Tripwolf Blog

When I left New York a couple of years ago to go traveling, life seemed to be at its peak – most people I knew were gainfully employed and not too worried about their futures.  People were still trying to hold onto the decadence of NYC summer, boozing on rooftops and eating out most nights at hip restaurants.  When I came back to NYC this past winter, things had taken quite a turn.  Six months later, the mood isn’t much different – when my friends and I are trying not to dampen the mood by talking about the latest person to lose their job, we’re pre-gaming at someone’s apt and eating falafel for dinner.

This might seem depressing, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t have to be.  When I was in the Philippines a few years ago, my cousin, Cielo, really put things in perspective.  One afternoon I found myself eating for the 4th time that day, feeling bloated and wondering aloud how Filipinos could stand to eat so often (breakfast, morning merienda [snack], lunch, afternoon merienda, dinner, nighttime merienda seems to be the general idea), and Cielo told me that in a country where the majority of people make less then $6/day and can’t realistically aspire to material wealth, they find solace in food.  No matter how tough life becomes, people might cut back on going out or shopping, but food is never compromised; they could rest easy knowing that their families were well-fed.  Eating is also a way of bringing community together – even merienda, a seemingly trivial thing to me, was rarely taken alone.  Really though, why miss out on quality time with your loved ones, or catching up on the latest neighborhood gossip?

Though the Philippines is famous for adobo and pancit, the dish I crave most often is tinola – tinola is the classic, recession-special comfort food, all stewed ginger-y, garlicky chicken goodness, served with belly-satisfying white rice.  Seriously, it is the culinary equivalent of being back in the womb, feeds a load of people, and is cheap to boot.  So the next time you’re feeling particularly hit by the recession, get some friends over and feed your soul with tinola and good company.  Life might seem like one big broke-ass mess, but it’ll feel worse if you’re eating dollar pizza slices by yourself.

Tinola
Serves 6
*I have my own slightly modified tinola recipe that I have been using for years, tweaked to exclude all the chicken parts that I don’t eat and featuring a slightly higher concentration of fish sauce and ginger.  For this article, I tried making a traditional recipe that I found online, and guess what – I liked mine better.  So the following is my recipe but if you want to be traditional, just add more water and include a variety of chicken parts.

* 6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up into medium-sized pieces (depending on how much people eat)
* 6 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 large onions, quartered
* 6 tablespoons gingerroot, zested
* 9 tablespoons fish sauce
* 3 chayotes, peeled and cubed (You can also substitute green papaya)
* ½ cup pepper leaves (optional)
* olive oil
* 2 1/4-3 cups water (or more, depending on your taste preferences)

Heat oil over medium heat in a pot or dutch oven.  Saute garlic and ginger for 30 seconds.  Add garlic and sauté for another 30 seconds.

Add chicken and saute until chicken meat turns white. Add fish sauce.

Cover and simmer until chicken is almost completely cooked (7-10 min.). At this point, there will be a fair amount of broth, since all the juices from the chicken are coming out.

Add water (I usually add 2 ¼  cups and that gives me a pretty good, concentrated flavor. My mom adds a little more than 3 cups, and though the flavor is mellower, she adds more fish sauce at the table. The recipes I found online were adding 4-5 cups per kilo of chicken [on top of cutting the fish sauce and ginger by 2/3], but I thought that was too much.  Really, you should just keep tasting it and adding water to your liking).

Add chayote and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and add pepper leaves if using – cover until the leaves cook down.

Serve over white rice.  You can also keep the fish sauce around as a condiment (don’t add more than a couple of drops to each bite).