The Ultimate Pinoy Food

Where will you find electable and tempting delicacies? Nowhere else but there in the heart of Asia, Philippines! Philippine foods are distinguished to be strange but unique mixture of eastern and western culture. It is also labeled as bland and mild. This made Filipino dishes more suitable for those with sedate and sensitive taste buds. As with other Asian countries, rice is their staple food and will be served with most meals.

I traveled around the city to search for our “Ultimate Pinoy Food”. I ate at Kamay- Kainan, one of the restaurants that cater proudly Filipino foods and revive the essence of “pagkakamay” in eating.

THE CONTENDERS

Kare-Kare vs. Sinigang

KARE-KARE

 Ingredients:

1/2 kilo beef's oxtail; cut in 3-inch chunks

1/2 kilo beef's tripe; cut in 2-inch x 3-inch

4 pieces eggplant, sliced in 1-inch thick

1 bundle pechay (bok choy); cut into 2 pieces

10 string beans; cut in 2-inch long

1 banana heart (puso ng saging); cut in lengths

2 pieces onions; chopped

2 heads garlic; minced

2 tablespoons annatto (atsuete) seeds

1 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup grounded toasted rice

Salt and pepper to taste

Bagoong alamang

Cooking oil

Water

Fry annatto seeds in 4 tablespoons of oil. Drain annatto oil in bowl and discards seeds.

Boil beef’s oxtail with enough water to cover until tender. Strain oxtail and save broth. Meanwhile, blanch beef's tripe with boiling water and set aside.Using 1 tablespoon of annato oil, sauté garlic and onion in a large saucepan. Add oxtail, saute, and brown all sides, then drop the tripe. Saute again for a while, then add broth just enough to create a sauce. Simmer, then add the vegetables. When tender, add the grounded peanut, toasted ground rice, and the rest of the oil to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, then serve hot with bagoong alamang.

Kare kare taste better if the meat is tender. To achieve this, boil the oxtail slowly and gently in low heat. This will bring out the flavor of the meat and keeps the meat tender.

You can also use meat of beef, goat, or chicken.

Kare-kare or kari-kari is a popular Filipino dish especially in the Tagalog region. The Filipino version of the beef stew flavoured and thickened in a peanut - based sauce, with a variety of vegetables. The most common cuts of beef used are tail, shank or face. A combination of the three may be used and most cooks preferred to add tripe. If these are not available you can use round or sirloin cut.

The meat is first tenderized, then sautéed in garlic, bagoong, annatto seeds, and vegetables. Peanut butter is added during the last stages of cooking to thicken the sauce and give the characteristic flavour of the kare-kare.

Most common vegetables used are string beans or snake beans, pechay or baby bachoy, eggplant and banana buds from the banana heart (optional).

Kare-kare is always served with white boil rice and bagoong alamang on the side. Bagoong Alamang is a paste of salted and fermented shrimp fingerlings, it is like a shrimp paste. Bagoong has a strong taste for some people but for me kare - kare is not kare kare if not serve with bagoong.

If green mangoes are available, it will be nice to serve it as a salad.

SINIGANG

Ingredients:

1 kilo fish

2 pieces radish (regular size, sliced)

1 bundle Kangkong (cut into 2" long)

1 bundle sitaw (string beans)

¼ kilo sampalok (tamarind)

3 pieces long green chilli

3 tomatoes (sliced into quarters)

1 onion (diced)

water

salt or patis (to taste)

To soften the tamarind, place in a small casserole or pan together with water and bring to a boil. Mash and have all the juices extracted.

Place the radish, tomatoes, onions, tamarind juice and water in a casserole. Place under medium heat and bring to a boil.

Adjust the fire to low and add the fish, green long chili, string beans, and kangkong. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

Use salt or patis for seasoning.

You can place the cooked sinigang na isda in a palayok (pot) and serve hot.

Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind (sampalok).Other versions of the dish derive their sourness from ingredients such as guava, calamansi, bilimbi, or raw mango among others.Powdered soup base or bouillon cubes for sinigang based on tamarind or calamondin are also used in place of natural fruits. Vinegar is not used for making sinigang sour. A similar dish made with vinegar as the primary souring ingredient would tend to be categorized as paksiw in Philippine cuisine.

Meat in sinigang (e.g., fish, pork, shrimp, or beef) is often stewed with tamarinds, tomatoes, and onions. Other vegetables commonly used in the making of sinigang include okra, taro corms (gabi), daikon (labanos), water spinach (kangkong), yardlong beans (sitaw) and eggplant (talong). Most Filipinos like to cook sinigang with green finger pepper in order to enhance the taste while adding a little spice to the dish.

A food writer Doreen Fernandez suggested that its origins are most likely indigenous and hence it may be considered the national dish of the Philippines. Nobody knows where and what is the origin of sinigang. Another Ricardo Soleer, caterer, food expert and writer, is the man responsible for bringing to light the origins of kare-kare that saw print on Kitchen Rescue a few years ago said that “Among his favorite Filipino dishes is sinigang, the similarities of which to Thailand’s tom yum, canh chua from Vietnam and Indonesia’s sayur asam are striking enough.

All our foods carry our dignity of being Pinoy. But for all foods that I have tasted, Sinigang captures my taste more. Sinigang is more Pinoy that Kare-kare just like a morena more than a mestiza. There are also many versions of sinigang according to our distinct culture. When you eat sinigang you can proudly say “I am PINOY”.