American Filipina

Cooking "Filipino Buffalo Wings"      There was a group of elderly women who made up the party circuit in my childhood.  They were inseparable.  I guess they could be referred to as the "Asian Golden Girls".  The group was made of my grandmother Lola Cording, Lola Fely, and Lola Trining.  (Apologies to any lolas I am leaving out here).  I believe they knew each other from their old home town - Agoo, La Union.  Recipe swapping occured naturally amongst this entourage.  Imagine, all they had to do was invite each other's families over, cook an outstanding dish, and ask the other how they made it.  The "Asian Golden Girls" shared the ingredients and instructions in between gossip and voila a recipe swap occurred.  The recipe might be written down on a napkin or spare piece of paper if you were lucky.  For the most part, ladies just committed the swap to memory.  The process seems quite integrative, like in a small town.  Eventually you just know how t

     I was tasked to host a Merienda at my house and the mission for each attendee was to attempt a Filipino recipe that means something to them, a comfort food that ignites a memory.  The actual Merienda event deserves a chapter of its own, as does my experience making the Cassava Cake for the event.  I dedicate this entry the Cassava chapter.      I chose to make the Cassava Cake for the event because I remember eating it at several Filipino parties and I recalled shreds of coconut in one recipe that made me want more.  I wanted to duplicate the taste and texture.  I have not eaten anything close to it since.  My mother or grandmother were not really known for their Cassava Cake because they did not make it very often.  Grandma was known for her rice cake and my cousin was already making that for the party.  The Cassava Cake was to serve as an alternate dessert to the rice cake.  In the end, my decision was solely based on the fact that the recipe seemed to have only a few ingredi

Photo from Life's Ambrosia I am starting to blog about my adventure in collecting comfort food recipes.  I am starting with Filipino dishes because that is what I grew up with in Texas.  I was fortunate to have a father who grew his own vegetables in the backyard of our suburbia home and a mother and grandmother who provided us with home cooked meals every day.  This was organic cooking before I knew the definition of the word organic.  Mostly home cooking was motivated by cost back then.  With a family of five hungry mouths to feed, it is no surprise that going out to eat was considered a luxury.  Since my grandmother died a few years ago, my brothers and sisters and I have been dissapointed at gatherings where versions of our favorite childhood dishes did not taste like grandma's.  So, this lesson of nostalgia has motivated me to go on a search to find the stories that go behind the dishes of our family and other families that have immigrated.  These are recipes that fami