Haven't had Filipino food in about 35 years.  It's time

My first exposure was when I was a non-rate assigned to the foodservice division of a Navy supply ship in 1980. There were a bunch of Filipinos in the division and foods such as pancit (noodles) and chicken adobo were often served along with those incredibly addictive lumpia (spring rolls). If there was a division party (formal or informal) you KNEW someone was bringing lumpia.

I found what appears to be a pretty good recipe for Pancit Canton (Pancit Bihon):

https://jjaltuna.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/pancit-fried-riceegg-noodle/

I'm not filipino, but here's a go to recipe that I use and my family loves it:

http://www.meatwave.com/blog/a-trip-back-to-the-islands

Filipino BBQ Skewers

For the marinade
1 cup Sprite
1 cup brown sugar
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup ketchup
1/8 cup lemon juice
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

4 lbs of pork tenderloin or skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

Place all marinade ingredients in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Place chicken or pork cubes in a large zip lock bag and pour marinade all over. Seal the bag, removing as much air as possible, and set in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, turning the bag over at least once during the process.

Soak about 25 wooden skewers in water for at least 30 mins. Drain water and thread meat onto the skewer. Each piece of meat should touch the next, but not pushed tightly together.

Grill directly over a hot fire, turning every 3-5 minutes until each side is nicely browned and the meat is cooked through.

That marinade looks great.

A Filipino shipmate gave me a recipe for a chicken/pork/beef marinade to make skewers, too. Yep, the primary ingredient was Sprite (or 7-Up) and garlic, black pepper, honey, soy sauce, possibly sesame oil and a few other things. I'll have to see if I can still find it in my paper recipe file box Will post when I can find.

My wife is Pinay.... trying to get her to write out a recipe is damn near impossible because 99% of what she makes is improve and eyeballed, she hates baking because she has to measure and follow instructions.

On an unrelated note I had no idea that the Navy stopped recruitment of Phillipine foreign nationals almost 25 years ago.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-27/local/me-3911_1_filipino-sailors

We return you to our regularly scheduled cooking thread....

I actually just went into the cooking section just to look for Filipino recipes.





My fiance is Filipina... and I want to learn how to cook more filipino cuisine so she has less to be homesick about when she finally comes here





I actually made Lechon Kawali earlier... and I am currently making leche flan.


I am half Spanish, so Leche flan, so far... seems almost exactly the same thing as straight up Spanish Flan. Either way... I am currently cooking that right now. I have it in a "Mary's bath" on the stove. Not sure what you call that in English.
 

Anyone have a good recipe for Tocino? The local asian supermarkets do sell it... but it is kind of expensive for the amount you get.

I figure it is much more cost-effective to make it yourself.

I just finished making the Leche flan. Had a slice of it already.




 

This works:

Ingredients

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons annatto powder
1 teaspoon Anisette
1/4 teaspoon pink salt (aka InstaCure, Prague Powder)
2 lbs pork shoulder cut into 1/4-inch slices
Procedure

To make the cure: In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, white sugar, salt, annatto powder, Anisette, and pink salt.
Place pork slices in a medium container. Add in cure and toss to evenly coat pork. Cover and let cure in refrigerator for 3 days.
Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and spread the coals evenly over entire surface of coal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate. Grill pork slices over medium-high direct heat until lightly charred and cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, let rest for 5 minutes, then serve.

Just got back from "The Korean Store" and realized I purchased the wrong type of noodles.

What I wanted was this: rice sticks aka "bihon":



What I purchased was "bean thread" noodles aka "sotanghon", "glass noodles", or "cellophane noodles"

We'll use them anyway. They're close enough for a first try.

I like it better with those noodles, squeeze a little lemon juice on the top it's great.

Today's lunch: Pancit Bihon Gisado and Lumpia (OK, they were frozen SeaPak spring rolls from Food Lion but they're good!)

I used the recipe from the back of the rice noodle package which called for stir-frying the onions & garlic, then adding meats, soy sauce and Oyster sauce (I used fish sauce), then adding all the vegetable, then adding broth/stock. Then the meats and veggies are pulled out and the rice noodles are cooked in the broth

To be honest, I barely remember what pancit as made by the Filipino cooks aboard ship tastes like but this was very good. Next time I'll use a good brand of oyster sauce instead of fish sauce. I still have to limit the use of soy sauce because of my hypertension.  I'll also remember to break/tear the rice noodles into manageable pieces.

UPDATE: I dug out my ancient recipe file box from the attic and went through it. The recipe is not there Damn.

But Asian meat marinades using soft drinks such as Sprite/7-Up/Coke are pretty common and I'm pretty sure I remember all the ingredients. It isn't rocket science

So here's my approximation:

Filipino Marinade for chicken, pork, or beef

2 cans 7-Up
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
3-5 cloves pressed garlic or 2 tsp. garlic powder
a few drops of sesame oil
Black pepper to taste
(and possibly a bit of onion powder and grated or powdered ginger )

...you get the picture.

This is for boneless chunks of meat. Marinade overnight. You can put them directly on the grill as is or use bamboo skewers (soak skewers in water first).

NOTE: high sugar content so keep turning pieces to prevent burning.

Decades ago the Filipino cooks used to cook a noodle dish called "Pancit Glug-Glug" or so I thought that was how it was spelled.

It's actually "Lug-Lug" (after 36 years I finally got it!)

Lug-Lug are rice flour/cornstarch noodles. round and fatter than bihon....sort of like lo mein noodles.