Chi Señires

My partner and I recently cooked a lot of food this weekend, and it got me to appreciate food and the ingredients that make sup the dishes we prepared. And I say this for both a dish I really loved as I grew up (sinigang) and another dish that I only recently started liking (curry rice). For this post I wanted to talk more about how cooking sinigang got me to appreciate it more as one of my favorite Filipino dishes.

Growing up, I was a really picky eater. My mom would always try to get me to try food, but I just always found a way to either go around it or just to eat something else with whatever was available so I could swallow what was on my plate. That was usually either some sweet snacks or biscuits, like say Oreo and then eventually Cream-O when the former got too expensive to get, or maybe a banana (since we loved having bananas at home for a quick snack). Yes, the sweet snack is weird, but it was really the only way before that would get me to eat nilaga or some other dish that I didn’t particularly had the appetite for.

When I’d tell this story to other friends as I grew up, some would usually just remark that “wala siguro marunong magluto sa bahay niyo” (no one seems to know how to cook at your home). I knew what they mean: my mom really wasn’t a “home cook” like how other Filipino moms are, but she did know how to prepare some dishes and she was mostly the one that cooked for me and my dad growing up. I wasn’t familiar with “homey cooking” save for a few dishes.

Sinigang was something that grew on me as a kid. I initially didn’t like it being too sour, but eventually I would acquire the taste for a more sour blend as I grew older. What took a while for me to… really grow into though, was to eat all the sahog (ingredients) that was part of the dish. Before, I would exclusively only get the sabaw, kangkong, and the pork. Maybe occasionally allow a sitaw or labanos slice to be included since I could just hide it under all the rice to eat it “without my knowing”, but otherwise I wouldn’t actively seek it out.

Last weekend, while doing our groceries, my partner and I decided to prepare sinigang for our next batch of food to try to prep at home. We got the ingredients: pork sinigang cuts, tomatoes, onions, a radish, kangkong, gabi (taro root), and sinigang mix. Once we got home, we decided it was going to be what we’d have for dinner.

Looking at the gabi made me wonder what it would look like when prepped for sinigang. I wasn’t familiar with how it was melded into the dish. The radish was a bit familiar, since I recently took a liking in eating these white circular cuts that didn’t taste that different when included in a bite. I was also wondering how tomatoes and onions worked in the dish, since from what I remember, onions weren’t that obvious in past sinigang dishes I’ve tried. Maybe tomato, but I didn’t know how it would get to the state it would be once you include it in sinigang. I also didn’t know it was maybe a very important part of the dish? You could correct me on that if ever, but at least from the recipe we found online had it as part of the second step. That, to me, makes it seem like the tomato (and onion) is integral to bringing the dish together.

While cooking the dish, we were also watching the video on how to prep and cook it and were following along as we prepped everything in the kitchen.

As we prepped each ingredient based on the order shown in the video, I grew to understand more all the ways they melded together into the dish. It got me to appreciate labanos or radish all the more, and introduced me to what gabi looks like when prepped for eating. I also learned that the tomatoes and onions would just eventually melt as it continued being in the pot with the boiling water, which was important to make the sabaw what it is (aside from the sinigang mix, of course).

After it all blended together and we got rice on our plates already, I savored every bite. I was so happy that we could now cook sinigang at home, at my home with my partner. Before, when I was still living alone, I’d always just order it online via food delivery apps, or just look forward to it if I went home to my parents.

It was a lot to prep, but the fact that cooking sinigang already sets you up for at least 2 days (for a 2-person household) makes it worth as a dish to just have ready at home.

Earlier we finished the rest of the sinigang, and it was the first time I really got all the sabaw and other ingredients left in the pot and placed on my plate. I had newfound appreciation for a dish that reminded me of home.

In the future, I am open to adding more of the other ingredients we didn’t initially have for this dish to learn how those other ingredients work together in sinigang. Hopefully this time around I wouldn’t be putting them aside on my plate and I grow out of my picky eating habit. I’m happy I’m at a point now where I’m trying out more dishes since we cook them at home, and that I’m even learning more about dishes I was already a bit familiar with.

Here’s to trying out more food, and learning to enjoy every bite with an open mind (and mouth)! 😋