One man’s poison is another man’s staple food. Most foreigners would balk at eating balut. Heck, there are a lot of Filipinos who don’t even eat balut. Balut is a Filipino delicacy of boiled fertilized duck or chicken egg while the unfertilized egg is called penoy.

Come to think of it, nobody sells balut at daytime and certainly nobody seems to be eating it at daytime. Balut is traditionally sold by street vendors at night who shout “Balut! Penoy” in their most modulated voice. They usually wrap the balut in cloth inside a basket to keep it warm. Today’s street hawkers have discovered a more creative way of keeping the balut hot. They use pedicabs (bicycle with a sidecar)  installed with a tin can with water heated by a small stove. The steam keeps the balut hot.

Balut should be eaten while hot to enjoy it’s juice. You eat it by lightly breaking the bottom shell. Partially opening it with only enough space for you to drink the juice. Then peel the shell, sprinkle a little salt and add vinegar if you like and eat the egg.

Balut is probably hell to those who can’t take eating it and heaven to those who love to savior it’s exotic taste. Balut was listed as the top most terrifying food in the world by the website Cracked.com. Although some of the food listed there seemed more horrifying than balut, I understand where the fear is coming from. Before I came to love eating balut, I used to think of it as a human fetus. I overcame my fear when I stopped thinking and started eating instead. I especially love the juice, the soft yolk and the chewy egg white. I don’t even notice whatever chick is already there.

Balut without shell.

Our lowly balut received, perhaps it’s redeeming moment when Tom Parker Bowles, food editor of Esquire and son of Camilla Parker-Bowles, recently visited the country to write about Filipino food for the August 2011 issue of the magazine. I’ve read about his visit from Marketman so I’m also looking forward to what he’s going to say about our food.

Parker-Bowles received caution from friends about Manila that it’s “one of the grimmest cities in the world”.  The promdi in me would nod to this but then it’s my country’s capital you’re talking about so I couldn’t help but feel bad. Fortunately, he is a little adventurous when it comes to food so despite all the warnings, he managed to visit the Philippines particularly Manila.

Here’s what he has to say about balut before eating one, “But then there’s balut, the pavement equivalent of Animal Farm—the porno version you saw as a teenager on grainy VHS. It’s fertilised duck egg, complete with embryo, and like the porno (and Manila, too), suffers from a wildly exaggerated reputation.”

Then after eating balut, “But if not a delight, then balut is certainly a surprise. The broth is rich, tempered with a hint of shit and decay. But no worse than a decent Époisses cheese. The duck is tiny, no bigger than 5op piece, with the texture of a warm oyster. I swallow it down and bite into the egg. It’s beautiful, regally rich and pungent. A soft-boiled egg in mink cape, packing gold-plated AK-47. One more Filipino myth destroyed.”

I never thought of balut in that manner but thanks Mr. Parker-Bowles, you have definitely raised our balut to a level beyond just a street food.

Come to think of it, balut is like us Filipinos. We may sometimes be hard to like on the surface but once you break our shell, we are one of the most lovable people in the world.

Gruppo Uma Food Corporation, in cooperation with “The National Food Showdown” by TV Food Chefs Inc. of ABS–CBN Corporation chaired by Chef Myrna Segismundo, will hold “SABOR BISAYA – A Culinary Competition and Food Expo” on July 15-16, 2011, from 9am to 6pm, at the Convention Hall of the Bacolod Pavilion Hotel. This is an event dedicated to upgrade the level of standards of the Foodservice Industry Professionals and Students in the Visayas Region.

This event is the first in Bacolod City and was conceptualized by Jomi Gaston of Trattoria Uma and Cafe Uma. He was the host of the Promdi Chef, a cooking show previously aired at the TV5.

Below is the Sabor Bisaya  schedule to guide you on the activities on July 15-16, 2011.

