I’m taking a breather from Bengali cuisine. It’s been long that I’ve been writing on Bengali food only, juxtaposed against living in Dubai. This is but very natural since we come from Bengal. There’s a lot of experiments on Bengali cuisine in our kitchen – Bengali food and non-Bengali food – both traditional and fusion. There is also another type of cuisine that is cooked on a fairly regular basis in our kitchen. That is Filipino food, courtesy, our Lady M who hails from Bikol. Located in the southernmost tip of Luzon Island, the largest island in the Philippine archipelago, Bicol or Bikol is known for it’s spicy cuisine. Bikol has had a history of trade relations with the Malay-Indonesian kingdoms, India and Arabia. Naturally, the cuisine of Bikol is influenced by these associations, even resulting in a signature Biriyani dish!
Once Lady M and I had co-created a Filipino-Bengali fusion dish… the Rashulla Macapuno. It has been aired on a local TV channel. It’s my tribute to Lady M without whom my endless photographic sessions on food experiments would never have materialised. She’s also been a mother to Li’l Z, having missed out on bringing up her own kids as she has been staying far away from home to earn the money that is required to raise them comfortably. It is estimated that between 9.5 million to 12.5 million Filipinos work or reside abroad, many taking up jobs that they haven’t been doing back in their country. So while Lady M had been working as a cashier in Manila, she looked after our home and our children in Dubai. She did mention many times that she often thought about getting a more respectable job. We hope to give her the respect that she feels that she earned while she was working as a cashier back home.
Going on a tangent… if staying with a person who hails from a different culture doesn’t inspire us, what else can? The real essence of living in a city like Dubai is that for a Filipina who’s turned into a Bong, there is also a Bengali ME who’s turned into a Filipina!
There are also many restaurants in Dubai from where one can get a fair dose of Filipino food. In fact, contrary to popular belief, Filipino food can be quite elaborate and the cooking process has been influenced by the countries Philippines had trade relationship with. For example, Malay, Indian, Arab, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, American and other Asian and Latin countries. [wiki explains here]
Pancit/Noodles – Palabok, Bihon, Canton
Pancit or Pansit is the Filipino term for Noodles. In Philippines, once can find Panciterias or shops specialising only in noodles. The following read is interesting:
- There are around 30 variations of Pancit that are available
- Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into the Filipino local cuisine. Other Chinese influences in Filipino cooking is Toyo/Soy sauce; Tokwa/tofu; Tawge/Bean sprout and Patis/Fish sauce as well as the method of stir frying and making thick soup bases
- According to Chinese food lore handed down, noodles should be eaten on one’s birthday. Since noodles represent long life and good health; they must not be cut short! Chinese restaurants in the Philippines often have birthday noodles as part of their special menus
- There’s no time for eating Pancit or Rice for that matter. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and in between
- It can be had by mixing only Pancit and Rice together with some left over dish or simply with dried fish pickle
Pancit Palabok and Pancit Luglug are more or less the same. In the latter, thicker noodles are used than the traditional Palabok (above). Pancit Palabok is more like the Burmese Khauk swè thohk – wheat noodle salad with dried shrimps, cabbage and carrots, garnished with fried peanut oil, fish sauce, fried onions, garlic and lime. You are supposed to vary these every time you serve yourself and the taste completely varies. The Pancit is served first then the thick meat sauce or broth and then the various garnishes – fried shrimp, shrimp sauce, fried garlic, boiled pork, hard-boiled egg (sliced into smaller pieces), fresh green spring onions (chopped), Tinapa (smoked fish flakes) and Chicharon (crushed pork crackling, shown in the left picture below). The Chicharrón looks like prawn chips and we have sprinkled these over for friends who do not eat pork. Not the same smell though! Squeeze a lot of lime and the Pancit Palabok is ready to be slurped up.
Pancit Palabok is a very popular communal comfort food and why should it not be? When you slurp up a fork twisting in some thin white Rice vermicelli noodles dripping with meat sauce and shriek as a few drop of the sauce splatters on your clothes, you’ll realise the comfort that surrounds you for sure. The entire Pancit Palabok entourage is shown below!
