Summer is long gone from this part of the hemisphere but frying is here to stay, especially in the Philippines, or Asia for that matter where a good fraction of what we eat goes through a form of frying. When At Our Table hostess Linda announced the theme for this month’s IMBB, I was both eager and yet petrified. What would I cook?

As the date drew near I had to be decisive because I told myself last time that I should stop cramming. And so this entry is just almost-crammed, hehehe! I took my inspiration from my university days, from the finger food we had in student organisations. Each time we had to serve something edible to both members and guests, decent but inexpensive food had to be purchased. Resourceful students would usually buy the ingredients and cook the food into something a bit fancy-looking. Cheese sticks were one of my favourites because first I’m a cheese lover and second because they were really inexpensive. I had other plans for the money we’d be saving such as for killer workshops (read: members required without fail) I was notorious for organising.

It amused me no end later, when as a junior government bureaucrat, I found these same cheese sticks served during expensive cocktails, the only variation was to include a few bits of ham. How far it has gone, the tasty morsel of my student years!

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Coffee, TEA or errmm… never mind… This month’s edition of IMBB is brought to you by Clement of A La Cuisine! What a wonderful theme for one can drink tea, season with it, boil in it and even eat it.

Tea, strictly speaking, is the plant Camella sinensis which is native to China. The beverage known as tea, however, has evolved through the centuries to even include leaves of fruit trees, herbs and spices. There must be a myriad of tea concoctions out in the market which can be personalised according to individual tastes. I have my own personal favourites but what I will present now is the first “tea” that I knew of. Tsaang gubat or wild tea (Carmona retusa (Vahl) Masam) is not a tea plant but taken as tea it is. It is a plant with small white flowers which is commonly found in Southeast Asia. The Department of Science and Technology has a page on its Techno-Catalog section.

As a child, my playmates and I ate or pretended to cook with the ripened fruits which we picked off the multi-branched shrub. The small berry-like fruits had a sweetish tartness and a ‘bubbly’ texture. My grandmother had a constant supply of dried leaves which were brewed and taken in the mornings or afternoons or as a decoction for stomach aches.
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Eggs! What a theme for this month’s Is My Blog Burning?, the classic online food event which has given life to several sub-themes! This edition is hosted by Viv, the Seattle Bon Vivant herself.

“Salvation is in the ordinary”, our retreat director told us one Holy Week. At the risk of being blasphemous, I thought this could be applied to Filipino daily fare in general, for the ingredients are taken from the most ordinary components in the locality and transformed into something which nourishes the stomach and the heart. Salvation for my IMBB entry as well because I was in danger of not having one. Since we are to make use of such a versatile ingredient this month, it would be a shame if I missed out. True enough, the ordinariness and versatility saved me. This recipe is my take on the regular Filipino tortang talong or aubergine fritatta. The Filipinised torta can either be a fritatta or an omelette.

The original tortang talong has some ground meat in the filling but I came up with this version years ago when I had to use up the contents of the vegetable compartment but wanted something light at the same time. There were some aubergines and eggs but I wanted something more than the plain vertically sliced pieces dipped in eggs then fried. Since then, it has become a favourite.
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