Identity Bites, Part III: Sinigang na Isda

This is the third and final part in a series about food and ethnic identity, from a Filipina-American's perspective. Read Part I and Part II here.


My sisters and cousins didn't feel, as I did, that a part of their identity was missing because their Filipino sensibilities were constantly reinforced by close access to the trappings of our native culture, such as food. I felt quite alone in my identity crisis until I received an e-mail from my younger cousin, Mike.

"Basically, I went from having rice and Filipino foods at home on a daily basis to none at all," he wrote about his move to Raleigh, NC nearly two years ago. "The more that I was away from the dishes, the more I wanted them, even the ones I never really liked but ate because I had to."

Finally, someone who shared my feelings of deprivation! I described our mutual condition to Dr. Jeffrey Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota and author of Food in World History. "You're Filipino in some ways, in some circumstances, just like [Mike] who's been taken away from that community and in a sense is in exile from his family and food," he offered. "It suddenly becomes an obsession . . ."

Added Dr. Donna Gabaccia (We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans), "When you take a person from their social network and put them in a different set of not just social networks but also market relationships that aren't delivering familiar ingredients, then the meaning of food will change under those circumstances."

Which is why Mike says he'd now gladly eat the dishes he once rejected: "The next time you see me and ask why I am eating sisig, it's because I definitely have a new appreciation for what I am eating."

Sizzlin' Sisig
(From Jo at Taking Over the World One Bite at a Time)

I learned this lesson myself a few years ago when I had a miraculous change of appetite regarding dinuguan, a pork stew made with (brace yourself) pig's blood. This was the one dish that I vowed I would never touch with a ten-foot spoon; my older sister Mayella is still traumatized by childhood memories of being served this meal. But a desperate craving for any Filipino food spurred me to drag my husband 90 miles from our then-home in Charlotte, NC to Columbia, SC and the only Pinoy restaurant I could find in the Carolinas. The restaurant, eponymously named Mang (Mister) Tomas, was a non-descript, dingy little diner in an equally non-descript, dingy little strip mall; it wasn't open that day but the owner spotted me peering hungrily through the windows and invited us in.

After listening to my woeful tale of hunger, Mang Tomas insisted that we take home a container of his special-recipe dinuguan - the absolute last dish I would have ordered off the menu. But after all my boo-hooing about how much I missed Filipino food , how could I turn him down? To my eternal gratitude, I accepted and it proved to be one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten.

What was it that transformed Mang Tomas' dinuguan from a "Fear Factor" dish to an all-time favorite food? Perhaps the stories he told about his own family as he prepared our take-home bag added a flavor of shared nostalgia. Maybe it was the relief at satisfying the clamorous craving for Filipino food. Or perhaps I had the same epiphany as cousin Mike - that my days of dispossession strengthened my appreciation for all aspects of Pinoy culture, even the ones I thought I disliked.

When all is said and done, and I've dissected what Filipino food means to me and others - identity, memory, festivity or family - the most basic fact remains: napaka-sarap ang pagkain Pilipino! "The fact of the matter is that the food tastes good," said Dr. Gabaccia with a laugh. "It adds something to that social experience that you wouldn't have otherwise, which is 'pleasure of the mouth'."

This sensation even soothes concerns about the highly-caloric nature of some Filipino fare. "The taste is distinct - fatty but the best oily, heart-clogging food you could ever have," Mayella said, to which Liza added, "It awakens the tastebuds that I normally don't use from my day-to-day diet. I actually find it exciting to re-taste odd flavors like sinigang (sour soup), bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) or the fatty parts of pork."

The savoring of these flavors isn't limited to those of us who grew up with them - my solidly-Midwestern husband has developed a keen taste for Pinoy cuisine, especially dinuguan and sinigang. His enjoyment of these foods hasn't turned him into a Filipino but it does help him feel closer to my family by allowing him to participate in our cultural heritage. Seeing this, I realized that the act of eating Filipino food isn't an "on/off" switch for my identity - I don't become more or less of a Filipina depending on what I eat. It's simply one light that helps illuminate the whole of me.

