I love trying out different styles of cooking and different cuisines — and I really mean from all over. One night I’ll be making Louisiana gumbo, and the next I’ll be making maple brisket; one of my go-to dishes is a Chinese braised-beef stew, and I’d be lost without metemgee (saltfish and root vegetable stew, from Guyana). One cuisine I’ve been just dipping my toes into is Filipino food; and I’ve been having a great time.

Of course, due to limits with budget and my own tastes, I rarely make a dish exactly as written — or if I do, it’s once. But here’s some of the dishes I’ve made so far, and notes on what I’ve messed around with and how it’s worked out.

1. Filipino Spaghetti

It’s worth noting that I am not a pasta guy. I like noodles; but try as I might, I genuinely am incredibly ‘meh’ on most Italian food, with the exception of a good gnocchi. So one night, I decided to try this out, figuring it’d be another ‘well… pasta is… sure pasta!’ and was delighted to find out I was wrong.

The base recipe I used is here: https://www.kawalingpinoy.com/filipino-style-spaghetti/. Kawaling Pinoy is one of the two sites I’ve been using a lot, and I love their recipes. The main things I changed here is that I’ve either used ground beef or hotdogs, not both (I’m sparing with my meat), and same with the tomato paste and tomato sauce — it’s one or the other. It tastes really good just like that, but if you have these ingredients on hand, I also add fish sauce, cumin, paprika, cayenne and coriander. (Your choice how much, but be sparing with the fish sauce if you’re not sure how much you like it.)

The funny thing is, according to a lot of comments I’ve seen, Filipino spaghetti has a bit of a mixed reputation! I can’t think why. It’s delicious. (I suspect a lot of it’s just racism.)

2. Embutido (Filipino Meatloaf)

Much like with pasta, meatloaf is one of those traditional White Household Dishes that I’ll like, suffer through if I have to but really don’t enjoy. I’ve turned around on them quite a bit ever since both cooking for myself and acquiring several pounds worth of grainfed beef (you can actually taste the difference, I am not joking!) but I’d still never go out of my way to have it. Still, I was feeling too lazy for meatballs, so I looked up some other ways to make meatloaf — and ran across this recipe. https://delishably.com/world-cuisine/Beef-Embutido-Philippine-Meatloaf. (There’s pork versions on both Kawaling Pinoy and Panlasang Pinoy; but knowing how long to steam the beef version is important.)

From a Spanish word for sausage, embutido is a steamed meatloaf (as opposed to baked) and generally has a lot of other stuff mixed in with the meat. The recipes given here include hot dogs and hard-boiled eggs; I haven’t included those as of yet (once again, I’m sparing with my meat, and eggs are especially dear right now). So my embutido so far has included, along with the meat, breadcrumbs and eggs for binding, carrot, raisins, chopped prunes, and a little bit of ginger for zing. I’ve also added a packet of Goya seasoning (con Azafran) although to be honest, I could probably have added two.

Notes for this recipe: even if you halve it, you want to steam it for the full hour, and as mentioned above, you’ll want to spice it! As given, the texture is good but the flavour is very mild. My recommendations would be cumin, paprika/smoked paprika, oregano, thyme, coriander, annato, chipotle, cayenne and/or a touch of anise or fennel. Mix and match as you desire, really. Alternately, substitute enchilada sauce for the tomato sauce if you’re feeling really adventurous. I’m gonna try that next time — for kicks.

3. Pork Hamonado

First off, this is a fantastic fucking name. I know it’s the result of ‘jamon’ meaning ham and various little linguistic turns from there, but “hamonado” is one of my favourite Tagalogisms yet. Is that the right word? Tagalogisms? Pinoyisms? I’m sure there’s an existent term.

Anyway, the recipe for Pork Hamonado is here: https://panlasangpinoy.com/pork-hamonado/ And this one I’ve got no notes on. It is fucking delicious. Well, one note: Don’t cheat and try to make this with anything but pork belly. But I am such a sucker for pineapple, oh my god.

4. Lumpia

Who doesn’t love lumpia? People who haven’t had them yet, that’s all. You know how egg rolls are a different shape than spring rolls, traditionally, from Chinese restaurants — and then you go to a Vietnamese or Thai or SEA place and the skinny ones also have meat in them? That’s what lumpia are, in essence.

Here’s the recipe I used: https://panlasangpinoy.com/filipino-lumpia-recipe/ I made about 12-15, so not a huge batch; mind you, I’m just one person, and I still stuck them in the fridge and served them with three meals. My notes: It will take you a few tries to get the rolling right, and that’s okay. They’re like tiny, annoying burritos. But the tighter the better, and you’ll get the hang of it. They won’t look like the perfect ones in restaurants, or that your ex’s mother made (ah, memories) but they’ll do.

5. Pork Skewers/BBQ

This one is one where I definitely couldn’t prepare it quite as listed, so the version I had and the version intended are definitely not quite the same. However, this is still delicious.

The recipe in its pure form is here: https://panlasangpinoy.com/filipino-style-pork-bbq/. The main difference: I don’t have a BBQ or grill! (Well, I do. But it’s in the back of the car and I don’t know how to use it yet. I bought it last summer on sale.) So I used my broiler function in my oven. Here’s my modified version below:

• 4 lbs. pork shoulder sliced into thin pieces (I used tenderloin, but shoulder or belly probably would work better; either way, though, it’s good.)
• ¾ cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• ¾ cup banana ketchup (If you don’t have access to this, tomato ketchup or tomato sauce will also work; but I was lucky enough to have banana ketchup on hand.)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ cups ginger ale (I didn’t have any pure lemon/lime soda, but this worked fine!)

Slice the pork into small pieces and marinate in all the ingredients above for at least 3 hours in the fridge, but ideally overnight. Then the next day, soak your skewers for minimum 30 minutes in cold water, and thread the pork onto the skewers. I put them on with alternating pieces of pineapple, lime and mushroom — mostly because, well, that’s what I had. I figure it’ll also taste good with red pepper and onion which is a bit more traditional, but I hate biting into chunks of those. (Autism for the win.)

The recipe suggests grilling for 3-5 minutes. For a broiler, though, you want them close-ish to the top of the oven and you’ll be broiling for 4 minutes, then basting with your marinade, turning, and broiling for another 3-4. Make sure to put them on a pan/rack where they can drip down onto something, otherwise they’ll be pretty fatty. I had them suspended over a loaf pan and it worked pretty well!

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Those are all the ones I’ve tried for now, but I’ll be reporting back on more! There’s so many — from kare kare to sweet and sour fish fillets, to champorado and more. The biggest barrier so far is me having to learn a bunch of new words (some of the more old-fashioned recipes have up to five ingredients I’ve never used or heard of, which, when you’re me, is a lot!) but I relish that — and I might learn some Tagalog on the way.

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