and Giorgio Armani.

The Asia Society, with chairperson Doris Ho, recently launched the much-awaited cookbook Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine, which features the best recipes for Filipino dishes. The cookbook contains standardized recipes that aim to make our food known all over the world.

I interviewed some of our best chefs and restaurateurs and asked them what their favorite Filipino dish is.

NORA DAZA, cookbook author: Oxtail kare-kare (not tripe). I love it because when cooked properly, it is delicious. The meat has to be tender to the bone, the skin has to be gelatinous. It is a complete meal with mixed vegetables and a rich sauce. It must be the right blend of ground peanuts, toasted rice flour, achuete and bagoong. For me, it is the best Filipino dish. My other favorite is lechon because the liver sauce is uniquely Filipino. 

CLAUDE TAYAG, chef, artist, writer: Lechon but not just any lechon. It has to be a native pig stuffed with loads and loads of garlic, leeks, lemongrass, tamarind leaves and black peppercorns, and salted. It has to be served whole, not chopped up in a chafing dish, cold with sebo. The flavor and aroma of the stuffing make it so irresistible that the only way to eat it is by pinching the crispy skin and ribs with one’s fingers, and dipping it in sinamak or spicy vinegar, downed with an ice-cold San Mig Light. Nothing beats this artery-clogging combination!

ROLANDO LAUDICHO, chef: Ubod spring rolls — crispy lumpia cone filled with chorizo, prawns and ubod topped with spicy vinegar.

BETH ROMUALDEZ, chef and cookbook author: I have too many favorites! My ultimate comfort food is sinigang na pork ribs with lots of vegetables, served piping hot and with the right sourness, and eaten with a mixture of flaked tuyo, tomatoes, young onions, chopped wansuy (cilantro), and a sprinkling of calamansi juice and patis. I usually pair off the main dish with another so that I achieve the right combination of flavors in my mouth. A dish of chicken and pork adobo is more enjoyable eaten with ginisang mongo or kilawin of puso ng saging; kare-kare paired off with binagoongang baboy and green mango salad; inihaw na baboy with a salad of itlog na maalat, kamatis at sibuyas or just plain lato with tomatoes, onions, calamansi and salt. Sawsawan is meant to enhance the pleasures of eating Filipino food, but to some, a sawsawan of Bicol Express (a concoction of stewed sili, pork, bagoong and coconut cream), and hot steaming rice is a whole meal in itself.

MARITEL NIEVERA-SHANI, restaurateur: My favorite dishes are the all-time Filipino food like kare-kare, sinigang na bangus with bayabas, inihaw na hito with burong hipon, and my comfort food, which is ginisang ampalaya in tomato with salmon. These are all included in my Cabalen specialties because I still believe that we Filipinos will always crave the taste of our original cuisine, the food we grew up with.

FLORABEL CO, chef: I have three favorite foods: ginataang manok, bistek tagalog and beef sinigang with gabi. These for me are the best Filipino and comfort foods.

MYRNA SEGUISMUNDO, chef: Adobo. I can have it a few days and still enjoy it. I love to pair it with monggo, sinigang, kare-kare or a relish of tomato, onion and salted eggs.

ROB PENGSON, chef: Bangus, fried tilapia, binagoongan and halo-halo. This is the food I had growing up, and I always ask for cocido to be served during Sunday lunch. We have a steady supply of the rest in our home.

JESSIE SINCIOCO, chef: Tinola with native chicken, raw papaya and malunggay leaves. It is simply delicious and very nutritious.

CONRAD CALALANG, restaurateur: Pinatisang manok, which is native to my hometown of Malolos, Bulacan. It’s an unusual dish that always reminds me of the cooking of my lolas. You will find the recipe in the new Kulinarya Cookbook, of which I am one of the contributing chefs.