It’s interesting how people get to this blog. Time and again, I get referrals for searches looking for a salabat recipe (ginger brew or tea). I didn’t bother to write down the instructions since all it takes is a pot of water, some ginger and brown sugar. As far as I know, in Manila salabat is that plain and I assumed this was the standard. They even sell it bottled and powdered in groceries nowadays and that has become the standard. It is all very convenient but the real thing for me is when one can taste bits of fresh ginger with every gulp, as I remember from days not too long ago.

A good part of my childhood memories are of Lola brewing salabat for us. It was perfect for cold weather, as ginger warms the body. It is also perfect for hot days as there is no better way to release heat than by sweating. We had to take the brew very strong if we had colds and if we were singing or reciting poems during school programmes. I wonder how many generations of children are made to do the same.

What I remember about Lola’s salabat is that it always had camote (sweet potato). I assumed that she would put it into the brew for us children to have something to munch on or perhaps to neutralise the too-spicy taste of ginger. But recently, I found out that I assumed wrong! The camote is an essential ingredient of salabat! Not just camote but sago (tiny tapioca pearls) too, to be exact. This was an interesting discovery which needed a little more research. Was it just in our family or did people from our town have salabat the same way?

So, while taking pictures of old farm implements in the barrio where my Lola was born, I asked our neighbours how they had their concoction. Not only do they have camote and sago but a dollop of carabao’s milk as well, just before drinking! Really?! And when I told my mother about it, she dismissed it as normal. Don’t some cultures take cream with their tea?

And so I tried to re-create the authentic salabat. In the picture above, you may notice the brew to be quite dark as pinocha (panutsa in Tagalog or solidified raw molasses) was used. I still haven’t tried it with carabao’s milk but I shall if I wake up early enough to still find a few bottles in the marketplace tomorrow morning.


Salabat

Handful of ginger, peeled, sliced and roughly crushed
4-6 cups cold water
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
½ cup cooked sago pearls
pinocha to taste (substitute brown sugar)

In a non-corrosive pot, soak the ginger in half of the water for around 15 minutes then boil gently for 10 minutes. Add the pinocha or brown sugar to taste and boil for 5 minutes. Put in the camote and boil till almost done then add the sago. Simmer gently for around a minute then steep for a while longer before serving.