Learning to cook Filipino food: Ginataang Mais

There are a few Filipino food blogs I follow.  And every now and then, I will pin a recipe to my Pinterest page that looks interesting, saving it for later reference.  One of those recipes was ginataang mais.  This week I decided to give making it a try.

What I liked about this recipe was the ingredients were easy to obtain.  The only "unusual" ingredient that would be hard to find in a regular American market was the sticky rice, but thankfully I already had some on hand.  The rest of the ingredients I bought from Trader Joe's.

I had a couple recipes for ginataang mais saved, but I decided to follow this one.  "Ginataang" is a word that means "cooked with coconut milk", and "mais" is corn.  My husband likes dishes cooked in coconut milk, so I always feel safe trying those.  The blog that posted this recipe said this dish is eaten as a snack or dessert, and can be eaten hot or cold.

You basically just dump all of the ingredients together in a pot and cook it until the sticky rice is soft.  The most "difficult" step would be your need to stand close to the pot and stir frequently.  But other than that it was pretty easy.

One trick to cooking a new dish just a couple weeks after having a baby is to have a "grandma" on hand and maybe a cute cousin or two to hang out and watch your active toddler and preschooler.

It turned out pretty yummy!  Not sure how to describe it.  It was almost the same steps as champorado (chocolate sticky rice porridge), but with corn instead of chocolate.  Think of sweet creamy coconut flavored porridge.  Jakob enjoyed it, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture since I was feeding the baby in the other room.  But I did get a picture of Trevor.  Ha ha... unfortunately he is my picky son and he refused to try it.  So here he is smiling nicely with his chicken nuggets instead.

It was fun to try a new recipe.  But I think we probably prefer champorado to ginataang mais.  What Filipino dish do you think I should try next?

How Calamansi Juice Reveals a Filipino Virtue I Admire

Calamansi juice is sorta like the Filipino version of lemonade or limeaide.  I don't remember when I first tried it, but it was one of the first Filipino drinks I tried.  Its funny how it is described.  The size of the fruit is very small, like the size of a kumquat or mandarin orange.  Actually the fruit is just that,

"the result of a rare natural cross between two closely related genera, the Citrus and the Fortunella, and carries the characteristics of both the parents. The Fortunella parent, Kumquat, lends a dense shrubby habitat, small leaves and a hardy constitution, whereas the Citrus reticulata, Mandarin Orange, lends thorns, tasty fruit and ease of peeling. So the Calamansi has small, easy to peel fruit with the sour acid flavor." (see link here)

In the Philippines it is usually seen and used in its unripened stage, which is green with a strong sour flavor.  But when fully ripe it is orange in color and slightly more sweet but still retaining its sour punch.  I even read that it can be used for various medicinal purposes, a couple being removing itchiness from an insect bit and helping to deodorize underarms.  I'll have to remember that once we move and are fighting off mosquito bites and sweating in the high humidity.

My in-laws gave me a bag of ripe calamansis last week.  I was excited because there have been a few Filipino recipes I have made that called for calamansi, but I had to substitute a lime and splash of orange juice in it's place.  They were starting to go bad so we used them up this morning.  I made crepes for breakfast, so instead of squeezing lemon on them with powdered sugar and butter we used the calamansi - and it was perfect!  So with the rest I found a recipe on the internet and made it into juice.

It was yummy.  Jakob's comment was "oh Mommy this is the very best juice ever!"  When I was making it, it reminded me of a common Filipino characteristic I admire and hope to learn better myself, patience and serving others.  I love how as a general description, Filipinos are more relational orientated rather than time orientated.  I had to cut up 15 calamansis and hand squeeze them in order to get just 1/2 cup of juice.  After adding the water and sugar I got about 2 1/2 cups of juice, or 20 ounces.  In American sizes that is a medium drink at any local restaurant.  I could easily see how time consuming it would be to make enough of this juice to serve at your party.  And this is one of the most common drinks?  My American mindset tells me such an equation is not worth the effort.  Funny how even in learning how to cook in another culture you learn about the culture itself and what they value.  Perhaps expanding my Filipino cooking will be one hands-on practical way I can start to learn and understand how to value relationships over time.
    