So instead of pining and whining that there are no Filipino restaurants nearby, I'm learning to cook these dishes myself, with plenty of long-distance help from my mother in Manila (my phone calls and e-mails often begin with "Mama, how do you make . . .?"). Now, if I find my sense of self dimming a bit, I can simply step into my kitchen and make myself an identity bite to eat.

Sinigang na Isda (Sour Fish Soup)
My husband loves this soup's sourness, which comes from the use of tamarind. Although there are powdered soup mixes available at Asian groceries, they usually contain MSG and other preservatives, and are rather high in sodium. Instead, use tamarind paste which is often found in the Thai or Indian sections. This recipe is adapted from Mridula Baljekar's Best-Ever Curry Cookbook. For a similar soup that uses chicken, check out this recipe for Sinampalukang Manok (Chicken and Tamarind Soup) from josephqt and his blog Recados Filipinos!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 - 2 Tbsps tamarind paste
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
4 oz spinach, bok choy or kangkong leaves, stems stripped and leaves torn or sliced into strips
5 cups prepared fish stock (I use Penzey's Seafood Soup Base)
1/2 daikon radish (about 1/2 -2/3 cup), peeled and finely diced
3/4 cup green beans, cut into 1/2" lengths
1 lb cod or haddock fillet, skinned and cut into strips (or mix 1/2 lb of fish and 1/2 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined)
salt and black pepper
fish sauce/patis (optional)
steamed rice

To prepare:

1) Pour prepared fish stock into a large pan and add finely diced daikon radish. Cook for 5 minutes then add chopped green beans. Bring to a gentle simmer and continue to stew for 3-5 minutes;
2) Add fish strips, tomatoes and leafy greens. Add tamarind paste and stir until dissolved. Cook for about 2 minutes. If using shrimps, add last.
3) Season the stew with salt and black pepper, and add fish sauce if desired.
4) Serve with steamed rice or enjoy on its own

Crunch Time: Sweetly Spiced Chipotle Almonds

Cooling down the spice

I have approximately 32 hours to finish my final research paper of the semester, for which I've written just two pages (for the curious, it's entitled "Taste and Class: Food and the Marking of Social Status"). At the same time, I'm studying for a final exam that I get to take a week earlier than the rest of my classmates. If I can just make it to noontime this Friday without losing my sanity, alienating my husband, and scaring the dog, the reward is two weeks of Christmas bliss in the Philippines. 

So much to write, so little time . . . 

Mr. Noodle and I have been planning this trip since March; it's my first trip back to the ancestral home in nearly 20 years and his first ever. We're both looking forward to leaving school, work and other worries behind in wintry Minnesota to enjoy a tropical, Filipino-style Christmas.

Until then, there's a lot left to do. During past Christmases, I've put up decorations, mailed dozens of greeting cards and gift packages, and made some goodies well in advance. This year, I find myself so short on time that I've managed to write just one card (to my 100 year old foster grandmother) and not a single garland or ornament adorns our home. But I am determined to accomplish at least one of my traditional Christmas tasks: making treats!

The adage "It's better to give than to receive" is so very true: I probably derive more enjoyment from making homemade gifts than the recipient may get from the end result. A column in last Sunday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune made a rather disparaging equation between stealing and crafting as last resorts for gift-giving, underscoring the fact that for some, homemade presents are not always the most desired and inferring a correlation between the monetary value of an item and the level of regard one has for the recipient. When I decide to create a gift, I try to keep in mind what would please the other person first and allow me to express my skills second. To that end, and given the limited time I have right now, I chose to make the following recipe as gifts for our neighbors. It's easy to make, incredibly versatile and, judging from past giftees' responses, irresistible!

Sweetly Spiced Chipotle Almonds

This recipe is adapted from one created by Chef Robin Schmitz of Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC. The original recipe called for pecans and cayenne pepper but the beauty of this treat is its versatility: in addition to cayenne and chipotle, I've also used Cajun seasoning and would like to try ground Ancho chile pepper. Try your own combo of spicy and sweet!

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1.5 - 2 tsps** ground chipotle pepper 

pinch of salt

2.5 lbs whole almonds (preferably unsalted)

**This gives a nice bite to the almonds, appropriate for children or heat-sensitive palates; increase as desired for added kick!

