03.10.08
Some Filipino Food
Anyone who follows my blog probably realizes that I like to take pictures. When I take a trip, the habit increases exponentially. So not surprisingly, I took pictures of some of the food we ate. Strangely, I didn’t take more of them because there were a lot of different dishes that would have lent themselves to a bit of commentary. I’m guessing I was to anxious to dig in that I forgot to take pictures. But I did manage to take some pictures, although they aren’t the best quality. Actually, they’re even pretty blurry, yikes! But perhaps they’re clear enough to get the gist of what there was to eat. Strangely, a lot of these were noodle dishes, but that’s not what we ate most of the time, ha! I guess I just haven’t had much noodles in a while that that day I went crazy ordering noodle dishes.
So following will be pictures of the kinds of foods that are commonly eaten in the Philippines. This by no means covers anything close to what they serve, and honestly, I do miss their food. This is sotanghog gisado.
As I mentioned, this isn’t the clearest of pictures, so I’ll describe it a bit. It’s basically stir fried veggies and shrimp over glass noodles. These particular noodles are called “sotanghong.” I believe they are made out of mung beans. Another way it’s cooked that I really like is in a chicken based soup. First you boil up some chicken with the bones, then in a separate skillet minced garlic is fired in oil. When the garlic starts to brown, the chicken pieces are added in, then the chicken broth and noodles. Add salt and pepper to taste, and enough paprika to give it a nice yellow color. Top with sliced scallions. But back to the picture, those two round green balls off to the top right corner of the picture are calamanci. I thin that’s how it’s spelled. I don’t know what it’s called here in the U.S., but it’s like a cross between an orange and lemon. When you’re ready to eat the noodle dish, you squeeze that juice out of those little green balls, kinda like how you squeeze lemon over broiled fish. The above dish has a veggie mix of sliced carrots, cabbage, mushroom, and snow peas.
Oh, and one other thing. One the very bottom of the picture the place mat can be seen. If it’s not too blurry perhaps the word “Maynila” can be read. That is actually what the Filipinos called Manila. But since we aren’t the ones who make the maps, ha!, Maynila ended up on the maps as “Manila.”
Now I did say that I went crazy with the noodle dishes, so here’s another one. This one is called Pancit Palabok.
This is also made with glass noodles, but not always. Different kinds of noodles can be used, thick or thin, but they are generally the clear types. I think the shrimps and egg slices are pretty clear to see. Another one of those calamanci balls is off on the edge of the plate. The sauce over the noodles is like a gravy. That’s the palabok. I found a recipe online as an example of the ingredients:
Ingredients:
* 1/2 kilo of white and round miki (NOODLES)
Garnishing:
* squid adobo (pusit)
* flaked fish meat (tinapa)
* pork sitsaron, coarsely pounded
* powdered pork sitsaron
* fried minced garlic
* cooked shrimps, shelled
* hard boiled eggs, sliced
* chopped springs onions
Palabok:
* 1/2 kilo fresh small crabs (possibly w/soft shell)
* 1 large onion, chopped finely
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 tbsp. cornstarch
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 3 tbsp. atchuete seeds or 2 tbsp. atchuete oil
* 2 tbsp. patis
* 1 tsp. vetsin
The rest of the instructions can be found here: http://www.recipesdatabase.com/recipedetail.aspx?id=801 Yum, I love these noodles. . .
Here’s another noodle dish called Pancit Canton. These are generally egg noodles. The noodles themselves appear yellow rather than white or clear.
Pancit Canton is cooked similarly to the sotanghong gisado. Only this dish has strips of chicken and a couple meat balls on top. There are a lot of other Filipino dishes such as meats and soups. One of my favorite soups is kare kare. I know the ingredients may sound bit strange, but I think it’s just lovely! Heheh. This soup is made with peanut butter. The main meat is usually oxtail with tripe. The common veggies that is cooked in this soup is eggplant, green beans, and bok choy or napa cabbage. 
Here is a small bowl of it.
Those yellow strips look like mango strips. I don’t usually see that in there, but then again there was quite a bit of food that was kinda new to me. I’ve had quite a bit of Filipino food in my life, but going back to the Philippines, I found there was a lot more that I had never had. For instance, we went to a Filipino restaurant called, Abe. That means friends. This restaurant served food which is primarily from the Pampanga region. That’s actually the province my mom is from. One Filipino dish that I really like is dela (I think that’s how it’s spelled!) What that is is tongue. The Mexican’s have their tongue dish called lengua, which I also really like. Anyway, this one restaurant served the dela in a pot pie style. And wow! Was it delicious! That was the first time I’d ever had it like that. 
Okay, so here’s another dish that I think is kinda new and not something I remember having as a child. It’s called sisig. And this is what it looks like. I believe they have chicken sisig and pork. This one pictured is pork and it has pork cracklings on top. This is a spicy dish and has red peppers mixed it there.
Okay, so it’s getting late and I want to wrap this up soon, so I’ll just share one more dish that is the popular dish at the Aristocrat Restaurant, BBQ chicken. Their rice is their own little blend, which includes little bits of veggies and a little ground beef. They also include a side of their local pickled veggies. Here’s what it looks like.
I think I’ll continue next time with a part 2 because I really like food and might as well share these pics since I’ve got them. But for now, the sandman is calling me.
Nite!
Marlakins zzzzzzzzz. . .