Filipino Spaghetti

I haven’t blogged about a Filipino dish recently, so I thought it was about time.  Since the last time I blogged about my Filipino cooking adventures I have tried a few more dishes, but just didn't take the time to blog about them.  (I really enjoyed the Tuna Sisig I made, perhaps I will make it again so I can share it with you all here.) But this time I decided to make Filipino style spaghetti.  The first time I tried it I was warned that although it looks just like spaghetti, it was sweeter.  The taste immediately reminded me of Chef Boyardee's spaghetti O’s with franks that I ate so many times from a can growing up.  So of course I liked it.  My husband tells me that it is a common food that you would find at a children’s birthday party in the Philippines.  He said it was one of his favorite dishes as a kid

The main differences between the spaghetti you are probably familiar with and the Filipino version is that the Filipino version has banana ketchup, hot dogs and a little sugar added.  Banana ketchup is just like it sounds, made from bananas and colored red to resemble ketchup.  It even comes in a glass bottle, the same shape as a Heinz bottle.  I read on one of the food blogs I follow that it came about during World War 2 when tomatoes were hard to find.  Not sure how true that is, but makes a good story.

The recipe I followed came from the Panlasang Pinoy blog.  Over time I have come to recognize which recipes are the more authentic Filipino recipes, and which recipes have been altered to the preferences of Amercians.  I do have a couple cook books, but for a lot of the Filipino dishes I make I get the recipe from the internet.  I found it helpful looking at a few different recipes of the same dish so I can learn the variations and compare.  If it is an authentic recipe than usually about 1-3 ingredients will not have any measures indicated.  Instead it will list the ingredient and later under the instructions it will simply say “add such-and-such”.  It can be quite frustrating, but at the same time forces me to learn by taste and compare other recipes to deceiver the puzzle.  Another sign that the recipe is authentic is some of the ingredients will be impossible to find at your local grocery store.  And third, the YouTube video showing the step by step process will be in Tagalog (in part or in whole) if you are using an authentic recipe.

Here are my ingredients and I was ready to go.

The process was very similar to my mom’s spaghetti, with just a few extra ingredients to throw in.  I came to a hick up when it told me to add the brown sugar.  There was no indication anywhere how much to add.  I searched for other recipes to see how much sugar they added.  I found one recipe that added 1 TBSP and another recipe that added ½ cup!  Ha ha… so I figured it must go by prefence and taste?  I decided to add ¼ cup.  I think that was too much and I should have started slow and tasted, then added more.  Next time.  

The other hick up was it said “A big bottle of banana ketchup”.  Walmart actually had banana ketchup so I bought mine there.  But I didn’t notice any size differences.  So I assumed mine was “big”.  But just to make sure I added 1/3 more from another bottle I already had on hand.  Ha ha... mistake number 2.

Oh one more thing.  It said to make 2 lbs. of spaghetti.  That sounded like a lot to me.  But from the other 4 recipes I found online, they all called for 2 lbs of spaghetti.  Filipinos eat with family and friends in large groups, so perhaps making anything less than 2 lbs isn't worth the effort?  

Here is a picture of the end product.  It turned out okay.  It is edible.  But it is a little too sweet.  So I think the ¼ cup of brown sugar was too much.  I should have added less.  And the second thing is that it was hot and spicy!  Crazy, where did that come from?  Then I looked at the bottle of banana ketchup I used and it said “Hot”.  Ha ha… oh no I got the hot version?!  I didn’t even know it came in a hot version. 

But if like sweet and spicy spaghetti, come on over to my house!  I have a big dish of freshly made Filipino spaghetti waiting to be eaten.  Not sure how much of my white family will eat the dish, but I have a feeling my husband will love it! ... And in the end that is what matters most for my Filipino cooking adventures. 

Filipino BBQ: learning to cook Filipino food

In my efforts to learn to cook a more Filipino food, I thought I'd tried Filipino BBQ pork.  Another one that I enjoy, which is also very "American friendly" so I thought my American parents would enjoy it too.

