Where are the Filipino cookbooks?

Trinity and I were at Barnes & Noble the other night. He went off to find his favorite books and I wandered over to the cookbooks. For some reason, there are at least two or three titles about Chinese, Korean, Thai and Indian cooking — but just one about Filipino cooking. What’s up with that?

The Filipino-American Cookbook

The Filipino-American Cookbook

The book I found was “The Filipino-American Kitchen” by Jennifer M. Aranas. The recipes looked interesting, and I’m sure it appeals to the Food Network crowd…but that’s not what I’m looking for.
And to be honest, I’d rather be learning from the Aida M. Barrientos school of cooking, but I missed that boat. My mom seriously made the best kare kare, pinakbet, pancit, mungo, sinigang, adobo, caldareta….Trinity especially wants me to learn how to make caldareta. I miss kare kare. I can do sinigang pretty well, am pretty good with adobo and can do lumpia….but man. That’s it? I suck.
Anyone have any suggestions on Filipino cookbooks? I don’t know if this is possible, but I would prefer one done by a Pampangan author — my mom used to say Pampangan women were the best cooks. Heehee.

4 thoughts on “Where are the Filipino cookbooks?

  1. R

    Maybe you should experiment in the kitchen and write a book on what went right and what you learned from your mistakes. It will be an interesting read.

  2. Larissa

    Kare Kare, my mom can teach you. She makes pretty good Kare Kare. Pinakbet I can teach you cause your mom taught me how to make it. Pancit i learned from tito Mandy Villianueva, and whatever else you may wanna learn, I’m sure I can get you the recipe.

  3. Beth

    Pampangos like to overrate their cooking skills :D . A good start would be the new Kulinarya book that was released last year in the Philippines. My other suggestions would be Flavors of the Philippines by Glenda Barretto and Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find older Filipino cookbooks on eBay. The older cook books are your best bet for finding many of the traditional regional foods cooked the traditional (ie. better) way.

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