1. Anchovies Mashed into an Arabbiata pasta sauce, strewn atop a pizza, or ground into a Caesar Salad dressing, these tiny, cured fish add umami to any dish that seeks a deeply savory, salty, note. I eat them straight out of the jar. Fish sauce works in a pinch for adding to sauces. As a kid, I used to drizzle fish sauce (patis in Tagalog, nam pla in Thai, or nuoc mam in Vietnamese) on top of rice and eat it straight up. I still would, in fact, if no one were watching.
2. Brussels Sprouts Long gone are the days of boiled brussels sprouts, mushy and wilty and smelling of old shoes. Simply seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed in olive oil, roasting is a terrific way to go for a delicious caramelized crust and crisp-tender texture. I also toss them in a sautee pan with crisped pancetta, garlic, and onion for a similar, but more flavorful effect. Add a tiny bit of liquid--broth, water, wine--at the end to finish them off. These robustly-flavored veggies are a staple on my Thanksgiving menu, right in the heart of brussels sprout season (early fall, all the way through winter).
3. Pork Rinds These are a comfort for me. Not the cheap pork rinds sprinkled with "BBQ" powder and sold in the snack aisle of your local liquor store. I'm talking the crunchy, savory rinds typically sold in ethnic markets--the kind with a little layer of fat that turns just as crispy as the rind when fried. Ground atop Filipino pancit palabok noodles or straight out of the bag and dipped in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, pork rinds put me in a happy place. It's food of the poor, which is typical in cultures of color--making do with the least costly cuts of meat. Top restaurants like Roast in Detroit and The Publican in Chicago are doing their own versions, with great success.
4. Liver Chicken, duck, pork, it's all good to me. I used to have trouble with it as a kid, disliking the texture and thinking about what it is. But, especially when ground into a tasty pate' de campagne or breaded and sauteed like the chicken livers at Polish Village in Hamtramck, Michigan, I've gotten over my textural aversion and learned to appreciate this not-so-awful offal. Foie gras is a rare luxury, but one I will indulge in on occasion. Just don't ask me about the foie gras cupcake I bought at a trendy cupcakery in Chicago last year. That was just taking it a little too far.
5. Sardines Growing up, my mom would sautee tinned Spanish sardines in tomato sauce with garlic and onion, and serve it with garlic rice or toast for breakfast. Such was typical fare in a Filipino household. As was a smoked sardine called tinapa, fried 'til crisp and served with fresh, diced tomatoes dressed with fish sauce. A sardine filet, straight up on crostini, makes a tasty hors d'oeuvre. More recently, I enjoyed whole sardines served slightly charred from the grill, in the courtyard of a tiny Spanish tapas place in Pittsburgh (the name of which I can not recall) and at The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma. It takes a little dexterity to attack it with a knife and fork to remove the skin and bones, but it's well worth the effort.
6. Canned Meat Products I always joke that it's the food of my people resulting from wartime airlifts by the U.S. military, but whatever the reason, the Filipinos love their canned meat. From SPAM, sliced and fried, to tiny Vienna Sausages, fried to a crisp, to Corned Beef sauteed with garlic, onion, and tomato, canned meat holds great memories for many of us who grew up in Filipino households. I absolutely crave it.
7. Beets Michelle Obama hates them, but they are, thankfully, growing in popularity. This is thanks to the increasingly more common method of cooking them by roasting. Trimmed and scrubbed, I wrap whole beets in their skin in foil, then roast at high heat, checking for tenderness after about an hour, with a paring knife. When cooled, I use paper towel to remove the skin by gripping the beet with the towel and pulling the skin easily off. Red beets, yellow beets, they're all sweet and robust in flavor. I slice them and toss them in salads, topped with crumbled feta, pine nuts, and vinaigrette. Say "no," however, to canned beets. They're probably the reason most people hate beets, due to their mealy texture and non-existent flavor.
8. Peas My mom still can't stand them. When we're out for dim sum, I notice a little pile of peas in the corner of her plate from the Yang Chow Fried Rice. Admittedly, I didn't like them as a kid, but that was more because I was a kid and didn't like to eat anything green. But, especially when freshly shucked from the pod in the early spring season, peas are sweet and tasty, and a delicious addition to pastas and rice dishes. For a recent brunch, I made a frittata studded with peas and asparagus. The sweetness of the peas balanced out the verdant flavor of the asparagus and the creaminess of the eggs. Along with corn, peas are the only frozen vegetables I keep on hand. They have the rare ability to stand up to long storage in the freezer, flavor and texture uncompromised.
9. Tofu Again, my affinity for tofu can be attributed to my upbringing. It was not introduced to us by my mother during an experiment in macrobiotic cuisine during the '70s. It was just a typical ingredient in Asian cooking that I simply took to as a matter of fact. Typically diced and fried 'til golden, it was included among other such proteins as pork or shrimp in traditional Filipino stewed or noodle dishes. Once you get over the spongy texture, it's actually quite tasty. As we all now know, tofu absorbs the flavor of all of the other ingredients in the dish in which it is prepared. I use it now primarily as a substitute for meat in my home cooking, mostly in Asian dishes.
10. Goat I'm sure there are many other foods that I love that other people hate, but goat came to mind first as I was trying to finalize my list. My dad first introduced the family to goat meat when he was on a mission to re-create a Filipino stew called Kaldareta. I remember him taking us down to Eastern Market and tracking down the one butcher who carried goat. Kaldareta is a slightly spicy meat stew (typically beef or goat), with a tomato-based sauce, bell peppers, potatoes, and peas, and seasoned with chilis and liver paste (see #4, above). I've enjoyed goat in various Caribbean and African dishes, usually braised or curried. It's a bit gamey and has lots of jagged bones, but it strikes me as something akin to lamb in that it's texturally similar to beef, only stronger and more robust in taste. If you ever happen upon it at an ethnic food festival or restaurant, I recommend you give it a go.
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