Nanay's Malunggay
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By Katie Fisco
“Anak, go get some peppers for the sinigang.”
“Yes, nay.”
I go out to the back yard and snag two small shiny green peppers.
“Don’t bust open the peppers. It will be too anghang.”
Moments like these I gathered like precious coins and tucked them into my memory banks. So much of my cooking is tangled up in that garden and in the aromas that would dance out of my mother’s kitchen. Sour sampalok, smokey and salty tuyo, suman wound snugly into banana leaves, rich and sweet coconut milk mingling with crab fat. Though comforting to me, I knew these flavors were foreign to others. One distinct memory I have is hearing snickering around me when I opened my lunch box to unleash stewed mungo beans. I got better at hiding this part of me when I got into high school. I let go of these comforts when I entered culinary school. Like most students, I focused on French and European techniques. I was learning a new language and replacing my mother tongue. It took some time to shake the shame of enjoying the food of my childhood.
This last July my husband, children, and I visit my mom’s small home in west Florida. My mom excitedly takes us on a tour of her garden. Among the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, her back yard has a tall and proud malunggay tree. How her eyes light up. She trims a half dozen verdant, almost neon malunggay branches. She cradles them in her arms, the leaves dancing as she walks. She picks a mango and says “You want to share with your Ateng? Or you just take it, you don’t have to share.” She tells my husband to grab a shovel to dig up some kamoteng kahoy (cassava). My children crouch down, eager to catch them as they emerge from the dirt. She is loudly telling my husband which ones are ready to harvest. With each piece of fruit and vegetable she is handing me, she recants the best dishes to cook. Every plant is like a loyal friend who has journeyed with her. This food nurtured her and raised her. These flavors and aromas have stood by her. From Manila, Philippines to Montverde, Florida. She has passed these companions on to me, and now to her grandchildren.
Malunggay is also known as moringa. It has fallen prey to being categorized as a “new” superfood. Moringa is now more familiarly being sold as a powderized nutrition supplement to be thrown into your morning smoothie alongside your flax or hemp seeds. It does indeed hold many healing properties. It assists in lowering blood pressure, helps reduce blood sugar, and also is anti-inflammatory. In a recent conversation with my eldest sister, we found a new enriching property of malunggay. Both times that my niece gave birth, my sister made her a steaming bowl of tinola. My sister made the same soup for me when I gave birth to my youngest child. This soup's main ingredients are chicken, ginger, chayote or sometimes unripe papaya and malunggay. Some filipinas believe that the green leaves help a new mom give milk to her newborn. The branches of the malunggay tree carry a long lasting power. These branches carry tradition, healing, and true compassion.
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Pinay/American Chef, military spouse, foster/adoptive mom of three living in Colorado Springs.
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