Munggo (Guisado or Soup)
Creamy or soupy, munggo (mung bean) is definitely Pinoy soul food. Cold rainy days and we just love it with fried fish. Summertime and it is still munggo that we crave for. There are also many ways to enjoy it as it could be paired with just about anything – from fried bangus (milkfish) or tilapia and tuyo (dried salted fish) to adobong manok at baboy. You may also add in hibi (dried shrimps), use pata (pork leg) for a flavorful broth or just plain monggo soup sprinkled with chicharon pork cracklings. And just like sinigang na baboy, the veggies I include in it depends on what’s available. Back home, talbos ng ampalaya (bitter gourd tendrils) is a runaway favorite, even dahon ng malunggay (moringa leaves). In Beijing, I can only play around with talong, sitaw and ampalaya (string beans, eggplant and bitter gourd).
Mix it with home-made chicharon. . .
Top it with fried daing bought from a tiangge (flea market) at the Worker’s Stadium that tastes exactly like it’s from Manila.
As A likes it, creamy with Chinese chorizo. Oh well I never tried that before until now and it turned out surprisingly delicious!
I’ve always wanted to post a pork sinigang recipe but my ingredients are perpetually incomplete. It’s the weather that’s driving me crazy like kangkong (river spinach) isn’t available during winter or that I couldn’t find a single decent gabi (taro) during the summer days. Either I missed out buying the green chili or I am just plain unlucky. 
So I decided to post what I have and present few pics all at the same time…
The vegetables that I normally include in the broth are sitaw (string beans), kangkong, radish, okra, aubergine, mustard greens and gabi. I don’t necessarily put everything all together but there are few combinations that I really like. I also love gabi as it gives a thick and creamy texture. I like crisp sitaw and kangkong. I like crushed tomatoes in it. I like okra but too bad i can’t find them here. One more thing, I like it real sour but not astringent. Hindi yung basta naasiman lang.
Here is the recipe for the 1st photo shown above. 2nd photo shown is sinigang without gabi, aubergine and green chili pepper but with sitaw. 3rd photo is buto-buto (bony parts) with sitaw and kangkong. Notice the color of the soup when it has no tomatoes as shown in the last photo.
I’ve been experimenting with Chinese cooking wine lately since I found a bottle in a supermarket a month ago. So far it’s a hit! This was lunch last Easter Sunday. Those green roses are actually the bottom part of pechay where the stalks meet. We didn’t eat ‘em. They just look pretty next to the spareribs.
I still have few pictures of my mom’s cooking taken during my last vacation that I want to share. Here is one of her many variations of sinigang (sour broth). Sinigang maybe cooked with fish, meat (maybe lean meat, fatty or bony parts) or shellfish. Vegetables vary depending on availability and, of course, preference. The most common souring agents are fresh sampalok (tamarind), bayabas (guava), kamias (bilimbi) or simply a pouch of sinigang mix available at the store nearest you.
I’ve been dreaming of cooking chicken mami (noodle soup) since I had 
what is there to say about nilagang baka or boiled beef? it’s a very simple dish that one misses when the weather is cold. still summer here in Beijing but what the heck? it’s like summer all year round back home anyways & we still love it (ofcourse the typhoons are always there).speaking of typhoons, let’s all save a prayer for 
