What the Frugal Gourmet Said ...
The late Jeff Smith's (The Frugal Gourmet) book, The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors,
subtitled Recipes you should
have gotten from your grandmother, has a ten-page chapter on Filipino cuisine.
A simple Filipino-American Christmas Dinner
The chapter's introduction has a concise history about the Philippines and also about Filipino immigration into the US
(not mentioning the Manila Men who settled in Louisiana in the 1800s). He lists 8 dishes in the book:
Annatto oil (atsuwete); kare-kare;
mung
beans with pork (ginisang munggo); lumpia
and lumpia sauce (the fried vegetable lumpia,
not the fresh one); pork cooked in pork blood (dinuguan!!); chicken and pork adobo;
and Filipino pansit (noodles).
At anyrate, this is what the Frugal Gourmet has to say about Philippine cuisine
"The following selection of recipes is about as legitimate as you can get when it comes to Filipino immigrant cooking.
Kare-kare, or oxtails cooked with tripe in peanut sauce is my favorite. You are right, this is not a cuisine
that can be called "high class," but it is a cuisine that can be called delicious. The lumpias are heaven and
the chicken and pork adobo is simple and sensational. Make a meal of any or all of these and you will be quite happy. You might even try the pork cooked in pork blood. Calm down! It is a delicious dish. Now then, enjoy the presence
of our wonderful Filipino immigrants."
On the individual dishes themselves, this is what the Frugal Gourmet writes:
"Kare kare --- Just the description of this dish will turn some people off,
but they are the losers since this mixture of beef tails, tripe, and peanut sauce is just my favorite Filipino dish.
It is not strong in flavor and goes great with a bowl of rice ...
"Mung Beans with pork (I think this is ginisang munggo - Ken.) -- This is kind of a Filipino pork and beans
dish. It is certainly not expensive and it points to the wisdom of our Filipino immigrant grandmothers who had to
feed their families on very little. This is tasty and filling.
"Lumpia - This is the Filipino version of the Chinese egg roll, and I like it much better. You can buy these
in the streets in Manila and in any Filipino restaurant in this country. It is one of those dishes that made the
immigration trip very well.
A gathering of relatives around a table of food
"Pork cooked in pork blood (dinuguan) -- Now just calm down. You like liver sausage, don't you? And if you
are Norwegian, German, or Swedish, you have tasted blood pudding. This is no different. Even if you refuse to cook
this dish, I want you to read through the recipe. It is a wonderful lightly-liver-tasting pork stew. At the Filipino
restaurants in Hawaii, this is a very very popular dish.
"Chicken and pork adobo -- The Filipinos love meat cooked with vinegar. This dish is probably the best example
of such a thing and it is unusually delicious. The meat is simmered in a sauce and then pan-fried until dry.
Wonderful!
A simple Filipino-American Dinner centered around pancit
"Pansit - This delicious rice noodle dish probably came into the Philippines
from China. The Filipino cooks worked their wonders on the dish and brought it with them to Hawaii and finally to the
mainland. It is a favorite of mine and easy to prepare ..."
Well there goes. Believe na talaga ako ... Really, Filipino cuisine is wonderful ... I am just sort of disappointed
that Americans are slow to come to it ... all I see are Thai restaurants everywhere. Although Thai food is also very
good, I still think that Filipino food is better -- we don't have to tone down the spices because the spices are just
right!
Oh well, I guess I'm going home now and partake of some camaron rebosado and
alimasag .... Bye for now
Ken I.
Order Jeff Smith's On Our Immigrant Ancestors book through
Amazon.com Books now! - softcover
Back to the Carinderia ...