Here is a link to the recipe I tried to follow.  The recipe called for thin slices of pork.  I didn't have time to stop at an Asian market to pick up the correct cut of pork, let alone have time to stop at my regular neighborhood market to see if they even could cut it the way the recipe asked for.... so I used chicken breast instead. ha ha.... you should have heard my husband's excited and then slightly disappointed response when I told him over the phone "hey we are having filipino pork BBQ tonight (insert excited response).... but I don't have pork so I am using chicken (insert slight disappointment)."  But it actually turned out very well and my husband and parents were very pleased!  My mom's response was "this is a very impressive dish".

I can't tell you exactly what makes Filipino BBQ distinctly Filipino.  Perhaps it is the marinade.... consisting of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and banana sauce.  Or perhaps it is the cut of meat, thin slices.  Or maybe even the presentation of it skewered onto bamboo sticks.    This is where my dream Filipino cookbook would come in handy to tell me the history and evolution of the dish.  But that is for another time.

Here all of (well mostly all, minus the banana sauce which was on its way when I took this picture) the ingredients.

I cut the chicken in small pieces and put it in a bag to marinade with the sauce.  Smile for the camera Jakob!

 Oh you want to make my picture too?  Okay.

While the meat is marinading and you are cleaning up the kitchen let you son play with your camera and take a few pictures.

Hey, this one isn't too bad Jakob.

Then grill them on the barbeque when you are reading to eat.

Ta da!!!  Sorry for the poor quality picture.  Need to learn a few tips to take better pictures of my Filipino food.  One of the main non-Filipino things about this picture is the amount.  ha ha.... Usually such a generous and abundant amount of food, and my serving plate is half empty.  :)

Oh I made some vinegar dipping sauce too.  That one came in Filipino portions... to bad the recipe I used said it doesn't save well if you use fresh garlic.  My mother in law almost always have vinegar dipping sauce on hand for the food she serves.  I really enjoy it and I realized it was more than just plain vinegar so I looked up a recipe.  This one was slightly spicy and very yummy.

Allan said that my BBQ would go well with the Torta Talong I made the other day... the strong flavor of the marinade would pair nicely with the more mild eggplant dish.  Our friends are coming over this weekend and I am planning on serving the BBQ with the Torta Talong, at my husband's suggestion.  We'll see how they enjoy it.

Pancake Talong: learning to cook filipino food

One of my goals for this year was to cook one new Filipino dish each month.  I started out okay, but like most resolutions, it fell to the wayside and I haven't cooked a new one in several months.  So I thought I would try to work towards my goal again.  I decided to make Tortang Talong, or eggplant omlet.  Didn't quite work out, but Allan said it was the right taste and I learned a lot in the process.

There seems to be a few names for this dish.  Torta Talong, Tortang Talong, Rellenong Talong, and Puki-puki.  Talong means eggplant in Tagalog.  The term torta means different things to different people around the globe.  Wikipedia helped clarify by explaining that, "in the Philippines the term for omelette is torta - not to be confused with the Mexican torta (sandwich), Italian torta (pie) or the Spanish torta (cake)."

I read that the basic form of torta talong is an eggplant dipped in egg and fried up into an omlet.  Usually served with banana sauce ( Filipino ketchup made from bananas instead of tomatoes).  Banana sauce is a common Filipino condiment that came about during World War II when there was a shortage of tomatoes.  So because of the abundance of bananas, they used bananas instead and died it red to resemble ketchup.  If you stuff your eggplant with ground pork or meat of some kind then you get a dish called Rellenong Talong.  But one blog told me that meat is more expensive in the Philippines, so to have your talong stuffed with meat is the fancier way to consume it.  Still a third way to prepare it would be the Ilokanoo way (a specific province in the Philippines where my mother in law is from) which is sauteed with onions, tomatoes and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste condiment) or patis (fish sauce condiment).

