Culinary Historians of the Philippines (CHOP): Food Tour, Bulacan, April 9, 2014

A smashing success of a food tour. This is CHOP's third food tour of the year, and we went to Bulacan (Bulakan and Malolos), and learned a lot about (and tasted) their amazing cuisine and its history.

Our heartfelt thanks to our amazing Bulakenya (and CHOP member) Rheeza Hernandez and her team (Roly Marcelino, Bing Tubid, Marichell Santos, Rapsody Magbanua, Rheeza's hubby Jonathan Hernandez, Naty Ocampo-Castro, Boyet & Nina Enriquez, Sir Dez Bautista, and Makata Jeremy Lord Mercado Dancil) for making

the tour such a success. We visited three ancestral homes, where they still make their katutubong ulam at kakanin the good old-fashioned way -- the Enriquez Ancestral House in Bulakan, the House of Don Antonio Bautista in Malolos, and the Uitangcoy-Santos Ancestral House in Malolos.

(Rheeza donated to CHOP a copy of her Tita Mila's out-of-print cookbook, "Ang Kasaysayan ng Kaluto ng Bayan," by Milagros S. Enriquez, a treasure trove of the history and recipes of native Bulacan cuisine from before, during, and after the Phil. revolution. Thanks, Rheeza!)

CHOP - BULACAN FOOD TOUR

(Wednesday, April 9, 2014)

This food tour is CHOP’s third sponsored event for 2014, organized by Regina Newport in collaboration with proud Bulakeña and CHOP member Rheeza Hernandez. Rheeza not only coordinated the tour with Roly Marcelino of the Malolos City Tourism Office, she also single-handedly demonstrated the cooking of such Bulacan heritage dishes as Hamon Bulakenya, Pinaso and Gorgorya (more on these later).

Enriquez Ancestral House. The group’s first stop was the Enriquez Ancestral House (in Bulacan, Bulacan) of acclaimed Filipino food historian Milagros Santiago-Enriquez (Rheeza’s aunt), the author of the historical cookbook, “Kasaysayan ng Kaluto ng Bayan,” which documents the history of Bulacan cuisine from as early as the 17^th century, and provides original recipes of Bulacan dishes during the Philippine Revolution and the birth of the Philippine Republic (Mrs. Enriquez was related to local heroes Gregorio del Pilar and Pio Valenzuela). Her father-in-law, Col .Vicente Y. Enriquez, was the aide-de-camp of Gen. Gregorio del Pilar.

“Putungan.” The tour started promptly at 9:00 a.m. in the lovely garden, where the group was treated to a surprise staging of a “Putungan” or “Koronasyon” by Makata Jeremy Lord Mercado, who chose CHOP member Vicky Yu as his muse and lucky recipient of his narrated love poem. This was followed by a welcome speech by our tour guide, Roly Marcelino, who acknowledged each member of the group by name and, as applicable, by professional background.

Cooking Demo. Rheeza proceeded to demonstrate how to make what Bulakeños proudly claim as the best-tasting ham ever, the Hamon Bulakeña, which is a slab of pork belly marinated, then slow-cooked, in a special sauce until it’s fork-tender but still firm (to keep its shape). The cooked meat is coated in white sugar, then scorched with a very very hot cast-iron turner (siyanse) to caramelize the sugar (the turner/siyanse had been sitting in live coal for hours, and the sugar burst into flames as soon as the siyanse touched it (pushing quite high the “wow” factor of the demo). Rheeza regaled the group with her very interesting anecdotes about her own experiences in Bulacan’s culinary world, which amazingly did not distract her at all from the cooking tasks at hand. The ham was sliced and served as a sandwich using “bowling bread,” which is the local version of pan de sal, and Kalumata Tea (kalumata is a local plant with anise-flavored leaves). Needless to say, the ham was so delicious that everyone asked for the recipe.

House Tour. Before leaving, the group was given a guided tour of the house, which is now a museum of rare antiques and historical artifacts.

Bautista Mansion. Everyone was looking forward to our next stop, the Bautista Mansion in Malolos, built in 1877 but is now the current home of food historian and Professor Dez Bautista, who inherited it from parents José and Norma. Mr. Bautista founded the Production Designers Guild of the Philippines (PDGP). Like the Enriquez Ancestral House, the Bautista Mansion played an important role in the Philippine Revolution—it had hosted no less than our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. The Mansion houses a valuable collection of historical artifacts and original artworks of artists like Amorsolo, Hidalgo and Guerrero.

Mr. Bautista throws parties for friends for whom he cooks up old Bulacan recipes, which he calls “period meals.” He learned to prepare them from his family’s treasured recipes. He gave an engaging talk about the history of both the house and Bulacan cuisine, especially those that would be served at our lunch. The group happily feasted on such dishes as Suam na Mais, Kinilaw na Bangus na may Kesong Puti, Bringhe, Baboy na Luto sa Toyo, Lumpiang Kastila, Pescado a la Reyna, Leche Flan de Manga, and Melon Tagalog.

