In general, Philippine cuisine is mild compared to the chilli hotness of the cuisine of our neighboring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand and China (Szechuan and Hunan provinces). There are 200 varieties of chillies grown in the tropics and back in 1982, our siling labuyo (siling kolikot) made it to the Guinness Book as the hottest of all spices.
My introduction to the world of chillies was rather distressing because we were made to eat it by Bicolano masters as part of initiation rites of a college fraternity in the University of the Philippines. They were chewing these chillies like peanuts and they were overly generous to share it with us. Since then, I made a promise that I should be able to tolerate chilli hotness and today I can eat up to 10 siling labuyo with ease.
The cuisine of Bicol took center stage in the Culinary Journeys at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu with guest chef Leandro R. Sto. Domingo. He is the proprietor of Chef Doy's Gourmet Restaurant and co-owner of Grissini Ristorante in Naga City. I did miss the invitation for a food trip to Bicol because of the 40th Anniversary of the Chaine des Rotisseurs.
At the media lunch, we had appetizers like Chilli Wraps, Crispy Sinarapan at Hilaw na Mangga, Longganisang Bicol and Langkoy at Ensaladang Talong. Thanks to the chilli immunization shots, I could truly enjoy the Chilli Wraps.
Soup was Lapulapu sa Buko while I tried to recall the intricacies of Bicol cuisine and what fellow columnist Jigs Arquiza said about the Bicol trinity of taro, coconut cream and chillies. The taro (gabi) plant is a very versatile vegetable, whose leaves, stem and roots or tubers are edible. In Cebu, we use the tubers while many provinces in Luzon including Bicol harvest the stem and the leaves. Our variety of gabi is different from that of Bicol and it is probably due to a higher content of a toxin called calcium oxalate and this can be minimized by drying and cooking.
Main dishes served were the following: Kalderetang Suanoy, Inasal na Liempo sa Kamias, Pininyahang Manok sa Gata, Guisado Pancit Bato, Gulay na Natong (Laing), Paella Bicolana (my personal favorite!) and the Bicol Express. I consider the Pinangat or Laing as the quintessential Bicolano dish though Bicol Express is the more popular dish in Cebu. To cook Laing, you need to dry the gabi leaves, never the fresh leaves to start with. And to cook the Paella Bicolana, you need the Laing to flavor the rice.
Desserts were a sampling of the delicacies of Bicol and my personal preference when I was in Bicol a decade ago is always a dessert with the ubiquitous pili nut like the Pili Tart and the Mazapan de Pili. But beware when purchasing those candied pili nuts in jars. Prices vary widely for the jars of the same size; open the low priced jars and they have pili nuts around the circumference of the jar while the center is all made of sugar. The higher priced version, excuse me, has pili nuts well distributed in the jar.
In a region where chilli is king, invariably the spice will also be used in a desert that is supposed to be sweet and that concoction called Chilli Ice Cream was included in our Bicolano Culinary Journeys at the the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.