The Adobo Road Cookbook. Marvin Gapultos

      This grandma clan ain’t nothin’ to mess with. From left to right: Grandma Puyong, Grandma Esther, and Grandma Carling.

      Grandmas Carling and Puyong, on the other hand, both specialize in the old school: traditional Filipino fare from the Northern Ilocos region of the Philippines. Most every Filipino comfort food from my childhood has been prepared by either Grandma Carling or Grandma Puyong. I imagine if there were ever any sort of “Filipino Throwdown” or “Iron Chef Philippines” competition, those two young ladies would wipe the floor with whoever crossed them.

      And although my three grandmas sometimes bicker amongst themselves in the kitchen (as all sisters do), they always manage to create beautiful, soulful meals together.

      In fact, if I could choose my last meal on earth, it would consist of delicacies described in this book: my Grandma Carling’s Pancit Miki (page 58), my Grandma Puyong’s Pinakbet (page 48), and my Grandma Esther’s Buchi (page 130).

      EAT LIKE A FILIPINO

      Although this cookbook is broken down into convenient sections that focus on different Filipino “courses,” it should be noted that, typically, Filipinos do not eat meals that progress from small plates, to main courses, to dessert. Instead, all courses are brought to the table and presented at the same time—desserts included.

      Now this doesn’t mean that we’ll have a bite of cake sandwiched between nibbles of spring roll, slurps of soup, and mouthfuls of roast pork (though, admittedly, I’ve done that once or twice at family parties, but I digress), but rather, it signifies the importance of food to a Filipino family. Feeding, being fed, and sharing in a meal is vital to all cultures—but especially so with Filipinos.

      If you’ve ever eaten a Filipino meal with a Filipino family, you probably know that one of the most difficult things is trying to get up from the dinner table—not only because you are full of food, but also because the host is likely to insist that you keep eating some more! And even if you do manage to escape the dinner table, chances are that you will be bringing more food home with you in doggie bags. Filipino food: the gift that keeps on giving.

      AN ABUNDANCE OF RICE

      Central to any Filipino meal is the appearance of rice at the table. Rice is served with all meals throughout the day. For breakfast, fried rice (Fast and Simple Garlic Fried Rice page—53) is often served alongside eggs and sausage, or a warm champorado (Chocolate and Coffee Rice Pudding, page 135) can also be had for breakfast. Steamed white rice, of course, is ubiquitous for lunch and dinner and serves as an absorber of soups and stews, or as a bed for protein and vegetables, or as a blank canvas for various dips, sauces and condiments. Rice even appears in many Filipino desserts, either in its sticky glutinous form for heavy sweet snacks, or when milled into rice flour to form the foundation of many cakes and dumplings.

      A TRADITION OF SOURNESS

      As you’ll find throughout the recipes in this book, the most dominant flavor in Filipino food is sourness. This sourness can be a quick zing provided from anything like a dipping sauce made of fresh calamansi lime juice, or it can be a more restrained and refined sourness that can be found in adobo s slowly simmered in vinegar and spices (page 68).

      The Filipino penchant for lip-puckering zest is not without reason. In the tropical climes of the Philippines, the preservative powers of vinegar were a culinary necessity for centuries, long before refrigeration was available.

      Also arising from this tropical climate was an abundance of fruit and vegetables ripe with tang. Aside from the citrus bite of calamansi, sourness was also sought out in green mangoes, tamarind, guavas, and a variety of other exotic produce.

      As such, throughout the ages the collective taste of Filipinos has centered around sourness.

      But to think that all Filipino food is sour would be a great underestimation. Filipino cuisine is rich in all flavors of the palate.

      SAVOR EVERYTHING, WASTE NOTHING

      While “nose-to-tail” eating may be somewhat of a hot trend in high-end restaurants these days, Filipinos (along with many other cultures) have long appreciated the virtues of eating whole-hog.

      There are a variety of wonderfully delicious Filipino dishes in which organ meats and other “scrap” bits are used and highlighted. The Filipino use of offal is one of cultural tradition that occurred before, during, and after colonial times and still continues today. This tradition of enjoying every last bit of an animal arises not only out of thrift or necessity, but because these bits taste darn good.

      Throughout this cookbook, I do provide a small sampling of such recipes to perhaps whet your beak with “real-deal” delicacies ranging from chicken feet and livers, to salmon heads, to various tasty bits of pork. These tasty bits will open a whole new delicious world of flavors and textures.

      Savor them. Enjoy them.

      ABOUT THE RECIPES

      You’ll notice that with many of the English recipe titles throughout this book, I also provide a Filipino translation. I realize that with over 120 languages (and several hundred dialects), there is more than one way to refer to a dish. As a general rule, I tried to stick with the more common Tagalog dialect for easier identification among my Filipino readers. But there are a few instances in which I use the Ilocano terminology for a dish. In these cases, the specific dish may be one from my childhood that I learned from my grandmother, aunties, and mother.

      As I mentioned earlier, my culinary viewpoint largely stems from my American upbringing in an Ilocano family originating from the Northern Philippines. With that said, I also have a unique culinary disposition from years of developing recipes for a blog read by an international audience, as well as developing recipes for a successful Filipino food truck whose customer base was the multi-ethnic hodgepodge of Los Angeles, California.

      As such, the recipes I provide in this book are easy-to-follow, tried-and-true recipes that can serve as a basic guide to the pleasures of Filipino cuisine, authentic dishes that can easily be enjoyed by Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike.

      But in addition to some classic and traditional recipes, I’ve also (ahem) taken some liberties with my own “new school” interpretations. These new adaptations are not meant to dilute Filipino tastes. Rather, they are creative steps in the continuing evolution of a vital cuisine, taking advantage of traditional flavors and ingredients to spark a new interest in Filipino food and culture.

      Mabuhay !