Food & Cooking ~ Philippines

[thekfc]

Just a little info on the food & food terms in/of the Philippines. Credit goes to the original authors.  Please make any correction as needed and contributions (in terms of words ) are welcome.

Let’s begin with the art of eating:

To understand the art of eating you must know the philosophy of food.  Food must be fresh, have flavor and possess proper texture.
If the food itself is bad, even the greatest chef will not be able to cook a flavor into it. As in other things in life, we must avoid excesses in food.

We should not aim at eating too much if we want to eat for good health. We should also be sparing in our tastes and eat only when hungry, and not just eat for the sake of eating. The same applies to drinking.

If we eat too much at a time, it hurts our lungs, and if we eat too little we become hungry and that hurts our vital energy.

Simple food properly cooked will ensure good eating and good health. Everything in cooking must match and there is an order in eating food of different flavors. Clear must go with clear, thick with thick and soft with soft.

Usually, we should eat food of a salty flavor first and then food of a more negative flavor.

Heavy should precede the light and dry precedes gravy - you must have noticed that in many Asian dinner, soup is never served first.
Salty flavor is relieved by bitter or hot tasty food. Too much wine dulls the stomach, which can only be aroused to vigor again by sweet or sour food.  Mustard is for a warm day and pepper for a cool day. 

Cooking in the Philippines:
Filipino cuisine is distinguished by its bold combination of sweet, sour and salty flavors, and in general most dishes are not heavily spiced. While other Asian cuisines may be known for a more subtle delivery and presentation, Filipino palates prefer a sudden influx of flavor. Filipino cuisine is often delivered in a single presentation, giving the participant a simultaneous visual feast, an aromatic bouquet, and a gustatory delight.

Counterpoint is also a feature in Philippine cuisine - pairing of something sweet with something salty

The Filipino style of preparing food are not only delicious but are also kept well without refrigeration.  Dishes cooked adobo or sinigang style are preserved because of the effect of vinegar or souring ingredient. 

Philippine cooking is simple. Most dishes are either sautéed or stewed. Other dishes are boiled, braised or fried.  Baked dishes are not that common, which is sensible for a tropical cuisine.

The staple food in the Philippines is rice. Over twenty varieties of rice are cultivated, which are made into thousands of different cakes, noodles, and pancakes. Rice is most often steamed, served during meals and is eaten almost daily.