Pancit Meat Sauce or Broth Garnishing or Toppings Pancit Broth How do we serve Palabok?Pancit Palabok
Recipe contains Pork and Beef but that can be easily substituted with Lamb and Chicken
Ingredients
Special Palabok Noodles – 1 pack (Please check for the word ‘palabok’ written in the pack. You may have Bihon type of Rice Noodles which are really thin or the Pancit Luglug where the strands of Rice Vermicelli are relatively thicker than the Bihon type)
2 big onions, finely chopped
5 pods of garlic, crushed
2tbsp patis / fish sauce
200 gms beef or pork, minced and pounded
100 gms shrimps, shelled, deveined and cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp black pepper, grounded
salt as per taste
2 tbsp Achuete or annatto seeds, pre-soaked in 1/4 cup water for a few minutes to give the bright orange colour (Annatto is safe for most people when used in food amounts; however, it can cause rare allergic reactions for those who are sensitive. Read more)
3 tbsp all purpose flour or corn Starch, dissolved in 1/4 cup water
2tbsp white oil
100 gms boiled meat (beef or pork), thinly sliced
Tinapa/smoked tuna flakes from 2-3 pieces smoked fish, cooked, deboned and flaked
8 pieces Tokwa/tofu, fried and cubed
1 cup Chicharrón, crushed (fried pork belly or fried pork rinds. Chicharrón may also be made from chicken, mutton or beef.)
3 eggs, hard-boiled and sliced
1/2 cup spring onions, chopped finely
1 cup shrimps, boiled and chopped
10 pods garlic, sliced and fried crisply
6 pieces Calamansi/lime (Calamansi is a kind of lime available in all Filipino kitchens and is perhaps the secret ingredient to many mouthwatering Filipino delicacies – from popular desserts like Leche Flan to adding that magic sour flavour to Pancit Palabok and other Filipino dishes)Method
Serve Pancit on a plate, pour the mince meat broth over it, sprinkle Tinapa flakes, crushed Chicharon, Tokwa pieces, fried garlic, boiled eggs, boiled shrimps and freshly chopped spring onions. Squeeze Calamansi or lime generously. This is our favourite of all Pancits that LF cooks at home.
Pancit Bihon are very thin rice noodles. It’s accompanied by fried meat slices, chopped fresh vegetables, soy sauce, Patis/fish sauce and definitely Chinese sausage and cabbage. Pancit For Meat & Vegetables Pancit Meat & VegetablesPancit Bihon
Recipe contains Pork and Beef but that can be easily substituted with Lamb and Chicken
Ingredients
Special Bihon Noodles – 1 pack
2 big onions, finely chopped
5 pods garlic, crushed
2tbsp Patis/fish sauce
200 gms beef or pork, stripped into thin pieces
2 carrots, sliced into thin strips
French beans, sliced angularly
1 small cabbage, julienned
3 tbsp Toyo/soy sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper, grounded
salt as per taste
2tbsp white oilMethod
Pancit Canton are thick flour noodles. This dish closely resembles the Chinese chowmein. But LF sometimes cooks another favourite dish of ours called Bikol Express (see recipe of mixed Seafood Bikol Express from my blog). Pancit Bikol Express Pancit Meat & VegetablesPancit Canton
Recipe contains Pork and Beef but that can be easily substituted with Lamb and Chicken
Ingredients
Pancit Canton Noodles – 1 pack
2 big onions, finely chopped
5 pods of garlic, crushed
1 can coconut milk
500 gms pork belly, cubed
200 gms string beans, chopped into long slices
1 pumpkin, small and cubed
1/2 tsp black pepper, grounded
6 long Thai green chilli or Serrano pepper, cut into long slices
1/2 cup shrimp aste
salt as per taste
2tbsp white oilMethod
Boil the Pancit Canton/rice noodles for 3-4 minutes. Drain the water and set aside.(The noodles should be soft but not soggy)
Thanks to Lady M, we have been introduced to the delicious world of Filipino cuisine. She has also learnt how to cook Bengali food and has become quite a pro at it. She’s become a part of our family. Gulf News, the leading newspaper in this region, once featured a blog, True life story of Filipina Maid in Dubai. It is quite an interesting take on the Filipino diaspora residing in Dubai and resonates the lives and moments of thousands of thousands of maids employed in the UAE.
Working for a couple with two school-going children, Sally describes the daily details of looking after children, cleaning house, stealing time to catch up on gossip with neighbouring maids, the joys of computer-educating herself, her pangs of homesickness, her best friend Lilibeth and her devious plans to make money, all with a generous dose of humour, some of it dark, and some outright tears-in-your-eyes moments.
Don’t judge her English or the grammar. I feel that it’s a reflection into our inner minds as well!
Unblogging it all… Ishita
Edited in January 2018: Just realised that my instagram post above - six years after I wrote this post, reflects the same emotions about Lady M even now!
