SM Supermalls celebrate Philippine regional cuisine
THE PHILIPPINES is an archipelago uniquely made up of over 7,100 islands. There are 16 regions so the flavors and variety each region offers are determined by its natural resources or the agricultural produce that identifies its regional cuisine. Rice and sugar lands of Central Luzon provide rich and bountiful ingredients so provinces like Pampanga, Bulacan, Quezon, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Bataan have a highly developed cuisine. Pampanga, in fact is considered the culinary hub of the Philippines. Southern Luzon prides itself with the Laguna, Batangas. Cavite cuisines. The Bicol region is known for its hot, spicy and creamy coconut based dishes. Ilocos and Pangasinan have the best bagoong (salted shrimps and fish) that distinctly gives character to their dishes. The Visayas have Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu specialties.
To celebrate the flavors of Philippine regional cuisine, SM Supermalls is holding the SM mall-wide culinary roadshow with MY City My SM My Cuisine cooking contest, which made a stop at SM Cebu City a week after Sinulog. The Open category cooking contest featured two recipes: a Humba dish and and a dessert using Cebuano dried mango and masareal, crushed peanuts and sugar bars. Humba comes from the Chinese dish, “Hong Ba”. The dish uses ingredients of the classic Pork Adobo with the addition of brown sugar, and salted black beans. My recollection of Humba is the version I grew up with called Paksiw na Pata (pork leg and knuckles). Paksiw actually means cooking in vinegar and garlic. The pork leg and knuckles are simmered in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, salted black beans and brown sugar. The addition of banana blossoms and hard-boiled eggs completes the dish.
SM Cebu City through PR manager Renato Leduna Jr. invited me, together with chef Raki Urbina of the Laguna Group of Companies that owns Café Laguna, Laguna Garden, Lemon Grass; Opalene Santos of Philippine Star and Corazon Alvina of Metropolitan Museum to judge the My City My SM My Cuisine cooking contest, a joint project of SM and Philippine Star Ms. Alvina oversees the cooking contest in all the SM malls in 14 cities.
Except for Ma. Estella Aguirre, the Dessert Category winner, the contestants were HRM students from University of Cebu–Lapu-Lapu/Mandaue and one from the University of San Carlos. There were three entrees for Humba: Majerlee Tan’s Creamy Humba with Black beans, Peter John Derrick’s Spicy Humba Pasta and Junvel Secoya’s Hawaiian Humba he served with buttered corn grits. There were four entries for the Dessert Category: Amlorien Alcuizar’s Masareal Crepe with Dried Mangoes, John Paul Macay’s Mango Masareal Pannacotta, USC’s Rayland Duarte’s Mango Sereal Sponge Cake with Hazelnut, Ma. Estella Aguirre’s Masareal Cheesecake Pinoy Style.
The contestants were given two hours to cook. I noticed that none of the Humba recipes used vinegar, a basic ingredient. Chef Raki and I have worked closely for the Cebu Goes Culinary Competition so we shared our observations closely. All contestants had their own procedures that worked well judging from the delicious outcome. These students have an extraordinary flair for plating. And all the entrees turned out tasting good, with Peter John Derrick’s Spicy Humba winning a very close competition. Ma. Estella Aguirre, a housewife who occasionally assists her mom, the Kapampangan restaurateur Mama Gie, won for her cheesecake creation.