It can be a little confusing as an outsider trying to learn and figure out which way is the "authentic way" when each new link I click on from my google search gives me a new way to prepare it.  Allan said it is sorta like meatloaf, there really isn't an exact recipe to follow, but each person puts their own spin on it.  My dream Filipino cookbook would be one that gave the history of each dish and how it evolved and how it varies over the different provinces in the Philippines.

 So here goes.....

My first variation from the Filipino way of preparing this dish was that I used American eggplants instead of Chinese eggplants.  I didn't really know there was a difference as I don't consume eggplants regularly.  I had always wanted to make this dish, so when I went to the local pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin with my sons, and I saw the fresh eggplants, I bought a few.  The Chinese eggplant is longer and has thinner skin.  I was told that the taste is similar just the texture is a little different. 

You first need to cook the eggplant in order to soften the skin to remove it.  You can boil it, broiled it, or grill it.  The most tasty way (so I've been told) is to grill it so you can get some of the grill flavor.  I opted for broil.  I had a bit of a snafu because one of my eggplants exploded!  Yikes!  Didn't read any warning about possible exploding talongs in the recipes I found on the web.

I put off the cleaning of the oven until later and I made sure my son, Trevor, was well occupied as I proceeded to the next steps.

I prepped all of the ingredients and got ready to "stuff" the eggplants.  I opted for the meat version with sauteed tomatoes and onions and garlic. I was going to serve this as the main dish for dinner, so I thought my American parents would appreciate the meat in the dish.

But I had my second snafu when I tried to flatten my eggplant with my fork.  Perhaps because it was an American eggplant instead of a Chinese eggplant, I had trouble keeping the eggplant together while I was flattening it.  So mid way through the preparation I changed my intent and decided to make pancakes instead of omelets!  In my defense, I did come across one youtube video of the preparation of this dish, and that Filipino man made pancakes so I thought I'd do the same.  I put all the ingredients in the same bowl and mixed it like batter.

Then I poured the batter on the skillet to cook.

I flipped them in order to cook both sides and then they were done.  We served it with ketchup since we didn't have any banana sauce at home.

My parents said it was good.  Allan said it tasted just like it should.  But the ones who enjoyed it the most were Jakob and Trevor!  Trevor giggled with glee as he ate each bite.  And Jakob asked for more and more.  If you know my son Jakob then you'll know he is allergic to eggs.  I put some of the dish aside before I added the egg.  So he had the eggplant mixed with the sauteed meat and veggie mixture.  As much as you look, there is no substitute for an egg when you are trying to make an omelet.  :)

Here is a link to a blog with pictures of what mine should have looked like.  In case you are wondering it took me over an hour to scrub the oven.

Filipino Food: Lumpia & Adobo

So I made fried vegetable lumpia (Filipino egg roll) and chicken adobo.  Although I have made adobo several times before so only the lumpia was a new recipe for me.  It didn't turn out half bad.  I got the lumpia recipe from my friend Marie. 

First up, get the boys settled so I can start to work on the lumpia.  I put on a movie in the other room for them.

 

Here are almost all of my ingredients laid out ready to go.  I finally figured out how to listen to a sermon on my Kindle Fire (much easier than I thought or tried to make it out to be).  So I had my trusty kindle to refer to for my recipe, as well as a listening device for the sermon my pastor preached last week.

WARNING DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.  When you cut an onion you might get two pieces that look like the ones below.  What do they remind you of?  The eyes of a Precious Moments doll, right?  I must strongly caution you to resist the urge to hold up the onion pieces to your eyes and turn to your younger brother and ask him "what am I?"  He will only think you are a weird older sister and before he has a chance to you reply you will realize your stupity and cry out the answer for him, "stupid, I am stupid!!" (ha ha... a little childhood memory with my brother Nathan).

By this time my older son got bored with the movie, so I set up a "work station for him" and let him "cook" and measure.  He also really enjoyed eating the bean sprouts.  Oooo does that count as one of his veggies??

I slowly added the veggies to the wok and cooked them up.  But... perhaps I was distracted by my lovely sermon, because I forgot to add the soy sauce and patis (fish sauce)!  Yikers!!  Ooopsy!!  Still turned out okay since I was able to make a dipping sauce, you hardly noticed.

