After several days of wet and gloom, the sun finally came out. Not a day too soon, too, or I would have had to start opening cans to feed the family.
Friday is eve of tabô (market day), and by mid-afternoon the roads across the sides of the building facing the sea are closed off to vehicular traffic to make space for more vendors. I prefer to hit the tiangge at 4 PM when it is still light out but no longer so hot. The locally sourced produce are typical: banana, banana heart, sweet potato, taro, yam, cassava, ginger, turmeric, spring onion, lemongrass, young unripe jackfruit, bamboo shoot, tangkong (water spinach), pechay, bago (Spanish joint fir), alugbati (Malabar spinach), pakó (fiddlehead fern). Most other vegetables are sourced from Cebu and Mindanao.
So you could say that the soupy sari-sari I made yesterday was not very supportive of local growers. It contained carrot, potato, chayote, whole corn, cabbage, and celery — holdovers from last week’s tabô. I also used canned vegetable broth (four cups’ worth), seasoned with celery salt, hon-dashi, some oyster sauce, and a dash of Chinese black vinegar. If you mean to make your own, remember to slice the vegetables into uniform size to ensure even cooking. The corn went in first, until cooked, then the potato, followed by chayote a minute later, then carrot a minute hence. After five more minutes, shredded cabbage, simmered for another minute.
And that was it. Simple, comforting food for a cold, rainy day. To think that summer officially began two days ago — now there’s irony for you.
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