Burnt Coconut

One of my most exciting discoveries of Filipino cooking techniques happened where I least expected it, while in Tiaong, Quezon (a province south of Manila), visiting the famous potter Ugu Bigyan. I always try to go to Ugu’s every time I am back in the Philippines because his home is a beautiful, self-made oasis that provides a moment of solitude from the tattered fabric of life in Manila. It feels like Bali in the small enclave of homemade bricks that line his pathways and form the foundation of his home. There, in one of his gazebos caressed by some northerly breeze, he lays out a lunch that is simply delicious: appetizers of clam soup, side dishes of banana hearts bathed in burnt coconut cream, grilled tilapia wrapped in banana leaves, lechon kawali, and local fruits of lanzones and bananas.