Market Manila

JMom of “In Our Kitchen” is hosting this month’s Lasang Pinoy 11, with the selected topic of “Summertime Coolers and Memories of Summer.” This whole theme of food and childhood memories is an extremely powerful one and I have noticed this throughout the evolution of the Marketmanila blog. As if to validate our strong feelings on this topic, The International Herald Tribune actually had some articles the other day referring to the same issue. When I tried to think back to the summer months and what was considered an absolute treat, it would have to be coffee mangosteen ice cream. Even then, this was a totally special flavor, only available 1-2 months out of the year just after an abundant season of fresh mangosteen, and it was much more expensive than the other more “common” flavors. I can still remember the “hairy” pulp covered seeds of mangosteen which had turned a dark brown from stewing in sugar that would be enrobed in coffee flavored ice cream. Yes, this was a special summertime cooler of the most memorable kind…

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I was rather amused by reader comments and reactions to the previous post on pigs, pork and cheeks. Some readers asked the very loaded question of where to find the best lechon in the country. It’s a subject that I have explored a bit, but not nearly enough, and thus I don’t have an easy answer. Since it’s Friday and most folks are a bit more relaxed, let me first take you through my thinking process before I describe the best lechon ever…

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This little (or is it HUMONGOUS?) piggy went to market… When I was teeny tiny tot too young to resist my mom’s bribes (two cans of broas and unlimited hot chocolate) to spend a week or two with her in her ancestral town in Bohol, I had one of those memorable food experiences that I can still vividly recall today. Soon after we arrived at the town and ran around the house and grounds of relatives, one of the cousins took me out to see some “newborn” piglets. They must have been about 3-4 weeks old and they were cute as cartoons. Perky, hairy and beige-y pink, they really did look like moving stuffed animals. They asked me which one looked the cutest and of course I picked one of them, clueless that I had doomed its young soul to another dimension. In seconds, a sharp knife came out of nowhere, they slit the pigs throat, it squealed a blood curling scream and I skeedadled back to the main house, probably ready to faint. I am, you see, allergic to sight of blood. Always knew I wouldn’t be a doctor. Now if that isn’t a probinsyanos unveiled attempt to stick it to a city dweller, I don’t know what is!

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Cooked “ripe” pili is a dish that few non-Bicolanos get to try, let alone enjoy. Unless you have been to Bicol, have friends who have brought back fresh pili to your town or you have a tree in your backyard, getting the fresh black ripe pili is rather difficult. It spoils very quickly (say two days) and doesn’t travel too well… I learned to eat this by watching my dad who used to eat boiled pili with such gusto by dipping the peeled boiled pili in pungent guinamos. Inevitably, the rest of the meal was eaten by hand or kamayan style as it just seemed to taste better that way. Not many people know that you can eat the hairy pulp that surrounds the hard nut within, but I have to say it is an acquired taste.

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Frozen langka (jackfruit) served sprinkled with brandy or cognac. It doesn’t get any easier and it tastes surprisingly good. It’s langka season in Luzon big time, with mammoth fruit coming off of the trees and reaching the peak of ripeness just about now. As with most tropical fruits, when it rains, it pours, and the volume is often something that overwhelms. But I don’t generally buy bits of a fruit. So the last time I drove by the roadside stands in Batangas (NOT Tagaytay, where you get seriously fleeced), I bargained for a massive langka that was about 3 days from full ripeness. Back home, it was opened when ripe and the immediate question is, what the heck are we going to do with all of this fruit??? One the easiest ways to preserve it but still have a hint of freshness is to bottle it with sugared water and store it in the fridge for up to several weeks. You can add this to halo-halo, turon, ginataan, etc.

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Now it’s time for the Top 10 Pinoy Desserts, Sweets and Delicacies. Following the poll on the Top 10 Pinoy Dishes that got so much attention and yielded such interesting results, I agree with several readers who suggested a poll on desserts and sweets. In my opinion, the Pinoy sweet tooth is highly developed. Whether the more “traditional desserts” based on rice, palm sugar and coconuts to the more Spanish influenced concoctions high in refined sugar, eggs and lard to the American influenced cakes, ice creams, etc., we as a nation have excelled at adopting, adapting, consuming and talking about desserts. So this is your chance to put in your vote for the Top 10 Pinoy Desserts. Please exclude fresh fruits by themselves (e.g. Mango) as I intend a future poll on fruits as well. Marketman wants to know if your Top 10 Desserts includes a silky leche flan, an aromatic budbud kabog, a sensuous buko pandan salad, or perhaps bucaio, bibingka or broas? Will you just go crazy if you are forever banned from fried saba bananas, banana-que, turon, consilva or maruya? Will you whine if you faced a life without halo-halo, guinomis, or mais con hielo? What about pichi-pichi, palitao, cuchinta, puto or sapin-sapin? Would you get crabby if you couldn’t make that salad of canned fruits swimming in canned cream? Will Brazo de Mercedes make your list or is sans rival and a Cebuano torta more to your liking? What about yemas, pastillas de leche or ube jaleya? Think hard and narrow it down to just 10! Please write in, and post your list. I am busy the next day or two so I will leave this post up for maximum exposure and hopefully I can coax about 100-150 readers to participate. Many thanks in advance!!!

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I had no idea you could eat the pulp of a cacao bean. No idea. I suppose I have barely spent any time on a cacao farm so there is a reasonable excuse for that. I spent a few summer holidays with my mother in her ancestral town in Bohol, in a relative’s house that was located in the middle of dozens and dozens of rows of cacao trees. I was always fascinated with the idea that my favorite Hershey’s chocolate Kisses or Cadbury Fruit and Nut bars all started from these strange looking bean pods that grew out of the cacao tree trunks… Somehow the hot chocolate made from the cacao cakes or tablea was good, but not Kisses, if you know what I mean. It was on trips such as these that my memory banks were hardwired to remember treats such as local broas dipped in a cup of nice thick tsokolate. I used to watch the broas suck up the liquid and I had to figure out when it was just the right moment to extract the confection and pop it into my mouth so that you still had some crunch but maximum chocolate flavor!

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A stone’s throw from the sea, on another corner of the Bicol, stood a makeshift stall with locals selling some freshly caught fish. I headed over to look at some medium sized tulingan but was instantly struck by some strange looking creamy white fish. Their odd shape and bizarre “skin” definitely warranted a photograph. Called Sulay Bagyo in those parts, this fish is supposed to be excellent when cooked with coconut milk, pimiento, etc. I have not come across this fish before. Back home and armed with reference books, it turns out that Sulay Bagyo are actually Leatherjackets of the Family Monacanthidae. And the “odd skin” turned out to be no skin at all! In fact, I was staring at fish that had been literally stripped buck naked! Seems so improper to buy fish that have been skinned…though I admit I don’t share the same feelings when buying a skinned rabbit.

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