Fast, easy, delicious, impressive, and inexpensive are words that describe food cooked in a flour-based skin. The dishes, originally from the Middle East, South America, China, Europe, the Philippines, and many other parts of the world, have become so popular they are now found everywhere.

Filipinos are familiar with these universal favorites: tacos, shawarma, shaomai, dolmas, and empanadang Ilocos.

We all munch crisp corn tortillas while watching TV or just hanging out. Tacos are palm-size tortillas filled with ground beef, chili sauce, lettuce, avocado, guacamole, tomatoes, salsa, and grated cheese.

Tacos promote camaraderie as everyone shares a large bowl of fillings while gathered around the table.

The fillings could be served in separate bowls or presented premixed in a giant tray.

Introduced in the Philippines by millions of Filipinos who became familiar with the dish while working in the Middle East beginning in the 1970s, it became a familiar street food throughout the archipelago.

The most authentic versions were sold in restaurants owned and run by Arabic husbands married to Filipinas. Catering to Filipino taste, however, the meats served are limited to chicken and beef, with lamb very rarely making an appearance.

The marinated meats are roasted on a revolving spit beside a gas flame and sliced only as orders come in. Freshly baked flatbread is heated over fire and stacked over the bread along with grilled tomatoes and some greens. Lastly, a garlic-chili yogurt sauce is drizzled over the stuffed bread and rolled.

In place of flatbread, I resort to supermarket-bought frozen pizza crust. Leftover shredded adobo is also a good replacement for grilled meat.

A staple in the Middle East and Europe, dolmas originated as stuffed grape leaves enriched with ground meat stuffing. In the Philippines, it remains as stuffed green bell peppers and stuffed cabbage leaves. Stretching the idea further, one thinks of stuffed grilled eggplants.

Some Pinoy households have even developed recipes for stuffed ampalaya.

Upscale supermarkets and gourmet shops sometimes stock grape leaves stored in brine in clear glass jars. Definitely a must for those who desire authenticity.

A historian once told me that the famous Ilocos empanada originated from Spanish and Mexican soldiers who were assigned in Vigan, one of the oldest Spanish outposts in the Philippines.

Longing for their own food items, they substituted ground rice for flour, boiled mongo instead of beans, and shredded green papaya for leafy vegetables. The foreigners added fried langonisa, which they had introduced to the region.

To make the empanada look more like the tortillas of their Mexican homeland, they colored the rice flour dough with achuete to simulate ground corn.

Better than Vigan

Empanada and langonisa are the most popular pasalubong from the Ilocos provinces, where the locals themselves cannot agree on whose langonisa and empanada are better: Ilocos Norte or Ilocos Sur. My vote goes to the products of Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Now, do you want a debate on vinegar?