There’s coconut magic in Filipino cuisine

The Filipino cuisine is an eclectic mixture of international recipes. The German frankfurter is as Filipino as the native longaniza; the American sandwich is as widely accepted as our own “puto” for merienda; the French bouillabaisse is cooked like our “sinigang” and the Japanese sashimi or raw fish is eaten like the “kilawin” or “kinilaw.”

The exotic dishes spread on the Filipino table are a spicy blend of different cultures. “Such is the wizardry of the Filipino cooking,” said Shirley Gasmin Aguilar, Regional Operation Head of the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), and Food and Beverage Manager of the Club Intramuros Main Restaurant at the Club Intramuros Golf Course (the only day and night golf course in the Philippines) also owned and operated by the Philippine Tourism Authority.

“In the Philippines, wherever you go and whatever you do, you always come face to face with coconuts,” Aguilar said. “Filipinos have magic with coconuts.”

The use of fresh coconut milk or “gata” as cooking ingredient for chicken, pork, fish and vegetable dishes came from Malaysia. Aguilar sums up the other known coconut recipes… “the simple guinatan to the luxurious lumpiang ubod, including that stupefying local brew popularly called ‘lambanog!”’

Then there’s the “lumpiang ubod” whose main ingredient is the pith of a coconut trunk; sliced and sautéed in pork and shrimp, and finally wrapped and rolled in cigar-fashion. The “binakol,” a delicately spiced chicken boiled with young coconut and cooked in a bamboo tube. While the “guinatan” is cooking meat and vegetables with coconut milk.

In Mindanao, the “guinatan” which is a favorite recipe of Filipinos from Aparri to Jolo is a mixture of vegetables with chunks of “daing” (dressed salted fish). In Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur specifically Marawi City, on the night commemorating the end of Ramadan, the festive table is laid out with “tilapia” (a shiny, white-skinned fish) caught in the Maria Christina Lake (home of the famous Maria Christina Waterfalls). Tilapia is cooked in a creamy fresh milk or “kakang-gata” of the coconut fruit.

If the Middle Eastern countries are known for its black gold, Zamboanga is known for its “white gold,” because the province is mostly planted with coconuts.

Akin to its beautiful bays, the Zamboanga sea brings anchovies and “curacha” (a milk-like tasting half-crab, half-lobster) shell food. The Zamboangeños or the most discriminating chabacanos’ preference for their shells and marine food are done in exotic coconut recipes.

Meanwhile, Filipino sweets prepared with coconut milk include all-time favorites ripe “saba” bananas, mixed with camote, gabi, ube, tapioca and langka called “guinatan” to the Tagalogs; delicious pineapple-buco salad; bibingka, maja blanca, masapan de buko, ube jam and not to be forgotten is the flesh of the young coconut turned into a heavy prepared dessert called “macapuno.”