The days are getting sultry though the nights can still be cool. With summer’s bounty soon to be out in full splendour, I can’t wait to learn more about seasonal produce, recipes and other traditions – whether in and out of the kitchen. There are just so many interesting tidbits that are waiting to be re-discovered.

The summer sun is best for recipes that call for sun-drying. It will ensure proper dehydration that will prevent the growth of organisms that spoil food.

Today’s recipe involves leaves, specifically mustard greens or mustasa to us. This is an old recipe that most households utilised but is falling into disuse. Nowadays, burung mustasa may be found in Pampanga marketplaces but that’s also fast becoming a rarity. The salted mustard greens found in supermarkets and groceries are almost always imported, thanks to globalisation.

Burung mustasa or quiamse comes from the Hokkien ‘kiam’ (salted) ‘chai’ (vegetables, but in this instance refers to mustard). It must have been introduced to the country by Chinese settlers and then the process adapted to our conditions.

Quiamse is best eaten chopped with tomatoes as a side dish or salad to fried fish and meat. The Chinese however, have different ways of eating it such as with congee (lelut) and in soups. The fermenting liquid can be used for sigang as it is very sour.
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Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen

Very sweet, they taste like honey. Quite smooth, they glide on the tongue. Each year, starting in late November till just when about summer announces its arrival; we have these fruits that very few can resist. Even with a single tree, sacks upon sacks of the fruit are brought down in one season. There was even an exceptionally good year when the branches of the tree almost broke from the weight of its own fruits. Now, that’s what is called bountiful!

The chico tree is one of what I would call migrant plants. They are native to the Yucatan peninsula, in Mexico . They seem to have been introduced early in the country. According to Doreen Fernandez, the Philippine name is from the contraction of the Spanish chico zapote, which in turn is from the Nahuatl xicotzapotl. Although Doreen mentions four varieties or cultivars in Tikim, only two are commonly known to the public, especially in Pampanga. These more common varieties are Ponderosa, which are large and juicy but have a coarse and grainy texture and pineras, which are small and sweet but not as juicy.

Our tree has a long and interesting history. It was a seedling that came to our yard after the Second World War. One of my uncles, who was then a student at UPLB, smuggled it home because it was supposed to be special, a hybrid of Ponderosa and pineras. True enough, it bore big fruits that are not only sweet and juicy but with smooth flesh as well. It also had a seed or two to a fruit, unlike others which could have as many as six or even a dozen for the bigger varieties.

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Oh I didn’t know that what we commonly refer to as Indian mangoes are really called katchamita, which of course originate from India.

A previous post articulates how different mango varieties are eaten in the Philippines. Indian mangoes, for us, are best eaten unripe, for snacking with baguc (bagoong, salted shrimp fry paste) or a bit of salt.