I love the sour Filipino soup called sinigang, but I've never seen a presentation as beautiful as this small shooter (above).
Where did I have it? At ACE (Academy of Culinary Education) in Woodland Hills, where school founder and chef Cecilia de Castro staged a brunch composed of Filipino small plates.
De Castro put the brunch together on short notice to honor Clara Reyes Lapus (above), president of Mama Sita's, the leading producer of spice mixes, sauces and vinegars in the Philippines. Lapus, whose mother, Teresita Reyes, was the original Mama Sita, had just arrived from Manila for a short stay here.
Although the party wasn't a commercial promotion, De Castro still tried to incorporate Mama Sita's products into the menu. And much of the food was cooked as the guests watched.
The sinigang was soured with tamarind, but it wasn't brown, like tamarind foods in Mexico and India. That's because it was soured with green tamarind, Lapus explained. This can be done with a sinigang seasoning mix made from fresh green tamarind, a new product from her company (above). For a sinigang recipe on Mama Sita's web site, click here.
Lapus came to Los Angeles to promote coconut vinegar in order to help farmers in the Philippines. By planting new coconut palms to replace those no longer productive, they can make money from the sap of the flowers, which is fermented to make vinegar. Above are plain and seasoned coconut vinegars, pepped up with such ingredients as ginger, garlic, onion, red chile and black pepper.
This is ukoy, fried vegetable fritters to dip in a sauce made with coconut vinegar, seasoned with garlic, pepper and salt.
Crisp fried lumpia (above) is also dipped in a vinegar sauce. This lumpia was vegetarian. More common in the Philippines is meat-filled lumpia Shanghai. De Castro says she wants to change that name to lumpia Manila to give proper credit to the country where she was born.
Chicken sausage (above) was really tasty. A similar dish, beef meatballs seasoned with a mix called caldereta, is in "Mama Sita's Cookbook."
This was one of the two cookbooks that Lapus brought with her. The book on the left is in Tagalog. The title "Lutong Bahay" means home cooking.
De Castro also served empanadas filled with beef caldereta and vegetables, brushed with an egg wash and baked (above).
In the Philippines, "tapa" isn't a small appetizer plate but beef marinated with soy sauce, sugar and garlic. The usual accompaniment is garlic-fried rice, but De Castro served the meat with salad (above) for a lighter effect.
Here, she chops up meat for barbecue plates of chicken and pork.
Instead of green papaya salad, a typical accompaniment to barbecue, she added a salad of pickled cucumbers, red onions and carrots (above).
Pancit, or rice noodles (above), made a pretty plate with shrimp, chicken and vegetables.
These tiny tastes are pork adobo on steamed rice (left) and grilled pork on garlic-fried rice topped with an egg, its yolk runny enough to mix with the rice.
Brunch ended with tiny cups of coconut crème brûlée (above) that De Castro torched to make a crisp topping.
The gathering, attended by consular and civic officials, also paid tribute to Filipino American History Month, which takes place every October.
Interestingly, the number of Filipino restaurants in Southern California is small, compared to the large Filipino American population, about 850,000 from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. The reason may be that Filipinos love getting together and sharing food. With such good home cooking readily available, they're not inclined to eat out.
An ardent promoter of the cuisine, De Castro likes to encourage young chefs who want to introduce Filipino food to this country. Although some may resort to fusion cooking, that's OK, she said, as long as they maintain genuine flavors and cooking techniques.
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