THE book ?Kulinarya: A guide to Philippine Cuisine? has proven to be a bestseller judging from the new batch that had to be quickly reprinted in a span of two months since it was launched. Timing had something to do with that. It?s the Christmas season and the book came out in time to be considered as a Christmas gift.

Why not consider another book as well, I was asked by Chit Almario who had dropped by my workplace to show me what she meant.

The ?Good Food Book? is a compilation of recipes by the Lay Affiliates of the Good Shepherd. These are women who give their effort and time to help in the program of the nuns who belong to the Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS).

Their meetings include sharing of food. And out of those, recipes were shared and made into a book to sell and raise funds for its program called Headstart. This includes a feeding program for children in Bagong Silangan, a community near the garbage dump in Quezon City known as Payatas.

I know I smiled when I looked through the table of contents. Recipes were divided by Biblical phrases. It isn?t difficult to discern what dishes are contained in ?In the Beginning? or ?Fish be with You? and most especially ?The Cock Crowed Thrice.?

But the number of recipes isn?t something to sniff at?more than 200 from this group who was called by the book?s editor, writer Julie Cabatit Alegre, as ?Ladies who Lunch,? counting herself since she is a lay affiliate, too.

Recipe books are made more interesting by short blurbs that introduce the recipes. Many of the dishes come from the kitchens of the ladies some of whom traced back when they learned it and from whom and the initial reactions of their families.

Annie Lukban, for instance, decided to learn from her mother-in-law who was a great cook but who never measured. It was in contrast to her ?scientific? way of cutting the macaroni of her very first dish as a young bride into exactly 1.5-inch pieces which held up lunch till way past 1:30 p.m.

Heirloom recipes

Many are heirloom recipes. Chit Sales, for instance, contributed the family dish toyoba, a version of the adobo which includes hibe or dried shrimps. And she gave the adobo recipe of her brother-in-law who at first wouldn?t divulge his mother?s formula until ?probably feeling ebullient in the cool and relaxing [Tagaytay] weather, decided to share.?

Chit Almario, on the other hand, wrote about her Tio Tano?s chicken relleno, the piece de resistance of her dentist uncle?s Christmas feast.

The Good Shepherd nuns also gave recipes from the dining rooms of their many convents in the country. Dina V. Carpio wrote about her first taste of a chicken dish at the Aurora Boulevard convent, a whole chicken cooked slowly over low fire stuffed with leftover rice and leeks, with pechay covering the fowl and cream poured on top.

When a group, including Almario, visited the mother house in Angers, France, she recreated some of the recipes served to them at the hostel run by the nuns such as the asparagus soup, stewed mushrooms and onions, chicken with mushrooms and the interesting pain de legumes, a vegetable loaf that has encouraged me to experiment.

Before I could even ask her, Almario said the famous strawberry jam is included among the nuns? contribution. I told her it brought me back to the time when I had the chance to go to Baguio to interview the nun in charge just before the destructive earthquake.

I no longer have that file (because computers crash and disks deteriorate) so I can?t remember her name. The book recounts that it was Sr. Mary Carmel Medalla who began the jam-making having learned the technique from her novice directress who used to work for Knotts Berry Farm in California. But the secret will always be fresh strawberries.

What interests me, of course, are the regional dishes. The Vigan longganisa is from the Sales family of Ilocos Sur so the ?authenticity is ?almost? assured,? writes Chit Sales.

There is also the pipian of Vigan, cow?s innards with chicken and bagnet cooked with ground rice from Sr. Pilar Verzosa. And the warek warek of Nueva Ecija which is akin to the sisig and which Mercy de Guzman said is ?to die for? because she almost did when she ate it before undergoing a stress test.

As important, however, are the budget meals of not more than P40 that the women of Bagong Silang were challenged to produce as meals for their children enrolled in the Headstart program. Teams came up with a vegetarian menudo, ginisang monggo with kalabasa at dilis, and banana-peel burgers.

The ?Good Food Book? is available at all Good Shepherd Convents (e.g. Aurora Boulevard, Baguio, Tagaytay) and can be ordered from Lay Affiliates c/o Almario, tel. 0917-8068481.