WHAT? EAT SINUKMANI WITH kilawing puso ng saging?

The strange combination of sweetish rice cake, also called biko elsewhere, and the banana heart cooked in vinegar was strange to me. But in Sta. Rosa, that?s how it?s eaten.

I?ve been to this Laguna town countless of times, and my friend, Chit Lijauco, decided to build a weekend home there. She enjoys making us taste her hometown cooking done in her kitchen or ordered from specialists. She is passionate about letting everyone know that Sta. Rosa has so many great dishes. We were her willing tasters.

The sinukmani eaten with kilawing puso is a new thing for me, learned last weekend. But most of what we ate was enjoyed before. Of those, it is the guinataang yapyap that was and still is my favorite. Yapyap are small river shrimps, those that grow into ulang, crustaceans with big heads that encase orange fatty goodness. Cooked with coconut milk and soured by kamias (bilimbi), those small shrimps need a lot of rice because the milky sauce is so rich.

Freshwater shrimps aren?t the only food from the Laguna de Bae, the lake that rims many of the province?s towns. There is biya (goby) and the kanduli (arius thallasinus).

Biya can be eaten fresh, but the favorite in Sta. Rosa is frying the salted dried version, dipped into vinegar with garlic and chili. These are bought arranged in a circular pattern that remind me of the small espada (swordfish), arranged the same way in Pangasinan.

Kanduli is the name used in the other Tagalog regions, but in Sta. Rosa it?s called tigite. Kanduli looks like a cousin of catfish because they look alike. It?s cooked in coconut milk rendered yellow by dilaw or turmeric. Turmeric is not only coloring; it also contributes a big part to the flavor of the food. It also has alagao (premma odorata), a leaf that smells and tastes a bit like licorice.

Tulingan (frigate mackerel) was cooked as sinaing, though different from how it is done in Batangas, Laguna?s neighboring province. There, the fish is pressed in salt then steamed with dried kamias. That comes out drier with some sauce expressed called patis, which is served on the side. The Sta. Rosa version is more soupy, again, cooked with turmeric and red bell pepper.

What? No meat? That was my friend?s question, a carnivore. He was shown the tinadtad, so-called because the beef meat is chopped into small pieces instead of ground. It?s cooked like sinigang na baka, with the same sourness, and added with kangkong (swamp cabbage) and labanos (white radish). For those of us used to whole chunks of beef short ribs, tinadtad is a totally different experience.

?Lumpiang hubad?

Like clockwork, specialties that were ordered arrived in time for lunch.

Our hostess pointed to the lumpiang hubad, spring rolls that aren?t rolled in wrappers, though sometimes they use lettuce when available, the way it?s done with some Chinese lumpia. It was wonderful tasting sliced vegetables with sweet potatoes, colored with annatto (achuete). Our carnivore friend just smiled and went back to his tinadtad.

There was matse, or rice flour balls with a filling of palitaw and sesame that ooze out when you bite. The name is similar to the Pampanga moche, monggo encased in rice flour wrapper, and the liquid filling reminded us of the shao long pao, the Chinese soup dim sum.

The Sta. Rosa maja blanca was yellowish because it had corn. It?s called atole, the name for a Mexican drink made of corn flour mixed with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, sometimes also with chocolate or fruit.

I was elated to see that Bok?s ice cream was also there in two flavors: ube macapuno and queso. Bok?s is the nickname of Filemon Beltran, who passed away, but his wife and children have carried on, thankfully. When I interviewed him years back, Bok said his extra step in the ice cream procedure ensured the quality of his product came out finer because it lessened the bubbles within. When I talked with one Häagen Dazs promoter, he told me exactly the same thing.

The kilawing puso ng saging was about to be placed with the main dishes, but was diverted to the rice cake table. And that?s the only time I knew that the sinukmani and kilawing puso go together. And it made sense because the combination of contrasting flavors was complimentary indeed.

E-mail pinoyfood04@yahoo.com.