For this month’s theme, I am inviting all of you who love Filipino food to find one (or two!… or three!) dishes that for you DEFINES what being Pinoy is all about. Some questions to grease those wheels and get them turning:

• Is there a Filipino dish that you’re most proud of that you would unhesitatingly offer to someone who is not familiar with our cuisine? The dish that makes you say the words, “You’ve GOT to try this.”
• What is the one dish that unfailingly brings about nostalgia? Especially if you currently live outside Philippine shores, this may be one you most crave for because you can’t have it, or maybe the one dish that you prepare to remind you of home.
• So your palate is more international and maybe recently you’ve gorged on pasta, pizza, brie, paprikash, mapo tofu, paad thai, sushi, poutine, funnel cake, or any number of foreign dishes… until you realize that maybe those dishes warmed your tummies but failed to warm your hearts. What Filipino dish then do you feel you just NEED to make (or buy) and eat, because one more bite of that foreign food and you’re going to implode?
• Or tell us about the dish, that after eating and leaning back in your chair, smiling and satiated, makes you happily sigh, “Iba talaga ang pagkaing Pilipino.” (”Filipino food is different indeed.”)
• Or you step into the room, take one whiff, and know IMMEDIATELY what’s cooking, because the smell is just so undeniably Pinoy? And what dish is that, the name of which is enough to make your mouth water? Or maybe there’s food prepared lovingly and waiting in its platter on your dining room table, and one look brings such pleasure (maybe even tears) to your eyes?
• Maybe it’s your region’s specialty, that not only brings the word “Pinoy” home to you, but defines what Ilocano, Ilonggo, Batangueño, etc. is all about.
• If you could translate the word “Filipino” to the language of food, how would you do that and what dish would you choose?

Just like last year when Lasang Pinoy made its debut, our family is busy with traveling for the hubby’s work, and schoolyear planning — so I apologize for the late announcement. But as usual, we are in a place where we’re surrounded by family and good Filipino food day in and day out, often highlighting the fruits of the garden — Filipino gardens grown by family and friends: gardens that feature kalabasa and kamatis and kangkong. For me personally, it’s a transitioning from the old year to the new as well. As we enjoy the remaining days of summer and make our way towards fall, it’s a perfect time to gather in the harvest of the season. And celebrating the first anniversary of LP feels like a harvest celebration too!

Now, there are many ways to join the party! You can do it through pictures, a story, a recipe, a poem, or a combination of any of these.

The guidelines for this month’s theme:

All Filipino food bloggers are highly-encouraged to join the event, be they in the country or abroad. Non-food bloggers of Filipino ancestry are also invited; no matter how many generations they have been out of the country or who have never been to the Philippines but still identify themselves as Filipino (or part Filipino, married or related to Filipinos). Entries from other Filipino food and culture enthusiasts are very much welcome. Non-bloggers may also join as long as their entries are hosted in any blog.

For those who identify themselves as Filipino but believe they do not know what Filipino food is, thoughts on this issue are highly encouraged to be written about. The Filipino is still on a quest to find his/her identity, food included.

Post a link to your entries by 31 August 2006 (your timezone) in the comment section here, or send an e-mail with your permalink and location to lasang.pinoy@gmail.com. If you don’t have a blog and would like to participate, just e-mail us and we’ll be happy to host your entry. I’ll do a roundup shortly after August 31st. This announcement may be completely posted on any blog or forum.

Questions? Comments? Let us know. I look forward to reading and savoring your entries!

To help facilitate the roundup and make for easier searches, it would be great if you can incorporate this little tag into your post:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/lasangpinoy" rel="tag">lasangpinoy</a>

Post from: Blisstree

Lasang Pinoy 1st Anniversary: Definitive Pinoy!

Ces of Essences hosts this month’s Lasang Pinoy and what a theme! Perfect for the close to our first year of Lasang Pinoy — we’re on our Twelfth Edition!

My contribution this month is a current favorite here at home. I’ve named it talongganisa — it’s where talong and longganisa meet!

Talong is the Tagalog word for eggplant. And longganisa is our Filipino version of the Spanish/Mexican/Cuban sausage of the same name — or roughly the same name, as theirs are usually spelled with one “g” and a “z” (longaniza). My version is more sweet than spicy, and contains the simplest of flavorings — garlic being the most dominant.

Making sausages is a tedious but satisfying activity that I think every aspiring cook should try at least once. Sausages are such a pleasure to work on/with because there’s an endless array of taste combinations you can try! But though I love making sausages, often the demand for them exceeds the amount of energy and time I have to make them from scratch — many store-bought brands are satisfactory in terms of taste, but I’d really rather control what goes into my kids’ tummies.

