In the middle of a torrential downpour in Beijing, my wife and I decided to treat ourselves by buying and cooking the luscious Filipino dish of kare-kare.
The meal traces its roots, supposedly, to Indian troops in 1762 who opted to stay behind when the British withdrew after occupying Manila during the Seven Years' War in Europe.
The meal was adapted to Filipino taste, which I believe is when the oxtail got thrown into the mix. Instead of a spicy base, the stew became sweetish.
The rough translation of kare-kare is oxtail simmered in a rich peanut-based stew. For good measure, you add tripes to the mix.
The dish is not standard fare, even for the minuscule number of Filipino restaurants in Beijing. It is a comfort food for Filipinos, served during special occasions.
For me, the first job is finding the ingredients.
For the oxtail, I went to Ito Yokado supermarket by getting on No 84 or 63 bus in front of the China Daily office. The market opens at 8 am most days so I joined my fellow seniors waiting for the doors to swing open.
The oxtail came in pieces. I chose about 10, with a few small pieces thrown in.
The next day, I rode the same bus to the new Boutique supermarket on Anyuan Road. On the second floor of the meat and fish section, tripes are available in small packets. I picked up three.
I then went down to the small supermarket near the office for vegetables and bought an eggplant, one handful of string beans, an onion, and a small bunch of bok choy. The peeled garlic we already had at home.
Since we cannot easily find peanut sauce, we used peanut butter and my wife ordered kare-kare mix from a store in Shanghai.
By purchasing the ingredients I had done the easy part, so I then handed over to my wife to cook them up.
First, she boiled the oxtail for about two hours in two batches, letting the steaming water soften the meat. She also boiled the tripes for about half an hour.
That is the longest part of preparing the meal. The vegetables are added along with the peanut sauce and base.
I then prepared more rice than usual in the cooker. It is that kind of meal.
We sat down for the lunch and gorged ourselves on kare-kare, a meal I have not had since moving to Beijing from the New York City metro area in 2019.
Filipino cuisine－an eclectic mix of Spanish, Chinese and Asian influences－has become popular in the United States.
Most of the time, when people think of Filipino dishes, they think of adobo. Filipino adobo, more often than not, uses pork, but can also include chicken. Either way the meat is marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, pepper and bay leaf.
But our comfort foods are not so well known, although they are the favorite dishes of the 10 million Filipinos scattered around the world, including those in China.
There are regional foods in the Philippines, in the same way as there are here in China. While Thai and Vietnamese cuisines are easily found in Beijing, the Filipino teachers and workers who work in the country will be looking for a taste of home when it rains or snows.
For me, on a wet July weekend, that is kare-kare.
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