puchero a mixed meat stew which is second only in importance in Spain to cocido, and is prominent in the Philippines (often spelled pochero); there, like cocido, it is a festive dish, served at family reunions, Christmas, etc. It often has a tomato sauce (usually on the side) and an accompanying aubergine or squash relish. This last feature is probably part of the indigenization of the Spanish dish in the Philippines, as is the use of saba bananas as one of the ingredients. However, the Filipino pochero remains quite clearly a version of the Spanish original, which it resembles in using a luxurious combination of, e.g., beef, pork, chicken, ham, salt pork, chorizo (see sausages of Spain and Portugal), chickpeas, cabbage. The same applies to the version of puchero which is important in argentina.
