My mom recently went to visit the Philippines. Since she went during the school year, I could not go with her.
I have been to the PI several times in my life but not as a vegetarian. The last time I was there was in the late 80’s and I’m sure many things have changed. I remember staying in an open atrium Hyatt hotel in Baguio but this later collapsed with the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
She got me some goodies including ube jam, candied pili nuts, pinipig, filipino coffee & chocolate and various sweets. I would love to go an eat lots of unprocessed tropical food. I think it would be easy to be a raw food vegan in the Philippines! I rarely eat dairy products anymore but I did try some of the sweets like polvoron and pastillas which do have milk as an ingredient. My 95 year young grandma makes polvoron around Christmas time with a spring mounted brass mold that she has used for decades. I am working on some vegan versions of these classic filipino sweets, which brings up some exciting news.
I am devoting much of my time this summer to working on a cookbook that I started 2 years ago. Chef Veggie is taking a break from the personal chef business for June, July and August. The cookbook will be Vegan Filipino Food along with perhaps fusion/Asian/Hawaiian recipes using whole food ingredients. The Filipino community in Hawaii has some interesting dishes that I would like to include. My daughter did a school project about the Nipa Hut (Bahay Kubo) and I will incorporate that into the title. I have a bunch of recipes tested but need better photos and also testers that are not familiar with Filipino food. Let me know if you are interested. I am hoping to have the script and photos done by September!
Here are some recipes that I know will be included so far:
Bulanglang
Achara
Various Adobo dishes
Arroz Caldo
Bulanglang
Tofu Fish Escabeche
Jackfruit Kaldereta
Torta Talong
Sweet Tempeh Longanisa
Siopao
Tinola
Lumpia (3 kinds)
Mongo Soup
Pan De Sal
Pancit (3 kinds)
Putong Puti
Bilo Bilo
Bibingka
Halo Halo
Turon
There will be vegan potluck ideas and also how to have a Kamayan (Hands only!) feast! I will be visiting a Moringa (Malunggay) Farm in June!
I will have an English/Tagalog ingredient list and also resources to find or grow rare items. I’m really looking forward to sharing this and will be posting more recipes soon!
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