To prepare:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

2. In a large heavy sauté pan over medium heat, mix water, sugar, chipotle and salt together. Stir until mixture comes to a gentle simmer and sugar dissolves completely.

3. Add almonds and stir well so that all the nuts are covered with sugar mixture. Continue to stir constantly until water has completely evaporated and the nuts are well-coated.

4. Immediately transfer almonds to the baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Watch carefully as the nuts can easily burn. Stir the almonds around to ensure that they cook evenly.

5. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving.

Crunch time at its best!

There's No Such Thing as "Free" . . .

(Photo credit: Roboppy/Flickr)**

Following the news that fundraising bake sales in California schools could soon be history due to well-meaning food legislation (read my post Save the Bake Sale!) comes this recent New York Times article proving that, once again, no good deed goes unpunished:

Health Halo Can Hide the Calories

(New York Times, 12/2/08)

"If you're a well-informed, health-conscious New Yorker who has put on some unwanted pounds in the past year, it might not be entirely your fault. Here's a possible alibi: The health halo made you do it . . . [Pierre Chandon] has been studying what researchers call the American obesity paradox. Why, as Americans have paid more and more attention to eating healthily, have we kept getting fatter and fatter?" (Read the full article here)

The Good . . . 

According to Dr. Chandon, a marketing professor at INSEAD in France, we've been fooled (or have fooled ourselves) into overeating because of a perception that certain foods and restaurants are 'healthy'. He and Dr. Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, have conducted numerous studies showing how food marketing "imbues [food] with a health halo that magically subtracted calories" through such practices as fast food restaurants trumpeting 'healthier' french fries because they're not cooked in trans-fat oils. Believing that we are eating well, we feel free to chow down, as Dr. Wansink notes in his book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,

"The average Sub[way] diner thought he or she was eating 495 calories, but instead ate 677 - 34% more than he or she thought. [They] ate under the illusion that everything they touched was good for them . . . We want to say, 'Looks healthy to me,' so we can pile on the rest."

But it's not only advertisers and marketers who burnish this halo - our politicians also contribute to the effect when they pass well-intentioned legislation, such as banning the use of trans fats in New York city restaurants, that produce unanticipated results. 

. . . the Bad . . . 

The article calls it the 'health halo' but it is actually a perfect example of the "Peltzman Effect", named after Sam Peltzman, professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His 1975 study on the effects of seatbelt laws on driver behavior argued that mandating safety features with the intention of protecting people unintentionally spurs them to engage in more risky behavior precisely because the regulations make them feel safer.

Just as we search for the one magic diet that works for everyone, we want to point the finger at a single cause for obesity and other dietary-related chronic illnesses. However, by focusing on a single culprit for America's ever-expanding waistline - whether it's saturated fat, carbohydrates, high fructose corn syrup or trans fats - and attempting to control its consumption through legislation, we ignore other factors such as portion control and physical activity. Lulled into thinking that the problem is solved, we blissfully take it as a license to eat at will. 

. . . and the Ugly Truth.

What it's really doing is pinning the tail on all the animals in the barn except the donkey: too many calories. High consumption of substances such as trans and saturated fats have been shown to increase the risks of coronary heart disease but even foods that are free of these ingredients can lead to weight gain if we don't watch the amount we eat. To this end, not all legislation and marketing have been completely off the mark - NYC's requirement that restaurants post nutritional information have made diners there more conscious (read the article "Calories Do Count" at nytimes.com) and those '100-calorie' packs of favorite treats such as Oreos cookies can help with portion control. 

Being aware of our balance of energy consumption and expenditure - how many calories we consume through food and how much we burn through regular body functions and physical exercise - is the primary key to maintaining a healthy weight. To find out what your daily calorie requirement is, check out the Mayo Clinic's Calorie Calculator. 

Don't be seduced by the '[insert ingredient here]- free' labels splashed across food packages or the television ads that bestow a mantle of health on fast food restaurants. Remember, there's no such thing as a 'free' lunch.

**Updated 3/15/2012: In the original post published on 12/5/2008, I used a photograph which I credited to the source but did not actually have permission from the photographer to use. The new photo that replaces it above is used under a Creative Commons license.

Sweet Treat, Rediscovered: Banana Turons

Classic Turon

Hmmmm . . . need to work on my chocolate drizzling.

