Mom's Pork and Beans

There are only three dishes that my mom has mastered in her 60 years, and one of them is her own version of pork and beans.

I say this now, not with disappointment. Prior to an early retirement prompted by her dimming vision, my mom had been a schoolteacher and spent eight hours teaching grade school and tutored Chinese scions after work, so she rarely had time to cook. Lucky for her, she had a patient husband who didn’t mind doing the cooking.

Because a meal cooked by my mom was a rare treat, we always looked forward to the special occasions when she would whip up her special dishes: chopsuey, which she perfected during our years in Baguio City; and pork and beans and mongo, two one-pot meals she prepared with the patience of Job, as they required all-morning cooking over charcoal.

Sundays were Mom’s turn in the kitchen. I remember her getting up at 6 a.m., and my dad would drive her to the nearest market to get fresh produce and meat for a special Sunday lunch.

Mom’s secret ingredient in her pork and beans was pata or pork leg. I would wake up salivating to the aroma of pork leg simmering over charcoal. Mom wasn’t one to rush her specialty, which made it all the more delicious.

We’d leave for church and come home hurriedly, looking forward to Sunday’s piece de resistance: a pot of cooked pork and beans, waiting to be seasoned with salt and tomato sauce. The meat–simmering over charcoal for four hours–was soft, cooked just right, its fiber flaking off, its fatty part chewy. If that wasn’t heaven on earth, I don’t know what is.

House guests who have been treated to Mom’s pork and beans leave with a lot more respect for this one-pot wonder, their prior acquaintance of which was limited to the canned Hunt’s kind. (Even today, you can never make me eat a can of pork and beans, having grown up with my mom’s homecooked version.)

One American missionary we invited over for dinner once said my mom’s pork and beans tasted the same way his grandmother’s version did. He had been away from home for quite too long and was missing his favorite Western-style pork and beans.

In college, when I lived away from home for the first time, it was Mom’s pork and beans that I missed the most. During the rare times that I came home, wherever my nomadic family happened to be,  Mom never failed to prepare her pork and beans. I’ve tasted my maternal aunt’s version of the pork and beans, but always, what remains my biggest favorite is my mom’s, maybe because hers is cooked with a lot of love and patience for a child who, though grown up, will forever be her baby at heart.

Pinoy Cooking the Easy Way

Cooking has always been one of Rowena Royola de Pano’s passions. In fact, this first-generation Filipino American’s fondest childhood memories are of helping her mom and grandmother prepare dinner and experimenting with an easy-bake oven.

“I think the positive feedback from relatives and friends is what kept me cooking!” says Rowena, 36, who is based in Corona, California, with her husband and newborn twin boys.

Knowing that many of her friends and family members share the love for Filipino food but find cooking too intimidating, Rowena started compiling easy-to-cook Filipino recipes with the help of her mom, whom she
considers her cooking teacher. (Her mother’s best cooking advice, according to Rowena: “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!”)

Since 2001, which was the year Rowena got married, the soft copy compilation grew and grew, becoming a family heirloom that she meant to pass on to her brothers and their future wives.

It would be many years later that the recipes would find their way into e-books—Easy Filipino Recipes, All Things Adobo, and Lumpia and Pancit Recipes—that can now be purchased and downloaded at the site,

East and West jibe
“The idea of an e-cookbook came about when I realized that so many of my friends and family members did not know how to cook Filipino food and simply relied on buying convenience food or on their own mothers or grandmothers,” says Rowena, who has an MBA as well as a bachelor’s degree in sociology at the California State University.

Rowena wanted to show that one can certainly whip up timeless Pinoy recipes and not have to spend hours in the kitchen. “My cookbooks bring together the best of both worlds—a dash of Filipino tradition and taste, with a sprinkling of American convenience,” she explains.

In celebration of Philippine Independence Day this June—as well as the launching of Easyfilipinocooking—all cookbook prices are discounted.

All Things Adobo, which has recipes for 16 different variants, is priced at $2.99, while Easy Filipino Recipes, with over 100 meal ideas, is available for $4.99. The Lumpia and Pancit Recipes book is offered at $2.99.

The best of two worlds
Rowena was 12 when she visited the Philippines for the first time. “I think my fondest memory is the food!” she exclaims.

Home, however, has always been California, where she has spent the majority of her 36 years.

“Growing up a first-generation Fil-Am has its benefits, certainly, but when you are a kid, it also has its trials,” she says. “Overall, I would not change anything about my upbringing or my culture.”

These days, aside from attending to the site, Rowena also has her hands full babysitting her twins. Perhaps, she says, when the kids are older, they may be able to visit the Philippines again and know the taste of
sinigang, dinuguan, and monggo—her three favorites—as they are cooked in the old country.