Love ko Pinoy!

The metropolis is a virtual food planet with a diverse assortment of themed restaurants covering the four corners of the globe sprouting up at your favorite local destinations, whether it be the neighborhood mall, the super malls, or the block-long resto-bar strips. These include wide gourmet offerings from the East to the West, such as Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Singaporean sidewalk cuisine, sumptuous savory fare from France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Greece and a fusion of these, right down to the exotic and unusual Indian, Persian and Turkish delights, and, of course, the spirit of the USA still rings true with food joints offering supersized servings of downright greasy burgers, fries, and steaks and chips to be downed with bottomless iced tea or lemonade.

In this vast foodie wonderland, I wonder: Where do I go for honest-to-goodness Pinoy homecooking? Aside from the longstanding, weather-proven Via Mare, Kamayan, Barrio Fiesta, Max’s, Aristocrat, Cabalen, and Goldilocks, there are only a few new restaurants coming up with Pinoy eats as their main staple. Somehow, Pinoy food has been relegated to modest, fast-food stalls, or sidewalk carinderia joints. Is there a seeming change of taste? Are we tired of the same old-same old? Has Philippine food lost its Pinoy charm and taste? Even an American fast-food empire’s slogan subtly claims it is the new Pinoy turo-turo. How surreal can that get?

Let’s try to take it in a different context. What if we put ourselves in the shoes of the Filipino overseas worker away from his homeland for quite a while? Would we look for tapsilog and native tsokolate for breakfast, crave for kare-kare and adobo with sinangag sa bawang for lunch? Would we wish we would end the day with guinataang hipon and pandan-scented sinaing? Absolutely! Every single day of week! Just sitting in front of a table with these festive fare would probably inspire the lonely OFW to conjure up images of his immediate family temporarily keeping him company in between bitefuls of food. Partaking of Pinoy food would probably be a very emotional experience for the Filipino immigrant abroad. I could just imagine the flood of memories from home which it would rekindle.

With this premise in mind, a book was recently published to feed the homesick souls of our fellow brethren oceans away. The name of the book is Philippine Cuisine, and it is written by celebrated culinary expert Myrna Segismundo, currently the managing director of Restaurant 9501, the corporate dining restaurant of ABS-CBN. A well-traveled lady, this good friend of mine has a passion for elevating Philippine cuisine to a higher level.

The book contains recipes of popular Filipino fare, based on traditional family recipes, dishes we grew up with and continue to enjoy. It is dedicated to our kapatids who long for the comfort of homecooked meals. As the book states, these are "home-cooked recipes wherever you may be."

Very, practical and easy-to-follow instructions eliminate guesswork, making cooking a fairly easy task. The author would also suggest alternative ingredients if ever Asian ingredients would be hard to come by. For example, she offers possible substitutes for kakang gata (coconut cream) or sarsa ng lechon (liver sauce).

I found the heading "condiments" particularly interesting because it would include an assortment of sauces and dips, essentially Filipino. Now, there is no need to stash away bottles of bagoong (sautéed shrimp paste) in one’s maleta on the journey to another land. One can create his own in the comforts of his new (if temporary) home.

Whenever I go abroad to visit relatives and friends, I bring a lot of cookbooks to give away as the perfect gift. This time, I have something new to bring with added pride because I will always love Pinoy food first and foremost! If you, too, wish to spread your love for Pinoy eats, this book comes highly recommended. It can be purchased at a very reasonable price at all National Book Stores.