Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/125316
THE PHILIPPINES' Tasty Little Secret story by AARON GULLEY • photos by JEN JUDGE Filipino cooking is virtually unknown in the Western world, but a toothsome tour of Luzon island – from peanut-oxtail stew and roast suckling pig to flaming prawns – reveals the country's cuisine might be the next big thing. T I've never dreamt it: braised with home-brewed vinegar, crunchy plantains, violently green tendrils of chilies and coconut cream freshly squeezed from a fire-charred husk. The secret to the dish, called adobong manok su sinunog na niyog, is the open-pit fire. "In the U.S., you might add smoke flavour," says Pia Lim-Castillo, culinary author and matron of the South Forbes Park kitchen, in Manila, where we are cooking. "Here you make your own." Out back, in stark contrast to the obsidian counters and stainless appliances, the coconut shells used to prepare our lunch smolder in a firepit in the dirt. "This is the challenge for Filipino cuisine," says Beth Romualdez, a food consultant and friend of Lim-Castillo's. "How to appeal to a modern taste but preserve the traditional ways." p28-33_Phillipines.indd 29 his is chicken as GOING PL ACES >> s u m m e r 2 0 1 3 29 13-04-12 1:09 PM