Filipino Foods You Can Cook In Papua New Guinea

A very little concern that most Filipinos have in mind when moving from Philippines to another country is food. Some will find it daunting to try foreign foods during the first day of stay while others take it as an exciting feat. 

I, myself, is a fan of eating unfamiliar recipes. It's nice to try them every once in a while. Initially, I was pondering on the thought that If I ever came here, I would have to say goodbye to Filipino foods. That was swiftly proven otherwise after making a few trips to various shops around here. Although what's readily available here were not as much as a neighborhood sari-sari store has, what one needs to have is just a wee bit of resourcefulness to come up with something close to pinoy recipes.

The photo above is my pork adobo. Adobo is one of the peculiarities in Filipino cuisine and is pretty easy to prepare. Its key ingredients are meat, soy sauce, cooking oil, vinegar and bay leaf; all of which are abundantly spread out in numerous supermarkets around Papua New Guinea.

This is my Chicken Afritada. Honestly, I can only cook this under the merciful guidance of the recipe imprinted at the back of Del Monte Quick ‘n Easy Afritada Sauce sachet. It’s part of Del Monte Kitchenomics that makes cooking delightfully easy.

This is my version of Adobong Kangkong. The locals have come to know that we’re quite fond of Kangkong so now street sellers would frequent our place of work to offer Kangkong and other vegetables. How I cook adobong kangkong is pretty much the same with how I deal with the intricacies of pork adobo. The real difference is kangkong which is added at the end. If you try and add kangkong prematurely, it will disintegrate into pieces beyond recognition.

This is Pork Mechado. Like Chicken Afritada, I can only do this if I have a Del Monte Quick ‘n Easy pack. A friend of mine has once told me that it will look better with green peas.  It was not mentioned in the recipe so I am still kind of pondering on how exactly I should add it there.

If there’s one thing I enjoy about cooking, it’s not knowing how the food should look like in the end.

This is me who is about to stir the Pochero. And yes, you’ve guessed it right. I only know how to cook this because of the omni-present and ever friendly Del Monte Quick ‘n Easy sachet. While I have grown familiar with this, there are times that I still cannot tell the difference between pochero, mechado and afritada especially if they were done by someone else. They all look and taste similar to me.

The Del Monte Quick 'n Easy Mechado sauce which can magically turn anyone into an overnight chef. 

Here’s my Ginisang Munggo. Of all the Filipino foods, this is what I like to cook the most. I like the fact that you have to constantly stir it, as what I was doing in this picture, to avoid the mongo beans from being overly cooked. Stirring also gives an impression that you’re actually contributing something to how your food will come out later.

Here’s my Sinigang Na Tilapya. I cannot say that I have cooked it pretty well but I am attributing its success to Knorr Sinigang Sa Sampalok sachet.

Now, I won't mind if you call me “Mr. Sachet” every once in a while.

And here’s my Paksiw Na Bangus. The other ingredients are not visible. One thing worth noting for when cooking paksiw,  is that the vinegar must be heated for a couple of minutes prior to adding other ingredients. The reason, as they say, is that the vinegar must be cooked first or we won't bring out the best of it. But I cannot truly discern how they can tell a cooked vinegar from an uncooked one. But I guess you just heat it until it gives you a sense of feeling that it is done.

It's like a pop corn with the pop, only there's no pop.

 This is Sambal Chili. This isn’t exactly a part of Filipino cuisine, but the tin fish that I used here is from the Philippines. And eating tin fish (sardinas) has been a part of the Filipino culture.  This recipe was imparted to me by our previous General Manager who was originally from Malaysia. Its key ingredients are sambal chili, belacan and tin fish.

The “Sambal Chili” itself is a secret recipe. He has taught me how to make one before but I think I have forgotten the most of it. All I can say is that there are lots of blended red onions in it.

 And here’s a stir-fry of Broccoli and Shrimps. My friend cooked this but I was the one who carved out that little swan from a green apple. It wasn’t that difficult to make. All you need is a green apple and a small and very sharp carving knife.

And what about "Halo-halo?" Yes, you can make that here as well. You can check out my other post that shows where to find basic ingredients for halo-halo.  But you'll have to bring your own ice grater from the Philippines because I think it's not available here yet. To work around the problem, you can use a blender to crush homemade ice cubes. It works pretty much the same. The photo above shows me eating "Ice Ka-Chang" from Kopi Tian. 

Ice Ka-Chang and Halo-halo are surprisingly alike. 

That’s all friends. While I'm writing this, I’m pretty sure that pinoy recipes are currently being cooked by other Filipinos somewhere around here in Papua New Guinea. It's almost dinner time anyway.