Asking a foodie to pick a favorite Pinoy dish is just plain unfair. That would be like imposing monogamy on a 16-year-old guy…after shipping him off to the The Playboy Mansion. It simply can’t be done. But a gauntlet has been thrown and one must simply step up. Plus I’d like to think I have more evolved faculties than the walking hormonal landmine that is every 16-year-old male.
And so with a heavy heart, I called to memory all my beloved homegrown eats, subjecting them to a cruel showdown in my head with such banal dog-eat-dog savagery second only to the power bulemics on America’s Next Top Model. There was kare-kare thickened with only the lardiest Ludy’s peanut butter, Visayan-style kinilaw with gata and chopped nuts, humbâ (Region 7’s toyo-free version of the classic adobo made from morsels of pork hand-rubbed with salt, pepper, and spices, slow-cooked to shreddable tenderness in its own fat), all the possible permutations of sinigang (na baboy, na manok, na baka, na hipon, sa miso, sa kamias, sa sampaloc, sa ibâ, sa Knorr Sinigang Mix!), inihaw na talong ensalada with gata and minced tomatoes and onions, the simple yet savory fried tilapia with a siding of chopped red eggs, minced onions, and tomatoes, bagnet with sukang buro…
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It’s always a dilemma, taking foreign friends and business associates out to dinner in Manila when they request to eat typical Filipino food. I can’t really think of Filipino restaurants where the food tastes authentic and where the ambiance is devoid of singing cooks and waiters or a family fiesta, which are fine if that’s what you’re in the mood for at the moment. It can also be disappointing to step into the latest hoity-toity Pinoy (con)fusion restaurant because you can’t help but compare it to the familiar traditional tastes in your head.
They say that to eat the best Filipino food, you have to be invited to someone’s home. It’s true. Every single time I am invited to my boyfriend’s Lola’s house to eat, the food is excellent—whether it’s sinigang, tinola, pochero, I have yet to taste better Pinoy food in any restaurant. AW’s late Lola Ata put up the famous Bungalow restaurant in the 60’s, and they still do catering today. Sarap!
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There’s a running joke in our house that we have our very own “combo meals.” My brother, JC, brought it up years ago, when we were all still living at home and enduring week after week of the same menu. Don’t get me wrong—the food was pretty good. But there’s only so much tapa (combo 1), nilagang baka and fried hito (combo 2, or what I think of as the Saturday Special), and party spaghetti (combo 3—you know, the Pinoy kind with hotdogs) one could ingest. “Experimental” wasn’t part of our household’s culinary vocab.
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What’s my favorite Filipino dish? Ah but there are so many to choose from! There’s dinuguan, congealed and yummy, slathered on puffy white puto. There’s a chorus line of street food, each with their own tasty charm and unique appeal: balut, fishball, isaw, betamax, tokneneng and kwek-kwek, all slathered in vinegar or that sweet brown sauce. (Drool.) There’s kare-kare, when done wrong, a disgusting blend of meat and peanut butter, but when done right, it’s so very very right. Not to mention sinigang, rellenong bangus, lechon…how can you make me choose??
But wait, do you mean Filipino dish as in food? Cause I think Vhong Navarro is pretty yummy. No really. I’m a huge fan. I used to have pictures of him tacked up on my cubicle wall back in my old office. One time some guys passed by and asked why the hell I had pictures of Vhong on my wall. Baduy daw. I asked them if they had ever seen Gagamboy. Nope, they hadn’t. Had they seen any of his films? Nope. Then what right did they have to judge, dammit, and I shooed them away.
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Keeping a balance diet and proper exercise are factors to have a sound physical state. Being a Filipino, our native foods are mostly cooked fried, salty and lots of animal fats that make it difficult to resist. Since most of our revered native dishes are cooked in rich flavor, it won’t be wise not to taste and deprive ourselves of this pleasure. However, we must cautiously indulge ourselves in moderation. Allow yourself to taste a comfort food as a reward. Chocolate, no matter how many calories there is in it, is still best especially since it helps our brains produce endorphins that make us feel light and keeps our disposition euphoric.
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I love palabok so much that my first ever e-mail address declares me as a total freak for the noodle dish. I’m not at all disturbed by the fact that this dish has become a part of my online identity.
Ironically, my love for palabok, a dish identified with the Tagalog region, was ignited in Cagayan de Oro. I remember this cozy restaurant, which seated only a maximum of 12 people, run by a Tagalog couple. The restaurant, which no longer stands today, was named Jem’s. Or was it Gems? I forget. It was that long ago.
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