Doctors who cook share recipes in a book

WHEN you think of best-tasting food, Pampanga is the best place to be. But if you're not from the province and you suddenly feel a craving to taste their best sisig or kare-kare, this is not going to happen as provinces in the country also famous for their cuisine are still under quarantine.

But medical doctors led by the Pampanga Medical Society created a solution where Kapampangan home-cooked meals can be concocted by following recipes pitched in by some 30 members of the group. And it's in a book called “Pupul: Grassroots Kapampangan Cooking.”

“Pupul” (harvest) is a product of hard work of the members of the society. Their intention in creating the book is two-fold: First is to seize the opportunity of sharing the goodness of Kapampangan cooking to all people during the pandemic while almost everyone stays at home and cooks their own meals.

For them, the book can be a guide to popular dishes that can even be a good source of materials for the online cooking business. The second is to generate funds from the sales of the book which benefits projects for frontliners.

According to the Pampanga Medical Society President Dr. Alice Tuazon Buan, when she saw the problems encountered by frontliners especially in the government's medical facilities in Pampanga where PPEs were hard to acquire to protect the frontliners, she and the members of the group thought of a fund-raising campaign where the donor or sponsor can get a valuable piece of work which is an output of their creativity beyond their medical profession.

Since most of them love cooking where some members even own restaurants in Pampanga, they decided to produce a work of culinary art that is expected from a province that has a very rich food capital. For Dr. Buan who is the brainchild of the idea, the idea of “Pupul” exemplifies the idea of the seasonal harvest of food and also the collective effort of society to a common goal of helping their fellow frontliners through art they do best.

"Most people see us in a white gown with a hanging stethoscope on the neck. But at the end of the day, we go home to cook and feed our families that is made of pure love from our heart, " Buan said.

This book is a joy to read where every recipe that takes you home. The thoughtfulness and passion are flavors you can smell that make cooking even fun and rewarding. To make sure you're in good health, the medical doctors even added a nutrition guide on each recipe which makes your eating worry-free. Inside the book are 30-recipes where the concept is to make a one-month cooking challenge that everyone can do.

In “Pupul” are not just recipes but stories that bring back memories of childhood and families which the maker of each recipe believes everybody can relate to.

"It was a rediscovery of ourselves during the process of creation of the book. From the actual cooking of the dish used in the photoshoot up to the tasting where each of us shared our own experience of the food, it brings each of us home, " added Dr. Buan.

The recipes you can find in the book include the sought-after lexicon of Kapampangan originals such as suam mais, kare-kare, gisang tabang talangka, sale manuk, biringi, burung asan, kilayin and the ever famous sisig! The book is a 155-page hard-bound 9-inch by 12-inch coffee -table book.

The Pampanga Medical Society is an 86-year old medical organization that intends to consolidate its efforts in order to do good and service to the people especially the marginalized. Aside from this, the society pays high-value to the culture and heritage of Pampanga and conducts projects that give value to cultural preservation. (JTD with Ruston Banal/Contributor)