Comfort Food

Just as my brother said, there's is something about food that gathers our family together. May it be just us, immediate family, or the whole clan.

There was this book the my sister gave me few years back, "Comfort Food". It discusses that each person has his/her own comfort food, whether they know it or not. Comfort food is something the you seek when you are feeling down, when you feel like celebrating something, when you want to feel being a kid again. It is something that brings back memories as a child that just provided you with such comfort and warmth.

Each food for me brings a certain comfortness. Like for example, sinigang - it doesn't really matter whether it be fish, shrimp, pork or beef; this food just brings back so much memories around the dinner table, the sourness and the warm soup just brings comfort and somehow tells my soul that things would be just fine. Adobong baboy (pork adobo) - chicken adobo would suffice, but this sour-salty pork simmered in soy sauce and vinegar just tickles my taste buds, it has that taste that i just keep wanting more. Beefsteak - this one is fried and simmered in soysauce, with calamansi (lemon) juice, and (raw) onions!! it has a sweet-salty taste that blends well with the onions, i remember our maid has to simmer this in more sauce that usually called for since we just love the sauce so much that we can eat rice with the sauce alone. Then there's the longganisa, chorizo and tocino - these are usual for breakfast, the sauce of the tocino with rice or garlic fried rice then add a bit of vinegar and atsara with sunnyside egg on the side, how much better can one start its day? just perfect. then we have the tinolang manok - this one is perfect for those rainy nights, more than enough to warm you up, the soup of the chicken with pepper leaves and green papaya is just absolutely sumptious and heartwarming.

these are some of the filipino dishes that we enjoy the most... oh man, i can't wait to go back to manila and savor the food again. according to horacio, the food in manila is a totally different experience as to having it here in new york - the taste are so much enjoyable.