“Empanada de Kaliskis.” A tour of the house followed the sumptuous meal, after which the group proceeded to the third stop, the home of Bulacan’s famed “Empanada de Kaliskis.” The group watched as Tita Mercy Antonio and Tita Tess Luriaga demonstrated how to make these scrumptious chicken and vegetable empanadas (although we were not shown how the dough was made and how it turned into many layers of flaky and crusty skin after frying—the recipe has been kept a secret and has stayed within the family). After a tasting of the cooked empanadas, everyone put in an order, to be picked up on our way home at the end of the tour. We learned that Tita Mercy’s family had been making these empanadas since the Spanish colonial times and, at 74, she still makes them every single day. Amazing.

Alberta Uitangcoy-Santos House. The fourth and last stop on our itinerary was yet another ancestral house, the Alberta Uitangcoy-Santos House, also in Malolos. The original house, which was built in the 1890s, was destroyed by fire in the 1910’s, and reconstructed in 1914. Alberta Uitangcoy-Santos (1865-1953) was one of the leaders of the famous Women of Malolos, to whom Jose Rizal wrote his famous letter in 1889 commending the group of 20 young women who bravely petitioned the Spanish Governor General (Valeriano Weyler) at the time to allow them to open a night school where they could learn the Spanish language. The house is now the Museum of the Women of Malolos. Malolos is celebrating the 125th year of the Petition Letter of the Women of Malolos (December 12, 1888) and the 125^th year of the Letter of Rizal to the Women of Malolos (February 22, 1889).

Another Cooking Demo. Rheeza was back into cooking demo mode, and she proceeded to show the group how to make—from scratch—Gorgorya, one of the three of Bulacan’s most popular egg-and-flour-based biscuits/cookies; the other two are Pilipit and Kurbata de Sebo. She also demonstrated the making of Pinaso, another Bulacan specialty dessert dish which is a cross between leche flan and crème brûlée, and is called Pinaso (scorched in English) because the sugar-coated surface of the finished dish is scorched or caramelized with a very hot iron turner (siyanse), much like the method used for the Hamon Bulakeña. (Pinaso is one example of “Hello Joe Recipe” dishes cooked in the early days using GI Goods or PX Goods.)

Rheeza explained that during the colonial period when the friars were building churches, egg whites were used to bind together the rocks, corals and shells that were used in the construction. This resulted in a surplus of egg yolks, which led the womenfolk to find ways of cooking them into egg-based desserts such as gorgorya, kurbata de sebo, pinaso, leche flan, and yema, among others. Once again, Rheeza delighted the group by punctuating her cooking demo with very amusing anecdotes.

“Pabalat" or "Borlas” – Pastillas Wrappers. Ms. Naty Ocampo-Castro demonstrated the cutting of intricate patterns on Japanese paper used for wrapping the pastillas candies, which is called pabalat or borlas. They make the San Miguel Bulacan version where a pattern of the design is traced then cut out. The one Rheeza showed the group in frame was the Malolos-style cutting, more inticate and cut spontaneously without using a pattern. They also have two versions of the pastillas--the white is pastillas de leche and the other, pastillas tostado.

Bonus Merienda. After Rheeza’s cooking demo and merienda-tasting, as the group toured the historical house, we were informed that the generous owner [Corina Tengco-Bautista] of the huge house across the street, who knew some members of the group, was inviting us for another helping of merienda! So we trooped across the street, to find various Filipino kakanin and drinks laid out on the dining table—puto, sapin-sapin, suman, ginataan, galapong in two types of sauce, etc. Despite having already had a full merienda, we somehow managed to find space in our tummies for these delicious Filipino dishes.

On the way home, we made a quick visit to the Barasaoin Church before picking up our pasalubongs of Empanada de Kaliskis, Gorgorya, and Kurbata de Sebo. Everyone went away happy and with extremely full tummies—it was a day of fun, food tasting, and learning about the cuisine of Bulacan.

CHOP thanks Rheeza Hernandez and her team for making this food tour a huge success: Roly Marcelino, Bing Tubid, Marichelle Bernardo, Rapsody Magbanua, Rheeza's hubby Jonathan Hernandez, Naty Ocampo-Castro, Tita Mercy Antonio and Tita Tess Luriaga, Boyet & Nina Enriquez, Sir Dez Bautista, and Makata Jeremy Lord Mercado Dancil.

[Note: The recipes and photographs from this food tour will be part of this narrative for CHOP’s archives.]

Regina Newport, April 2014

BULACAN FOOD TOUR - PROGRAM & MENU

by: Roly Marcelino , Malolos City Tourism Office

FIRST STOP:

8:00 am to 10:00 am

Pamanang Kaluto ng Bayan ni Milagros S. Enriquez

Enriquez Ancestral House Bulacan, Bulacan

(Ancestral House of the late Food Historian Milagros Enriquez)

Cooking Demo and Food Tasting: Hamon Bulakenya

with Bowling Bread and Kalumata Tea

SECOND STOP: