FOOD
VCC chef is well aware of short-lived “adobo war”
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by Carlito Pablo
ast year, a government agency in Manila provoked what the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper later described as an “adobo war”. The ruckus started when the Department of Trade and Industry announced that it wanted to standardize the recipe for adobo. Adobo is one of the best-loved dishes among Filipinos anywhere in the world. It’s typically pork or chicken stewed in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and peppercorns. Critics heaped scorn on the standardization plan and called on the government to leave their adobo alone. The backlash prompted the agency a couple of days later, on July 11, 2021, to say in a statement that it is not looking to impose a mandatory standard but only for purposes of “promotion abroad”. That’s “because there are thousands or millions of different ‘lutong adobo’ [adobo dishes]”. “To many Filipinos,” the agency acknowledged, “the best adobo is the one ‘cooked at home’ or ‘cooked by their parents or lola [grandmother]”. Although adobo is often referred to as the unofficial national dish in the Philippines, it is done differently in practically every household. As well, even people in the same family could have different versions or preferences of how the dish is prepared. One example is the household of Helen Orimaco-Pumatong, a chef instructor in hospitality management at Vancouver Community College (VCC). She related with amusement that she and her husband don’t agree on what is a good adobo. “Me and my husband don’t have adobo the same way,” Orimaco-Pumatong told the Straight in a phone interview. Her spouse likes one that’s cooked long until the fat is released and the meat fries in its own grease. “I like it in a syrup that’s kind of sweet,” Orimaco-Pumatong said. She also said she prefers her adobo with caramelized red onions. The two met in the Philippines when she was already a chef in Canada. They have two kids, both boys, one 14 and the other seven. The instructor was only six when her family immigrated to Canada during the 1970s. Orimaco-Pumatong learned to cook Filipino dishes from her mother, who was a home-economics teacher in their native country. “We would always have people over at our house, like 20, 30, 40 people in a tight house,” she recalled of the family’s early days in Canada.
Helen Orimaco-Pumatong has been teaching at Vancouver Community College since 2001, and she learned to cook from her mother, who was a home-economics teacher in the Philippines.
“And we celebrated every birthday, every holiday, and so my mom would always be cooking.” Orimaco-Pumatong went to Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School and David Thompson Secondary School, both in Vancouver. In high school, she took a lot of food courses. “It was just something that interested
Me and my husband don’t hav adobo in the same way.
– VCC chef Helen Orimaco-Pumatong
R aga RIDES INTO SUNSET Ricky Sharma and his uncle, Raj Sharma, have shut down their West Side restaurant.
d A LANDMARK VANCOUVER restaurant has served its final meal. Raga Restaurant closed because of the pending sale of its building at 1177 West Broadway, according to owner Raj Sharma. The restaurant is on the first floor of the office tower on the site, which was owned by businessman Ronald S. Roadburg until his death on May 17, 2021. It’s now owned by the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, a registered charity created to strengthen the Jewish community, alleviate chronic problems in society, and help shield at-risk communities from racism and violence. Sharma told the Straight by phone that
the charity offered him a lease, which would give a new buyer an opportunity to terminate it by giving one year’s notice. Sharma declined the offer. “Hopefully, we find a smaller spot,” he said. “And then we will carry on with our name. Not right away. We’ll take a break.” Raga opened in 1981 and was taken over in 1988 by Sharma, who served authentic North Indian cuisine in a mellow and tastefully designed room. It’s the second long-standing restaurant to close on Vancouver’s West Side this month due to a change or pending change in ownership of a building. John Bishop shuttered his iconic 36-year-old dining establishment, Bishop’s, after a new building owner demanded what he called a “whopping rent increase”. Over the years, Raga hosted many celebrities—such as Goldie Hawn, Sarah McLachlan, Mel Gibson, and Ravi Shankar—and a who’s who in the Indo Canadian community. In the words one of those diners, wellknown broadcaster Shushma Datt, it’s “very sad to hear they have closed”. g
by Charlie Smith
me, or maybe it was because I was in it already, cooking for the family,” she said. She later started working as a cook and dietician at hotels as well as hospitals and health facilities operated by Providence Health Care. Meanwhile, Orimaco-Pumatong also entered VCC’s culinary program, eventually earning her credentials, including a Red Seal certification. “I do a lot of things all at once,” she said about working and going to school at the same time. She started teaching at VCC in 2001 and said she has been in the kitchen for so long that she’s comfortable preparing most dishes, no matter which culinary tradition these come from. “My thing is, it’s about cooking techniques,” she said. Asked about a classic French dish, beef bourguignon, and a near equivalent in Filipino cuisine, beef kaldereta (for which she sometimes gets requests through her private catering business), OrimacoPumatong said both dishes use the same cooking method. The Filipino dish is beef stewed with tomato sauce, potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers, and the French stew uses red wine for braising. “It’s the technique of stewing, so it doesn’t matter what culture it is,” she said. “It’s actually like a curry, too. So it’s the same process.” She went on to note that what makes beef kaldereta distinct from beef bourguignon is that Filipinos add liver paste, which is, essentially, French pâté, giving the dish a “very earthy flavour”. For special occasions, Filipinos put olives in the dish, bringing a “western style or western flair to it”. With adobo, Orimaco-Pumatong noted that a lot of non-Filipinos have become familiar with the dish. “My Chinese friends or colleagues, the first thing they’ll say is adobo, because everybody [Filipinos] cooks it at home,” she said about what happens during potluck parties with Filipinos. Her family hails from Tagbilaran City in Bohol, a province in the central Philippine region known as Visayas. Among people there, their adobo version is called humba, which features the addition of sliced pineapples and dried banana blossoms. Orimaco-Pumatong believes that although adobo is prepared in different ways, the dish always presents as a “balance” of savouriness, tartness, and sweetness, which makes it appealing. g Visit Straight.com to read Helen OrimacoPumatong’s personal adobo recipe, which uses pork belly.
JANUARY 27 – FEBRUARY 3 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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