I was born in West Virginia, not long after my family arrived in the U.S. from The Philippines around 1966. It was the late 60s and my father, who was a doctor, was allowed to come to the U.S. because a lot of American doctors were sent to Vietnam and there was a shortage of doctors in the U.S. I believe he got into a program where a hospital in Wheeling, WV, paid for his ticket to come to the U.S. Of course they took the cost out of his paycheck! And of course, they only paid for him to come over. My parents had to pay for my mother and my brother and sister (both under 5) to fly over as well.
My parents owned a drug store in Davao, Philippines, but they sold it and everything they owned to get enough money to come to the U.S. The story goes that they bought tickets for my mom and my brother (age 3) and sister (age 2) and came to the country with 3 suitcases and only $2,000. And a promise of a regular salary at Wheeling Hospital (West Virginia).
Years later, my mother told me she had earned a scholarship to go to Purdue, but then she met my father and decided not to take it. So she might have come to America, but she just came a bit later. My parents always intended to go back to the Philippines, but once we were all here and the family was growing and the kids were in school, they just never got around to going back. Plus, my parents had been having some success here and they knew they could not have the same life in the Philippines.
My mother and father and my brother and sister became naturalized citizens in the late 70s or early 80s. They always valued their freedom here in the United States. I remember one election day, my father came home early from work to pick up my mom before going to vote. She went upstairs to change and came down all dressed up nicely and they went to the local elementary school to vote. Voting meant something to them. And although I don’t vote the same way that they did (they were very conservative), that always stuck with me.
Both of my parents have passed away now, but I often wonder what it must have been like for them coming to the U.S. without knowing a soul. But they had each other and that is what kept them going all those years. But still, oodles of courage and bravery and strength.
My mother Perla was a great cook and seamstress and some of my fondest memories have to do with the food she prepared. I have 2 brothers and a sister and we were pretty Americanized. I think my parents wanted us to be American, so we adapted to the local ways as best as we could. But of course, you can’t totally get away from who you are and we always had Filipino food, as well as a sprinkling of American dishes. But the American meals still had a Filipino spin. I don’t remember a lot of meals from when I was really, really young. But I remember the ones from when I was older.
Since my mother’s death in 1994, I have longed for a taste of her cooking, but unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at watching her cook when I was younger. I mean I helped in the kitchen, but I mostly did it out of habit, I wasn’t paying that much attention. Now, that she is gone, I feel like her recipes were lost with her.
I have a few recipes written down and she had an old notebook with a few jotted down. So I have those, but not much else besides my memories.
I have an aunt who has taught me a few things about technique when it comes to preparing Filipino Cuisine, but it’s still not exactly the same. In the Filipino culture, everyone is an aunt (or Tita). So my aunt is not my real aunt, but was a friend of my mom’s. My real aunt was not an avid cook and she doesn’t cook a lot of Filipino food, but my uncle actually likes to cook. But my mom was a Chemist by trade, so I think she was good in the kitchen because of her work in the lab. My grandfather was a chemist of sorts, so she followed after him.
I remember a lot of the dishes my mother prepared were very labor intensive, so my sister and I were not all that interested in learning. So I am trying to piece together my memories and chasing after the taste of the past.
This blog will chronicle my adventures in cooking and looking for the past, but it will be slightly different in that I’m a lazy cook. Most of what I am looking for are recipes that I can adapt into crockpot recipes. Well, a girl can try, anyways.
Addendum: I got my first instant pot in 2019 (I think) and it changed my whole life, so I started adding IP recipes to the blog, sometimes I try to recreate the Filipino dishes (lazy cook) that I grew up with, but it’s hit and miss. But still experimenting. 🙂
Another Addendum: Well, this blog has now become a warehouse for memories and Filipino recipes, but also for other generally good recipes for both Instant Pot versions and regular versions of recipes. If it’s part of my regular repertoire of recipes or something I just want to keep, it’s here. 🙂