Lumpiang Sariwa, Ube Halaya and Family Memories

Ingredients
Lumpiang Sariwa
Ground pork, shrimp, cabbage, green beans, sinkamas (jicama), carrots, yam
Sauce: soy sauce, water, sugar, pepper, cornstarch

Ube halaya
Ube (Purple yam), coconut milk, condensed milk, sugar, dayap

My mom really enjoyed helping me make the ube halaya, even though she complained a lot about how much work it was and how tedious it is. Indeed, though it’s not very complicated, it takes about 30-45 minutes to prep (with boiling the ube, then grating it, then mixing everything together), and then 2+ hours of constant mixing while it’s simmering above a low heat until it turns solid and very sticky.

Nevertheless, she enjoyed it because of what it reminded her. My mom is the youngest of four sisters, the daughters of Mercedes and Antonio Tatoy. They lived in one of the poorest areas of Manila – Tondo – and my grandparents sold vegetables at the wet market in Divisoria – both places many foreigners and well-to do Filipinos are told they shouldn’t go to alone. Well anyways, my grandparents were pretty successful at their business – they owned a respectable house in Tondo and were able to put their four daughters through college and by the time my mom was growing up, they had enough to send her to private school from elementary through high school.

Anyways, annually in Tondo, there would be a festival for the Sto. Nino and families throughout the area would throw feasts for their whole neighborhood. My mom had really bad asthma growing up – which wasn’t helped much by all the cats and pollution in the area – so she was always the pampered one who didn’t have to do much work to prepare for the big feast. Well, one of the dishes that my grandma would always make was the ube halaya. Once the sweet aroma of the ube and the dayap hit the air, my mom knew to run to the kitchen to get a taste of the batter as it was being made.

The next day everything would be set out for the hundreds of people that would be coming through – the pancit, the ube halaya, the kakanin, the lumpiang sariwa, the lechon and many other Filipino dishes. Since a famous general also lived across the street from us – he would later be Mayor of Manila and a good family friend – my family’s street would get the celebrities to perform and partake in the festivities.

My mom says she misses those days when everyone was together; when you knew everyone in your neighborhood and they were pretty much family. They weren’t wealthy by any means back then, but it seems like they were so rich with love and family. Getting a little sappy here, but I guess I’ve always wanted to know what a complete family felt like. Don’t get me wrong – our home with just me and my mom (and for a short period of time, my grandma) was definitely filled with a lot of love and I’ve felt like I’ve always had everything I needed. There are just those times when that nagging “what if” question hits you and you’re left wishing for more.

Anyways, tonight’s dish will be Manok sa Mani (Chicken cooked with Peanuts), which I think might be my grandmother’s invention because I’ve never seen it anywhere else and the dessert will be banana-cue (sweetened saba on a stick). That’s it for now. Till next time!


Other Summer Projects
Books Read: 0
Current Book(s): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Memories of Philippine Kitchens
Progress with Mandarin: Unit 1: Lessons 1, 2, 3 & 4 – Language Basics
Weekdays Missed Jogging: 0