Filipino — Proteins & Mains Techniques

Bicol express is the Bicol region's gift to Philippine cuisine — a fiery stew of pork cubes with shrimp paste (bagoong), shallots, garlic, and a generous quantity of long green chillies and bird's eye chillies, cooked in coconut milk until the sauce thickens and the pork is tender. The dish is not hot in the mainstream Filipino context — it is the exception, created in a region renowned for its tolerance of and enthusiasm for heat. The coconut milk provides the cooling richness that moderates the chilli's fire; the bagoong provides the fermented depth; the pork provides the fat that carries all flavours. Bicol express represents the confluence of the Philippine coconut milk tradition with the Bicolano love of capsaicin.

Chicken adobo is the Philippines' most emblematic dish — chicken pieces braised in a mixture of cane vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, black peppercorns, and bay leaves until the sauce reduces to a sticky, deeply savoury glaze. The word 'adobo' refers to the preservation technique (acid and salt) rather than a specific spice blend, which is why Filipino adobo bears no relation to Latin American adobo. The technique is one of the world's most effective natural preservation methods: the combined effect of vinegar's acidity, soy sauce's salinity, and the reduction of the cooking liquid to a high-concentration syrup creates an environment hostile to bacterial growth. Adobo is notably better the next day — the acid tenderises further and the flavours integrate. Regional variations are legion: Cavite adobo uses coconut milk; Batangas adobo uses turmeric.

Lechon kawali is the everyday Filipino equivalent of the whole-roast lechon: pork belly boiled until tender in seasoned water, cooled and air-dried until the skin is completely desiccated, then deep-fried in a kawali (deep wok) at very high temperature until the skin erupts into a blistered, crackling surface while the interior remains tender and layered with fat. The two-stage preparation is the technique: the boiling ensures the pork is fully cooked and the fat begins to render; the air-drying removes the surface moisture that would otherwise prevent the skin from crackling in the oil; the deep-frying at high heat causes the remaining moisture inside the skin cells to flash-vaporise, expanding the skin into thousands of tiny blisters. This is a precision technique — the air-drying stage is most often overlooked.

Lumpia Shanghai is the Filipino version of the Chinese spring roll — thin rice paper or wheat flour wrappers filled with a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, carrots, water chestnuts, and aromatics, rolled into tight cylinders and deep-fried until shatteringly crisp. The name 'Shanghai' acknowledges the Chinese origin of the technique, brought to the Philippines by Fujian Chinese immigrants (the Hokkien community, known as Tsinoys) who have been present in the Philippine archipelago for centuries. The Filipino version is thinner and more tightly rolled than Chinese spring rolls, with a higher surface-area-to-filling ratio that maximises crunch. The filling should be densely packed and completely free of moisture before rolling — any wet filling causes the wrapper to steam from the inside and soften.

Sisig is Pampanga's most famous export — a sizzling preparation of pigs' face (cheeks, snout, ears) and chicken liver that is first boiled, then grilled over charcoal, then finely chopped and sautéed with onion, chilli, calamansi (Philippine lime), and soy sauce, served on a sizzling metal plate with a raw egg on top that cooks on contact. The Kapampangan origin is undisputed: 'sisig' originally referred to a sour salad preparation, and the modern pork sizzling version was developed by Lucia Cunanan ('Aling Lucing') in Angeles City in the 1970s. The layering of textures — gelatinous ear cartilage, crisp grilled skin, tender cheek, creamy liver — is the dish's structural genius. The calamansi provides sharp citrus acid that cuts through the pork fat.