Thank you for joining me on my daily food and travel journey on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Much love – Ishita
Disclaimer: This isn’t a sponsored post, nor are there any affiliated links for any of the brands that may have been mentioned in this blogpost. The subject, story, opinions and views stated here are my own and all images are from my personal album. While you enjoy reading my posts with lot of visuals, please do not use any material from these posts.
Sounds awesome! Will our Seviya work as well?
Madhu this is exactly what I’ve been thinking but you know what? Vermicelli Noodles are very commonly used in Italian cooking. So why not? These are very readily available in Asian and normal supermarkets even. So have never tried Vermicelli!
Perhaps the south Indian rice vermicelli would work better.
I think so too. All I can say is that we drool over the Pancit Palabok!
My Filipina blogger friend replied – ‘Unfortunately I haven’t seen what Indian Rice Vermicelli look like. Noodles use for palabok is much thicker in than vermicelli but I’ve once use our vermicelli for palabok so I think you can. if your vermicelli looks like the one we use for bihon then its’ ok to use as substitute’
Thank you Ishita for embracing Filipino food and introducing it to your family and friends. Palabok is my favorite while my boys prefer canton. Pancit is always present on our tables on special occasions mostly on birthdays as it means wising the celebrant long life.
Abigail – thanks for the feedback. And also the queries on Fia group. We are very fond of Palabok.
Visually Pancit Bihon looks more appealing to me probably because of the vibrant orange of the carrot and my weakness for loads of veggies in the non-veg dish. I must try all, as they all look appetizing and simple to make. A ‘one-dish’ that will satisfy all 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Yes, but Pancit Palabok has a very interesting twist – have you ever tasted the Burmese Khauk swè thohk? Where you keep on varying the garnishes each time you serve yourself and the taste completely changes. Try kore dekho – bhishon easy aar amazingly tasty. Do let me know:)
This dish looks wonderful and I completely agree with you about how those who help up in the house become like family and we learn so much from them. Years ago (I was an expat kid) we had a filipino lady who worked for us in Brunei. At home she was a school teacher with eight children. It makes me sad that she made more to send home to her family as a maid than she could make teaching school in her home country. Her mother was raising her children. Sad realities of life. You honor your Lady Friday with your post.
Thank you so much Stacy. And yes, then you do understand the sentiment. I’ve done a small film too tagging her along for Dubai One and Noor Dubai (Rasgulla Macapuno On TV & Shubho Bijoya to all – the last post in the Recent posts segment) where we’ve done a fusion BEngali sweet with Filipino Macapuno. Actually my blog pretty much started this way – fusion Bengali food but on the way I started re-discovering much of traditional and heritage Bengali food and other cuisine that I needed to share… Thanks for hopping in, my new Fia Food chum!
Until now I still refuse to make these dishes! It’s a long process!!!
But at the end of it awaits a very delicious food. It’s worth the process:)
lovely post…Dubai Sally is actually an expat’s wife… brilliant humorous way of blogging though… grammatical errors were intentional and it leaves me in stitches 🙂
Thank you Nina – a big compliment coming from the ‘real’ source. What are you saying that it’s an expat wife? Even Gulf News has covered it. I simply love it. I go into splits:)
I was wondering, from an academic point of view, how seemingly simple elements cook up to make amazingly different things. I mean from the same ingredients we make/can make so many things which are entirely different. 🙂
Trying this on coming tuesday 🙂
So true… the other day I attended a cooking demo of Chef Sam Clark and his wife of Moro fame. They cooked two tagines – one fish, one chicken – same Indian spices – coriander, turmeric, cumin, chillies and loads of coriander leaves – the taste was different belonging to an entirely different cuisine type – Moroccan.
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Palabok at Jollibee, Philippines. Jollibee is like McDonald’s, haha. It’s more fun in the Philippines. 😀
Try Panicit Luglog also known as Pancit Malabon matching our very own Halo-Halo in RAZON RESTAURANT. The restaurant started in Pampanga, Philippines. The cooking capital of the philippines. That was the best Halo-Halo I have ever tated. Halo-Halo is a dessert that compliments with Pancit Luglog (Pancit malabon). I just hope Razon Restaurant could make a stall in Dubai. It’s really a great thing specially on summer.
I’ve tasted Halo-Halo – one of my favourites. I’ve found fab Halo halo here in Chow King and Max Restaurant on Trade Centre Road. Also Golden Fork has a lot of Filipino food in their menu. Do you have any suggestions for a good Filipino Restaurant in Dubai?
Try to visit NOW CAFE in Dubai Mall. It recently opened this year. 🙂
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