Family Reunion

I was 17 years old my first family Reunion party celebration with my Asian family in the Philippines .It was also my grandfather’s 80 year old birthday party. Every family member was there from different provinces. My grandmother was from province of Pampanga and my grandfather was from the province Lipa ,Batangas. All female members of the family cook together in the small kitchen.How they do it ,beats, me? My grandfather bring one of his pigs to Manila to be used for the “handaan” feast.Every part of the pig was used .I love when they cook the skin of the pig “Chicharrones”.

I love being the taster. My family start preparations two days before hand.Some bring there dish already from home if they don’t want to share their secret but most of the dishes are made in my grandparents kitchen.My grandparent have the maid buy all the ingredients.I love going along with the maid at the public market caused ,I learn how to bargain and buy the right kind of meat,fish,vegetables and fruits.If the price of an item is $5.00 you bargain $2.00 for it but the prices are in pesos . That time ,$1.00 is equivalent to fifty pesos.You can buy a lot for $20.00.My grandmother have her own favorite vendors to get food from at our local market which is a block away from our street. There is one street full of food vendors from beginning to end of the street. They sale rice in sacks to coconuts and so on.Divisoria in Manila is one of the biggest public Market,they even sale native clothes , Souvenir trinkets and cooked food and uncook. We take two Jeepney from my grandparents home to get to Divisoria Market.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg_p49moGy8

The Jeepney is the easiest public transportation in the Philippines.

Let’s get back to family reunion feast . Everything was simple before Covid and Smart phones.People spend time together.Let start with Pork Adobo .You can cook it with beef and chicken as well but since we had this whole pig to used ,pork was used for the Adobo. It taste better if you Marinade it lime(kalamasi) and soy sauce overnight. Depending on the amount of pork ,you increased the ingredients.Most of my family members cook everyday they don’t used measuring spoon or cups. You cut some potatoes .A few dried bay leaves.The next day take the Marinaded pork out the fridge.Suete the crushed garlic and cut onions together add just the pork and when the pork is golden brown add potatoes,bay leaves,black pepper,salt and water to soften the pork .The longer you cook it ,the taster and soft the pork will be.

Some put sugar in their adobo depending on their province.The ingredients,I used in my family recipe.We need to make the fish dish,my favorite .You can’t get this fish in the US.The fish is called Lapu-Lupa name after the first hero in the Philippines. As one of my aunt or cousins was making this dish ,she told me the story about Lapulapu.The name of the dish is called sweet and sour lapu lapu.You just need to season and fry the fish .The hard part is making the pinoy sweet and sour sauce for the fish.You will need carrots,onion,garlic ,starch (to make the sauce thicker),green peppers,pineapple.Some put other ingredients.You just suerte the ingredients add some sugar and vinegar if you want.

What I love about the Philippines cuisine,you can change the recipe around .You can add or subtract some of the ingredients to fit your taste and it still come out delicious.My next dish is Lumpia Shanghai(Pinoy egg roll) the easiest to make.The ingredients is ground pork ,mince carrots,soy sauce,garlic ,onion and onion scallops.chop all the ingredients and mixed them together add salt and pepper to taste.Wrap them in the egg rolls and deep fry them and there you have it,Lumpia Shanghai.Take it to work and your co workers will love you.Anyone can cook this recipe.My daughter made her first Lumpia Shanghai ,when she was eleven years old .

The most time consuming to make is pansit(Pinoy noodles)There are over 20 regional variations of pancit in the Philippines. They take long to prepare and cook. They are very colorful and enticing to the eyes.

Pancit canton is very fulfilling. You can make this instead of Spaghetti for a birthday party. My favorite pancit is palabok,it a snack (merienda) in the Philippines.

I hope you don’t get hungry ,while reading about the Philippines cuisine.We have not even gone to the desserts. If I don’t want to make a cake, I would go to Goldilocks bakery and get some Ube or Mocha cakes.So delicious but there might be a long line before you can purchase a cake from this bakery.

The Philippines desserts are just so divinely delicious, most of them used coconut ingredients.One dessert that I know how to make from watching my relatives making it is “Pinoy fruit Salad” home made ice cream. It will definitely cool you off on a very hot day.It used simple ingredients: fruit cocktail,coconut,condensed milk,all purpose cream,(you can put corn if you want),mixed all the ingredients together and put in the freezer overnight.The Philippines have a lot of cold desserts like : halo halo, avocado shake,mango shake and mais con yelo(corn with ice). Yes the Filipino language has Spanish words.Ferdinand Magellan discovered in 1521 ,The Spanish colonized the Philippines. It lasted until 1898,the Philippines revolution .Since that time the Philippines been fighting for its independence from other countries .My grandparents told me stories of the war that happen in the Philippines.The Philippines have proved it can stand independently even if it’s a small country.

There were over 20 dishes made for this party.All of them was delicious.Everyone had a good time .Everyone was able to take home a doggie bag. Food in the Philippines culture bring life to any event.Everybody go home satisfied and happy. I would say over 200 hundred people attended this reunion.Everyone was happy to celebrate my grandfather’s birthday party. The family reunion party ended when my grandfather died at 89 years old of a heart attack.That was the end of our family reunion in 1994. I know my family and friends are waiting for me to visit the Philippines,again .I will end this by saying ,I wish to know how to make the Pinoy Leche Flan.These is the last dish serve at the party.