Australian Sinigang

#150: A Familiar Bowl of the Unfamiliar

There was a local movie a few years back called, "American Adobo." I didn't get to see it but it supposedly covered typical lives of Filipino immigrants in the US. When we were in London last year, our aunt, for our first meal with her, declared that we should all have Adobo - this pork stewed in soy sauce, vinegar and peppercorns that's a staple in Filipino tables. (Uhm. Why? We're in London. Aren't you supposed to introduce us to Bangers and Mash?) Apparently, she had missed the dish so much that our family's visit meant that my mom (who cooks excellent adobo), could cook her excellent adobo for her. My mom did everything right, but since the soy sauce was not Silver Swan, the vinegar was not Datu Puti, and the pork was not the Filipino pork raised on PigroMix, it tasted weird.

Here in the Sydney, I'm temporarily living with 5 other Filipinos in a house that's no longer Filipino. It does still have its fish sauce but strangely, no subscription to The Filipino Channel on cable. Two of the guys here are already Australian Citizens with the others working towards that as well. Tagalog is still the official household language but they speak of the "Lucky Country" as their own and of the Philippines as a distant land. A memory of a previous home in a previous life.

Last night, they cooked Sinigang for dinner. I don't know how to cook sinigang. I just know that ours at home is on the clearer and more sour side. This one had lots of tomatoes, had huge chunks of radish and had soft Aussie beef. It was really good but as I looked at my bowl, I wondered if it was still Sinigang or it was an Aussie dish based on the memory of another land.