A glossary on cooking terms & food of the Philippines

Achara: Pickled fruit and vegetable relish
Adobo, Adobong: Meat, seafood or vegetables stewed in vinegar with garlic and black pepper.
Agar-Agar: Seaweed gelatin
Alamang: Shrimp paste or shrimp sauce
Alogbati: Malabar spinach
Alugbati or Alogbati: Red stemmed vine whose green leaves are used for cooking.
Ampalaya: Bitter melon
Apulid: Water chestnuts
Arroz Caldo: Chicken rice soup
Atis: Sweetsop
Atsuete: Annatto
Baboy: Pork
Bagoong: shrimp paste made from small salted and fermented shrimps.
Babad/Binabad/Ibinabad:  to marinate.
Baldereta: Goat meat stew
Bangus: Milkfish
Batwan:  The taste is sour but not acidic, a tartness that promotes saliva in the mouth without impacting on the stomach, the way vinegar or even kalamansi often does
Bayabas: Guava
Binuro: Using salt as a preservative agent.
Bistek: Stir fried steak
Bulalo: Beef Shank (marrow) soup
Chico: Naseberry, aka Sapodilla
Cozido: A stew made with different meats and vegetables
Dahon ng sili: Chili pepper leaves
Dalandan: the local orange.  They are often too sour for eating, but are very juicy and perfect for making into juice.
Dinaing: Marinating butterflied fish with vinegar, then broiling or frying.
Dinuguan Baboy: Pork blood stew
Duhat:  purple berries. They do stain clothing.
Duyap: The local lemon or lime. The equivalent of key lime
Empanada: Meat filled pastry
Empanadita: Honey and nut pastry
Estofado: prepared with a burnt-sugar sauce
Frito or Fritong: To fry
Gabi: Taro
Galunggong: Mackarel Scad. A popular fish & are usually serve pan-fried
Ginisang: Sauteed.
Ginisang Gulay,Pinakbet or pakbet: Sauteed vegetables.
Ginisang sitaw: Sauteed String Beans.
Ginisang Monggo : Mung Beans Soup
Guinataan: To cook meat, seafood, or vegetables in coconut milk
Guinisa: To sautee with garlic and onions
Halo-halo: A  sweet, creamy, and  filling dessert.
Halabos: To steam shellfish with little water
Hipon: Shrimp
Inasan: Preserving foods with salt
Inihaw: To grill or broil
Kabute: Mushroom
Kalabasa: Squash
Kalamansi/Calaminsi:  is indigenous to the Philippines & plays a giant role in cuisine. Use for /in cooking, juice, tea, sauce, etc,.
Kamansi : Very  similar  to a breadfruit or jackfruit
Kamote: Sweet potato
Kamoteng Kahoy: Cassava
Kangkong: Swamp cabbage
Kaong: Palm nuts
Kare-kare: beef ox tail in peanut sauce.
Kilawin or kinilaw: Marinated in vinegar or kalamansi juice along with garlic, onions, ginger, tomato, peppers
Kinchay: Asian celerey
Labanos: White radish
Labong: Bamboo shoots
Langka: Jackfruit
Leche Flan:  Filipino custard
Lechón: Whole roasted pig.
Longganisa: Philippine sausage.
Lumpia: Filipino version of the egg rolls.
Luya: Ginger
Macapuno:a Philippine variety of the coconut palm. It does not contain water inside the coconut shell.  The "meat" of is a soft jelly-like substance & is used in popular deserts, sweets, etc,.
Mangosteen: often regarded as one of the four most delicious fruits in the world along with the mango, pineapple, and cherimoya.
Makopa: A bell-shaped and pinkish edible fruit.
Malunggay: Horseradish tree
Mangga: Mango
Manggang Hilaw: Green mango
Manok: Chicken
Marang:   smell like  durian,  looks like langka  and feels like atis
Morcon: Stuffed rolled steak
Munggo: Mung beans
Murang sibuyas: Spring onions
Mustasa: Mustard greens
Nangka: Jackfruit
Nilaga: Boiling meat or fish in water
Nilagang Baka: Beef
Paksiw:  cooked in vinegar and garlic
Palitaw: a small, flat, sweet rice cake
Pancit: Noodles. There are plenty of variations
Pasingao: Steaming fish, shellfish or meats
Patis: a very salty, thin, amber-color fish or shrimp sauce.
Pasilla: A kind of hot pepper
Paho: look like a spoiled mango & has a bearable sourness that lingers in the tastebuds long after eating it.
Pechay: Bok choy
Penoy: Duck egg
Pinakbet: Pork and vegetable stew with bagoong alamang.
Pinaksiw: Cooking method; to cook fish in vinegar with water and spices
Pinausukan: To smoke fish and meats for flavor.
Pork Sinigang: pork soup/stew
Pulutan: A term used to call any food that accompanies beer during drinking sessions.
Pusit: Squid
Puto: steamed rice cake.
Relleno or Rellenong: Stuffing chicken, fish or vegetables.
Saba: Cooking banana or plantain
Saging: Banana
Sago: Tapioca pearls
Salabat: Ginger tea
Saluyot: Okra leaves
Sampalok: Tamarind
Sarciado:  a sauce.
Sigarilyas: Winged bean
Sili: Chili peppers
Sineguelas:  Spanish plum.
Singkamas: Jicama
Sinigang: Cooking meats, fish or vegetables with sour fruit/vegetables.
Siomai: Dumplings
Siopao: Steamed meat buns
Sisig: A dish made from parts of pig’s head and liver, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili peppers.
Sitaw: String beans
Talaba: Oyster
Talong: Eggplant.
Tortang Talong: Eggplant fritters / eggplant omelette
Tanglad: Lemon grass
Tiessa: A heart-shaped, orange-yellow summer fruit is said to be one of the best sources of vitamin A. Eating tiessa is like eating boiled kamote (sweet potatoes).
Tilapia: Another extremely common fish.
Tinapa: To soak smoked or salted fish in water, then pan-fry
Tocino: Annatto cured pork meat
Toge: Bean sprouts
Torrones: Egg rolls with bananas
Tubo: Sugar cane
Ube: Purple yam
Upo: Winter melon

[Dave H]

The staple food in the Philippines is rice. Over twenty varieties of rice are cultivated, which are made into thousands of different cakes, noodles, and pancakes. Rice is most often steamed, served during meals and is eaten almost daily.

