At last I'm back and I am sorry to keep you hanging for almost a month. That is because I am busy with my real-life errands spending more time on the fields and sadly, there is no stable connection and to make matters worse, my primary data connection at home was cut-off! But anyway, what is important is the busy days are over and I am starting to write again to share my humble stories.
In my first blog for this community, I shared about local delicacies which I learned to eat as a fellow from a far region who spent time growing up from another locality and I featured rice-based local delicacies. Now, we will go to the second one and I will be featuring some classic dishes that is usually eaten with rice or what we call as viand and on this part, we will feature plant based foods or something that usually grows on land and most are acquired from the wilds.
The first dish I'll be sharing for this part is mushroom. Though most of us eat mushrooms, I can say that I truly learned to eat them while growing up in a barrio—a simple rural place back then. My late grandpa planted bananas in our yard so we had food for ourselves, as well as for his ducks, pigs, and goats to nibble on. Once a portion of land is planted with bananas, you can expect mushrooms to grow every rainy season, as the decaying banana debris enriches the ground and becomes an ideal substrate for mushrooms—particularly paddy straw mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea).
At first, I had a love-hate relationship with mushrooms due to their velvety texture when cooked, so I seldom ate them when I was young. But as an adult, especially when I was assigned to work in and near the mountains, I learned how to identify them with the help of a pure-blooded Ilocano coworker by showing him samples of mushrooms I encountered along the path to my workplace. For me, the best way to cook mushrooms so the whole family can enjoy them is by stewing them with some bitter gourd leaves for a delicious broth to savor like the one shown on the photo from wild mushrooms that I hand-picked by myself from the boondocks.
Soup made from wild termite mushrooms I gathered from the mountain.
Next is the flowers from a wild vine called Tonkin jasmine or known by its scientific name as Telosma procumbens of which are mostly acquired from the mountain and great for stewing with bamboo shoots and/or mung bean, but my first time to have a taste of this local vegetable soup dish is from vines that grow in a relative's background along the river bank of which my grandpa hand-picked the flowers and brought home for us to eat. I am not aware that the plant can also be around in the mountain not until the same co-worker who taught me how to identify mushrooms from toxic to edible ones, mentioned that Tonkin jasmine also thrives in the vicinity of our work place and he said that I can be able to find one some day. I still remember one funny moment when I found a flowering vine along the dirt road and hurriedly picked them and rushed to my co-worker's jobsite only to find out that the flowers are not from Tonkin jasmine but from a Tinospora crispa! Better known in its Filipino local name as makabuhay a plant with a bitter sap that is used for folkloric treatment for wounds, cuts and itchiness.
Stewed Tonkin jasmine flowers with mung beans.
Flowers of Tonkin jasmine vine.
Still from the same plant, I also learned that the pods from Telosma procumbens are edible and I learned it from an Ilocano friend from Abra who settled at a nearby village near my place and asked what he is preparing for their dinner and replied he is sorting the pods from a bagbagcong vine, one of the local Ilocano names of the plant as some call it dukep, sabsabiducong and patpatayok. For sure the plant is named as bagbagcong due to its dagger-shaped pods of which the root word bagcong means dagger in english. This pods are often cooked as blanched or lightly grilled the same thing we cook okra and it is at par with the okra minus its slimy and slippery texture and unlike okra which can be available year round, the flowers and pods of Tonkin jasmine are seasonal of which the flowers can be gathered in the wilds from June to August until the pods can be available from September to November.
Grilled Tonkin jasmine pods.
Blanched Tonkin jasmine pods with boiled egg.
Blanched Tonkin jasmine pod dipped in soy sauce.
Tonkin jasmine pods I gathered from the wilds.
Next one is bamboo shoots. The first time to have this stuf is when my late grandma prepared a dinengdeng or stewed vegetable soup of the Ilocos Region, made from bamboo shoots from the mountain and jute leaves growing in our yard and she added grilled fish and fish sauce to enhance its taste since my grannies do not use mono sodium glutamate (MSG). But in the photograph, I just made the fried fish as toppings and not directly put them at the ingredients so the earthly taste of the stewed vegetables will remain intact.
Vegetable soup made from bamboo shoots as its primary ingredient.
Another dish that I like most from bamboo shoots is by boiling the shredded shoots then add aromatics like red onions and/or shallots, ginger and fresh or pickled chili peppers (siling labuyo or green chilies) for a nice kick or what my grandma call as rabong ensalada or bamboo shoot salad.
My own version of bamboo shoot salad for my packed lunch.
Bamboo shoot.
Another plant-based stuff that I have a bittersweet likeness to is something that resembles a junk food that is made from finely chopped Asiatic intoxicating yam, Dioscorea hispida, known as karot in Ilocano, especially if they are just stir-fried but have not reached their crispiness. But as I got older, I began to like it provided it is cooked until it reaches its crispiness. The stuff can become a great snack that is much better than the leading junk food chips in town that goes well with a mugful of hot coffee on a rainy day. Though this can be found in the mountain where I usually forage for food, I do not gather them for my own consumption and instead I buy them from trusted peddlers who actually gather the root crops and process them to become edible ones.
Chips made from Asiatic intoxicating yam.
Still from the plant-bssed seasonal stuff that can be foraged at the mountains are stewed pods of a jicama vine locally known as singkamas for the tagalongs and lingkamas for the Ilocanos. Like most pods, acquiring this can be tricky because proper timing is needed so as they are soft enough to be edible.
Vegetable soup from jicama pods.
For the greens, who can skip the jute leaves or saluyot that can be associated with the simple life in rural areas of which can be acquired both in the wilds and they also thrives in our yard like what my late grannies used to cooked but I prefer the wild ones due to their not so slimy texture when cooked and I like it prepared as paksiw or simmered in a mixture of vinegar, water, and garlic and I like it with grilled tuna.
Simmered jute leaves.
Then another legume takes the spotlight but this is not sourced from the wilds but it can be planted if you have an extra space in your yard but I choose to buy this at a reasonable price from an ambulant peddler and this is called as barawbaw in Ilocano which are young pods of mung bean that are soft to be eaten. Just stew it, then add salt or fish sauce and some jute leaves, it's so delightful to eat!
Young mung bean pods.
And lastly, about our cover photo last week that I used as a teaser, these are from moringa or malunggay in Tagalog and marunggay in Ilocano, flowers from birch flower tree (don't confuse it from real birch trees) or Broussonetia luzonica and can be known in Filipino local names as alukon, bungon and himbabao. I learned that there are two ways to enjoy moringa pods one is by adding Lima beans, and sweet potato to make a creamy broth and they call this as buridibod a fully loaded dinengdeng, the Ilocano version of vegetable soup.
Buridibod
For the simple dinengdeng dish, moringa pods and alukon flowers is enough for a nice decent meal especially when it is topped with grilled fish. And by the way, if you find it weird—like me—to eat a malunggay pod by putting it in your mouth, clamping down with your teeth, and pulling the outer shell away to scrape out the pulp, you can also just scrape the flesh and seeds out with a spoon.
Simple dinengdeng dish topped with fried spinefoot fish.
Flowers of male birch flower tree.
Using the spoon to scrape the flesh and seeds of moringa pod.
That's all for now and thanks for reading my humble story for this community. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day everyone!
