There’s always a fiesta happening in some part of the Philippines on any given weekend. But the unofficial gastronomic capital, as many will agree, is Pampanga.

The Cabalens sure know how to tickle the taste buds and satisfy grumbling stomachs. The spread at their fiestas cannot be beat: from vegetable appetizers like rellenong talong and ensaladang kangkong to a whole range of meat dishes including bopis, chicken and bangus relleno, crispy pata, embutido, kaldereta, lechon kawali, and pochero down to sweet endings sago’t gulaman, turon, bibingka, and halo-halo.



But the king of the fiesta buffet has to be kare-kare. This creamy, savory, variedly-textured dish is an entire meal in a pot! And we have Pampanga to thank for it.

From curry to kare-kare?



Or do we? The accounts about the history of kare-kare are varied. Primarily in the Philippines, Pampanga is credited for its inception. After all, no one makes kare-kare better than Kapampangans.

However, some accounts credit the Indians who came with the British conquest of the Philippines for bringing the dish over to our shores. Based on this account, kare-kare was derived from the colonizers’ very own curry (thus, kare-kare; get it?)—with liberal adjustments, of course. Still others say it was a dish that the Moro elite brought from their islands to Manila during the pre-Spanish colonial era.

We may not know the real etymology of this dish, but what we’re sure of is this: Kare-kare’s unique combination of creamy, nutty sauce, soft, gummy meat, and crunchy, tasty vegetables makes this stew a crowd-drawer. Of course, don’t forget the endless mounds of steamed rice that’s the perfect bed for this dish.



[Also check out Pinoys’ favorite Chinese food.]



What’s in kare-kare?



One can immediately spot a bowl of kare-kare on the buffet table. It’s the one where chunks of beef and cut-up vegetables are swimming in a thick yellowish-brown sauce. Kare-kare’s ingredients are a veritable who’s who in the Filipino kitchen. There’s lean beef, beef tripe or oxtail (what Pinoys refer to as “twalya” or towel, as reference to its towel-like texture), ground peanuts (some sweet-tooths prefer their kare-kare with an entire bottle of peanut butter instead), pechay (bok choy), talong (eggplant), puso ng saging (banana bud), toasted rice, atsuete oil (which gives kare-kare its distinctive color), and sitaw (string beans).

Every bowl of kare-kare is served with a side dish of bagoong (shrimp paste). Some like their bagoong with the original salty flavor. Others add chilies, while a few like the tang that comes from adding some calamansi (lime) or atchara (pickled green papaya) into the mix.

[Also check out Sweet Negros pasalubong.]

“Exotic” kare-kare



Of course, nowadays, kare-kare has spawned more adventurous variations. It is still most often prepared with the original oxtail and tripe. But some kare-kare dishes have other ingredients as well. There’s vegetarian kare-kare (with just, er, vegetables), kare-kareng kambing (goat), kare-kareng manok (chicken), kare-kareng isda (fish)!

Back to clay basics



Some claim that kare-kare tastes better if cooked in the way our forefathers (or foreparents, if you want to be politically correct about it) cooked it: in a clay pot. Yes, the traditional—and still enduring practice—is to cook kare-kare in a palayok (clay pot) and serve it in the same pot. It’s a wonderful throwback to a time when slow-cooking with clay and charcoal reflected the laidback character that defines our culinary history.

[Also check out your itinerary for a Sagada food trip.]















