In our home in Manila, my grandmother, Nanay, introduced us to the Sunday ritual of pochero. One culinary quirk that my grandmother added to this experience was dislodging the bone marrow from the beef shank onto a plate of hot, steaming rice and mixing it with mashed bananas (latundan) and rock salt. This had to be consumed quickly before the marrow grew cold and congealed. It was the best part of the meal.
Reggie Aguinaldo, a dear friend and wonderful cook, tells me that her family tradition was to use whatever fresh ingredients were available in the markets. “The broth would incorporate all the flavors and nutrition of the ingredients, which would be boiled separately with fideos [thin egg noodles] and served before the main dish. Tomato sofrito and eggplant-garlic sauce were served with the dish. As we gathered around the dining table, each of us was assigned to cut up the meats and vegetables into bite-size pieces on our plates. We would then transfer these to a large serving bowl wherein my father would add measured amounts of the tomato sofrito and the eggplant-garlic sauces along with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. He would mix everything together and spoon portions into bowls for each of us.”