My children, relentless beings that they are, have through the years learned to coax and prod and plead with me until I make them some. And I, through the years, have learned to indulge their craving often enough, but with a few modifications here and there so a) it’s easier on me, the cook, and b) it’s healthier for them. The talongganisa is the end result (or who knows, perhaps just another stop before the next adventure).

The traditional longganisa is made with ground/finely chopped meat (usually pork, with considerable fat in it — too little fat will give you a dry and unappetizing sausage, I learned this the hard way), stuffed into hog casings. Hog casings, thank goodness, are easy enough to find especially these days. A long time ago I had to hunt it down at the Italian butcher’s. Today it comes prepackaged in the grocer’s meat case. Well, those casings are the first to go if you want a longganisa in half the time. And skinless longganisa isn’t new, though I’ve met people who don’t consider it “real” longganisa. LOL. To each his own.

At any rate, this dish goes one step further and simply uses longganisa-flavored meat: no shaping, no stuffing. Strictly speaking, it’s not really longganisa anymore, is it? But do my kids care? Not one bit. All they want is that sweet-garlicky-peppery meat, mixed with their rice. And if I let them have it their way, that’s exactly how they’re going to eat it. For the longest time, I tried to get them to eat traditional accompaniments, like chopped tomatoes, chopped tomatoes with onions, and/or with garlic, grilled veggies, achara, etc., etc. just to get them to have some VEGETABLES, for Pete’s sake!… alongside this dish. Heh-heh-heh. Until one day when I again had eggplants that I meant to cook as a side dish, but I was out of time. So I chopped up the eggplant and cooked it together with the pork. Nothing original there really either. One of my favorite easy-to-cook dishes is this Szechwanese stir-fry of eggplant and pork, except the seasonings are different.

How to make talongganisa?

Combine ground pork, garlic, a bit of vinegar, fresh grindings of black pepper, a bit of soy sauce (optional), salt, and chopped eggplant. Paprika/pimenton, sweet or hot, your choice, if you like (I used a Spanish hot pimenton). I’m not providing measurements because it’s one of those dishes you can continually adjust to your taste. Let the ground pork and eggplant cook 15 minutes or so, stir-frying over medium heat. (If you’re concerned about fat content, use ground turkey instead of ground pork, or pre-cook the pork in the seasonings along with some water. The fat will render and you can then degrease it before you add the eggplant. But as I’ve said before, it’s one of those dishes where you do need fat, otherwise you end up with this dry crumbly mixture that’s no fun to eat.) When the ground pork and eggplant mixture is mostly done, add your choice of sweetener. Some people use brown sugar, honey, dark brown sugar, even molasses. I’ve actually used sorghum one time when I ran out of traditional sweeteners. Use Sucanat or muscovado if you’d rather have the unprocessed, unrefined stuff. Remember that sugar is sugar is sugar though:). After the sweetener is added in, give it a few more stirs to incorporate and caramelize a bit. But burnt sugar is icky, so don’t go there (been there, done that).

You can serve this mixture atop mounds of white rice. The requisite accompaniment would be a fried egg, sunny side up. My preference is an egg cooked over easy, and a mixture of chopped tomatoes-onion-garlic-jalapeno pepper-couple drops fish sauce-cilantro on the side.

When to eat this? Oh, any time really. It’s awesome for breakfast of course. But on a dark day when storms are brewing, this is especially welcome — breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. Yum yum.

Thank you very much, Ces, for hosting LP12. I’ll try to post another entry for this one if I have time. Such a fun theme!

Post from: Blisstree

Lasang Pinoy #12: Distinctly Pinoy…. with a TWANG!!

Chef Sam de Leoz is hosting Lasang Pinoy 10th Edition! It’s always fun to reminisce about our childhood memories, especially the food-related ones! Your job now is to blog about *your* food memories from your childhood.

When you’ve got your entry ready, leave a comment here or at Chef Sam’s blog, or send an email to lasangpinoy@gmail.com with your:

Name
Blog Name & URL
Location
Blog post Permalink

on or before the 31st of May. Chef Sam will be doing a round-up a few days later. If you do not have a blog but want to participate, e-mail or comment and one of us will be happy to host your entry.

All Filipino food bloggers are highly-encouraged to join this event, be they in the country or abroad. Non-food bloggers of Filipino ancestry are also invited; no matter how many generations they have been out of the country or who have never been to the Philippines but still identify themselves as Filipino (or part Filipino, married or related to Filipinos). Entries from other Filipino food and culture enthusiasts are very much welcome. Non-bloggers may also join as long as their entries are hosted in any blog.

Put on your thinking caps, or should I say get into your time travel machine?

If you need more information on this monthly blogging event, come visit LasangPinoy.Org.

Post from: Blisstree

Lasang Pinoy #10: Food Memories from your Childhood