Pulutan is a kind of food that is served as accompaniment to a drink. It comes in different kinds like meat, fish, nuts, chips. It’s prepared in different ways…raw, fried, steamed. Basically, it is anything that makes drinking enjoyable. Even a pet might start to look as a pulutan depending on the level of alcohol drinkers(I call them “bingeirs”) have had but that is a different story I would not even like to touch.

Those words were written by our host this month, Aling Ting. Lasang Pinoy # 6 is all about wash it down with the booze!!!!

Pulutan… since am here in Greece the nearest version I can think of Greek word for this will be mezedes.
Almost really, but when I hear the word pulutan it sounds so exotic to my ears since I left the country long before my legal drinking age.

But hey let me share this secret though, a great uncle of mine used to pass me a glass of TUBA when I was quite young. Tuba is fermented sap of palm and coconut . A poor man’s alcohol drink, 100% alcohol pure.

I have tasted assorted of tuba really since my Mama (my paternal grandmother) used to drink this a lot.
She certainly did not believe about the age , she gave me alcohol drink when I was young, of course not when my mother was not watching.
But what I did not really experience is to sit with friends for a drinking session and eat pulutan.

Crew of the the yachts owned by a Prince , a member of the House of Saud. We were all based at the same port in Cannes.

So when this Lasang Pinoy 6th edition came up with this theme, what my friends (yachties) prepared when we had a get together in Antibes (France)?
OK the last drinking session I had among Filipinos was in France last September. We crew of different yachts decided to party and chipped in money for a goat meat.
KALDERETA KAMBING goat meat, stewed for hours with paprika, bell pepper, tomato sauce with a very rich sauce.

To celebrate the end of summer yacht season we gathered up for drinks and shared stories. Since we also met in Sardignia, Italy last August we had so much to share about the our work serving the rich.

We mostly had whisky but I stuck to the red wine. My spirit was up, I even joined them in a karaoke my voice did not sound bad at all… hik ***hik*** and the kaldereta was so fabulous and delicious.

Anyway, the only thing that came to my mind was either to make chicharon or lechon kawali (both I have never done). Very original.
As you people know I could cook but there are many Filipino cuisine I can’t even create.

So I rang up a friend. I know he makes all kind of pulutan because in the old days his flat was the hangout for mahjong games and drinking sessions among Bisayan (we Filipinos from the Central and southern part of the archipelago).

So he told me to meet him at the wet market… come click me he showed me the tuwalya (tripe) and the laman loob ng baboy. (it was a kind of innards just clinging outside the liver)

He was hoping for goat though.
Normally he would use chicken innards but with the bird flu he said no will change the recipe.

Then he gave me instructions what to do with them and on Sunday night he will come to my flat.

For the tripe:
a kilo of tripe (tuwalya – literal translation towel)

I washed it inside out
Boil the tripe with salt water
Then throw the water as it soon it boils
Add fresh water
Do exactly the same
After the 3rd wash I added onions, spring onions, parsley, celery, salt
Let it boil then
Keep on low fire till tender
I must had it boiling for 4 hours
Then drain.

For the laman laman ng baka (innards)
Half a kilo
Wash it properly
Add onions, garlic, spring onion
Boil it till tender.
Drain

2nd part of the cooking

  • Slice the tripe into thin slices (julienne)
  • Slice the innards (julienne)
  • Crush the garlic
  • Slice onions & red peppers
  • Slice a small ginger
  • Gently fry the garlic and onions
  • Add the peppers
  • Add tripe and innards do not cook for long just enough to warm
  • Season to taste
  • Just before removing it from the stove add vinegar
  • Add freshly chopped ginger and spring onions

    So non Filipino readers here, its basically WARM TRIPE SALAD.
    I served it with Macallan 12 years old Elegancia, perfect for cold weather. No one was with me… but this is just a perfect test trial when I get invited and will be asked for pulutan I know exactly what I will prepare.

    Lasang Pinoy aims to explore food that embodies the Filipino Culture. Pulutan is the 6th event archives of the past events can be found here.