Fiesta recipes on postcards

IT was one of those gloom and doom days when the stock

market was reeling from the latest scandal and the peso had

sunk even lower.

So what's a girl to do? In my case, I put on my glad rags and

went to Ilustrado restaurant's launch of Fiesta Philippine Recipe

Postcards.

Beating the blues

The best of Philippine cuisine, with a demonstration by

Ilustrado's chefs and food tasting, was one way of beating the

blues. The colored postcards of old-time favorites like sopa de

gallego, sopa de la reina, Bonoan bangus relleno, palabok,

morcon, yema and other familiar delicacies complete with

recipes make enticing gifts for homesick relatives abroad.

But looking at pictures and actually eating are two very different

delights. The latter is definitely preferable, the former reserved

for masochists.

Fr. Gabriel Casal on my left kept insisting the fresh Capiz oysters

were bad for something, but I forgot it since I was concentrating

on the sensuous feel of the oyster in my mouth. Washed down

with a drink of delicate cold pandan juice that was the favored

drink of the day, comparable I thought to the juice of those

Tagalog bayabas that are so difficult to find these days, I

swiftly forgot finances and scandals.

Smorgasbord

It was one of those eat-all-you-can deals. I went on to try the

bulalo that really must be bad for me since it tasted so

delicious. Then I continued with the palabok (who can resist

noodles?), kilawin of tanguigue, ginataang kuhol with an

after-kick of sili labuyo in a sweet coconut sauce, and a new

dish called umbuyan that turned out to be Cora Alvina's

brainchild. This was later demonstrated so I know it's not that

difficult. On one of your less harried days, flake the tinapa,

sauté it in garlic, onions and olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Roll

ingredients in blanched native petchay cut slanting about an

inch. Warm in oven before serving. Easy, 'no?

By this time I had forgotten all about the psychological reasons

for overeating and was enjoying my binge of kare-kare with

green mango and bagoong, my all-time favorite comfort food. I

stopped at this point to keep some room for the halaang ube,

the yema and the leche flan. Unfortunately, there was no more

space for the buko salad, the halaang mangga and the

halo-halo. Sigh… and to think it was a Friday in Lent.

Congratulations to Boni and Rose Pimentel and Cora Alvina for

unearthing authentic turn-of-the-century recipes inspired or

associated with our national heroes or from their regional place

of birth. (President Manuel Quezon's favorite breakfast for

instance was longganisang Lukban with garlic-fried rice and

chocolate eh!)

This culinary adventure was launched in 1990 as "Breaking

Bread" and continued with Batangas food in honor of Miguel

Malvar, Ilocano dishes for the brothers Luna and finally the

Tondo district for Andres Bonifacio.

Cora discovered that Gagalangin was once an orange orchard

and the source of fresh carabao milk that was best for leche

flan, pastillas de leche. Umbuyan is a tribute to Bonifacio,

though I think the man might have been taken aback by the

olive oil and the balut in a pastry shell but not by the pinipig

ice cream, another Ilustrado favorite.

The restaurant wants to feature the best and finest of Filipino

cuisine. Bravo!