Tinola-cooking Japanese envoy rocks

MANILA, Philippines — Twitter Japanese Ambassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko wowed netizens yesterday after he posted a short video on Twitter showing him cooking tinola.

“Wow! ‘Chicken’ lang pala ang tinola!” he said, apparently using the word “chicken” to describe how easy it was to cook the classic Filipino soup dish.

“Volunteered to take over Chef Suzuki’s kitchen for the day. After some vegetable picking and practice, I managed to recreate this Pinoy fave dish. Amazed by this savory delight fresh from my backyard!” Koshikawa tweeted.

The one minute and 12-second video uploaded at 8:43 a.m. quickly gathered 31.1 thousand views, 43 retweets and 288 likes as of yesterday afternoon.

“Nagluluto ako ng tinola (I am cooking tinola),” Koshikawa said before the short clip showed him picking malunggay or moringa leaves and papaya which he prepared, peeled and sliced himself.

After cooking and using chopsticks to stir the pot, he tasted the dish and said “masarap” (delicious) as he invited viewers, saying, “kain na tayo (let’s eat).”

Koshikawa’s Twitter upload earned many reactions from his followers, who congratulated him and even commented on how cute the video was.

Some netizens even urged the Japanese ambassador to also try sili or local chili leaves in his tinola to give it an added Filipino touch.

Others also encouraged Koshikawa to cook more Filipino dishes and try sinampalukang manok, adobo, pinakbet and sinigang.