Country Cooking A matter of taste By Micky Fenix Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 21:11:00 08/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines—For two Christmases now, my nephew’s gift for everyone in the family is contained in a big box he has brought home from Japan where he is based. The box contains different pieces of chocolate of various brands.
Most of them are Meiji, one of which was a huge bar that his cousins couldn’t resist being photographed with. What remains of the cache is one huge Hershey’s bar that still lounges in my refrigerator waiting for the day when the younger generation makes true the threat to hold a chocolate fondue fest.
I was the odd woman out. Everyone around me was swooning and all I could manage was an indifferent “wow.”
Chocolate isn’t one of my favorite things. I can exist without it. I prefer coffee to tsokolate e. While my friends couldn’t get enough of Royce, that high-end Japanese-made chocolate, when it was offered as our after-dinner goodies, I managed a thank you and wondered what all the fuss was about.
Oh, I did have my favorite chocolates in high school. I love Maltesers and Picnic and still do. I suppose one is born with a set of likes and dislikes. It’s not because of environment, because my siblings and I differ in things we like and dislike and we all grew up under one roof.
For instance, I must be the only one in the family who doesn’t care for processed meat. Longganisa, corned beef, sausage, tocino don’t do anything for me.
My father loved sausages and introduced all of us to the wonders of German sausages and whole corned beef, the accompanying sauerkraut, mustard and horseradish sauce. We couldn’t have that every time so it was always a special treat whenever my father could pass by a deli and get some for us.
My mother, on the other hand, always knew where to get the best longganisa and tocino. It was the easiest lunch or dinner to make, heaven-sent for my mom who didn’t have time to be a full-time housewife because of her work as an architect.
Processed meats for breakfast
With my own family, processed meats are the mainstays for breakfast. My sons inherited the preference from their father who considers himself a connoisseur of corned beef hash.
My grocery lists canned goods such as corned beef and sausages like German, Vienna and good old hotdogs. I hardly eat those except when there’s exceptional ham like Majestic and Excellente or Pine and Slers from Cagayan de Oro.
Steak is another food I can’t be excited about. Oh yes, I get into animated conversations with steak people about how it should be cooked and with what kind of pan. I try to discern what kind of beef is really the best, whether grass-fed or grain-fed, whether raised the American or the Japanese way.
My generation had steak as date food. Steak was always the most expensive item on the menu and so, to show off, the steak house was the place to go.
Never mind that the tenderloin bits were fastened together with toothpick no one thought of taking out just before serving. Or that medium rare either came out rare or well done.
Today, steak places are all over town. And you get what you pay for. Chilled imported beef, well-marbled and cooked precisely to your order, can be had at places where it costs an arm and a leg and probably your whole body as well.
Then there are the cheaper outlets where the sizzle can be heard and splatters the air with “steak smell” which you carry on your clothes when you leave. Gravy is the plus in such places and you get as much as you want, including pouring it on the rice which accompanies the steak order.
Desserts
I love desserts, especially most pastries. I can’t eat a meal without something sweet at the end. My excuse is that I need something to neutralize the salty or sour or even bitter.
Or the fifth taste called umami, which an MSG company now capitalizes on as something its product gives. You can have the chocolate fountain. I’ll have the cake, the flan, the profiterole.
I love liver, any kind. Growing up in a large family meant going to the dining table ahead of everybody else so I could get the chicken liver in the tinola. I would rather use pork liver as my grilled steak, and my son who used to love it (tastes change) once described it as chocolate meat. And I swoon when foie gras is offered.
E-mail pinoyfood94@yahoo.com
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
To
subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper in the Philippines,
call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here.
Factual errors? Contact the
Philippine Daily Inquirer's day desk.
Believe this article violates journalistic ethics?
Contact the
Inquirer's Reader's Advocate.
Or write The Readers' Advocate:
c/o
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Chino RocesAvenue corner Yague and Mascardo Streets,
Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Or fax nos. +63 2 8974793 to 94
![Zoom Image](javascript:popwin("http://images.inquirer.net/media/showbizandstyle/lifestyle/lifestyle/images/pic-08280105190592.jpg", 640, 480))
Zoom
