Wedding Digest Philippines Weddings. More fun In the Philippines Edition | Page 196

Full Flavored

Text by April Tong
Photography by Prodigy Photo

Filipino Dishes

Thai food is known for their pounded chillies and spices, Indian food for curry, while the Japanese have sushi and its variants.
But ask a Filipino to name just one dish, one cooking method or one ingredient to represent Filipino cuisine and, most likely, you
won’t get just one answer. That is because Filipino food is as varied as it gets – it is as colorful as our history, as diverse in taste
as our 7000+ islands and as multifaceted as our people. And while we have a rich plethora of local dishes, we also have the
gift of transforming a foreign dish into our very own. We asked Avengoza Catering for a sampling of a Filipino feast to entice
the world with...

Kare-kare,
a dish of stewed oxtail
in peanut
sauce and achuete oil with banana hearts, string
Kare-kareng
may
buntot
beans, pechay tagalog and eggplant, is a national favorite equal to adobo. The complicated
way of cooking and the plentiful ingredients made it a dish only for special days. The catering
owner says the secret is in using freshly ground peanuts instead of bottled peanut butter.
Normally, all the ingredients are put together in the sauce, but instead, they blanched the
vegetables separately maintaining its crispness. The oxtail on the other hand was a meltin-the-mouth goodness. Of course, no kare-kare is complete without bagoong alamang
(shrimp paste).

The Oscar of Catering
Founder, Owner, and President of The Avengoza Catering Services, Mr. Avengoza has been
delivering Oriental and Continental cuisine with their signature elegance and fine dining for
over 20 years. He is an active member of FCAP (Food Catering Association of the Philippines).
His name perhaps is an allusion of the recognitions to come. Avengoza Catering was given
the “Most Outstanding Catering Services Provider Rizal Award”