Treats for the taste buds

Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef, writer and host of No Reservations, was quoted to have said, that the shark porramatur is "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing" he has ever eaten. Bourdain has traveled all over the world sampling different cuisines. He has written the best-selling Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, exposing the darker side of the culinary world, the culinary mysteries Gone Bamboo, A Bone in the Throat, Typhoid Mary (An Urban Historical), Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, among others.

Bourdain has eaten sheep testicles in Morrocco, ant eggs in Puebla Mexico, a raw-seal eyeball and a whole cobra in Vietnam. He is also known aside from his food exploits and best-selling books, for his light but profane remarks, smoking and drinking habits.

Porramatur is the Icelandic national food. It consists of many different types of food mostly offal dishes like pickled sour ram testicles, rotten shark, burned sheep heads, sheep head jam, liver sausage, blood pudding and dried fish (often cod, haddock or seawolf), served with butter. Preserved foods score high in Iceland because of its cold climate. And some of these foods are eaten daily. Hardsfiskur, wind-dried haddock or cod, is commonly eaten as a snack by tearing off a piece and chewing away while other people like to spread butter on it first. This I think is similar to the Waray dried fish called bulad. Hakarl (Greenland shark), is buried for up to six months in sand (to detoxify its high level of ammonia and neurotoxins) before being eaten. Many complain and that includes Anthony of its strong, bad odor similar to a rotten cheese. 

In Spain, traditional food is paella. Paella is derived from the Latin word patella meaning a cooking utensil, that is flat and shallow with two round handles on the opposite sides.

The peasants of Valencia, Spain used paella pan to cook rice with ingredients easily available from the countryside. Over the years, game or fowl was added. Then it became widely known as paella valenciana. There are many variations to a paella with different ingredients. But the three main ingredients of paella are rice, saffron and olive oil. It’s a custom in Valencia to prepare huge paella on important gatherings like fiestas, political campaigns, Christmas, among others.

For a Waray, one of our traditional foods is the kinilaw best eaten with saging na saba and drowned with tuba. Anywhere you go around Samar, you will find kinilaw, tuba, saging na saba in every table. Since Samar is along the Pacific Ocean, fishes and other marine products are abundant. Tuna, prawns, crabs (the blue ones), are aplenty. You can also find rare shell fish found only in Samar waters like ganga and sarad. Ganga is my personal favorite.

I heard that even President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, found the exotic ganga delicious according to Elda, beautiful wife of my friend, Rep. Nonoy Libanan during Nonoy’s birthday party at El Celino. Elda plans to make ganga the specialty of El Celino, the restaurant she and Nonoy own in Esguerra St. across ABS-CBN.

Pudpod is also an exotic food inherent among Samareños. Pudpod is made of finely-grounded pating or bolinao, dried and shaped like pancakes. Pudpod is eaten with either camote, bilanghoy and saging. Some people, however, braise the pudpod to rid it of its pungent smell and for it to have a barbecue-like-taste.

In the city, it seems pizzas, burgers and French fries are becoming staple food. They are easy to prepare and convenient to eat.

My office staff in Backroom is a bunch of hardworking people. Typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, eclipses and tsunamis won’t stop them from giving their best. They work hard and play hard. They have a tradition in the office that when one celebrates his birthday, the celebrator treats everybody to lunch. Some bring their own home-cooked meals while others, opting for convenience call for fast-food delivery. Of course, the most popular choice is pizza.

Only recently, they tried out Greenwich Primo Fully Loaded and Crunchy Crust Pizzas. Both variants offer generous toppings and a specially baked crust that makes for an even more delicious pizza.

The office favorite is the Crunchy Crust Pizza. The crust is baked deliciously thin and as one of my staff would describe it, "it’s overflowing with toppings so every bite is like heaven on earth! I won’t be surprised if this becomes a Greenwich best-seller."

Greenwich has constantly raised the bar in terms of customer satisfaction. I like the fact that they offer Filipino consumers the best quality products at minimal cost. These latest offerings from Greenwich really satisfy the pizza fix of my staff.

So if you want to indulge in a truly tasty pizza bursting with mouthwatering flavor, Greenwich’s Fully Loaded and Crunchy Crust Pizza are definitely worth trying.

But of course, my favorite ganga and pudpod will always be the best!