Hey thekfc,

Very nice post!  At a glance, I noticed one glaring mistake above that the authors made! RICE IS EATEN DAILY IN THE PHILIPPINES! It is a must for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and is often concocted into various snacks and eaten in between meals. I don't care how much food a Filipino has eaten (burgers, spaghetti, pizza, etc.) they just consider it a snack without rice and will eat their regular meal with rice right on time, even if they just ate a huge "snack" a short time ago. I have witnessed it many times and am always amazed! I will buy a 36 inch pizza, be totally stuffed and think everyone else is...then everyone goes back to our house and eats rice and chicken.

Dave

[thekfc]

Yeah I keep forgetting that - a meal is not complete until after rice is eaten. 

I think that my wife is being "Americanize" - sometimes she have bread, eggs, sausages or ham for breakfast.... with no rice. But I do not know what she eats after I leave for work. 

On a different note, Ray was right about the parboil rice, my wife do not even touch it; the ones I had before she came is there collecting dust. She love eating Jasmine rice, it is on sale every week & I get it for almost the same price as the long grain rice.
She do make a mean coconut rice.

[jm21-2]

Hm, it would be nice if my fiance learned to enjoy an American style breakfast, but hard to imagine. She lived in Australia for months and didn't even try a sausage roll  .  I usually skip breakfast because I don't like cereal or the quickie breakfast items and not enough time to make a real breakfast. Would be nice to have some sausage and eggs before heading off to work.

Then again, Taiwanese breakfast can be pretty good...some duck noodle soup or baozi would definitely not be bad.... fortunately for me she's a noodle person not a rice person...I almost never eat rice...though her mom's fried rice was one of the best things I've ever tasted...

Have you had problems finding any spices? I guess in NYC it's much easier. Several of the spices my fiance wants, like wolfberry, are considered Chinese medicinal herbs here, rather than cooking herbs, so it seems like it might be easier to get them from a nutrition/supplement/chinese medicine store instead of a food store.

[Capstone]

Have you had problems finding any spices? I guess in NYC it's much easier. Several of the spices my fiance wants, like wolfberry, are considered Chinese medicinal herbs here, rather than cooking herbs, so it seems like it might be easier to get them from a nutrition/supplement/chinese medicine store instead of a food store.

Goji (wolfberry) is really easy to find in most Chinese grocery stores around here (on the spice aisle). We always have a big bag of dried goji on hand for cooking. It depends on the brand but usually it is labeled in English as 'Fructus Lycil' instead of goji or wolfberry. Not sure what the Chinese characters on the label actually say though.

[Jeff S]

Just about any health food store, and many of the new-style semi gourmet grocery stores that are springing up everywhere have goji - around here at least.

[thekfc]

Have you had problems finding any spices? I guess in NYC it's much easier.

No,  I have no problems finding spices in NYC. The problem that I had were the difference in the names or knowing exactly what they were.

We both made a few trips to Chinatown together (she prefer it to the Filipino store because of a larger variety) and I now know what her "liking" is. Also she do not stick to just Filipino spices/foods, she get Thai, Chinese, Japanese and from most South Asian countries. My wife was surprise at the vast variety of South Asian "stuff" here in NYC.

She is also trying/tried the different "Americas"  food & recipes. She prefer the Trinidadian style of Oxtail than the Jamaican style. She likes Conch & she loves jerk chicken

She also loves some of the Spanish dishes and she is not too fond of some of the Puerto Rican dishes - she prefers the Dominican & Cuban ones.  She also loves Cajun cooking.

[thekfc]

Ihad to look up Goji (wolfberry) to see exactly what it is; now I know - Mede Berry. 

[Ray]

A few tips on rice that I have picked up over the years...

If you cook rice in an automatic rice cooker, try to make a full pot or nearly full pot. We found the small 3-cup rice cookers (makes 6 cups cooked) to be ideal for daily use unless you have a huge family. You can get the small ones for about $15 or less.

A 50-lb rice dispenser is the best way to store rice and it measures it automatically for you.

It isn’t really necessary to pre-wash your rice before cooking like they do back home in the PI. The rice here is generally very clean while the typical bulk rice from the palengke (market) back there often has rat turds, gravel, and other strange things in it. Have you noticed the rice drying in the roadway while busses and trucks whiz by? Also, if you pre-wash vitamin fortified rice then you’re just washing off the vitamins.

Keep left over rice in the refrigerator and warm up in the microwave. It will keep for days like this.

Use leftover rice for fried rice or just simple garlic rice for breakfast. Cold precooked rice is best for fried rice. Long grain rice is the best variety for fried rice unless you want it sticky for eating with sticks or fingers, then use Calrose or Thai Jasmine variety.

