Upcoming Good Cooks

In Pampanga, they have very good cooks. Just look at the list of restaurants initiated by natives of the province and you know they have some of the best culinary talents in the country. Unfortunately, the Pampangueños are rather secretive, and the recipes of lolas and lolos have disappeared through the years. Recently, Shellane challenged its young men and women into resurrecting original recipes but giving each a unique twist in a competition called "Shellane Lutong Pinoy Originals 2002" cooking contest, right in their turf, Angeles City.

The resulting batch of winners is a group of upcoming cooks who have injected today’s culinary advances into old recipes and came out with delicious nouvelle Pampanga cuisine. A team of two young men styled asparagus into thin towers, with a bacon wrap around the base. The traditional pochero took on a new dimension when the male duet converted the dish into a very flavorful roulade, while the simple palitaw, got a new treatment from a pretty young lady as kapit with lychees. They just need training in more attractive plating and they’ll soon be ready to be part of the highly competitive food industry. The recipes should now be available from Shellane’s Marketing Department.

Seated with culinary guru Maur Aquino Lichauco, who was the chair of the panel of judges, we had very interesting food talk which inevitably included the new book she and three others co-wrote and published. She is a walking encyclopedia of Filipino cookery and is very generous in sharing her secrets. The book is titled "Ooops…Don’t Throw Those Weeds Away" with a catchy line that goes "Walang Filipinong dapat magutom". True enough, if we could only discover the treasure of seemingly useless weeds that grow everywhere, a meal will not be that costly to prepare. And we would be much healthier. The book has photos of decorative, medicinal and edible weeds, instructions on how to propagate and care for them and best of all, a collection of recipes. We were lucky to have sampled some of Maur’s "weedy" concoctions and they are delicious! You can obtain a copy of the book by calling The Fern and Plant Society of the Philippines, Inc. in Quezon City at telephone number 635-6107.

While in Angeles, we made it a point to visit the kakanin outlets in the city. Of course the first thing we looked for was for the native delicacy called tibok-tibok, which Aling Puring makes to perfection with carabao milk done into a creamy paste, much like Biñan’s maja blanca. Latik is sprinkled on top, making it really delectable. A bilao costs P270, but this is too big for a small family, so you can request them to cut it in half and then share it with a friend, just as we did. Then there is this sweet they call moche, again similar to what we know in our hometown as mache. They are rolls of malagkit with mongo stuffing served with a special syrup. It sells for P60 a box of 12. There are the traditional pastillas, rather pricey at P100 for a box of 30. They have become rather thin, a sign of the high cost of ingredients, we suppose. Priced at P100 a box, the newest addition to the line are nangka-banana pastillas, very good.

At the Duty Free section of the city, we dropped in at Pure Gold which was using a lower exchange rate–P51 to US$1, making our spaghetti sauces much cheaper at P49 a can than the price at outlets in Manila. We found a new brand of cholesterol-free corn oil (3 kgs), Daisy manufactured in Malaysia, for P166 plus. Of course chocolates and candies abound there.

A tip to those who will use red bell peppers in their holiday cooking. Visit SM South mall where SMJ brand red bell peppers are tagged at P80 per kilo, against the more expensive variety at more than P140 a kilo. They are flavorful and attractive in vibrant red. For your callos, get their tripes at P109 a kilo and the pisngi (cheek) at P80.

Have a joyful Christmas and let’s be optimistic about the coming year!

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Lydia D. Castillo’s e-mail address: [email protected]