Café Marco's treasured recipes

What you eat at home today may be gone tomorrow. It is time to put those recipes on paper because the person that knows those priceless dishes is not going to live forever. Many recipes have completely vanished because our lives have expiry dates. 

Cebuano households generations ago always had a mother or grandmother who prepared the food for the family. If that family had adequate financial resources, entertaining guests would be held at home because there were very few restaurants then. And there was always lots of household help to prepare the meals with little or no assistance from the children or grandchildren.

The latter members of the family would soon leave the house for education, work or marriage and will only reassemble for family reunions like Christmas, baptisms or weddings. Or tragic events like death in the family of that mother or grandmother. And that also becomes the demise of the family's favourite dish: Bam-I, Pochero, Lumpia, Empanada or Humba. The FREEMAN's Lifestyle Executive Editor Mayen Tan can only approximate but not completely replicate her mother-in-law's hoong bah (Diu Eng's humba). Neither could I make my Lola Emping's lumpia.

Rare are the opportunities that the family's treasured recipes are available to the general public to taste. Or their secrets finally revealed. Marco Polo Plaza (http://www.marcopoloplazacebu.com/) has made this possible by featuring some of these culinary treasures from the head honchos of two families, Teresin Mendezona and Tina Ebrada, with the assistance of culinary consultant, Jessica Avila.

Teresin is a fellow officer of La Chaine des Rotisseurs and is renowned as an event organizer. Tina is the innovator and the inspiration behind the success of Golden Cowrie and if you have not gone to this restaurant, then definitely you are not a Cebuano.

At Cafe Marco, I had the opportunity to sample some of Teresin's creations: Bam-I (Pancit ala Teresin), Maya-Maya ala Bacalao (my favourite) and the desserts like Mammol and Cassava Bibingka. Tina Ebrada's contributions to this food trip down memory lane were the following: Baked Tahong, Seafood in Coco Cream and the Bicol Express (perfectly tailored to the Cebuano palate!). Was it Jessica Avila who prepared the Pork and Chicken Adobo (another favourite)? Visit the web and you get the recipes of these dishes.

All such food immediately awakened memories! In an era when the dollar's equivalent was two pesos and the tartanilla ruled the city, your favourite food columnist had the opportunity to taste some of the finest Cebuano dishes not at home but at the residence of Jose Castro.

One of his sons was my high school classmate and what we consider as food served during special occasions were merely, excuse me, served daily in their home. Even ordinary ingredients like the pancit noodle is home-made with the finest flour and egg yolks of native chicken. This was the reason why many of us were some sort of "adopted" in the Castro family that the household numbered 36 members.

You might have the treasured recipe but the ingredients you need, like pork, may no longer be available. The pig during your grandmothers' time was a very fat animal. It was a source of cooking oil and extra fat adds much flavour to the meat, while making the meat more tender. To faithfully replicate the dish, you have to cook with wood or charcoal since cooking gas then was a novelty.