Of anisado and estofado

Anisado wine or anisette (as I found out in Google) is an essential ingredient whenever we make Pork Estofado at home.

Out of curiosity, I tasted it and find it bittersweet like gin or vodka but with tons of sugar in it. It also had a vanilla essence that made it pleasing to the nose.

Searching for more in Google, I found out that it is also used mainly in processed meat making like tocino, longganisa, etc.

I assume it has this preservative effect on the food and mostly likely indeed the estofado we cook at home are made in big batches that it often last for days. As what they say the older it gets the more delicious and flavourful it becomes.

And speaking of estofado, though I didn't cook this one, I have a recipe that stemmed out from my experimentation at work before.

I just cooked it using the taste memories I had at home and with some additional ingredients. But everybody loved my estofado that time that even I made a big batch it didn't last as long as I wanted it to be.

If my memory serves me right, first I fried pork cubes (the big cuts) until "more than" golden brown and also fried saging na saba and pineapple slices too.

Then I made the sauce from pineapple juice, anisado wine, onions, garlic, soy sauce, bay leaves, salt, seasoning, and lots of sugar.

Click for PORK ESTOFADO RECIPE

The estofado I grew up with calls for a very sweet sauce so that explains the last ingredient and just pineapple juice won't do as good.

Plus the meat (whether pork or chicken or both) had to be fried until almost "burnt" looking so as not to have an anemic looking estofado.

After which I just simmer all the fried ingredients in the concoction until they soften enough to melt in one's mouth.

And yes, estofado that is a day or two old tastes much better as the sauce seeped in for more flavour. Extra rice please!

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A stones throw away from the plaza of La Villa de Arevalo is an ancestral house where one can find not only good pasalubong items but also a look into the past of the district. Known as the Sinamay House , this well preserved ancestral house is an attraction not only in the outside but also what it houses inside. A collection of what the past like is housed in the two storey edifice which also acts like a museum of sorts. Sinamay is simply known as abaca by most and, here, a variety of products made from this fiber can be found. I remember watching a feature on tv wherein the owner proudly showed a framed letter signed by the late Princess of Wales, Diana, showing her appreciation of the handkerchief she was given as a gift coming from this very shop. But the attraction I am most familiar with are the chewies and crunchies made by Mama's Kitchen. Attractively packed in boxes showing their current flavours and variety, this is among the better...

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Takway

The gabi (taro) is just one of those plants which is edible from "roots to tops". The most popular of which is the tuber part which is used in a variety of dishes and mostly in combination with coconut milk. Its leaves, of course, is the main ingredient of a Bicol specialty, laing . It is dried then chopped and sauteed with other ingredients including, again, coconut milk. Then there is takway . The local term for its tendrils/runner, that part which is torn between being a stem or a root for it neither grows upwards nor downwards - it grows sideways . Scraped off of its outer skin, takway is often a key ingredient in vegetable dishes like laswa and the gabi tuber with coconut milk and local snails know as bago-ngon . It is also popular when cooked adobo style with guinamos , the local bago-ong . It is very popular in the region that even big supermarkets sell takway in style - cleaned and plastic wrapped in styro with some additions to make it easier to prepare. ...

FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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