For traditional Filipino breakfasts, make plain garlic rice from yesterday's leftover steamed rice. Simply brown some chopped garlic in a little oil in a skillet and add cold rice, stirring for a few minutes until lightly browned. It goes well with sausages and eggs.

Thai Jasmine rice is the most popular with Filipinos here. kfc, how much do you guys pay for that jasmine rice on sale back there? It’s usually around $15-20 for a 20-lb sack out here in most stores. We buy the 50-lb sacks in Costco for about $27 while their long grain is about $16 for 50-lb sack.

I prefer the long grain or Calrose varieties, but jasmine is fine occasionally. I also like the plain brown rice which is chewier and more healthy, but has been very expensive in recent years. It seems to be going back down in price here lately.

OK, let’s hear from Inday…   

Ray

[jm21-2]

Guess I'm just in the boonies :/. I couldn't find any of the spices she wanted at the local Asian food stores....have to drive at least an hour to find anything at all. We'll probably have to make a habit of taking the ferry to downtown Seattle once or twice a month.

Who can resist a good jerked chicken?

[Ray]

Who can resist a good jerked chicken?

HEY!  No jerking your chicken on the forum!


 

[thekfc]

I pay between $13-$15 for a 20lb bag of Thai Jasmine rice - depending on the brand.

She (we) haven't use the rice cooker yet. A few years back I bought a couple of good pot/utensils when Stern's were closing their stores but I never used them - we are using them now & she like them.

She have made garlic rice about 2-3 time.

We haven't use any of the Brown or Calrose rice.........yet.
 
I just received a free 2 membership to BJ's in the mail (mine expired last year), so we will hit the store later in the month.

Time to hear from the other folks. 

[robert angel]

I can't say for sure, but I don't think that a lot of Filipinos have western style ovens and it's not as easy for them to bake, but you can for sure find all kinds of uber good baked goods in most towns in the Philippines.

In fact, they're one of my favorite things to eat. And I'm not talking about the Goldilocks chain over there that a lot of Filipinos like, or the Dunkin Donuts franchises you see there either--I'm talking about things like cassava and sticky rice cakes--mmmm. Just realized that you don't bake sticky sweet rice and maybe something along that line is what you guys mean by 'coconut rice'.

Jasmine rice rules here in our household--a friend heading out of town just dropped twenty pounds off at our house recently in fact--we're set for a while. She knows I'd buy her a rice cooker in a heart beat, but I probably want one more than she does. . Cooking rice?--a pot of water and rice, with a tight top, no salt and no butter is how she likes it.

 She wanted and got a nice food processor, a juicer and even the 'Magic Bullet micro food processor, but no rice steamer. And she rarely uses the processors and juicer--too much muss and fuss.

She's more into a sharp knife, cutting board and a good skillet. Unlike back home, where she didn't grow up with ovens (we're sending convection and microwave ovens over there) she's into using the oven more and more here, baking cookies, casseroles, meats, fish, etc

She loves those corny commercials that sell crap like the 'Magic Bullet' and we like to watch their TV 'info'--commercials, waiting and chuckle over the inevitable lines, such as 'And that's not all"  "Limited time only--not available in stores" & 'If you call in the NEXT twenty minutes, we'll EVEN give you TWO..." on and on.... Pure American hucksterism. Ron Popiel, God rest your busy soul--he's probably selling new and improved angel wings up there--the 'Pocket Fisherman' should be a hall of fame somewhere.

Coconut rice?? My wife grew up on a large copra (coconut) farm and they revere those trees as 'the tree of life' utilizing every part of the tree to the point of where even once it's dead, they use the last of it, down to the roots, to make charcoal for water filtration purposes. I can't even begin to tell you all the things they do with and get out of those trees, but let's just say they can do more things with a copra tree than Forest's buddy, 'Bubba Gump' could do with a shrimp...

BUT she's never even HEARD of 'coconut rice'!!

It's interesting to note that there's a lot of similarities between Filipino cooking, Filipino foods in general and that of South America--probably due in no small part to the many years of Spanish influence in both places.

Here in the states though, she does like cajun food and we both 'love that chicken from Popeyes', including some of their side dishes....

[Dave H]

It isn’t really necessary to pre-wash your rice before cooking like they do back home in the PI. The rice here is generally very clean while the typical bulk rice from the palengke (market) back there often has rat turds, gravel, and other strange things in it. Have you noticed the rice drying in the roadway while busses and trucks whiz by? Also, if you pre-wash vitamin fortified rice then you’re just washing off the vitamins.

