Exuberant lines from the popular musical Camelot capture the spirit of Filipinos’ song-dance-feast attitude once the first rains of May start softening the heat and humidity of summer.
May is fiesta time all over our islands, when we celebrate harvests, revere patron saints, honor working farm animals, remember historical events, and revive forgotten traditions. We travel to distant barrios and seaside villages for experiences that will last us a lifetime.
Topping the must-have list of must-have is food. No trip or vacation is complete without feasting on local delights that spotlight the best produce available locally. The experience also teaches cooking methods unique to the communities, and kitchen staples served in ways unimaginable to the uninitiated.
On Simunul Island, south of Tawi-Tawi, we woke up in a town celebrating the union of two prominent families. The colorful ceremonies included glittering decor on boats, which serve as homes for the celebrants. For breakfast, instead of rice, we were served steamed grated cassava. Our leftovers were later stir-fried without oil. Called Shanglag, the re-cooked cassava had crunchy edges perking up every sip of the strong brewed coffee harvested from Siasi Island, home of my late friend Nelly Sindayen.
The first Sunday of May is the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of my hometown Las Piñas, where my grandparents were always designated as hermanos or sponsors to feed the brass bands, which march around town from early morning to sundown.
This annual assignment meant hiring cooks and kitchen helpers from nearby towns. They arrive the day before the fiesta, lugging large pots and pans, sharp knives and jars of seasonings.
They began at sunset by killing a cow and three hogs, carefully ensuring that their blood was collected in covered pails. Later, they are stirred into dishes native to Cavite province, where our family was based.
The kitchen crew had to work fast. Without refrigeration, all the meat had to be cut, seasoned, and pre-cooked to keep them from spoiling. The pre-cooking is called sangkucha, where the meat is stir-fried in its own fat over high heat, then transferred to shallow pans to cool. The seasonings include a little vinegar for flavor and preservation.
The first dishes to be fully cooked are dinuguan and bopis, which use animal parts that spoil fast—liver, stomach, intestines, ears, snout, spleen, lungs, kidney, heart, and other innards. These dishes serve as the kitchen crew’s overnight meals as well as breakfast for the musicians.
Assorted pork parts are chopped and ground to make longganisa. Seasonings vary according to locality. In Cavite, longganisa is tinted with atsuete and spiced with black pepper and garlic. Expensive Spanish paprika colors and preserves the small Lucban longganisa. Ilocanos prefer their sausages very strongly flavored with coarse black pepper, garlic and strong dark Ilocos vinegar.
Most popular dish. The popular Adobo, in its many forms, appears everywhere during the fiesta season. There is no single definitive adobo recipe. Adobo is a procedure, a suggestive process. Thus there is the familiar toyo-darkened adobo and the adobong puti with no soy sauce. Also served in many parts of the country are adobo sa gata (cooked with coconut milk). My Lola often made Adobong Hito sa Luyang Dilaw (catfish adobo with turmeric). Other items cooked adobo-style are mussels (tahong), chicken feet, kangkong, anything that strikes your fancy.
Pampango secret. A long time ago, a hotel chef showed me what he called the secret of Pampango cuisine. In a thick pan, he heated a tablespoon of sugar over medium heat, stirred constantly to prevent scorching, which would make the dish bitter. When the sugar turned light brown, the heat was either turned off or the pan was taken off the fire. This caramelized sugar-oil was then used as basis for many dishes such as mechado, afritada, and yes, even adobo.
Clean Cavite seafood. Seafood is what a fiesta feasts on in Cavite are all about. Wonder how their clams, mussels, and oysters stay alive for days away from the sea?
The bivalves are soaked in tap water mixed with sea salt. Salinity of the mixture should approximate sea water. Use tap water only to wash the shellfish moments before cooking.