Here they are, the little lumpias all rolled up and ready to go swimming!

Yay!!  Here is the finished product below.  The adobo turned out pretty good as well.  My American parents really liked it, but then again they have nothing to compare it to so they are not picky.  :)  What is missing in the picture below?  If you are Asian you will notice right away, if you are not Asian it might take you a little while to figure it out.  Rice!  I didn't serve any rice!  ha ha.... not a big deal for my white parents, but my husband thought I was joking when I told him there was no rice.  ha ha... next time I'll have to serve it with rice.

Turon (banana egg roll)

So I tried another Filipino dish.  This time I tired turon, which is a banana sprinkled with brown sugar and rolled up in a won ton (spring roll, egg roll, lumpia...still have to learn the difference between all of those) wrapper and deep fried.  It tasted pretty good, but the process of getting there was a bit bumpy.  My friend Melissa in Spain said that they have turon in Spain, which makes sense since the Philippines were a colony of Spain for several hundred years.  Although Allan and I were wondering if they use some other dough to roll it in instead of a won ton wrapper.

Here are all of the ingredients laid out and ready to go.

My first bump was using a turkey thermometer to test the oil instead of a candy thermometer.  Oops!  Melted a little! 

Then, my second bump was having my little Trevor almost blow away in a tent.  You see Jakob was out back playing while I was preparing, so I put Trevor in a little tent on the grass.  Not too long passed when Jakob came in whinning and crying.  I went outside to find the tent upside down!  I rescued Trevor and brought both boys inside.  ha ha... Trevor wasn't even crying and had no clue.

I was sorta using two different recipes.  A Filipino one to make sure it was authentic, but then an American one so I could follow more specific step by step directions.  Maybe my oil was too hot... couldn't tell since I melted my thermometer.  But one recipe said to sprinkle brown sugar on the turon while it was deep frying.  My sugar just floated around and clumped up... it didn't stick to the turon or caramelize at all.  Oh well.

 

Then the nice American recipe said to let the turon dry on paper towels to soak up the oil.  But my turons were gobbed with brown sugar so they stuck to the paper towel.  I got rid of the paper towel for the next two batches and just went with the extra oil.  :)

And the finished product didn't look too bad!  I didn't want to waste the globs of caramelized brown sugar floating in the oil, so I put it on the turon.  Didn't quite make it look like the picture, but it was yummy.  I think it will probably get better with practice.  My husband enjoyed them very much and said they tasted just like they should!  He ate two or three in a matter of minutes.  Got me a little anxious how quickly he just popped them into his mouth and they disappeared... didn't he know the bumpy road I traveled to produce them?

Champorado (Chocolate Rice Pudding)

So one of my goals for 2012 is to try at least one new Filipino recipe each month.  I want to learn new recipes for a few reasons.  One because my husband's favorite food is Filipino food and I want to make his tummy happy!  Two because we are planning and hoping to move there soon so I want to have a variety of recipes already in my cookbook that I can start out with once we get there.  And three to learn the ingredients that go into common Filipino dishes so I can learn how to substitute ingredients to make them "Jakob safe" (a.k.a. no dairy, eggs, peanuts or mustard).  The first one I tried was Champorado.

I first had champorado a few years ago at my in laws.  It was served for some holiday (maybe Christmas or New Years I think?) after dinner as a snack.  I enjoyed it immediately!  And then the next morning my mother in law served us the leftovers for breakfast!  Chocolate for breakfast, yummy!  I thought this would be a sure hit with Jakob.  I was driving by the Filipino market today so I stopped to pick up some sweet rice.  I asked the clerk for "sticky rice"....trying to act like I knew what I was talking about and pretending like I fit right in at the Filipino market.  I felt like telling her my son was half Filipino to make it sound like I fit in, but that seemed silly to me and the mere thought embarrassed me.  She showed me where it was, I guess it is also called sweet rice.

