Linggo, Hulyo 24, 2011

Filipino Street Foods

        Filipinos are known to enjoy the average three meals a day plus desserts or “merienda” as most Filipinos call it. One of the qualities that Filipinos possess is their ingenuity to make up almost anything into something new, creative yet cost-sufficient, including food. People of other countries may prefer dining and eating pizzas when hunger pangs strikes. Filipinos on the other hand race to the streets to satisfy their hunger for favorite Pinoy street food for a few pesos.

                                                        forgetfulghee.blogspot.com
Everywhere you look, it is common to find people crowding make shift or portable stalls in the streets. These street foods are easy to find outside school gates, churches, parks and even in malls where they offer most exotic delicacies.


                                                                      flickr.com
     Street food is everywhere and balot is one of the absolute highlights not for me but for Filipinos. There are still foods not just balot that almost every Filipino used to sell it every night. From balot to expensive foods there are dishes that you can’t miss. With its flavors, Filipinos like sweet and salty flavors, and garlic is also a component of many of their dishes. Many restaurants in the Philippines will use a mixture of meats, such as adding shrimp to pork dishes.


                                                                filipino-foods.com 

   Alongside there would almost certainly be pansit, noodles once Chinese, now Filipino, still in a sweet-sour sauce. Spanish festive fare like morcon (beef rolls), embutido (pork rolls), fish escabeche and stuffed chicken or turkey might be there too. Some restaurants and carenderia primarily served with beef, Kare-Kare is a stew that combines stewed oxtail, beef and vegetables in a peanut sauce. It may also include offal or tripe, and its different variations include using goat meat or chicken in place of the beef. Some Filipino restaurants serve spicy Kare-Kare with shrimp paste, also called bagoong, chili and lime juice.







                                                                experience-pinas.com


   
There are many pork recipes served in local restaurants, but many offer roasted pig, known as lechon. Lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and served with lechon sauce, this dish is a favorite in the Philippines. If you want to try a pork dish with more flavor, you might prefer Bicol Express. Blending coconut cream with pork, bagoong, onion and garlic, this stew exudes local flavor.


Biyernes, Hulyo 22, 2011

Regional variations

     It is not a surprise that the Philippines has different variations when it comes to the way the food is served and prepared.

     With its 7,100 islands embedded in the Pacific with varied ethnic groups and regions in it, each has their own exotic way of serving dishes. Don't get astonished if a Bicolano served adobo is different from how Tagalogs do it.

    Some factors of these diversities include; the resources in each region; the way how its people used to and their beliefs and inclinations.

     Each region has their own specialties in which they are known for though generally the Philippines is widely known for its mouth watering adobo and lechon.

     The  Tagalog region is the haven of those delicious made lechon, the northern part of the country, particularly Ilocos is known for their pakbet while the Bicol Region is famous to their hot and spicy coconut creamed foods like the Bicol Express and laing.

      And because I and Shana were Bicolanas, shalalafang would first offer you our own dishes here in Bicol,. Wewill make you experience and savor the taste of Bicol.

Bicol Specialties: 

    Bicol Express

                                                          fuckyeahfilipinofoods.tumblr.com

Bicol Express Recipe Ingredients:

* 1/4 kilo of Pork liempo – sliced into 1/2 inch strips
* 4 cups of Long green chili – pepper, seeded and julliened
* 1 cup of Alamang – fresh
* 1.5 cups of Water
* 1.5 cups of Coconut cream
* 1 pouch of Mama Sita’s Pang-Gisa mix

Bicol Express Recipe Cooking Instructions:
1. Soak Long green chili peppers in salted water for 30 minutes, rinse, then strain well.
2. In a pan,combine water,pork, and alamang.
3. Bring to a boil and then lower the fire and let simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add long green chili peppers and Mama Sitas Pang-Gisa Mix cook until dish gets a little dry.
5. Pour in coconut milk and cook until sauce thickens. Serve hot.


