Having spent my childhood in the province and in Pampanga at that, I took for granted that everyone knew how to cook. It seemed to me that it was something instinctive, something naturally learnt, like speaking. In our family, even those who were not considered excellent cooks had very passable culinary skills. And even then, they also had excellent taste in food. My grandfather was probably one of them.

My maternal grandmother would always tell us stories about our grandfather’s slapdash cooking skills albeit in jest. One incident was when he was left at home with their very young children. Lola laughingly related how she was still on the street in front of the house when her children regaled her with how Lolo dropped a live fish into a boiling pot of soup. Lolo was also extravagant with spices, and I probably took after him, based on the number of times I was reprimanded for using a lot of cloves, oregano and laurel. Fortunately for Lola, I was born after my grandfather passed away, otherwise she’d have run out of spices very often.

Aside from Lolo’s more down-to-earth cooking and his penchant for spices, he also loved to replicate dishes they had in expensive restaurants. He also experimented with original recipes. Below is one of them, which he called lutong Bombay, perhaps due to its curry-like flavour. Our clan never tires of this recipe. It is very simple to cook and most of the ingredients are usually available in any pantry.

Chicken, being the versatile meat that it is, soaks up the flavour of the spices. Garlic and ginger compliment each other, and gives it the decidedly Oriental aroma even from afar. The tomatoes lend some sourness that balance the hot-spicy flavour of ginger and garlic while the potato gives the sauce some body, even as it absorbs the flavours of the other ingredients.
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A long time ago I promised to post a Mediterranean recipe. Though I already posted some for pasta, this is what I really intended to feature. I have the exact proportions for the ingredients because I got the recipe from a vegetarian cookbook but in reality I still followed my senses.

One of the characteristics of Mediterranean cooking is the use of chickpeas or garbanzos. This is probably apparent in Filipino dishes which trace their roots from Spain (think menudo and pochero, among others). Chickpeas are versatile in that they can be part of almost any vegetable or meat recipe, adding a discreet yet full-bodied flavour to the dish.

Hummous (also spelt as hummus or hummos) is mainly made of chickpeas, a very rich source of protein. My first taste of hummous was as part of an appetiser in a Persian restaurant, when shawarma stands were a fad, most probably introduced by former OFWs from the Middle East. But it was only recently when I lived in a kibbutz that I discovered for myself how versatile this paste/sauce could be when we had it as a mainstay in the dining hall. One can spread it on bread by itself or as a substitute for mayonnaise, or as a condiment for meat and fish. Coming home to the Philippines, I tried to reproduce the taste and with very satisfactory results.
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