Two out of the three hundred sixty five days, we commemorate the dead. Like any other Pinoy family, All Saints and All Souls are traditionally spent like a "family day" albeit the location is a little different from the usual. With mine it means trudging to the cemetery complete with candles, match box and pork adobo. At least that was how we did it before fast food chains realized the commercial impact of this quintessential Filipino tradition.
We left home at around 10:00 pm to visit my maternal grandparents at their final resting place, to avoid the horrendous traffic common during this time of the year, with the usual paraphernalia sans the pork adobo, of course. For one, we had just finished dinner and two, if we do get hungry, there's a multitude of food stalls lining the streets of the cemetery anyway. At Holy Cross, there seem to be more food stalls than there are people -- both living and dead. We almost missed the entrance to the park because part of the cobble-stoned pathway was occupied by a popular pizza parlor (side bar: sigh and shake head side to side).
In front of my grandparents' tombstone someone (presumably one of my cousins) left a vase of white mums. Although by now they look a little worn and tired, it still made the spot look festive. After we lit the candles (two, one for each) and prayed, I surreptiously looked around the other plots, noticing that some had been visited while a few looked forgotten. Nothing is lonelier than a tombstone with no flowers or candles, I say.
At this point, it is customary to stay a few hours. Had it been daylight, we would have laid out the picnic mat and brought out the adobo and rice. But since it’s night time, we stayed to stand guard over the candles. Yes, another sad fact — candles are valued commodities so it’s fairly common to see a street urchin roaming with a plastic bag in one hand and a mini spatula in the other.
While waiting for the candles to burn half-way, I started reminiscing about the days when going to the cemetery was a big family event. Everyone would meet up at my Tita Lota’s Carmel residence before heading up to Holy Cross. Tonight, it’s just my mom and myself. The rest either came already or will come at some convenient time.
So, in memory of those good ‘ol days and my Lola Oya, I would like to share with you her pork adobo recipe — the ultimate Filipino comfort food. Incidentally, this recipe works well with chicken or a combination of both.
Pork Adobo
~ 1/2 k pork, cut up
~ 1 cup water
~ 1/2 cup white vinegar
~ 3 Tbs soy sauce
~ 5–7 cloves garlic, crushed
~ black pepper, crushed
~ 1 tsp cooking oil
~ 1 tsp brown sugar (in place of MSG)
~ 1 can of liver spread, plain
Combine pork, water, white vinegar, garlic and pepper in a wok. Let it cook until pork is half-way done.
Remove the sauce. Set aside for later use. Sautee the pork using the same wok by adding the oil until the top layer turns into a golden crispy brown. In Filipino we call this method sangkutsa.
Add a little brown sugar and soy sauce into the pork.
Mix the liver spread until the meat is evenly covered.
Put the sauce back into the wok with the pork and let it simmer until the meat is cooked and the sauce reduced to half its original amount.
Serve hot with a generous heaping of steamed rice.
* Note: This is a dry version of the adobo. If you want more sauce, adjust the amount of water in the recipe.
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