It was actually very simple to make!  The only ingredients were sweet rice, water, cocoa and a little vanilla.  Cooking the rice was a little tedious, as you have to stir constantly so the rice doesn't burn.  So I stood by the stove for 20 minutes.  But the time passed quickly, especially since I spent by time watching Allan's lastest sermon on my Kindle Fire and spent the remainder of my time talking on the phone with my friend about her recent Valentine's Day party at her house.  Here are some pictures of the experiment!


Here are all of the ingredients laid out and ready to go!  I had to keep adding more water because as I stirred the water evaporated and the rice wasn't done cooking yet.  Most Filipino recipes I get don't have exact measurements, so I just kept adding water and eventually it got to the right consistency.

When Jakob tried it he said "cookies!" since that is the only other time he has ever tasted chocolate.  ha ha... he liked it a lot and asked for seconds.

 

Happy customers!  Allan said it tasted good.  Although he said it tasted like dark chocolate.  He said he was used it to being lighter in color and a little more sweet.  Perhaps that is because I didn't add in condensed milk like the recipe asked for (since I was making it dairy free for Jakob).  Instead I added a splash of coconut milk, which is not quite as sweet as condensed milk. Allan said his sister likes to pair her champorado with bacon.  Perhaps next time we'll try some bacon on the side.

Pretty fun!  Here is the link to the recipe I used for those of you who are interested.  I am looking forward to trying another recipe soon!  I picked up some egg free lumpia wrappers, so maybe turon will be my next try.  I am also determine to try laing (my husband's favorite dish), but I have to research how to properly cook the gabi leaves so they don't make anyone's tongue itchy.

Mmmmm Sarap!

Maybe it is the start of a new year and the talk of resolutions. Maybe it is the fact that I still cannot fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans yet. Maybe it is the comment I received the other week asking if I was expecting our third child. Whatever it might be, I have decided it is time to loose a few pounds. So this morning I made a protein oatmeal concoction from the Insanity Workout menu. I know Allan does not prefer oatmeal for breakfast but he’ll eat it to fill his tummy and satisfy his conscience. But when he came downstairs to eat this morning he took one look at the oatmeal I made and asked “what is that?” He knew I was making oatmeal but perhaps he didn’t recognize it because it was a shade of purple and had red chunks in it. I used frozen berries so it made the oatmeal cold. And it had a distinct taste of fake protein with no added sugar, not exactly food network worthy. After Allan forced down half his bowl I said I’d make him an egg and sausage instead. He first politely declined the offer and said that my oatmeal took his appetite away. J Then I insisted. After he finished the egg and sausage he had a content smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

The breakfast incident this morning made me reflect about Filipinos and their love for food. My first clue how important food is to the Filipino culture occurred while Allan and I were dating and when I first met his family. After I first met his family I asked Allan how’d he think it went? Allan said it went good and that his family liked me. I asked why? And he said because I ate their food. Because I ate their food? I thought that was a funny response. He said I made a good first impression because I ate the bagoong and enjoyed it and then asked for seconds. (Bagoong is a Philippine condiment made of partially or completely fermented fish or shrimps and salt.)

My second clue that food was important to the Filipino culture occurred because it is one of the most common topics I receive from other Filipinos when they learn we are raising support to move to the Philippines. “Have you had Filipino food? Do you like it? Which dish do you like the most?” And by the way my husband boasts about me in response. “Oh, she likes bagoong! And she can cook several dishes.”

I think it is funny the response I get from non-Filipinos who learn that I eat and enjoy Filipino cuisine. The most common conclusion I get from non-Filipinos is “oh, that means you’ll be a good missionary.” This makes me chuckle inside because I sincerely doubt that my ability to consume and enjoy bagoong and similar dishes is hardly the standard God will hold me to when He says “well done good and faithful servant.” But their comments do make me think and ask myself “why do I eat Filipino food without hesitation while others are fearful and cling to their familiar chicken dishes?” One, I conclude that there is a country where millions of people eat and love this food, so surely there must be something tasty and desirable about it. Two, I don’t ask for the American translation for the dish. I am often told the name of the dish in Tagalog, so I simply scoop it up on my plate and enjoy without trying to dissect or translate each ingredient into my American palate. And lastly probably the biggest reason I enjoy Filipino food is because of the influence of my husband. Allan has never once hyped up a dish into being some sort of fear factor experience. He has never chuckled or waited in anticipation to see “will Sandi eat it?” Instead when I see him talk about Filipino food he speaks with a smile on his face and a little twinkle in his eye. There is a sense of satisfaction and contentment he receives after eating Filipino food that he certainly doesn’t get from my oatmeal. And I believe that is because there is a sense of comfort, familiarity and memories tied into the cuisine he grew up on. So if a simply dish can bring all of that to my husband, I certainly do not want to miss out on the experience!

