LUTONG BAHAY , MAMA SITA THE BOOK
Manila
August 22, 2019
Everyone must have used Mama Sita's spice packs at least once. Oyster sauce? Kare Kare? Caldereta? Barbecue Marinade? Sinigang Sampaloc? Lahat sarap. They are also marketed in countries where Filipinos reside.
I never thought of buying Mama Sita's book, but I'm glad I did, even though it has been tempting me in the book stores since 2008. Aside from offering the reader several dozen tested recipes for old pinoy favorites, the book shows how Mama Sita's choice of ingredients affects the taste of her spice packs, and how to make the spice packs bring out their full taste. For example, she would add a hot chili or two chopped with onions and garlic to a saute of sitaw! She urges adding black and/or green olives to your caldereta, for that will give it a Spanish taste. To give it a certain Spanish twist, I would add a few slices of fresh chorizo and let them stew slowly in the caldereta over a low fire. Strange, the original caldereta from Cebu is usually stewed goat. Mama Sita's caldereta is beef.
My trust in Mama Sita's cooking is based on my personal knowledge of her mama, Lola Asiyang. Mother of 13 children, Lola Asiyang thought to herself, cooking for so many people, I might as well make this a business and earn. So she opened her Lapu Lapu restaurant on Marques de Comillas Street in Manla in 1928. This was the predecessor to the classic Aristocrat Restaurant on then Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas Boulevard) in Malate. There in the confines of kitchen and inner driveway, she always wore her classical ternos, but hers had big pockets, jangling with the hour's earnings! She was generous with those who came begging, and never turned away a hungry person.
She personally tasted most of the dishes to be served in the restaurant and closely supervised the cooks. As she had so many children and they often went on picnics to Rizal Park or the beaches of Las Pinas, she frequently made sandwiches. This inspired her to create her famous chicken adobo siopao. Sayang, I was never able to taste that. But she went on further to draw up a whole menu page of flying saucer sandwiches baked in a sandwich pod. This made it crispy and crusty outside and soft, warm and tasty inside. My favorite was the Cliff Swallow Sandwich, a chicken salad toasted in the sandwich pod.
Lutong Bahay is a handy cook book written in Tagalog, that is kitchen Tagalog, something we in the kitchen can all understand. She blends Chinese and Spanish into our native dishes. Almost every dish you would ever want can be found here.
cooking into our native dishes. Almost every dish you would ever want can be found here.