MANILA, Philippines?A shortage of mozzarella in Ilocos Norte. This was such a crisis for the owner of Herencia Café in Paoay. The café is known for its pinakbet pizza as well as bagnet pizza, two Filipinized Italian dishes.

It was the first I heard of the cheese shortage. I know of an impending pasta shortage because wheat production is at an all-time low all over the world. But cheese?

Use kesong puti, I told him. Both cheeses use buffalo milk, even if ours happens to be that of the water buffalo. He looked at me puzzled. Just in case the Ilocanos called the cheese by another name, I mentioned the other versions?queseo, quesillo.

He still didn?t get it. Later, I mentioned the incident to my guide and he said Ilocanos in that part of the country didn?t make or use kesong puti.

It was quite a revelation. I had always presumed that every corner of the country would have some form of the cheese. I know that Dagupan has, because the little bit of kesong puti from there that was once given me was the best I ever had.

The makers of kesong puti in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, will dispute that, though. And in Samar, the white cheese is still immersed in brine, which makes it saltier than most.

Looking back, I shouldn?t have thought that strange. There have been many instances when people mentioned certain ingredients and I didn?t know what they were or what they did to the food.

Lemon grass or tanglad was one. The first time I cooked nilagang baka, my husband asked why it didn?t have that lemon-scented ingredient which was supposed to take away the smell of the meat. At least that?s what he said it did.

When I tried it, I was taken aback at how perfumed the soup was. Tagalogs, or the regional people that I?m part of, don?t like such an aromatic touch to their food. But later on, I became used to it as I got exposed to Thai cooking, which uses lemon grass very often in its recipes. It?s now part of my pantry.

Smelled like licorice

The alagaw leaf is another. The first time I heard of it was in Bulacan, when our host told us the paksiw had the leaf because it took away the lansa (fishy smell). She took one leaf from the plant in a pot, pressed it and made me smell it. It smelled like licorice.

My Pampango friend said that he would wrap fish being grilled with alagaw leaves because the aroma would be great.

The late Digon Vocalan, Angono artist and restaurateur, told me that alagaw was regarded in his town as a healing leaf, but only after the leaves have decorated the saints on carrozas during Holy Week processions.

At the end of the procession, those leaves are taken and placed in oil to be used as ointment for countless maladies. But, and this he stressed, it is also used in cooking most fish dishes.

Another leaf I was introduced to was the pasotes, which is added to the pipian, a Vigan, Ilocos Sur, dish. It also smelled a bit like licorice. Looking through a Mexican cookbook, I found the dish pipian and noted how it used a leaf called epazote. Since the country was ruled by Spain via Mexico, the dish must have been brought here, with the epazote planted in the place and the name evolving into pasotes.

Another change: The ground pumpkin seeds used to thicken the sauce in the Mexican version was substituted with peanuts in the Ilocos.

In Cavite, a certain leaf called unsoy is used in salads and pancit palabok. It looks like dill, because the leaves are like pine needles, but the aroma is unmistakably wansuy or coriander leaf. I remember being told by a Caviteña how certain she was that the pancit I once wrote about was a piece of an authentic Cavite cooking because of its unsoy.

As I go from place to place and province to province, I know I will collect more of these ingredients. Like me, readers will find these herbs and leaves strange at first, until they get the chance to see, smell, cook and eat these. Still, just being told about them is enough to make one marvel at the variety and richness of our cuisine.

Top cookbooks

Good news for Philippine culinary literature! Three cookbooks were judged among the top books in their respective categories at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards last April 13. This is the first time Filipino cookbooks were shortlisted as finalists.

?The Governor-General?s Kitchen,? written by Felice Sta. Maria and designed by Ige Ramos (Anvil Publishing), won second place in the Best Culinary History category.

?Foodlore and Flavours: Inside the South East Asian Kitchen,? edited by Tan Su-Lynwith with photos by Neal Oshima (Artpostasia), won third place in the Asian Cuisine Cookbook category.

?A La Carte: Food and Fiction? (Anvil Publishing) took third place in the Food Literature category. Edited by Cecilia Manguera Brainard and Marily Orosa, it?s a collection of stories and recipes by 25 authors.

Each of those categories had an average of 20 finalists from all over the world.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards was founded in 1995 by Edward Cointreau. The winners were announced in the Olympia Theatre in London, at an awards show called ?Best in the World.?

E-mail the author at pinoyfood04@yahoo.com