July 15, 2011 Friday

• Visayan Cuisine Challenge (Student) 8:00AM – 9:00AM
• Organic Cuisine Challenge (Student) 9:30AM – 10:30AM
• On the Spot Table Setting Challenge (Student) 10:00AM – 11:30AM
• Seafood Challenge (Student) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Creative Fried Rice Challenge (Professional) 2:00PM – 3:00PM
• On the Spot Cake Decorating Challenge (Student) 2:00PM – 3:30PM
• Seafood Challenge (Professional) 1:00PM – 2:00PM
• Franchising & Trademaking Seminar 130pm
• Visayan Cuisine Challenge (Professional) 3:00PM – 4:00PM

July 16, 2011 Saturday

• Chef Wars (Student) 8:00AM – 10:30AM
• Prospects in the Barista Profession 930am
• Organic Cuisine Challenge (Professional) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Bartending Challenge (Professional) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Bartending Challenge (Student) 1:30PM – 3:00PM
• Chef Wars (Professional) 2:00PM – 3:00PM
• Awarding Ceremony 4:30

There will also be a Food Expo, Product Demonstrations and Culinary Flea Market.

Registration fee is P100 for professionals and P40 for students.

Adobo is perhaps the Philippine’s national food but there are as many ways to jazz up this Filipino culinary masterpiece as there are islands in the Philippines. In fact, with my limited culinary skills, I have also dabbled in cooking adobo (Adobo ala Gladita).  Thus it’s no surprise that Negros, a melting pot of culture with rich influences from the Europeans and Chinese, is also a culinary haven for various foods and of course, adobo.

For the past years, the Negros Cultural Foundation (NCF) brings together culinary experts, cooking aficionados and budding chefs every Cinco de Noviembre Celebration at the Balay Negrense. The challenge is to come up with the best adobo and muscovado recipes. This year’s 13^th Adobo Festival and 5^th Muscovado Cooking Contest was a resounding success, to say the least. Gracing the event were Silay City Mayor Jose “Oti” Montelibano and his First Lady Marissa and NCF President Lyn Gamboa.

It was a day of revolution… revolution against hunger as we ate all we can of panara, puto, mini piaya, fresh lumpia, and other local delicacies from the Silay manuglibod. The panara and piaya are cooked while you wait so you can eat them while they’re hot. Contrary to rumors, nobody gets hungry in a Silay party.

Not even famous restaurateur Margarita “Gaita” Araneta Fores can stay away from this gastronomic treat. She is a descendant of Juan Araneta of Bago City which also have their own Cinco de Noviembre Celebration. However, she said she technically invited herself in this year’s celebrations since she has wanted to come for the past years. She shared that our adobo is now known internationally because of our OFWs.

If you have doubts at how adobo easily assimilates into a foreign taste bud, consider this year’s winner of the adobo cooking contest, Bacolod-based British Robert Harland. His winning entry is  Adobo Crevette A l’Anglaise. Come to think of it, an adobo with a French name and cooked by an Englishman, it couldn’t get more cosmopolitan than that! For us lesser mortals, it was technically a shrimp adobo in curry sauce. We didn’t have the chance to sample his recipe but he promised us NITI tour guides that he would gladly cook for us.

Gaita Fores together with Sugarland’s Chef Datu Pendatun, Joe Chan of BISCOM, Gerardo Veloso and the festival’s originator Lynell Gaston judged the 17 entries for the Adobo Cooking Contest. Leanna Marie Severino’s Adobo Pasta placed Second and Cicero Bayle’s Angus Adobo with Sweet Ham was Third.

The judges for the Muscovado Cooking Contest were Kring Locsin of Sugarland, Felicia’s Chef Vincent Macasa and Institute of Culinary Arts De La Salle’s Chef Richard Ynayan. The judges probably had their sugar levels shoot up after sampling the 13 entries. Hailed winners were the Muscovado Sampler by Jason de Oca (First Prize), Cookies by Paul Benedict Castillo (2^nd Prize) and Butter Cream Silvanas by Victor Dumancas (3^rd Prize). The event is a great training ground for the budding chefs and also a venue for them to interact with the culinary who’s who in Negros Occidental.

We had our fill of adobo during lunch where we sampled several adobo dishes. Aside from the usual chicken and pork, almost anything can be cooked into adobo – squid, takway, shellfish, etc. If that’s exotic for you wait till you see what Chef Datu prepared for his cooking demo. Everybody was very attentive while he prepared his Bihud (fish roe) adobo with guinamos (shrimp paste), served with steamed rice grilled on banana leaves. For salad, he tossed together lettuce with bihud adobo and salted eggs in vinegar.

