THE ESSENCE being a wife and mother is woven around the culinary fabric that has been interlaced with the old-fashioned skills and values instilled by our folks.
I find it easy to relate to such when I discover that we share the same passion for cookery, particularly the ladies from Luzon whose cooking skills start early in their girlhood. One such lady is Cebu socialite Nenita “Nita” Tanchoco Chiongbian, who hails from San Isidro, Nueva Ecija and settled in Cebu in 1968 when she married the late George Chiongbian, a prominent Shipping Lines owner. She was widowed in 1985 after only 17 years of marriage, pregnant then with her fifth son. I never discovered Nita’s culinary prowess until I came across “Kusina ni Nita—Nueva Ecija’s Tinumis” food stall at the Saturday Cebu Food Market in Banilad Town Centre (BTC). Her youngest son Joseph was busy dishing out her “Tinumis” to customers.
Jaja Chiongbian Rama, Nita’s only daughter, was just too happy to invite me to the family’s Paradise Village home for lunch to showcase her mother’s home cooking they all grew up with. Nita and I were drawn to each other like old friends as soon as we sat down to share our cooking experiences during our “growing up” years. Fresh water fishes like bia, dalag, hito; spices and condiments, dishes we were both familiar with dominated our repartee. Jaja and brother JP were so amused with our animated conversation that they both agreed Nita and I were “cooking soul mates.” A campus beauty queen, Nita belies her culinary skills, which her five children proudly claim gave them a gourmet taste for Filipino food due to their mother’s delicious cookery.
Just like Pampanga, Nueva Ecija in the Central Luzon Region, is blessed with plains, mountains and rivers that are necessary requisites for rich and abundant produce. Nueva Ecija is dubbed as the “Rice Granary or Rice Bowl of the Philippines” and one of the top producers of agricultural foods in the country. This explains why the cuisine is highly developed. Nita’s parents own a large track of land for rice fields. She grew up in the town of San Isidro where she learned how to cook. Her signature dish is Nueva Ecija’s version of “Dinuguan” called “Tinumis”, of which she has two versions —with and without blood. Nita claims she only uses choice pork belly cut into small pieces and sautéed in plenty of garlic, onions, tomatoes, kamias (she sometimes uses young tamarind leaves for souring), oregano and spices for a well-balanced taste. Both versions with and without blood are simply delicious.
Her other equally sumptuous dishes for lunch included Chicken Tiim, a slow-cooked chicken simmered in vinegar, patis (fish sauce), spices like star anise, oregano, cloves; Kare-kare, using pork hocks or pork pata with a smooth velvety peanut sauce rendered creamy with the addition of coconut milk and paired with her Ginisang Bagoong and green mangoes; Inihaw na Baboy and Manok seasoned the way I like it.
JP and Joseph are busy laying the groundwork for a soon-to-open “Kusina ni Nita” Restaurant. With a sell-out food stall every Saturday at BTC’s Cebu Food Market, Nita’s Nueva Ecija cuisine will certainly add new and exciting flavors to Cebu City’s growing culinary landscape.