I’ve always thought that the food blogging community is close-knit. Now that it’s gotten so large, I suppose getting-to-know-you memes are in order. A meme, by the way, was a concept used in genetics and the transmission of characteristics. Someone defined it later on as the spread of ideas that evolve and mutate. But now, as applied to blogs, some information which is replicated then passed on. That of course is a very simplified explanation.

This time around, I’ve been tagged by Ting-Aling (doesn’t that name ring a bell?) with a meme started by Nicky and Oliver of that delightful food blog Delicious:Days. See how they have tracked this meme and trace your (meme) genealogy, too.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

It was in kindergarten - so that makes me about 6-years-old - when I was taught to cook inangit, which is plain fried rice. I remember wanting to get involved in cooking so my mother “assigned” me something to do. Baking came much later, I was perhaps eight at the time I experimented with angel food cakes.
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One very Filipino eating trait I notice is the preference for soupy or saucy dishes. Traditionally, each meal had a soup which did not have to be separate from the entrée. The classic sinigang and tinola are good examples. But then we also do not serve dishes in a sequence, like soups and appetisers, salads, mains and so on. That’s a topic for another day.

Soupy and saucy dishes are a flavour contrast to the blandness of rice which is the backbone of every meal. More often than not, the soup or sauce is poured on and mixed with the rice. In Kapampangan we call this ambulâ (halo in Tagalog). At least in our house, this has become so ingrained that when we cook, we deliberately add more liquid just for the panambulâ.

The recipe below is an example of a soupy dish my grandmother cooked very often. I only know it by its Kapampangan name - Lutung Camatis â Babi - literally pork cooked in tomatoes. I am not sure if it has counterparts in other regions. It is a flavourful blend of slow-simmered meat and still-crunchy vegetables. This dish is versatile enough to be adjusted to individual preferences. Some prefer it to be mostly meat. In our family, we are not very avid meat eaters so what we do is to cut the pork into small cubes and add more vegetables. Every now and then, we also use bulig (dalag or mudfish) instead of pork.

I’ve seen a version of this dish which has a lot of beans in it that it’s already similar to the Spanish fabada. The beans we use are similar to lima beans except that they’re flatter and wider. They are called bulé baluga - bulé meaning beans in Kapampangan and baluga referring to the indigenous Aetas who come down from the mountains bringing us the yearly supply. I know that the term is supposedly not politically correct anymore when referring to people but that’s how we’ve always called these beans. I’ve also been told by our visiting Aetas that they’ve always referred to themselves by that name that they don’t feel slighted when hearing it. However, I guess it also depends on which tribe they’re from. Again, I digress.

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Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are hardly a new phenomenon. Historical documents note that in 1600 Filipinos arrived in California, way before it was part of the United States. They were among the first agricultural workers or field hands in the mission areas. Today, like their contemporaries of centuries ago, most OFWs - whether manual labourers or salaried professionals - are well-liked by their employers because they are conscientious workers who will try to learn new skills to cope or just to be better at their jobs.

This versatility is also found in adapting to different tastes in food. Although there is a propensity for sweet-salty-sour dishes and to always look for rice, the Filipino palate can adapt well to any prevailing culinary conditions be it sushi, hamburgers, shawarma, sauerkraut or whatever is available. With stable work difficult to come by in the Philippines, it is also not rare to find many Filipinos of different vocations to transform into cooks in many ships and restaurants abroad, most especially in the Middle East. The father of a close friend was originally a skilled carpenter/house painter in the Philippines but became head cook in one of the Emirates in the 1980s. I have also heard of similar situations before. It is perhaps only now that the situation has changed since the food industry has become more specialised with culinary schools being established in most major cities worldwide.
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