It's said that when something has been lost, it takes fresh eyes to find it again. In the case of banana turons, it took fresh tastebuds. Shortly after I launched my blog, I received a welcoming comment from fellow blogger Shaved Ice Sundays who expressed a fondness for this Filipino fried banana snack that a friend had introduced to her. 

As I read her comment, I instantly recalled the delight of biting into the delicately crisp wrapper, glazed with caramelized brown sugar that oozed out of the sweet, almost custard-y banana center. That's when it dawned on me: I love turons, too! How could I have possibly forgotten?

Well, it's also said that familiarity breeds contempt or, in this case, indifference. Turons were a common childhood treat for me and when a food is so common and familiar, our tastebuds somehow become inured to its flavor, no matter how delicious. Gone is the novelty, the thrill of newness. It's the gastronomic shrug-off, as if to say, "Been there, tasted that". One way to recapture that lost sense of pleasure is to experience it through the enthusiasm of an unjaded palate. 

That's how I felt about banana turons so when another person expressed such enjoyment from a snack long relegated to obscurity in the back pages of my mental menu, it spurred me to try it again. And with one bite, I found myself reunited with a forgotten deep-fried friend.

So reach back into your culinary memories for a favorite food that you haven't tasted in a while. For whatever reason it was set aside, perhaps it's time to give it another bite. If you've recently had a marvelous dish you've never tried before, tell someone! By sharing our enjoyment and enthusiasm for all manner of food whenever and with whomever we can, chances are we may rekindle someone's love of a long-neglected favorite. 

Accordingly, this recipe is dedicated to Shaved Ice Sundays - thank you for inspiring me to rediscover this sweet treat!

Banana Turons - Two Ways

Traditionally made with ripe saba, or plantain, I made these with regular bananas. Be sure to pick ones that still have a bit of green on the peel - too ripe and the bananas may become mushy after frying. And yes, they are basically banana lumpias!

Nutty-Rummy Turon

The white chocolate drizzling needs work, too.

Makes 12-16

The Basics

3-4 bananas, ripe but still a bit green

12-16 lumpia (spring roll) wrappers, found in the refrigerated section at many Asian stores

1/4 cup brown sugar, on a plate or shallow bowl

Slice bananas in half, lengthwise, and then slice each half across so that you have 4 pieces/banana;

For Classic Turon:

1 jar or can of langka (jackfruit), cut into strips

2 Tbs lemon juice

1. Slice bananas as directed above then dip pieces into lemon juice and dredge in brown sugar;

2. Place sugared banana on bottom third of a lumpia wrapper and top with 2 slices of langka;

3. Fold the bottom edge over the filling, tucking under firmly then fold over the side edges, making sure they are straight all the way up;

4. Gently but firmly, roll the turon all the way to the top. Moisten the top edge with water to seal the roll completely;

5. Repeat with remaining banana pieces.

For Nutty-Rummy Turon:

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped finely

1/4 cup dark rum

1. Slice bananas as above then soak in rum for 3-5 minutes;

2. Dredge one piece in brown sugar and place on bottom third of a lumpia wrapper. Sprinkle 1-2 tsps of walnuts on top;

3. Fold the bottom edge over the filling, tucking under firmly then fold over the side edges, making sure they are straight all the way up;

4. Gently but firmly, roll the turon all the way to the top. Moisten the top edge with water to seal the roll completely;

5. Repeat with remaining banana pieces.

For complete instructions on how to wrap and fry lumpia/turons, check out my slideshow tutorial How to Wrap Lumpia!

To fry:

1. In a large sauté or fry pan, heat enough oil to cover the turons halfway - about 1/2"; to test for readiness, dip a corner of the turon - if it sizzles, it's ready!

2. Arrange turon in the pan so that they are not crowded and fry until golden brown; turn over once until other side is also golden brown.

3. Remove from pan and place in a colander or plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Serve hot with chocolate sauce or a scoop of ice cream!

Chocolate Sauce:

 

1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, dark or white chocolate chips

1-2 Tbsps milk

Place chips and milk in small microwave-safe bowl; microwave on high for 20-30 seconds or until chips start melting. Stir to blend chips and milk.