Friday Food for Ferment
A monthly roundup of fermentation tidbits, mostly relating to the Philippines
There’s such a breadth of topics and interesting tidbits to cover with fermentation in the Philippines. We can’t possibly fit them all within this month (but we do have plans of covering some of these topics in detail in the future), so we decided to share a monthly roundup of interesting fermentation resources this Friday instead.
Next week, we’ll be spotlighting some of the guests we chatted with for our second fermentation installment releasing this Monday. Our guests include Starter Sisters as well as Chef Thirdy and Chef Nav from Hapag in the Philippines; two avid home fermenters in Australia; and Aaron Verzosa of Archipelago in Seattle, Washington.
Puto Calasiao
While I was scouring online for ways to make naturally-leavened puto at home, I stumbled upon this informative video on puto Calasiao from Pangasinan. Puto Calasiao is made with just rice, water, and sugar. The secret, I was told, is the use of banga or clay pots. The banga must be seasoned for at least a year, which I assume assures a healthy environment of beneficial yeasts that give gusto to the next batch (forward to 2:57 for exciting fermentation activity). This is why no leavening agent is needed.
The traditional method of making puto reminds me of the story of Sister Noella Marcellino, who has a PhD in microbiology, and her advocacy on raw milk cheese-making using wooden vats (which goes against all hygienic regulations defined by the FDA because anything porous is a huge no).
Then there’s the question of wooden tools, from the shelves to barrels. They’re a reservoir of microbial biodiversity, and there’s a lot of competition between these organisms within the wood itself, and this contributes to the profiles of the cheeses. There’s still so much more research which can be done on this complex world, but I think there’s an advantage in turning back to these time-tested techniques which seem to be safe. Indeed, the use of wooden tools is mandatory for many PDO (Protected Denomination of Origin) cheeses in France.
It makes me wonder, why isn’t puto Calasiao a PDO food product?
Yes, let the opinions commence.
Nata de coco, a uniquely Filipino invention
Nata de coco evolved from nata de piña. Stories say that a housewife in Pagsanjan, Laguna accidentally discovered nata after observing a slimy growth on the surface of rotting pineapple and boiled the solid mass until “the obnoxious odor was gone and then cooked it with sugar. This was the beginning of nata de piña dessert.”
I know Filipinos are resourceful, but resourcefulness to this extent is pretty spectacular.
Nata de piña quickly became a sought after dessert but demand outpaced supply as pineapples were seasonal and production was costly. Margaret Sevenjhazi, one of the guests we speak with for our fermentation piece, brought to my attention that it was Teódula Kalaw África, a chemist from Lipa, Batangas, who invented nata de coco in 1949 as an alternative to nata de piña. África worked for the National Coconut Corporation and it was her research that led to the idea of using waste coconut water from coconut processing as an alternative medium for nata production, thus giving rise to nata de coco.
In short, nata is a fermentation byproduct of the bacteria, Acetobacter xylinum. We eat SCOBYs! Also, I just want to point out the incredible work of Filipino women in science. Shout out to not just Maria Orosa, but also Teódula Kalaw África and Priscilla Chinte-Sanchez.
Bubod, the starter culture of the Philippines
I’ve been fascinated with starter cultures across Asia lately, perhaps because I was so previously glued to koji that I overlooked everything else. I also have been recently enjoying Southeast Asian food parallels and the documentation of Foochow rice wine making 红槽酒 by Pamelia Chia (of the Singapore Noodles newsletter) which I’ve linked below.
In Singapore, rice wine-making is a vital tradition of two main communities - the Hakkas and the Foochows. The differences are not well-documented, and hybridisation of food traditions has made lines around food less concrete, but Hakka rice wine 黄酒/ 客家娘酒 tends to be yellow, while Foochow rice wine 红槽酒 is known for its deep red hue and distinctively full-bodied flavour.
Starter cultures are widely used in Asia for alcoholic fermentation or food preparation. Here are some starter cultures specifically in the context of rice wine making. In Vietnam, the starter culture called men is used to ruou (ruou nep cam is the rice wine made in the Mekong Delta of south Vietnam). In Korea, nuruk is used to make makgeolli. In the Philippines, bubod (called i-poh in Batad) is the starter culture used to make tapuey (bayah in Batad).
The leftmost is bubod stored in the home of a bubod maker in Batad. The middle is (broken) bubod from Baguio ready to be sprinkled on glutinous rice. The rightmost is bubod I found at a palengke in Nueva Vizcaya. Expect a more extensive issue on this in the near future (blame my somewhat obsessive fascination with beverages).
Bagoong of the mountains
Raymond A. Macapagal explores what bagoong can be in his essay (which earned the 2018 Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award): Is this the bagoong of the mountains?
But in the high mountains where fish or shrimp can hardly be found, do the people there also make some sort of bagoong?
The answer might be “no” if we restrict our definition of bagoong to seafood.
Tuba is fermented agave and fermented coconut palm sap
Fermented agave in Mexico is called tuba. Fermented coconut palm sap in the Philippines is also called tuba.
One of our first essays, “On The Manila Galleon Trade” covered some of the gastronomic exchanges that occurred between the Philippines and Mexico. In that essay, we quickly touched on a fascinating historical nugget:
There are also theories that mezcal and tequila production evolved from coconut distillation techniques brought by Filipinos during the Galleon Trade.
I wanted to circle back on that thought after recently coming across an enlightening video tracing the origins of agave distillation (yes, I’ll admit I was in the deep end of Youtube one weekday evening).
While there is evidence that highly suggests that agave distillation was practiced in parts of Mexico pre-Hispanic arrival (using clay pot vessels evolved from cooking beans!), research confirms that the primary practice of using a still for distillation in Mexico indeed was introduced by “Asian immigrants brought by the Spanish” who made lambanog using a “Filipino-type still made out of trunk of Enterolobium cyclocarpum” (or more commonly known as guanacaste, caro caro, or monkey-ear tree), a tree native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.
Here is the hour-long video. I digressed a bit from fermentation but it is super interesting (yes, I’m looking at you beverage fanatics).
I’ll let these tidbits and somewhat hidden histories brine and bubble. I’ll be off to Davao by the time this newsletter hits your inbox. Have a great weekend!
Your unlikely November fermentation friend,
Jess
Thank you!