Homecoming Dishes
By hereandthere
@hereandthere (45645)
Philippines
September 23, 2017 12:26am CST
When someone has been away or visiting from overseas, we tend to cook sinigang na baboy to welcome them.
Sinigang means to cook with a souring agent like tamarind (sampalok), bayabas (guava), kamias (bilimbi), or kalamansi (calamondin).
Sinigang na baboy is pork with veggies in tamarind broth, so the soup is sour.
The veggies we use are kangkong (water spinach), talong (eggplant), sitaw (long green string beans), and gabi (taro root).
There is a step-by-step recipe for sinigang na baboy in WikiHow, which is where I got the picture of the ingredients that you see.
However, we don't cook it that way, and we there are slight differences in the ingredients we use.
We just simply boil the baboy (pork) in a pot of water with a little salt, onion, tomato, and ginger until tender.
Then add the veggies one by one in this sequence: gabi, sitaw, talong, kangkong, long green chilis.
Last step, flavor with powdered tamarind mix.
Local fruits and kakanin (native snacks and desserts) are also things that Filipinos are eager to feast on when they come or visit home.
What do you serve, or what do you look forward to eating again, when you visit family?
23 people like this
26 responses
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
oh, yes, kare-kare (oxtail with veggies in peanut sauce). that's another filipino dish that the ingredients can be hard to find overseas, or very expensive. but can you eat the vegetables in kare-kare? are you allowed to eat bagoong (shrimp paste)?
4 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
@JustBhem i use patis (fish sauce) when we run out of bagoong.
3 people like this
@JustBhem (70555)
• Davao, Philippines
23 Sep 17
@hereandthere
Hahaha. I only take the puso ng saging, not the entire vegetables. I also like the sauce.
Nope for shrimp paste - but I can just a little amount.
3 people like this
@allen0187 (58582)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
This is a favorite of mine!
However, my preferred homecoming dish is grilled pork and fish.
5 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
14 Oct 17
@AkoPinay @allen0187 with atchara or mang tomas
3 people like this
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
28 Sep 17
@hereandthere I will try that to know how it tastes.
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
28 Sep 17
yes, we've been adding ginger in pork and chicken dishes, even in fried rice.
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
28 Sep 17
@salonga it's supposed to lessen the 'langsa' and i guess for added nutrients also. you can also add slices of ginger into the oil while frying fish to lessen the smell.
4 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
what do your sons and grandchildren look forward to?
3 people like this
@jstory07 (139782)
• Roseburg, Oregon
28 Sep 17
@hereandthere Baby back ribs is the favorite of my whole family.
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
28 Sep 17
@jstory07 oh, wow. i would look forward to that, too!
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
oh, i can imagine how yummy your roasted chicken is! what herbs do you use?
4 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
@LadyDuck the less ingredients the more flavor it seems. how long do you roast it?
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (472004)
• Switzerland
23 Sep 17
@hereandthere We season the chicken with rosemary and sage and put inside whole garlic cloves.
4 people like this
@ridingbet (66854)
• Philippines
24 Sep 17
when my mother was still with us, she often cooked the 'dinuguan' for my brother who lives in UK. then my brothers in Manila like 'pinakbet'. now that she is gone, my UK brother cooks ';dinuguan' when he comes home for vacation, while my oldest brother cooks 'pinakbet' when he is home.
5 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
6 Oct 17
@ridingbet i don't like it soupy, though.
2 people like this
@ridingbet (66854)
• Philippines
6 Oct 17
@hereandthere me too. if that is one of the 'ulam' at the hospital canteen, i order one serving and 1 and a half of rice.
3 people like this
@Freelanzer (10743)
• Canada
24 Sep 17
That sounds like a delicious feast and a great welcome for those visiting.
5 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
28 Sep 17
oh, it's not really a custom. we just try to serve their favorite dish, or dishes that aren't available or expensive where they are that they miss.
3 people like this
@JudyEv (341752)
• Rockingham, Australia
28 Sep 17
@hereandthere I see. We would do much the same - try to have something they'd really like.
3 people like this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
23 Sep 17
That sounds really good. I have looked into the possibility of using tamarind as a replacement for tomato, since it is suggested for people who can't have tomato as an acidifying agent in stews, but now I see guava, and that might be easier to get. Maybe I will have to try this.
4 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
i know one mylotter who even uses sour fruits like green mangoes and santol (cottonfruit) to avoid using artificial flavorings (powdered mixes or cubes).
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
1 Oct 17
which souring agent do you prefer - tamarind (sampalok), bayabas (guava), kamias (bilimbi), or kalamansi (calamondin)?
3 people like this
@much2say (55901)
• Los Angeles, California
14 Oct 17
I had to think . . . can you believe I've personally never been in this situation? But I do remember growing up that when we had family visitors from Japan, my mom always served whatever they considered to be a Japanese breakfast. From what I remember it was a simple miso soup and rice breakfast and can't remember what else - things that we'd normally eat for dinner.
2 people like this
@much2say (55901)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Oct 17
@hereandthere I guess that's the norm for a traditional Japanese breakfast . . . I definitely grew up on an American breakfast.
2 people like this
@toniganzon (72517)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
We usually go to a restaurant. A seafood restaurant.
4 people like this
@SIMPLYD (90721)
• Philippines
9 Oct 17
Actually, if ever I will be going to visit my Ilocano cousins at Aritao, Nueva Viscaya, I would like to be able to be able to eat pinapaitan made of goat's meat. I miss that, though my sister would make one sometimes, but it's of the beef's though not the goat meat.
I like goat meat and the dishes from that are what I like to eat.
3 people like this
@SIMPLYD (90721)
• Philippines
10 Oct 17
@hereandthere Yes. Some abhor it because they say it doesn't smell good. All meats actually don't smell good when uncooked yet.
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
9 Oct 17
goat meat doesn't seem to be common in the bicol region
2 people like this
@acelawrites (19272)
• Philippines
29 Sep 17
If they come from other places, we prepare local foods too!
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
30 Sep 17
it's like when we go out of town. we always stop to buy pasalubong before going home.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
11 Oct 17
be sure to serve all that when i visit you
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
12 Oct 17
@AkoPinay so what month should i visit to make sure there are shrimps and crabs?
2 people like this
@AkoPinay (11542)
• Philippines
12 Oct 17
@hereandthere fish and veggies are always available but no shrimp and crab 
2 people like this
@ilocosboy (45156)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
Hmm I just learned camias is bilimbi. Rice delicacies are the usual food to serve for the guest
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
@ilocosboy some find preparing glutinous/sticky rice tedious so they use flour instead. in fact, in the grocery store, you can now find boxes of instant mixes for our native snacks and desserts. i think these are exported to filipinos who work or live overseas.
3 people like this
@ilocosboy (45156)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
@hereandthere oh i see, but of course the taste and looks are different because glutinous rice cannot be substituted with flour. It will never be the same. Maybe the process, yes.
2 people like this
@ilocosboy (45156)
• Philippines
23 Sep 17
@hereandthere delicacies in here are mostly made from glutinous rice and second is banana then third is cassava
3 people like this
