On august 20th and 21st,
Toronto had its largest Filipino Festival: Taste of Manila. This is a great
opportunity to know more about Filipino culture and Food.
In an article in Bloomberg about Filipino
food, This food is described as a fusion of Malaysian, Chinese and
Spanish food. There are some Indian and American influences as well. Dishes can
be from very simple to complex meals in preparation. Street food plays a very important
role in the culture of this country. Skewered meat is typical and a known part
of this food, but there is much more to know.
My first try was a tray of food containing a
portion of Noodles, Chicken Adobo and Lechon Kawali. See the
pictures below.
Adobo is
one of the most popular dishes in Philippines. It´s origin seems to be in the
indigenous style of preparing meat using vinegar and salt. The use of those
ingredients is related with the local climate, where they were used to preserve
the food. Chinese influence came with the soy sauce and then Spanish came with
some species and olive oil. Today this is used to prepare chicken or pork. More
can be read in this article in Asian Journal.
Lechon Kawali
is a crispy pork belly deep-fried in a pan or a wok. It is usually seasoned and
chopped in parts.
Below, there is a picture of Pork Adobo, with Pork Tail.
In a different place, I had the opportunity
to taste other dishes like the Chicken Afritada. This is a dish that is
cooked with potatoes, tomato sauce, and sometimes carrots are added. It is
possible to find also with pork. See the picture.
Some weeks ago, I had the opportunity to
taste Kare-kare, a stewed Oxtail where the main ingredient is peanut
sauce.
Aviso importante para
mis lectores que hablan Español:
If you speak Spanish and you had no
exposition to Filipino food, your own language can give you some keywords about
where to start. Some Filipino food use Spanish names and they can give you an
idea about what it can contain. I had already mentioned “Adobo”, “Lechon”
and “Afritada”. Here are some useful Spanish words used in food names:
Asado
(Braised meat in Soy sauce and Brown sugar), Bistek (Beef Steak), Camaron
rebosado (Deep fried shrimps), Escabeche (Marinated fried fish), embutido,
Hamonado (from the Spanish word
for Ham), Lumpia (spring rolls), Callos, Menudo (both are stews
of meat based in Tomato sauce), Paella, Longganisa (Pork sausage),
Tocino, empanada, Rosquillos,
leche flan (custard)
Some other words:
English Spanish Tagalog
Spoon Cuchara Kutsara
Fork Tenedor Tinidor
Pepper Pinienta Paminta
Like Gustar Gusto
Sauteed Guisado Gisado
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