Cucumber Salad with “Visayan Vinaigrette”
The recent abundance and variety of cucumbers had me stumped. 
I wanted a simple recipe that was healthy and would go with fried fish, lechon kawali, a soupy curry or even a bowl of lentils with sausage. I decided to do a variation on my mom’s old cucumber salad recipe. Until age 10 or so, I think I avoided all vegetables with the exception of cucumber salad and atchara (picked papaya). Recently, I noticed another cook from the Visayas making a cucumber salad very similar to my mom’s and when I asked her what she called the dressing she said “Visayan Vinaigrette” – it cracked me up so much I have adopted the name for this totally simple recipe. Take some cucumbers and slice them up. If using only the ridged larger variety, de-seeding them will make them seem crisper. Peel if you like but I didn’t peel the smaller varieties. I also used the English variety and gherkins and they were nice and crisp.
6 Comments Send this post to a friend
Recently, however, I have noticed that if you keep your eyes peeled at some of the markets you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find. Going to the market without a list is the first step to discovering finds; the second step is to constantly view vendor offerings as though it was the first time you had ever seen their stall and vegetables. Last Saturday I was amazed to find four different kinds of cucumbers at the market: Ridged or the most common large cucumbers grown here for eons, really pale large cucumbers (which I did not buy), small English cucumbers and even smaller and bumpy skinned gherkins. Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) are thought to have originated in Southern India but are also believed to be one of the oldest cultivated vegetables with Mr. Davidson writing it has been farmed for over 4000 years!
description rarely with respect to produce, meals and flowers but every once in a while we create, see, taste or feel something that is near perfect. But first, let me digress a bit. My fascination with food, flowers and entertaining stems from the fact that it goes back to our earliest ancestors… Think of a group of orangutans (people of the forest in Malay or Indonesian) gathered around a brilliant bunch of ripe bananas. Or the first time a human asked another out on a dinner date (complete with wild boar carpaccio killed with a yoyo as an appetizer). Yoyos were based on an actual weapon used in the Southern Philippines in case you are scratching your head thinking Marketman has gone positively mental. Finally, when did someone decide that adding flowers to a dinner table would lift spirits and elevate grazing into a festive occasion? Since we live life through our senses – sight, smell, taste, texture and sound all contribute to our experience at a meal, gathering or party.
is the only place to go when you need a lot of flowers or a broader selection of flowers than is generally available in one’s neighborhood flower shop. The prices at Dimasalang (also referred to as the Dangwa wholesale market due to its proximity to the Dangwa Bus Terminal) are very affordable when compared with retail florists. The market is about 30 years old and I would guess that it’s location sprung from the fact that the buses from the North (Baguio, Benguet, Cagayan, etc.) use to terminate their routes here in Sampaloc and the flowers that were transported from the North were distributed to retailers as soon as they were unloaded. Slowly the market has grown to its current size of over 100 individual vendors that sell flowers, leaves, unusual plant related goods, ribbons, floral supplies, etc. Even large importers of flowers have set-up shop here as this has simply become the recognized epicenter of flowers in Metro Manila.
Though significantly smaller, the “new” store actually looks better, utilizes the space more efficiently and is staffed with a large crew of helpful salespeople. The first time I entered the store in 2002 or thereabouts, I had come from a meal at a nearby restaurant and spied what looked like cast iron pots and pans. I was thrilled to find the “Lodge” line of cast iron cookware and there was a fairly good variety of pots, pans and casseroles. I have since purchased many cast iron pots and pans and at very reasonable prices. Yesterday, however, I noticed a diminishing number of cast iron pots and pans and I hope they re-stock soon. Beside the retail store is a small cafe.
more accepting of bitter in the supreme service of Marketmanila readers? I think not. But if, like me, you absolutely abhorred ampalaya until now, do yourself a favor and read the rest of this post. I always disliked the vegetable because of its incredibly bitter taste. It didn’t help that it looked really unappetizing after it was cooked… it took on an olivish green hue that announced that “I am well and truly dead now.” But illogically, I liked the bitterness of broccoli rabe, the bitter pepperiness of arugula, and even radicchio. So I was resolved to give ampalaya another chance…and while I wouldn’t eat this dish every week…it wasn’t bad at all…
That is not a typo, I did that on purpose. I am just so used to seeing sago translated as tapioca in menus, recipe books, etc. that I assumed it must be tapioca. My research suggests it most definitely is NOT. Tapioca is made from cassava root. Sago is made from the pith of a Sago or related palm. Since we were up to our eyeballs in cooked sago as a result of the previous entry, I was searching for other ways to use these balls and tried this delicious mango and sago concoction that is attributed to Glenda Barretto, who calls it “Mango and Tapioca Pearls…” Hmmm…
sweltering heat and rushed out to the grocery to buy a small pack of sago and a bunch of ripe saba cooking bananas. Just before starting to make minatamis na saba (stewed bananas in syrup), I noticed that it would take a whole day to reconstitute the sago! I have obviously never made sago at home. What the heck is this stuff made off that it takes longer to reconstitute than dried legumes? Sago is actually made from the powdery starch that is obtained from the pith of sago and related palm trees. The starch is often used as a food thickener and in some places a textile stiffener (according to a Princeton University site)!!! Yikes. Grown in the Southern Philippines (typically in marsh areas), Indonesia and Malaysia, the sago palms yield oodles of these starch balls that are sold in all different sizes and sometimes artificially colored. Cook, soak overnight, blanch again, soak again and you end up with these gelatinous, somewhat tasteless soft marbles that many of us have grown used to in Asian desserts and drinks.