Red hot chili cake*
My gene pool is Bicolano and when I was growing up everything we ate had chili peppers and coconut milk in it. Our adobo had chili peppers and coconut milk. My mom made excellent laing but it was always a huge production number. The gabi leaves had to be the right shape and texture or your tongue and throat would itch. Then they had to be shredded very fine. The coconut milk had to be freshly-squeezed, and the chilis had to be a specific variety or they wouldn’t be spicy enough. She also made a dish called pinangat which is like laing wrapped around shredded pork and shrimps.
Every other week or so I need my laing fix. A lot of Filipino restaurants serve laing—Cafe Bola even has laing pasta—but of course nothing can compete with the memory of my mother’s laing. Last Saturday I went to Naga City for an SM event, and this was in the buffet.
How interesting, I thought, cake with peppers. Then I realized it wasn’t a dessert cake, but a cake made of pinangat. It’s wonderful. This pinangat cake is from a Naga restaurant called Geewan. My mom would’ve approved.
*If you remember the 90s and you read the title of this post, you now have the urge to wear socks on your privates and you will spend the rest of the day hearing this in your head: “Give it away give it away give it away now. Give it away give it away give it away now.”
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 16th, 2010 at 06:08
Appetizer, meal, and dessert in one. Who could resist?
September 16th, 2010 at 09:51
Kudos to SM Naga and Geewan. Looks like a culinary masterpiece
September 16th, 2010 at 10:41
I once had laing for breakfast, lunch, dinner– for four straight days!–and I’m not even from Bicol.
And yes, I cooked it myself. I make the best laing in the whole world. If there are better laings out there, give them to me.
Please. ^_^
For the pinangat pictured here, I’d do absolutely anything just to have a taste, a nibble! Or better yet, several luscious, chili-laden, kakang-gata-creamy mouthfuls!
I get hot just looking at it.
This must be how guy montag feels when he sees all those books.
It was a pleasure to burn.
September 16th, 2010 at 11:13
Adobo with chili peppers AND coconut milk??? What delectable perversion is this? I’m a Pasigueno by heart, haha, and aside from the river and the drug busts in Mapayapa, we really have nothing else to contribute, as far as the culture business goes. We’re missing out on a whole heaven of third world goodness.
September 16th, 2010 at 11:17
@jediknight: can you cook for us? I love laing :)
September 16th, 2010 at 23:44
i have been following you since 94,my first year as college gay and since then now im an expat…honestly, naiyak po ako about this post…….i dont know your mother,im quite sure she misses cooking laing for you….
September 17th, 2010 at 00:04
Hi susanboylemania, thanks for the thought. My mom died in 2003. Unfortunately I cannot cook at all. I hope there is laing wherever you are.
September 17th, 2010 at 21:53
I like laing but not the pork sahog! Sometimes they add daing to the laing and i don’t like that. I think that’s the goldilocks version of the laing. So sorry about your mom jessica.
September 18th, 2010 at 14:39
Hi, Jessica, everyone. Would you know any restaurant that serves good Bicol Express?
I’ve been craving for the longest time. In its place, I’ve been eating Jollibee’s Spicy ChickenJoy. Can’t get enough of the burning sensation that leaves me panting like a rabid dog.