FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

When one speaks of tambo or bamboo shoots, ginat-an nga tambo   would always be the first that comes to mind. While the latter would have  dahon sang tagabang  ( saluyot  leaves),  okra ,  takway  ( gabi/ taro tendrils) with shrimps or crabs,  paklay  or  pinaklay nga tambo  at home would just be plain and simple - bamboo shoots sauteed with meat. It could almost be mistaken as a lumpia filling! Though the recipe varies from region to region, it seems that pinaklay is consistent to be something that is cut into thin strips. Be it vegetable, meat or combination of both made into one dish. Potatoes and carrots would most probably be the most common but ours would sometimes be made with labanos (radish), singkamas (jicama) and tambo with most ground or small bits pork or hibe or dried shrimps. With the variation of recipe, there would be around a hundred and one paklay recipe! Bon apetit!

Aside from ginata-an , tambo (bamboo shoots) can also be sautéed with ground pork and shrimps for a very simple dish referred to as paklay .Or is it really? Googling has revealed more about the paklay I used to know. Majority of the result described paklay as a stewed mixture of pork or beef innards which is a far cry from the paklay I grew up with. Recently I’ve learned that paklay is a generic (Ilonggo?) term for thinly sliced vegetables thus paklay or pinaklay is not only limited to tambo as I thought it was. It’s another gastronomical learning experience and I’m hungry for more.

Paklay is what we call a dish made of tambo (bamboo shoots) cut into strips. Though I dont have any idea if this is solely for tambo or generic for all vegetables like radish, singkamas, etc. This one is what I call cooking-whats-in-the-fridge. Having leftover tambo, some ground meat and shrimps, this dish was just sauteeing and simmering. Though the tambo was not cut into strips, we still call this one "paklay".