   Laing


                                           
Laing Recipe Ingredients:

  • 25 pieces gabi (taro) leaves, dried and shredded 
  • 1/2 kilo pork, diced
  • 1/4 cup shrimp bagoong
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
  • 5 red hot chilies or siling labuyo, sliced
  • 1 cup coconut cream (katang gata)
  • 2 cups coconut milk (gata)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vetsin or monosodium glutamate (MSG)
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
Cooking instructions:
  • In a casserole, sauté garlic, ginger and onions then add the pork.
  • Mix in the gabi leaves.
  • Pour in the coconut milk (gata) and bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Add red hot chilies, bagoong, salt and MSG and simmer for another 5 minutes.
  • Add the coconut cream and continue to simmer until oil comes out of the cream.
  • Serve hot with plain white rice.
  Kinunot
                                                                   bicol-expess.com
Kinunot Recipe Ingredients:
           
  • 1 kg of stingray
  • 2-3 tbsp cooking oil
  • 2 tbsp of garlic, minced
  • 1 whole onion, sliced
  • 4 thumb size ginger, slice
  • 1 cup coconut milk (gata)
  • 2 cup coconut cream (kakang gata)
  • 2-3 pcs siling labuyo
  • 1 1/2 cup malungay leaves
  • salt to taste
  • vetsin (monosodium glutamate)
Cooking procedures:
 
             1. Wash stingray by rubbing skin using salt, cut into quarter and boilfor 1-2 minute. 
             2. Drain to cool and flaked, set aside meat with cartilage. 
             3.In a pot, sautee garlic, onion, ginger.  
             4.Pour in coconut milk and mix slowly but continously until it boil to avoid coconut cream from curdling.        
             5. Add stingray and stir from time to time, simmer until the sauces almost dry. 
             6. Pour in coconut cream (kakang gata) and simmer until sauce dry and start to render oil, add vetsin, siling labuyo and salt to taste.
            7. Lastly add malungay leaves and simmer for 1-2 minute or until malungay is done. Served kinunot while it is hot with white rice.




Pinangat


lakwatseradeprimera.com
 
 Pinangat Recipe Ingredients:
 
5 coconuts,
1 head garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 bundle gabi leaves
lemon grass leaves for tying the pinangat
1 thumb-size ginger
5 cups coconut milk (second extract)
1 lemon grass root or bulb, crushed
2 cups coconut cream (first extract or kakang gata)
 
Cooking Procedures:

1. Combine the coconut milk, shrimp, garlic, onion and siling labuyo.
2. Place 2 to 3 tsps of the mixture in 2 layers of gabi leaves. Fold to form either a square or a rectangle. Tie each square or rectangle with gabi leaves.
3. Repeat the above procedure until the mixture is used up; set aside.
4. Meanwhile, simmer the coconut milk; ginger and lemon grass root for a few minutes in a deep pan. Simmer until aromatic.
5. Place the gabi square into the simmering coconut milk mixture. Allow to simmer for an hour.
6. After an hour, pur in the coconut cream. Allow to simmer until sauce thickens.
7. Remove the lemon grass and ginger prior to serving.

What makes Pinoy foods special...

       Have you ever wondered  how Filipino foods came to be? What makes them unique and special?

       Before, our ancestors make their food just through roasting, boiling, and broiling in an open fire. It is something plain, no art and style. The filipino idea of food rooted from everything that nature offers. Those that are found around us. And because we have an abundant forests and mountains and a great bodies of water, our ancestors preferred meat, seafoods and fruits.

        As years passed, foreign traders from Malaysia, Indonesia, Arab, India and China brought varieties of spices and food plants to the Philippines. And most significantly, they brought us their tastes and cooking styles which we also adapted. This makes our Austronesian style of cooking.

        As traders and colonizers came left the country, Filipino cooking grew richer with the introduction of different styles, tastes and spices by these different races that influences our plain style.

        Though Philippines is abundant with resources around but our aborigines are ignorant of their uses.

        Spanish culture is one of the most influential in the Filipino cuisine having at around 80 percent of the food served in the country is originated from Spain.

         The Americans are the ones who introduced to us canned goods and the use of fruit cocktail while the Chinese brought us varieties of noodles which we also adapted.

         The Japanese with three years occupation in the Philippines has less influences in our culture specifically in our dishes. Accounts even said that they hired Filipinas to cook for them. Their influence can either be in some of the ingredients or in the process of cooking. One of the which is "miso" which is a Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans which is used for sinigang.

         Filipino cuisine reflects what Filipinos are. It also introduces our history and culture. Pinoy is a mixture of different races and so as to our food. It can accommodate different tastes and tactures. And this makes Pinoy foods unique and special.