By Alan Gore
For September’s Shoestring Gourmet we visit the Philippines, which because of its historical status as a crossroads offers one of the world’s most ethnically mixed culinary traditions. The native cuisine is heavy on rice, and since the country is almost all coastline, fish. Chinese traders brought an assortment of new dishes, long since blended with the local foods in ways found nowhere else. When the country was later colonized by Spain, dishes like relleno, mechado, pochero and leche flan landed on Filipino tables on Christmas and feast days. With such a diverse cuisine, there are recipes for all. We will be meeting Saturday, September 13 at 6 p.m. at the west-central home of Pat Hull. Please be sure to call Pat at 863-4855 or Ursula Gore at 863-9648 by Thursday, September 11.
For August, we had to come up with dishes referred to in classic literature. For Ursula Gore, it was herring salad (as referenced by Henrik Ibsen), broiled rabbit cooked in white wine and champagne, and grilled leaves of the spineless prickly pear, Opuntia clintoni (George Bernard Shaw). Marilyn McDonald prepared Plums with Cointreau (William Carlos Williams). Jim Morgan presented Nick's Beans and Spaghetti (Ernest Hemingway), and Kim & Mike Senft, Brown Bread & Goat Cheese (Johanna Spyri). From Diana Toone we got Cabbage & Herb Salad (William Shakespeare), while Pat Hull put together a dessert of Bread, Milk, and Blackberries, as described by Beatrix Potter, with a reading from Peter Rabbit to establish the context. At the barbecue, Ken Brown roasted up Charcoal-grilled Pork, as described by E. B. White.
Our meal was accompanied by some literary beverages, too: Ray Pisar’s Pernod (Ernest Hemingway), Kim & Mike Senft’s Rhenish wine (William Shakespeare), and Jim and Ursula’s Sherry, which was also referenced by the Bard.