Ray

Hey Ray,

Yeah...I usually have the farmers throw in some extra rat turds and gravel so I can make more money per kilo!  Filipinos prefer sun dried rice. They say it lasts longer and tastes better than machine dried rice. I was thinking about buying a gas rice dryer, since it has been raining so darn much here. Better than having a few tons of moldly rice.

Dave

[Ray]

I was thinking about buying a gas rice dryer...

Why, what happened to the old one? Did you finally burn it out?

   

 

Ray

[piglett]

We'll probably have to make a habit of taking the ferry to downtown Seattle once or twice a month.

well Jm it's nice to know that you are open minded to associate with ferries & that you are also willing to travel with them once or twice a month



pig

[robert angel]

Piglett--I can't believe you're thinking of springing for the obscenely expensive airfare for one helluva surprise!

I thought u wuz sooooo cheap that you broke each grain of rice into two pieces so you'd have more!

[thekfc]

Piglett--I can't believe you're thinking of springing for the obscenely expensive airfare for one helluva surprise!

I thought u wuz sooooo cheap that you broke each grain of rice into two pieces so you'd have more!

Haven't you hear? There is some kind of a mysterious flu going on in NH & the piggy have caught it. 

Actually I think that the pigster saw how wonderful the place & people were and since he never really got to experience it, so he is going back - something that I am thinking & planning to do. 

I also think that he is going back to "chew out" one or two family members off in person on behalf of his wife. 

[Capstone]

My wife and in-laws took our now weekly shopping trip to Atlanta this past weekend and I found that in the big Chinese grocery that I frequent there was a fire sale going on for all food items from Japan. The Chinese are afraid to eat anything from Japan ever since the reports that radiation has been found in certain area's food & water supplies in Japan. Well their fear was my gain because I loaded up on many boxes of my favorite brand of Japanese mochi for next to nothing. The package dates on them were all before the accident occurred and besides a little radiation in ones diet never hurt anyone    

My sister-in-law back in China told us that it is getting hard to find salt in the stores in China now because people are hoarding it. It seems as though they believe the small amount of iodine in the iodized salt will help protect them from radiation (which is a total crock) so they are buying all of that up. And they are also buying up all the sea salt because they fear that the sea water around China will now become contaminated with radioactive particles which leaked from the Japanese power plant. Crazy.

[thekfc]

That is nuts about the salt. 

I went shopping in Chinatown this past Monday. I went to buy octopus & squid for the wife and I only went to the seafood stores/sections; I didn't go in the grocery sections or into any of the supermarkets so I do not know if that is also happening in NYC.

This Friday after work, I will be doing some grocery shopping (Patis, Mama Sita's mixes, Soy Sauces, Ampalaya, Bak Choy, bean curd, etc,) so I will check to see if there is a fire sale on food items from Japan - if there is I will surely stock up. 

[jm21-2]

Yeah, the iodized salt deal seems to have hit in some parts of the US too...heard about it earlier...you have to eat something like 5 pounds of salt to have any effect....what people will do.

[Bob_S]

Yeah, the iodized salt deal seems to have hit in some parts of the US too...heard about it earlier...you have to eat something like 5 pounds of salt to have any effect....what people will do.

Yeah, my wife mentioned this on her blog back on 3/17.  We ran the numbers based on government recommendations for iodine one adult should intake for radiation exposure, and basically, from the amount of iodine in iodized salt, a person would need to consume 3 kilograms of salt per day.
However, sea food is loaded with iodine.  So ironically, a traditional Japanese diet rich in sea food would help protect you.  In fact, you can get the same amount of iodine in 50 grams of kombu kelp sea weed.

Of course it's all stupid irrational fear.  If they are really concerned about the impact on their lifespan, they should all just quit smoking.  If radiation is shaving days or weeks off the average person's lifespan, the typical Asian male's chain-smoking habit is shaving years or decades off.   

[Jeff S]

Well that's good, since we eat kombu, wakame, and/or hijiki at least once almost every day, The last thing I expect to ever read on my medical chart is that I have a mineral deficiency.

[Jeremy.west]

hey i have fox history travels. one of most feb program is food at 9.  in that show find some Philippines foods. can you share some food recipy ?

[seattlejoe]

Guess I'm just in the boonies :/. I couldn't find any of the spices she wanted at the local Asian food stores....have to drive at least an hour to find anything at all. We'll probably have to make a habit of taking the ferry to downtown Seattle once or twice a month.

Who can resist a good jerked chicken?

  Where r u calling the boonies. just interested. sounds like Bermenton
                 
                                        jm21-2