The Philippines really should figure out how to brand our homegrown pork. There is Kobe Beef, why not “Pinoy Pork†or an equally hokey or catchy name, depending on the spin doctors. When I am at a loss for an easy and delicious meal, I very often think pork, pink pig, porcine taba, wild boar, black native hogs, and flavor-filled fat, fat, fat. I could probably 
pick local pork out of a line up of more Western-raised pigs… ours just seems to have so much more glorious fat cells. Can you tell I fell off the diet wagon while traveling last week and plan to return to my strict exercise and diet regimen tomorrow? At any rate, here is something we eat once in a while and every time we make it, it results in a truly satisfying meal. First add some vegetable oil to a stianless steel pan over medium to high heat. Saute a lot of sliced onions (in rings) until they are soft and translucent. If I have them, I use the whiter “native†onions that are actually opaque when cooked, as this are apparently the favorite for bistek tagalog… Take the onions out and heat the pan over high heat…
Next, sear the pork chops that have been marinated in soy sauce and kalamansi until they are nicely caramelized on both sides, add the rest of the marinade and lots of freshly cracked black pepper and add the onions back in until all the flavors are blended and the pork is cooked through. Serve with white rice and a nice vegetable dish…possibly a sitaw at kalabasa sa gata (yard long beans and squash in coconut milk) and you are in for a serious calorie overload. Yum. I could eat several pork chops prepared this way…
20 Responses
hi mm, nice house(actually host)warming dish =)
hello mm, yard long beans is sitaw… i have read somewhere on the net they call them as “snake beans”?
I am madly in love with the Phillipino sweet bread how would I get a hold of the recepie for Mamon and or Ensaymada?
please help!
Nelly Cano
Yummy!! I’ve just decided that this is what we’re having for dinner tonight. Thanks!
Welcome to the Year of the Pig! Kung hei fat choy!
I love bistek tagalog with lots of onions and potatoes and a good side dish is guinataang gulay.
Looks good to me! This one will have to be IN with our week long celebration of Lunar New Year. Talking about pork, that’s our topic the eve of Lunar New Year. I found out my folks actually tried to experiment raising different breeds of swine, even tried having Kurobuta Pork here! It is the counterpart of Kobe beef and I remember it is so good. I thought those were shipped in,but local experiments pala.
Sun nien fai lok…Kung Hei Fat Choi!
If I may add, MM our pork tastes and smell really nice compared to pork here in NZ. Their pork here tastes and smell different. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but the pork meat smell somewhat mapanghi. To remove this smell, I sometimes boil it first in a little water with garlic. I know I am wasting away some nutrients when I do that, but the smell can really be off putting. I am wondering whether it has something to do with their pigs’ diet.
tyler florence did say in food 911 that pigs nowadays are “cleaner” than before because pork houses feed them with just feeds. if it’s clean, it generally doesn’t smell bad, so i guess it does have something to do with diet.
i don’t know why i lost my passion for pork chops eversince i’ve discovered pork steak.. i find pork chops from monterey dry after cooking them as compared to their pork steak. i used to cook this as well during the times when i was still living alone and during those times i would pick the onions over the pork chops!! hehehe!! will have to try this again and see if i can bring the love and feeling.. hehehe!! thanks for posting easy to cook and budget friendly recipes here.. it surely helps in my weekly menu planning.. love those sitaw and kalabasa with gata too…
renee, I never thought of it as a host-warming dish…nice one! relly, yes, some folks call sitaw or yard longs also snake beans… Nelly Cano, I have a very EXTENSIVE and detailed recipe for our family ensaimada in the archives, just type in ENSAIMADA and keep scrolling down at the bottom of the page until you find it. There are nearly 1,000 posts on this website so I may have covered a recipe you are looking for already. I have never made mamon, however. Kung Hei Fat Choi to all!!! Geez, how appropriate, having a pork dish for the start of the Year of the Pig! tulip, designer pork, I love it. :) Mel and voltaire, yes, I suppose the feeds will affect the taste… kaye, there are other budget friendly recipes in the archives, you have raised a good point, maybe I should compile them for easier access…
I am lucky I’m in the kitchen, I can eat pork once in a while even if I’m in Maldives. . . The pinoys here miss pork so much. . . hehehe, so when they go home for vacation all they’re eating is pork pork pork hahaha. . .litsong kawali, adobo etc.
Yes, our pork definitely rules! My dream once was to have a piggery so I could earn money and eat pork all day long! Hahaha! :)
This sounds really good!
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Nice topic to start of the year of the Pig, Boar, whatever…
Those pork chops look so good. It did not occur to me why I wanted to fry my pork belly confit specifically last weekend….maybe there was more of an astrological influence!
yeah.. white onions for Pork Chops Tagalog is yummy!!
MM, upon the recommendation of a friend, I bought my meat at one of the meat outlets in Unimart called Tenderbites. I got some porkchops and boy! they were the most tender, juicy porkchops! I breaded and fried them and ate it right away. Really good. It’s just a pity I live far from Unimart but I make it a point to head to that outlet when I’m in Greenhills.
Ever since my doctor recommended eating pork tenderloin instead of beef (no fat), I have been using it for my bistek tagalog. My family couldn’t even tell the difference!
My beef steak also looks like this, I also use it when cooking pork chops! Loads of onions – good antioxidant to fight cancer!
wow.. i’m just reading it but I can sense how delicious it is…hmmmmm.. sarap!