Tinolang Tahong (Mussels with Ginger)

Cooking shows, gastronomy tourism and my audition for a cooking show

Do you like watching reality cooking shows and competitions? Back in the Philippines before moving to Australia, I used to devour all these cooking shows along with some fun crafty, interior and exterior home decor shows. Those days when you had to pay extra for other channels besides the local ones and there are physical fibre cables connected from the timber posts outside which connects to your house. Those were the days before digital TV and 3-5G internet networks! From Bobby Flay, Rachel Ray to Wolfgang Puck and the only Asian chef on TV back then was Ming Tsai. There were also a few cooking segments in local TV, like Cooking with Nora and Sandy (Daza). Culinary greats of that era.

Fascinating to see how times changed. Television is no longer the mainstream platform. There’s cooking shows in YouTube, Instagram reels and TikTok, and just about anyone who has a phone camera now has a platform for sharing their cooking and cuisine, their recipes and stories. And there are hundreds of food documentaries, features on indigenous produce, regional cooking, ingredients which has opened conversations and expanded our culinary experience, without stepping foot outside our homes.

This thirst for food beyond what we grew up with, the curiosity for other cuisines has changed the way we travel. I don’t know of anyone who seeks just tourist attractions at their holiday destination, but also where to eat, what to eat, and even how to eat! In regional Italy, Nonnas are going viral for their traditional pasta making. The mochi pounding artisans of Kyoto have become a YouTube sensation. People now know that mochi was invented more than 1000 years ago! Gone are days of touristy travel, but majority of us now are intentional travellers. Which has become the focus of many countries - gastronomy tourism or culinary tourism. Thailand’s gastrodiplomacy efforts in the early 1990s were the first of its kind where the government stepped in a kicked off promoting Thai Kitchen of the World campaign, excerpt below:

“The first official promotion initiative explicitly for Thai gastronomy dates to around 2003 with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatrastartedan’s ambitious campaign named “Thai Kitchen of the World.” This campaign promoted Thai food as a leading world cuisine, “on the principle of creative economy under the ‘Thailand Food Forward’ concept (Government Public Relations Department, 2009 ). The Thai government’s goals for the “Thai Kitchen of the World” initiative are to make Thai food products a leading export of Thailand, prioritizing safety, health and sanitation; to stimulate export for raw materials and ingredients for cooking Thai recipes; to encourage Thai restaurants abroad to act as tourist information centers as well as marketplaces for the “One Tambon (district) One Product” campaign, and to increase the number of Thai restaurants abroad to promote the “real Thai taste” with an international standard.”

The Philippines is going in this direction - gastronomy tourism. Watching from a distance, the past few years have levelled up Filipinos affinity for our own cuisine. A few years ago someone approached me on Instagram asking me for cooking classes in Manila as she was headed there for a business trip and wanted to learn some dishes. There was nothing available. The few ones I found were cooking classes for yayas / house help. But now, we’ve come a long way! Many establishments are now offering farm-table which was unheard of 20 years ago. Filipino chefs classically trained locally and overseas are embracing their roots and cooking and plating dishes and flavours they grew up eating. The surge on interest for culinary courses, Filipino food history, regional food, artisan makers and growers. This is important because it is part of our history and our culture. And coming from a migrant perspective, this is why I continue to cook Filipino food for my family and friends and advocate for it through community.

---

I am no longer a fan of mainstream television cooking competitions mainly because a lot of it has become either too boring, too much drama or too white (no offence). There’s the occasional token coloured person on TV sure, but I still see that generally, people will follow and listen to the Anglo chef cooking Thai food, or a celebrity chef making a Mexican burrito rather than representatives of those cuisines. It’s kind of sad. Early this year, I attended a cookbook launch for a popular Japanese-Australian author. The room was filled of mostly women of a certain colour. Are they going to cook that rice dish from the cookbook? I overheard one of the women tell each other, “oh no, I wouldn’t even cook from this, I’m going to gift it to a friend. It’s just too much to source ingredients.” I guess its still considered a sale. (where’s the emoji when you need one!?)

---

During it’s early seasons, when MasterChef was still popular, we would watch it religiously at home. And every time one of the timed challenges come up, I’d be thinking in my head - “what would be a good Filipino recipe to cook in that time?” There’s plenty actually. From kinilaw to this! Tinolang Tahong, or mussels cooked with ginger! I love this dish because it’s so packed with umami but minimal fuss. Some julienned (sliced) ginger and onions cooked in olive oil, mussels and that’s it. I add baby spinach for good measure. No salt and pepper required, because the juices from mussels forms the sauce/broth of this dish. I like adding some butter just before it cooks to add a smooth finish to the sauce.

Tinola means to cook (braise or poach) with ginger. And it can be chicken, fish or mussels.

Ingredients

1 kg pack black mussels

1 ginger (thumb-sized), julienned (sliced into thin strips)

1 onion, sliced

2 tablespoons mild olive oil

3 handfuls of baby spinach

1 tablespoon butter (optional)

Instructions

Using a wide/large pan, turn the heat to high, add the oil and cook the ginger and onions until soft. Add the mussels, stir then place the lid. Let the mussels cook and sweat - you’ll see liquid will be released while cooking. Once boiling, toss the pan to move the mussels around. Or alternatively, using a slotted spoon stir the mussels around. Add the baby spinach and the butter (if using), put the lid back on and turn off heat. Ready to serve in 5 minutes.

Buying mussels

Always purchase fresh mussels from your fish monger/seafood shop. They are usually sold loose and weighed. Some shops in Australia sell the 1-kg bags of cleaned and pot ready mussels. You can opt to buy this if available.

Cleaning mussels

If you bought loose mussels, you will need to clean them when you get home. To clean, I use a paring knife to carefully scrub off any barnacles on the shell, and remove the “beard” or byssus threads by pulling it off. Epicurious has some step by step on how to remove these beards.

Serving

Mussels are easy and quick to cook, and best served immediately. Transfer to a serving platter and remove lose empty shells. If you’re serving this for lunch or dinner, time your cook so that it’s served just off the stove and still warm. Filipinos love rice so that’s what we eat it with. But you can certainly serve with some good sourdough slices. As long as you mop that umami sauce!

Fun trivia. A few years ago, I forgot the exact year now, I was invited through my social media channel to audition for the pilot season of a cooking show called the Chefs Line. They emailed a form, asked for some information and instructed me to attend the audition and bring a Malaysian sweet dish - Sago Gula Melaka. I said, “but I’m Filipino and want to make a Filipino dish.” They said, “just bring the dish assigned to you. You’ll plate it serve your dish with another contestant”. It was a small studio with a table. I went in with another lady who had, I remember, a prawn dish. We had our bags, bowls, ingredients, and were asked to use the table to prepare and plate our dishes, the camera rolling. We were casually talking about what we made, while so self-consciously answering some questions from the camera person and another staff. It probably lasted for 30 minutes even less, but felt like an eternity. Long story short, I did not make the cut. A blessing in disguise because I despise cooking drama. Or maybe I’m just bitter for missing out. LOL…

Here’s two question for you.

One. If you want to cook a dish from a particular cuisine and you’re searching online or from cookbooks do you A) choose the recipe from a popular celebrity/chef/cook, or B) choose the recipe from a representative of that cuisine? Leave you answer in the comments. There’s no right or wrong here. I’m genuinely curious to know.

Two. What would you cook for a 30-minute cooking challenge?