My friends Bambi and Betsy managed to take aside Ms. Fores and introduced us from NITI and what we do to promote Negros. Well, she was very enthusiastic and would gladly work with us especially in promoting food tourism. If all goes well with her schedule, we might have a chance to visit the Araneta’s hacienda in Maao, Bago City.

It was such a great time to spend with friends who share the same interest in history and culture and best of all, who love to eat. That’s how Filipino food evolved, it’s not just to nourish the body but as something shared among family and friends.

See you at the next Adobo Festival!

Original post from: Negros Occidental Online Mag – ExperienceNegros.com

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I never thought I’d find uhong (wild mushroom) while cleaning my backyard. There’s only one mature and another sukol (young mushroom). I know it’s edible because back in Iloilo we have them from the farm or sometimes buy them from the farmers and mushroom gatherers.

The rainy season is usually the time when wild mushrooms germinate. Have you noticed that when there’s lightning there’s usually mushroom growing the next day? Lightning causes high accumulation of nitrate compounds in the atmosphere which triggers the sprouting of wild mushrooms.

Mushrooms grow in decaying organic matter such as wood, leaves, animal manure, and decaying anthills and termite hills. The variety I found belongs to the genus Termitomyces (thanks to  A Scientist in the Kitche)since they grow on anthills and termite hills. The subdivision where I live used to be a sugarcane plantation. I presume there used to be an anthill in the area in my backyard where I found the mushroom.

Wild mushroom is a  personal favorite so my mother would always buy some for me  whenever they’re in season and if I happen to be in Iloilo. She usually cooks it together with laswa (Ilonggo vegetable stew) or simply sauteed in tomatoes, onions and pork fat.

Unlike Volvariella volvacea (straw mushroom) variety which is easily cultivated, the Termitomyces mushrooms are quite difficult to cultivate thus they are only available during the rainy season.  This is why they can sometimes be expensive. Farmers and mushroom gatherers usually keep their source a secret since they know there are also other people looking for them. Unless the anthill is inside your backyard, you cannot claim it as your own. It is a race of who gather the earliest after a thunderstorm. So far, there has been no serious fighting over the mushrooms. Caution should be observed by those who are not familiar since not all mushrooms are edible.

It’s such a waste to leave it to rot so what so what did I do with my one and only mushroom? I added to binagoongang baboy. It added its distinct flavor to the dish. I hope more mushrooms will sprout in my little backyard.

It seems the promdis are no longer ashamed to be called a promdi. While it used to have negative connotations, probinsyanos nowadays are no longer afraid of the label and are proud of their roots. And thanks to the Promdi Chef, the whole world will be acquainted with our delectable cuisine.

I happen to discover  The Promdi Chef while channel surfing. It’s a cooking show at TV5 hosted by Chef Juan Miguel “Jomi” Gaston with a special guest every week. For people of Bacolod, the name is very familiar. Chef Jomi is the man behind Cafe Uma and Trattoria Uma. Follow the adventure of  Chef Jomi as he takes you on a cultural journey to different provinces in the Visayas and feature their delectable cuisine.

Filipinos eat at least five meals a day so I think that is enough proof that we love to eat. It is during a meal that a family has intimate conversations, share stories and bond with each other. No wonder we have so many fiestas. I think it’s just an excuse to celebrate and eat.

The Promdi Chef draws attention to the simple life in the province and the food that we grew up with. He goes to the different nooks and crannies of a place where they still prepare authentic Pinoy dishes. It’s really a smorgasbord. Imagine how many different cuisine there are in the 7,107 islands of the Philippines!

I just have one warning though. If you intend to watch the Promdi Chef, have your midnight snack with you. I guarantee, you’ll get hungry.

Here are some video appetizers.

PROMDI CHEF (large format) from fiona borres on Vimeo.

PROMDI CHEF Episode 1 Part 1 from fiona borres on Vimeo.