Unique Gift for Pinoy Foodie

I received a pasalubong (a present from a traveler) from Cynch, handcarried by a common friend who just returned from a trip to the Philippines. It was a jar of dulong fish packed in olive oil, garlic and other spices.

Dulong mga kapatid!

Let me introduce you to dulong if this is the first time you have heard of it. My internet search yielded very little information about this tropical freshwater fish (there was more about the Chinese ethnic minority or the French family) except for its English name “dwarf goby”and its scientific name “Pandaka Pygmaea”. Now if you’re in America and more familiar with Shark and Marlin steaks, you’ll probably think dwarf is as tiny as smelts or anchovies. But people in the Philippines who are more familiar with anchovies will know how tiny a dwarf can be. Dulong is about 1.1 to 1.5 cm long and is like the alamang in your bagoong--- you can’t see its shape until you look really close and you may need to put on your reading glasses to do this. I see black dots that I assume are the eyes. There must be thousands of them in the small jar (I just noticed that the label doesn’t give standard information like the weight and the expiry date).

I also found a recipe for Dulong Omelet on the internet. But I don’t want to use my precious supply for that esp. if this fish is in danger of getting extinct. The label says it is good for pasta but I may have to use the entire bottle for one pasta recipe so no way. Cynch says she uses it as canapé topping and that was how I tried it. I put some on Finnish crisp bread called Kavli. Then on French melba toast. Then on crackers. It played the role well on all kinds of base. However I thought it needed a little kick. It was subtly spiced which was good but the fish itself was bland. I experimented with pickles, mustard, mango, chili etc. but in the end the best partner was capers, just what Cynch recommended.

My friends are eager for the dinner I am hosting soon hoping that they too can partake of this unique gift for a Pinoy foodie abroad. Shall I grant them the privilege?

But of course because a foodie's joy is in the sharing.

Brown is Beautiful

I had known for a long time that brown rice was healthier than white rice but for some reasons, I had stored this fact at the back of my mind.
Colonial conditioning had made me believe that anything white was superior. And as a post-WWII baby, I grew up in an industrial world and therefore thought that everything should go through machines to be improved.
However, the New Age has made me realize that natural is best. And the nationalist movement has made me aware of the politics of colour and this applies to food as well.

Now that I am more health conscious and prouder of my heritage, I have resorted to eating brown rice.

What is called brown rice is any variety that has been processed only up to the point of removing the outer hull. The bran layer is intact and, with it, the impressive variety of vitamins and minerals, including niacin, vitamin B6, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and vitamin E. Pre-cooking may have allowed some packagers to enrich white rice but the other advantage of the bran –-fiber -– is still missing so it is not a good replacement.

It is the bran coating that gives brown rice its beautiful light tan color, delicious nutlike flavor, and chewy texture.

Brown rice is said to contain four times the amount of insoluble fiber found in white rice. Medical research has shown that eating fibrous foods help prevent certain cancer and coronary heart disease. One cup of brown rice is claimed to add nearly 3.5 grams of fiber to the system, while an equal amount of white rice cannot give even one gram. Also, components of the oils present in rice bran have been shown in numerous studies to decrease cholesterol, a major risk factor in heart disease.
What is left when the rice is milled further is starch. Now that carbs, like fat, has developed such a bad reputation, you wouldn’t want to fill yourself with white rice.
The Asia Rice Foundation (ARF), an organization that supports rice educational activities and cultural preservation, reported that Filipinos ate brown rice on a daily basis up to the early 1950s. Before that time (probably in the pre-war years), rice was produced by hand pounding (binayo) using mortar and pestle or stone grinder . Then milling machines were introduced to deliver more rice at a shorter period (larger scale production) to feed the growing population. The result was polished rice which was white because of the absence of the bran.

Soon after, consumer's tastes and preferences shifted in favor of white rice. White rice represented modern society and a classy lifestyle. Brown rice became associated with backwardness, the brown “dirty” colour evoking a muddy paddy.

In 2000, the ARF launched the promotion of brown rice as health food in the Los Banos science community. Called the Los Banos Pinawa (the Tagalog word for “brown rice”), the undertaking sought to revive an earlier effort to promote brown rice as a healthy substitute for white rice nationwide.
Rice continues to be the staple food of Asians but it has become an acceptable grain in other parts of the world. Rice is now part of the diet of people in many cultures but mostly it is the precooked long grained variety that is consumed globally.

Brown rice is available as short, medium, and long grain. Short-grain brown rice has more starch content and is therefore sticky. I like the Japanese organic brown rice with rounder grain, similar to calrose or arborio.
You can shorten the cooking time of brown rice by pre-soaking it in water for at least 30 minutes. I sometimes soak the rice overnight and cook it while getting ready for work --- cooking time is faster. Use double the amount of water needed. In my case, I use two cups water for every cup of brown rice.

Brown rice can replace white rice in any recipe. Try using it for champorado, sushi, risotto and paella. You will be creating dishes that are not only delicious but healthy too.

