MY 92-YEAR-OLD mother lives in San Diego, California with my two younger sisters Enchay and Ana. Given an opportunity, all her seven children try to spend time with her. So I carefully plan my travel itinerary every time I fly to America so I could visit her.
At her advanced age, Nanay is incredibly active. Although she has partly hung her apron for the daily cooking she did all her fruitful life, she still finds the energy to cook with us when we get together. She has gradually shared her cooking prowess with all of us during our growing up years. We keenly observed her then and we had our share of responsibilities in the kitchen.
Nanay’s life of luxury when she married my
father burst like a bubble when she was widowed at the age of 37 leaving eight young children under her care. A pharmacist by profession, she married into a family of pharmacists engaged in a highly successful pharmaceutical firm—the Arambulo Products, Inc. But as a woman of her generation, her career was confined to raising a family. My paternal grandparents, as well as my own
father, were excellent cooks. My Nanay learned the art of cooking when she married my late father, Primo S. Arambulo Jr.
Many friends often wondered why we didn’t set up a restaurant business. Sometimes, I get to think about this, too. But we all have gone our separate ways due to our respective careers and marriages. The family’s togetherness was short lived and the opportunity of working as a culinary team was not possible at all. Consequently, our in-laws are all in awe of our love for cooking and eating. And among us seven siblings (our youngest sister passed away at a young age) there is a loud whisper as to who gets Nanay’s culinary torch when she passes it on. This is not really a hotly contested topic since we have all agreed that none of us can rightfully fit into Nanay’s wizardry for cooking. But, arguably, my younger sister Enchay may be closest to the culinary torch that Nanay still brightly holds. After all, Enchay has been honing her skills by taking up special culinary courses in San Diego. And she deserves a kitchen story of her own.
My three-week visit in San Diego last June was a culinary adventure. Enchay is retired so we had all the time to indulge in our favorite pastime—exploring markets, Asian groceries (San Diego is unbelievably a haven for Asian cookery and restos), Michael’s (a famous arts and cooking/baking store that has everything under the sun) as well as trying out
different cuisines and cooking. Enchay, I must admit excels in baking. Her exquisite work-of-art cupcakes and enseimadas are to die for. But we continuously share tips on how Nanay prepared our favorite dishes. While Nanay and Enchay cooked a big vat of Ginisang Bagoong in her beautiful backyard garden abloom with flowers, I whipped up what my friends back home claim to be “the best kare-kare” they have eaten. I added beef omasum, the leaf/book tripe or libro in Tagalog, to the meaty and chunky ox tail. The ox tail and tripe were of such good quality and it did not take too long to tenderize these prized beef parts. Needless to say, my kare-kare was perfect. We steamed Bok Choy (Chinese pechay), long string beans (sitaw or batong), and eggplants. The Ginisang Bagoong is the secret in any good kare-kare. Sauteed in the Holy Trinity of Ginisa (sautee) or plenty of garlic, onions and ripe, red tomatoes, the Ginisang Bagoong was lip-smacking good. They are the perfect culinary pair.