When okra
meets oyster sauce

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

I’m sure okra is eaten in many other places and cultures all over the world. A plant as easy to grow  as this must be a popular food and ingredient across the globe. I remember how sometime in the past,  somebody who had gone to the Middle East decided to come home just after a few days in that foreign land. Of course she  couldn’t stand the homesickness, but among her complaints was, she had left the Philippines eating okra, she was also being fed okra  abroad. I went abroad for greener pastures; if I have  to endure eating okra, I might as well do so  in my country, she reasoned.

My point there, of course, is this: okra is a multinational veggie. It may be eaten differently in different cultures, but okra’s popularity cuts across cultural boundaries.

We have of course some of the most virgin of traditions in eating okra  It is ingredient in such simple dishes as pinakbet and laswa, providing the nice slime that defines the Negrense vegetable stews.  Used in tandem with the takway, or taro plant runners, it gives dishes the runaway runny character that many people simply love. Of course in much the same way that its slimy character has attracted devotees, it has also kept the squeamish away.

Okra works very well with coconut milk, in that iconic ginataang tambo – bamboo shoots in coconut milk – dish, again providing the slimy texture to otherwise predominantly creamy texture. It is also a complement to curry dishes.

 In many places here in the province, okra is simply steamed by putting it on top of rice on its final phase of cooking – when all the water has already evaporated. Of course some people cook it in the steamer. Still others blanch it in salted water.

By itself, steamed okra is delightful, especially when it is screamingly fresh, you now, just plucked by the garden and thrown to the pot. And talking of gardens, okra fits nicely in any garden , with its big, nicely-shaped leaves and yellow flowers. Cultivated properly and positioned correctly in the landscape, it can indeed be a garden plant and can add color to any place.

But back to eating okra. Steamed okra can be eaten as it is, with flavors ranging from juicy tubers to young corn. While others eat it straight, others dip it in rock salt, to better draw out  the taste of freshness. Still others drizzle it with vinegar; while others do it as a simple salad: it is cut up, mixed with sliced onions and tomatoes, and dressed in plain vinegar.

On the wave of globalization, however, when foreign ingredients freely and on our local supermarket shelves, people have started preparing okra in other ways.

One popular personality before used to proudly cook okra in oyster sauce, a dish that symbolized at once his humble beginnings and the  places and cultures he had reached. Popular Personality, in fact, would regale his guests by cooking this in front of them, annotating the process with stories about how, in his younger days, there would be times when he and his family would eat okra morning, noon and nighttime.

The  subtext to that was, look where I am now! It’s been a long way, baby, from okra steamed simply to okra dressed in oyster sauce.

Aside from being proof that okra can be a social barometer, this also shows how our local resources will eventually be paired with newer ingredients to come up with new and exciting dishes that are delicious anywhere they are served in the world.*

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