Vegetarian Meal in a Bowl
1 cup marinated then fried tofu. diced
4 cups cooked brown rice (or 2 cups rice, 2 cups quinoa)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup golden raisins, plumped in hot water and then drained
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
fresh ground black pepper
lettuce leaves
parsley or cilantro
Directions:
*Put quinoa in strainer and rinse in running water before cooking. Soak brown rice in water 30 minutes up to overnite before cooking. The proportion is one cup grain to two cups water when boiling. Start with high heat then lower to medium after water has boiled.
Toss ingredients, chill one hour. Arrange on lettuce leaves and garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro.

Roll Out the Barrel and the Grille

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Canada now. Statistics show that out of nearly 2.7 litres of alcoholic beverages sold in the past two years, beer sales made up 81 per cent of the total. Wine came in a poor second with 12 % and spirits accounted for only 7 % even with the introduction of coolers in the market.

Despite this growing trend, Canada still does not have a beer culture, although this may be changing. There are more imported beers in the market now and small breweries are crafting quite distinctive beers for local consumption. Beer is, however, still generally consumed at home in front of the TV and outside in pubs and sports bars. In the summer, there are beer patios and at festivals, there are beer tents. But many of these drinking places still do not have the right menu to complement beer drinking, so foodies like me have nowhere to eat and drink beer.

Last summer, my friend and I went to the Distillery District for a stroll and decided to stop in the patio of a restaurant to try the different products of an onsite brewery. We ordered the organic lager, the hemp beer and the coffee porter all at once. It was five in the afternoon and we were a bit hungry and wanted something to eat with our beer yet we were not quite ready to have supper. We were given the menu and there was nothing we could order from it except lunch and dinner items. I went for the mussels (listed as appetizer) but I found that heavy for the time of day. Salad was light, but Caesar salad with beer? No way. We spent two hours sitting there and could have spent more money if we had something to nibble on.

The upscale restaurant could have struck a goldmine with a separate patio menu, drawing inspiration from the city’s multi-culturally diverse population, with tapas or mezes and even dimsum providing variety and excitement. I noted that the restaurant had a grille outside but it was used to broil hamburgers and sausages mainly. Think of how that could have been used to broil inexpensive squid, skewered pork and chicken, sardines, like they do in Manila and in the beachfronts.

Comparatively, pubs do more justice to beer than restaurants do. They have bar chow that go well with the beverage. But even in pubs, the variety of bar food is very limited: chicken wings, nachos, deep-fried appetizers that come frozen in a box. Peanuts (except at Armadillos and East Side Mario’s) are no longer free and are not even on the menu. Instead calorie-laden nachos with cheese are the offering. At 150 calories average, beer does not need more calorie-rich food to accompany it. I support the claim of beer advocates that the beer belly is a myth --- it’s what one eats with beer that causes the bulging stomach.

Establishments that serve beer and other alcoholic drinks are encouraged to promote eating with drinking. Food helps to absorb some of the alcohol. Starchy foods slow the alcohol absorption. The consumption of beer also has to be paced and the so-called bar chows, like nuts for example, do this job well. I can see why mussels and wings are good bar chows ---- they are fussy and take longer to eat.

But please, make eating with beer pleasurable too.

Beers can be perfectly matched to dishes in exactly the same way as wine. There is one basic principle, and this applies to wine as well, that is “the combined flavours of the food and drink together should be better than either sampled on its own, and each should enhance the appreciation of the other.” The technique is to complement or contrast. When complementing, the intensity of the flavours should at least be equal. There is always a problem with really hot and spicy food since that is at the far end of the scale. A well-respected British beer writer, Michael Jackson (not him, I said British!) argues that in this case, geographical matches work. That means, for example, that a dry, hoppy, flavourful lager like Singha is a fine match for spicy Thai food.

With so many styles of beer in the market these days, food matching should be an easy task.

Industry analysts predict that food can be an important growth area for most pubs where beer still represents about 60% of the business. It’s time to bring the two together. Ihaw-ihaw sa Toronto?

Something "Cultural"

One really hot summer, I joined my officemates at a walkathon from Nathan Phillips Square. The walkathon ended at the same place close to Chinatown. Tired and hungry, I asked my friend and her partner to lunch at a Chinese Restaurant on Dundas Street. After being seated by our server, I immediately asked for pop (or soft drink to the Philippine-born, soda to the Americans). I was brought a can and a glass. No ice.

I summoned the waiter to bring me ice. In the sweltering heat, and after an hour-long walk, this request didn’t sound strange. And yet, to my non-Filipino friends, it was. I explained that in the Philippines we always drank pop refrigerator-cold, if not icy-cold. I went on to explain how hot the weather could be in the country and how thirsty people could become. Pop without ice simply couldn’t quench one’s thirst. The ice not only made the drink colder, it also diluted it. My guess was that diluted pop was less sweet and therefore better at quenching thirst.

