The Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans

One of the things that I have wanted to do since even before I started food blogging is to recreate the old-fashioned bibingka. Today’s rice cake is quite fluffy, almost like bread. I still dream of the bibingka from Da Luming’s stall, beside the San Vicente Chapel (in Sta. Rita, of course). It was thin, used pure galapong (ground rice), didn’t have much eggs and some didn’t even use any baking powder. The cake was chewy and light.

More than a year ago, I interviewed someone from Becuran (my grandmother’s barrio) who knew how the old-style bibingka were made. She confirmed that they indeed didn’t use much eggs, if at all.

Soon, soon… I hope to get right back to the research. I’m digging up all my notes now.

What a versatile meat, that which we call chicken. It is perfect for almost all kinds of cooking – from simple, homey dishes to haute cuisine. It is also one of the universal meats eaten by people from different creeds, except of course, the vegetarians. A less expensive and healthy meat, chicken also makes its appearance on many dining tables more than pork or beef.

A few times this year, chicken figured into my personal “Can you say that again?” list. This list is part of my notes on food but focuses on quotes I find in the press, TV, radio, the internet and other public sources that get me thinking and researching further. On this list appear things I never heard of before that make me curious and usually send me off on culinary adventures now and then. It also contains a few things I hear that I know outright as false but to be sure, I embark on an academic exercise that more often than not, not only serve to confirm my suspicions, but also open new and exciting doors to my research.

So what about this chicken? Why is it in my list? Well, it’s not entirely about chicken but it was the common denominator.

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Leftovers? What’s so appetising about leftovers?

Everything! That is if you’re in the Filipino kitchen.

It’s the perfect time to have all those leftovers for Lasang Pinoy 15: Recycled, Reloaded, which Mike is hosting at Lafang. I am also perhaps one of the best persons to talk about leftovers since they make up some of my best childhood memories.

Many Filipinos, rich and poor alike, hold celebrations for a child’s first and seventh birthdays. I really have not dug up the significance of these years but I suspect they have something to do with the transition from one stage of a child’s life to another which also correspond with their growing consciousness (from “wala pang muwang” or a total innocent to “may isip na” - capable of thought). To a certain extent, both the first and seventh years are rites of passage for both the child, whether male or female, and the parents.

It is for this reason that birthdays on these years are big events, not necessarily extravagant but certainly something planned and awaited. Relatives, neighbours and friends drop in on the party, more often than not also bringing food which means the celebration might stretch for days.

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When talking to our town’s renowned cooks, I ask about how long they have been cooking and who taught them to perform magic in the kitchen. Some took cooking seriously very early, some as young adults but to a person, each one had kitchen duties as children. Everyone remembers receiving methodical instructions from their mothers, fathers, grandparents or relatives who were also accomplished cooks. It seems as if they spent years of apprenticeship in the informal setting of home kitchens.

Iska’s theme for Lasang Pinoy 8: Kusinang Bulilit, Lutong Paslit! has made me realise that I would love to explore the topic of informal apprenticeships in the future. For the meantime, I’ll have to remember how I started cooking as a child since the only juvenile I have around is a gigantic kitten who perches on the kitchen bench as soon as I start with prep work.

Pampanga has a long tradition of trade, arts and crafts long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Pre-colonial society had a system of apprenticeships where the youth got to learn their craft from the masters. To a certain extent, I still feel vestiges of this practice when I see and remember how children are sent off to “help out” relatives during fiestas and other special occasions. In many traditional families, it does not matter if one is poor or with a house attended by servants. Each child, whether male or female, is expected to help out with household chores.
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This was another IMBB of many options. So many noodle dishes, so little time!

For this month’s theme, Amy chose Use Your Noodle to make us think and improvise around a food article beloved the world over. I am already looking forward to reading the other entries during the round-up.

It is still cold even in this tropical country. There are nights when one wishes for a nice steaming bowl of something, anything to keep down the chill. Oh the possibilities one can think of! But then a hearty noodle soup was right up there on top of the list!

Although it wasn’t easy choosing my entry for the month, I knew I wanted something I haven’t had for sometime like mami (pronounced ‘mah-mee’). This is a noodle dish innovated by a migrant Chinese entrepreneur who started out very humbly in the late 1900s then was so successful he was able to build up a chain of eateries in Manila. In fact, the word mami is a combination of his name, Ma Mon Luk and the word for noodle - mi. Kirk over at mmm-yoso!!! has even had an encounter with his descendants in the US and writes about it in Asian Noodles - I Want My Mami. What Ma Mon Luk pioneered has since then become very popular and can now be found almost everywhere - from respectable restaurants, makeshift eateries and even as street food!

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