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In the Kitchen with Aurora

5/3/2015

6 Comments

 

Or: food and Filipino Sons

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I love cooking and I love cooking for my Filipino-American husband. Prior to coming to the Philippines, though, I hadn't made much Filipino food.

Last December before we traveled to the Philippines, Joseph and I were in California for a week with his mother, Aurora. Lucky me, I got to watch my mother-in-law in her kitchen and eat some of her delicious food. It was her big bottle of patis on the counter next to the stove that inspired the name of this blog. 

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A day after we arrived to Dumaguete, I went out and bought a wok like Aurora's, a big uncured steel half-sphere. I bought a cookbook and got to work on learning about Filipino cuisine. For me, cooking Filipino food has been an adventure of discovery and joy. Soon after I started cooking Filipino food, though, I realized I wasn't alone in the kitchen. 

The following is a testament to the beauty and power of Filipino cuisine and Filipino mothers everywhere:


January 28 
At the table eating chicken apritada.
J: The sauce of mother's apritada is thicker.  

February 2 
In the kitchen before eating.
Me: I made a cucumber salad.
J: You know my mother used to make that, too. Pepino salad. Very peppery and vinegary. You're becoming my mother.
Later at the table.
 J: My mother didn't put red onions in hers. Just cucumbers, vinegar, and sugar, lots of sugar. Tss, tss.

February 9 
At the stove, making a mongo (mung bean) stew.
J: You know I'm going to say it again.  That looks like my mother’s.
Me: Oh, really?
J: Except... (He hesitates, smiles), hers has pork in it.
Me: It was hard finding a recipe for mongo beans.
J: The ghost of Aurora looms large

February 15 
In the kitchen making chicken adobo.
J: Are you going to make adobo?
Me: Yeah, I was going to the other day, but I think you've got to marinade it.
J: Not my mother, not the Aurora way. She just throws in the chicken. Jeesh.
 
February 25 
J: My mom makes really good tapa... She cooks it in margarine.

March 13
At the table eating pancit Bihon I'd prepared.
J: My mother’s pancit has more meat. Even in chicken pancit, she tops it with fried pork.

6 Comments
Jason Dean
5/4/2015 04:44:19 am

This is my favorite post. Adorbz! Very funny. I miss you.

Reply
Jason Dean
5/4/2015 04:50:09 am

That looks like the wok that Dan Snyder and I both had in college. The one we got from tv and you washed it. tsk. tsk.

Reply
David
5/5/2015 12:44:46 am

Jason, I don't remember the wok or my stupidity! I'm a little uptight with the cast iron skillet and now steel wok, Joseph won't touch them when he washes dishes. Glad you're enjoying the posts.

Reply
HOSS
5/4/2015 04:57:29 am

Absolutely my favorite post. Also--more meat everywhere.

Reply
David
5/5/2015 12:48:39 am

Thanks, HOSS. I'll be ready for a cook off when we return: favorite vegetarian Filipino dish.

Reply
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