I informed them that Filipinos are recognized consumers of pop (or soft drinks). The Coca-Cola Company annually releases marketing data that show which country leads in the consumption of their product. The Philippines and Mexico seesaw for the first place.

My companions were amused. And they concluded: it’s cultural.

Ambeth R. Ocampo, a young historian-researcher, relates his experience in Germany while on a Goethe-Institut grant. The Germans were always surprised whenever he asked for “water with ice’” especially in winter. He said that whenever he asked for ice for his pop, he was always given one ice cube. When he asked for more, the Germans thought he was crazy.

Filipinos do not drink tepid water. Before electricity, and with it freezers and refrigerators, came to the barrio, water was cooled in earthenware called “tapayan”.

Here is fascinating trivia about the history of ice in the Philippines, researched by Ambeth and included as a chapter in his book “Aguinaldo’s Breakfast.”

Before the ice plant at the foot of Quezon bridge was built in 1898, Manilenos made sherbet, ice cream an sorbet from ice shipped all the way from Boston. During that time, ships were a lot more slower and the trip took more than 100 days. How much of the ice melted along the way? Ocampo came across information that said that of the original 160 tons shipped to India, only 38 tons held its shape. That is a loss of about 76%, Ocampo calculated.

Also interesting is the fact that the ice came from frozen Boston lakes. This dirty ice was called “slush” and used only for cooling food. However, ice from Westham Lake was believed to be so pure that is was suitable for mixing with food or putting in a drink.

The Philippines only got the shipment of ice because it was on the route to Calcutta, the main destination.

Can you imagine how bereft our culture would have been if ice did not make it to the Philippines? We wouldn’t be asking for ice for our pop and maybe not drinking pop at all.

Breakfast at Lek's

What started me on an epicurean search for the perfect croissant was breakfast at Lek's. "Lek’s" is not a breakfast or brunch place. Lek is the nickname of a friend who is a Paris denizen.

On a visit to the famed city of lights, my friend and I were privileged to have stayed in Lek's parents-in-law's studio apartment, in a 150-year-old building on the summit of Butte Montmarte. This building, with the apartment's window on the second floor, was seen in the movie "French Kiss", in the scene where Kevin Klein was giving Meg Ryan some money after her personal things were stolen. The ground floor of the building was also the setting of a scene in a recent French comedy film titled "Le Nouveau Jean Hide" which we may never get to see in North America.

Lek, her husband and son live about a hundred steps down, at a midpoint of the hill. Every morning, Lek insisted that we go down and have breakfast at her place, a charming vintage apartment that she has filled with art deco. This apartment building has appeared in a postcard in the 50s, featuring a photograph from the series on Les escaliers de Montmarte (The Stairways of Montmarte) by Rene Jacques. Lek's apartment also would have been the setting of a class B movie. The production designer had scouted the place and had discussed rates with the residents. One scene would have involved two women running naked in the apartment — this was a warning because Lek happens to have a young teenager with exploding hormones. Fortunately or not, the filming did not proceed because of lack of funds.

So every morning without miss, my friend and I would go down to Lek's. That would mean walking around the lively Jewish creche, past numerous touristy restaurants, the famed Basilica de Sacre Couer, the viewing deck where tourists witness the lighting up of Paris, and the funicular station. Beside the station are the hundred and more steps leading to a small park with a carousel, the one that you saw in the French film Amelie, and the subway station. Going down was easy and we were glad that the invitation was for breakfast and not dinner. At night we took the funicular right to the top (there are no other stops).

Breakfast always consisted of croissants and they were the best that I have tasted — buttery and flaky. I could tell that they were good by the multi layers of crust that peeled off and dropped as crumbs on the table, if not the floor. Lek lectured that good croissants were made with pure butter, not with margarine as substitute. And they should be light, never having the texture of bread. Lek said that after tasting her croissants we would be asking for them all the time. But we didn’t have to --- ask that is --- because she served them everyday.

Lek, like the croissants, didn’t disappoint. One day, we had crepes; another time, baguettes and pain du chocolat. But the croissants were always present. With the plain croissants we also had marmalade and sometimes eggs and bacon or sausage.
She called them "my croissants" although she didn't bake them herself. She bought them. Every morning, before we appeared at her door, she would go down the stairways of Montmarte to the boulangerie Le Gastelier (her discovery), then go up to her home. We commended her efforts. But to her the early morning trips were her exercise.
It didn't worry Lek that there was too much food. Still a typical Filipino, she would pack the leftovers for our baon so that we wouldn’t have to spend more money for lunch. Wherever we went --- from Versailles to Champs-Elysee, on the Seine, in the Louvre --- we carried a lunch bag, courtesy of Lek. Her hospitality was well-documented in some of our photos, showing us holding that bag.

On arrival in Toronto, I searched for a similar croissant. Not one has yet passed the mark. Perhaps I shall ask Lek to Fedex me my supply. Or better still, revv up my spending on my air miles card for another trip to Paris.

(Note: a few French-style bakeries have opened in Toronto since 2000 and I have judged the croissants from two of these bakeries as the best.)