Cooking is a Labor of Love in Marinduque

Coconut Lobster-very Rare and Expensive Dish in Marinduque served with Cucumber and Philippine Sour Tomatoes
Macrine loves to cook in the US. But here in Boac, she complains it is a labor of love. Meat products such as pork, beef and lamb are not as tender as the one you purchase in the US. Except for LIVER, all of meat products must be pressured cook to be tender enough for the teeth of senior citizens like us. On the other hand chicken ( not the native one) is acceptable and could be enjoyed without the use of the pressure cooker.

Moreover, our kitchen area is not air conditioned, so Macrine "sweats like a hog" when she cooks even with the assistance of our cook and housekeeper.

The dish that Macrine loves to cook is Liver with Onions. She cooked it in soy sauce with lemon, vinegar, sugar and garlic salt. Another dish that she does not trust our cook are the tempura tiger prawns, okra, sweet potato and eggplant. All other dishes are cooked by our cook without her supervision. My favorite dish is eggplant relleno with shrimps, onions and tomatoes. Speaking of tomatoes, the Philippine variety are small and sour whereas the US variety are huge and sweet. So in the PHL tomatoes are vegetables and in the US they are fruits. Agree or disagree?

Marinduque is abundant with fresh vegetables. You can purchase almost all kinds of vegetables except green lettuce, broccoli, asparagus and spinach. Fresh Fish and sea foods are also abundant and reasonable except during the rainy season and during Lent. My favorite fish is BINGAW-a fish belonging to the red snapper specie. It taste like pork and has no fishy smell. It is expensive and rare.

Speaking of fish, Do you know that the fish head is the most delicious part of the fish. When you have an important guest for dinner, it is customary to serve him the head in the soup dish called sinigang. The sinigang is cooked with a variety of vegetables and may be flavored only with Philippine tomatoes ( sour) or with tamarind also a sour fruit.

Fish Heads in the soup reminded me of a memorable event, when my younger brother and his family from Australia visited us in Colesville, Maryland in the mid-1990's. During the week of their visit we received a gift of SALMON from our fisherman friend from Virginia. Macrine cooked it as sinigang. Instead of me, gorging the fish head, I gave it to my brother, since he was our guest. Later on my brother informed me that was the most delicious fish dish he had tasted for quite sometime. He was very appreciative, that I gave him the fish head. I hope he remembers this event. Anyway, the saying that "a Way to a man's heart is through his stomach" really applies in our marriage. I am very appreciative that Macrine is a Good Cook!