Skip to main content

Palengkera: shrooms!


Mushrooms allegedly have no nutritional value. I find this hard to believe but then there are a lot of delicious things out there that have no nutritional value. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of delicious things out there that are BAD for you! As far as I know, edible mushrooms aren’t bad for you. On any given day in the market you can buy at least one variety of mushrooms. On a good mushroom day in the market you can find three or four varieties! The most common mushrooms are oyster mushrooms or button mushrooms. For a few months in 2007 the people of Baguio (who buy their food in the market and not in SuperMarkets or groceries where the choices in fresh produce are so limited and where the chain from producer to consumer is way too long to really support small community farmers and fishers phew!) enjoyed The Portake (pronounced por-ta-kE) -- a cross between the portobello and the shitake (pronounced shi-ta-kE) mushroom. Thank goodness they didn’t call it the shitobello. But those have since disappeared from the market stalls like many other fresh foods before them. A great loss, if you ask me. My favorite mushrooms are shitake mushrooms! These have become increasingly rare and expensive. Once the price of shitake peaked at 140pesos for one-fourth of a kilo and this was for a very sad-looking pile of soggy things!!! The other day I chanced upon a beautiful pile of plump, unblemished, very fresh shitake going for 80pesos a kilo. I couldn’t resist! That’s still quite expensive but it was worth every savoury, succulent bite of that oh-so-tender mushroom meat sauteed in ghee with onions, tomatoes, and wild fern tips. (Purefoods just can’t beat that with a hotdog!)



P.S. I also bought the ghee (clarified butter) in a tight shop filled with exotic goodies tucked away in the hangar market. More on this magical store in my next Palengkera paragraph. But wait, do I really want to give away this secret? Hmmm... But Frankie might spank me.

P.P.S. Does anybody out there remember a children’s story with a tiger and a little boy and ghee in it?

Comments

Babeth Lolarga said…
Yes, I have that children's story you're referring to in your P.P.S. It's called Little Black Sambo. The version in our library is the Filipino translation. Found it years ago at Solidaridad Bookshop when my girls were wee brown sambas.
padma said…
That's it! Yippeee! I knew somebody out there could help me remember. Does the tiger run in circles until it melts into ghee? I'll have to dig through our books to find that one!
artemis said…
ghee? somebody sells ghee in Baguio? is it an Indian shop? is it real ghee (not the vegetable ghee).. I need ghee.. please tell me where you bought it.. thaaanx...
padma said…
It's the real thing! Coming soon...
Anonymous said…
baguio, what a town---it has everything! mushrooms, ghee, and frankie.
padma said…
AMEN to that!

(Pssst, Frank is that you?) Heehee

Popular posts from this blog

Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.

Lola of Maipon

It's all too easy to fall asleep under the blanket of everyday life and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. But once in a while, along comes a sparkling vision that jolts me out of my daily sleep and reminds me of the existence of convictions and worlds so different from my own. "Our beloved LOLA of Guinubatan, Maipon, Albay is the last true messenger of God. So, let us follow her holy teachings so that we will gain TRUE SALVATION without sufferings and without death." In another story I, the intrepid heroine, the adventurer seduced by mysteries, the pilgrim in search of truth, would follow them back to Guinubatan from Session Road, thirsting to see and hear their Lola for myself. However, it's all too easy -- much safer! -- to fall back asleep under the blanket of everyday life, and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. Then along comes 9 a.m., and really, it's time to down the dregs of coffee at the bott

The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang

On June 30, 2013 at 2 PM, Mt. Cloud Bookshop will host the launching of the new children’s book, The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales . The event is open to the public and will include story-telling and a performance for children by the Aanak di Kabiligan Community Theater Group. After eleven years of telling stories through the Community Theatre, the Cordillera Green Network (CGN) and its theater company, The Aanak di Kabiligan has published a compilation of Cordillera folklore. These stories were the inspiration behind  the CGN's successful environmental education campaign, dubbed as the "Eco-Theatre Caravan", a roving theater community of young Cordillerans, theatre artists and volunteers performing in different communities in the Philippines and prefectures in Japan advocating environmental causes through performance. The book is a collection of folktales from Kalinga, Benguet, Apayao and Mt. Province. These storie