Is it adobo or longganisa? Ask Claude Tayag

Whether it’s the garlicky Vigan variety or the red Lucban longganisa with paprika and oregano or the sweet version of Pampanga – a longganisa is a longganisa – nothing more, right?

Well, not anymore. At least not with this new line of longganisa, which takes our favorite foods and turns them into fool-proof, easy-to-cook Pinoy sausages.

This time, if you’re asked what your longganisa tastes like, you can really compare it to another food without batting an eyelash – why, it tastes just like adobo – because it was actually cooked that way.

Just give chef and artist Claude Tayag a few months to experiment with sauces and ingredients and add to that a lifetime of attachment to food (he grew up in Angeles City, Pampanga – need I say more?), and he’ll come up with a whole new line of sausages – flavored longganisa if you will.

Claude recently introduced a line of longganisa that tastes like our favorite Pinoy dishes such as Iloilo’s Chicken Inasal with its lemongrass, calamansi and achuete flavors; Chicken or Pork Adobo, which has strong garlicky flavor; Pork XXO, which is the hot variety that gets its kick from sun-ripened chili and other spices; Beef Salpicao, the Spanish dish made with olive oil and lots of garlic; and Bistek Baka, a favorite dish in the Tagalog region, flavored with soy sauce, calamansi and onions.

Longganisa has taken the rap for the longest time. It is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you’re talking about eating healthful foods or talking about exciting new varieties.

"My wife Mary Ann never ate longganisa in her life because she thought all of them tasted the same. That’s when I got the idea. Why not make longganisa into what we like to eat? Imagine all the hassles of preparing adobo. With an adobo-flavored longganisa, you instantly have the flavor and the smell."

The longganisa is an extension of what Claude has been doing all his life, which is experimenting with food. "I wanted something that’s convenient and something that could be a healthy alternative to the Filipino deli on the market."

For one, Claude uses only lean meat, which is good news to those who avoid fat in their diets. "You eat with less guilt." With the wet market variety – though they’re cheaper – you never know if you’re going to hit or miss because the lean meat and fat ratio is 50-50 and they’re filled with preservatives.

Claude’s longganisas are vacuum-packed and frozen. Their shelf-life can extend to months when stored in the freezer. Though made without preservatives, they last long without changing flavor. And how flavorful they are! There are no shortcuts in making them. Claude uses real garlic as opposed to garlic powder that most meat processors use, and real, natural ingredients.

After Claude successfully formulated how to translate the favorite dishes into sausages, it was his wife Mary Ann’s turn to standardize the procedure.

"Claude doesn’t measure ingredients when he’s cooking," she reveals. In the end, it was she who did the measuring and writing down of the recipes. It was also Mary Ann who patiently went back and forth to government offices in securing licenses and permits – a frustrating process that could wear down even the most patient chef, and in this case, Claude has zero tolerance for such things. Thank God for patient wives! Mary Ann relates that at first, they weren’t allowed to use the name Claude’s House Specialties because, according to the bright people at the Department of Trade and Industry, consumers might think the business was about home furniture!

So how many ways can you eat longganisa? First, they’re dishes by themselves, an easy fare for baon. Just fry ‘em and you can be off to work or your kid to school. You can use it as pizza topping. How about as longganisa pasta sauce with a tomato base? Or you can chop it and put in fried rice.

And the chef’s favorite? Claude laughs and admits he likes it when it’s toasted and the meat inside separated.

Claude’s longganisa line went on the market last November and has been selling like, well, hotcakes. Compared with other gourmet sausages, Claude’s House Specialties longganisa is priced cheaper.

Also on the market are Claude’s sauces and bottled treats like taba ng talangka, which can also be served as pizza topping aside from having it with white steamed rice; balo-balo, made of fermented rice and shrimps that’s best for dipping sauce for fried or grilled fish like bangus; green chili sauce that takes its influence from the Thai sauce, perfect for grilled meats, chicken, fish, spring rolls or even as salad dressing; sesame sauce, tahini paste ideal as dipping sauce for raw vegetable sticks; XXXO, super hot chili sauce; pesto, which can be used aside from pasta as spread on crackers or as a dip.

Claude says the sauces were developed long ago in his mother’s house with his family members as his guinea pigs – and then people began asking him for recipes or for take-home bottles.

He explains that this lifelong romance with food was influenced by his mother. He has 11 other brothers and sisters (he’s the ninth, earning him the moniker "Claude Nine"). "We all love to eat, we all love to cook. When we were small, there were 12 of us in the house during vacations and we’d have breakfast at different times of the morning. By the time some of us would be having breakfast, the cook would have to start preparing lunch, and then he’d cook breakfast again for those who had just woken up. So he complained to my mother. And my mother ordered us to cook our own breakfast as soon as we’d wake up. So early in life, we were trained to fend for ourselves."

In the Pampango culture, says Claude, it is really the men who cook. "In fact, in my family, it’s the men who are the better cooks."

So wasn’t he glad they got a complaining kusinero?

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Claude’s House Specialties longganisa and bottled sauces are available at Rustan’s Supermarket and Bon Apetit outlets.