I will end with a funny incident that reinforces how peoples enjoyment of food can influence your own experience with that same dish. We were gathered together with Allan’s family for some holiday or birthday celebration. As usual the topic of food came up during conversation over dinner and somehow we got to talking about a specific dish called bulalo. They were explaining to me that one of the main ingredients in the soup is bone marrow. The entire bone is placed in the soup. And one of the best parts about the soup is when you pick up the bone and suck out the marrow. My first reaction when told about this ingredient was fear because this broke one of my unwritten rules, don’t translate Filipino ingredients before you try a dish. But then slowly one by one, each friend and family member sitting at the table started to get the same twinkle in their eye and smile on their face that I often recognize on Allan’s face when he speaks about Filipino food. By the end of the discussion everyone at the table was practically salivating at the comfort, pleasure and familiarity that their memories of bulalo were bringing to mind. Then the conversation turned to a Peruvian dish made of guinea pigs. The smiles faded and the twinkles vanished and in their place was disgust. The general consensus at the table was that they would not try such a disgusting dish. I was laughing inside because how could the same group of people who were salivating over bone marrow, all of a sudden be revolted at the thought of consuming a guinea pig. Perhaps what we needed was a Peruvian to join the conversation to convince us the deliciousness of the dish.

I could try almost any dish if the right person introduced me to it. That content smile and twinkle of the eye is quite persuasive to my taste buds and influential to my tummy. Although one food I have yet to try is balut (fertilized duck eggs/duck embryo), for some reason whenever I am told about balut there is a little chuckle in the air with an unspoken fear factor element. I have yet to find someone describe balut to me with the content smile on their face and twinkle in their eye.

Drinkable Fruit and Chocolate Meat

Last Sunday Allan had the priviledge to preach at a American-Filipino church in Simi-Valley(Christian Fellowship Church). He has preached there once before, but I was unable to join him because I wasn't feeling well. So, as you can imagine I was quite excited to be able to join him this time.

Usual Filipino style, after the service they have food fellowship time. Various members of the church bring food to share and everyone fellowships over delicious meals. Being married to Allan now for 3 years, I have come to expect and anticipate the food at Filipino gatherings. I now recognize the different dishes and my tastebuds look forward to the variety.

One of the first things I recognized was the drink, melon. Ooo, yummy! It is drink made from cantelope. It is very refreshing and delicious - shreaded cantelope mixed with water and sugar over ice. I asked around and was able to get a recipe. I am sure my mom will love it and want to try and make it for her.

This time I also saw something I did not recognize. I saw a few different people with a bowl of looked like bitg shriveled purns. Funny, I didn't know prunes were Filipino. Then I overheard people say "chocolate meat". Oh! I know this. Allan instructed me the Tagalog name for the dish is dinuguan. The translation is "blooded". It is pork meat cooked in pork blood. I polity skipped over that dish. But when we got back to the table Allan asked me if I wanted to try. I took a small piece. I decided to eat the small piece with a spoonful of rice. And oh my! What a pleasant surprise! It was really good! Such a funny thing. I have never had such contradiction going on as I was enjoying food before. My mind kept saying, no Sandi do you understand what this is?! But my tastebuds rebelled and prevailed over my mind and said, ooo yummy! This is reallygood! Ha ha... I couldn't help but think what my doctor must say about this dish. She told me to not eat unpasturized cheese because it could be harmful for the baby. Ha ha... I am sure she probably wouldn't approve of dinuguan! I'll have to wait until after the baby comes before I have a full dish.