My love affair with lugaw
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by: Guest
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The Philippine Star
I’ve always had this false notion that we eat heartily only during the Christmas season — what with the jamon, queso de bola and other Yuletide treats all around us during noche buena. Somehow I’ve totally disregarded the fact that we also love to eat during the rainy season — with champorado and dried fish helping us keep warm on those wet, cold days.
Last Holy Week, I thought we should have had bacalao (Norwegian codfish), the traditional Lenten dish eaten on those meatless days as dictated by the Roman Catholic Church. However, it would have been too elaborate to prepare that and so we alternated between canned tuna and sardines for our Maundy Thursday/Good Friday lunch and dinner.
Actually, what I crave for these days is the fried pla-pla in this restaurant in Serendra called Abe. It was Dr. Vicki Belo who first brought me to the restaurant. I’ve been back with Ali Sotto (Dr. Belo was away for almost a month), who had been there many times before because of the sinigang na bangus belly. For dessert, I always order the turon with jackfruit and jaleang ube in it. I can just go on eating the food there every day (I’m trying the morcon next time) and I’m sure I won’t tire of it.
Nibbling on my folded mustard leaves with buro — actually fermented rice — as filling (just as delicious as the one made by Helen Gamboa) last Holy Tuesday, I realized that there really is no prescribed season to eat heartily. My cravings occur the whole year-round to begin with. And now, I long for a bowl of lugaw from Gladys Guevarra’s Lugawan Republic.
I became aware of Gladys’ lugawan joint when Lolit Solis kept plugging it on Startalk. Soon, Gladys sent a whole batch to the studio and I finally had a taste of it.
What I remember was that I was very hungry that time (I come to work without lunch) and the steaming porridge making its way down my esophagus was a sensational feeling. I craved for more, but Lolit and her socialist upbringing dictated that we shared the loot with the entire studio.
A couple of weeks after that, Lolit brought Startalk staff Gorgy Rula and Belinda Felix and me to the very source of that gustatory delight — the restaurant where they serve it. It turned out that Lolit had been getting it wrong. The name of the eatery is not Gladys’ Lugawan, but Lugawan Republic — Gladys having assumed it from the original owners. It’s along Timog Ave. — near the Boy Scouts rotunda.
It was only that time that I was finally able to scrutinize the contents of the rice porridge. No, it’s not anything like the famous pospas of Aling Ines that people line up for in San Mateo, Rizal. Aling Ines’ version has chicken parts, including the bahay itlog (egg sac) in it, while Gladys’ has quail eggs, which has less lansa. There are also strips of innards that make it more flavorful. To thicken its consistency, they mix the malagkit rice with sotanghon (or so that’s what I suspect). The close to orange color — achuete I presume — also makes it look very inviting.
Lolit knows that I like my food a bit spicy and so she strongly recommended the lugaw appropriately called Go to Hell, a recipe that belongs to Francis Magalona. I swear it’s the lugaw that separates the men from the boys because you can almost feel smoke coming out of your ears as you eat it.
Of course, lugaw is best paired with tokwa’t baboy, which is another bestseller in Gladys Guevarra’s Lugawan Republic. Now, tokwa is my all-time favorite food and when I order tokwa’t baboy, I tell the kitchen to skip the pork and replace it with more bean curd instead because I pretend to be a health buff. But Gladys’ tokwa’t baboy is deliciously fried to a crisp and I can’t resist, but wolf down the whole dish — pork, fat and all.
Another time, I brought my favorite eating partner, Startalk researcher Beth Miralles, to the place. While waiting for our food, Gladys Guevarra walked in and sat with us. It turned out that she and Beth knew each other from way back and Gladys decided to unburden in that very table her tales of woes (about her controversial romance).
It was a scoop as she bared her soul to us. But instead of being all ears, I ended up burying my nose into the bowl of lugaw before me. And there I was sweating, savoring every bit of my lugaw as she cried her heart out.
Looking back at that episode, I get so embarrassed. Now, Gladys knows that I am more interested in her lugaw than in her love life.
Related: My love affair with lugaw
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My love affair with lugaw: from www.abs-cbnnews.com
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