Sinigang na Hipon

Welcome to another Lunch date here in the Philippines. What's in the pot? It is the question that we always have in mind during lunchtime. Today I will be sharing with you a popular authentic Philippine dish. Comfort food that almost turns back time and brings your back to your grandma's kitchen. Take a seat and join me for a meal of Sinigang na Hipon.

With the sour soup and flavor, Sinigang has become a well-loved dish from generation to generation. In the original dish tamarind is extracted which gives the sour flavor of the soup. Other variants use different ingredients as a sour agent. Fruits like mangoes, calamasi, guava, strawberries, kamias and other sour fruits. But the best one is the tamarind and how our grandmas used to make it.

Although things have evolved and a lot of people now use instant tamarind mixes. It is because extracting the tamarind is very tedious. You need to boil it to soften it, then squashed it to get the flavor. Not only that it is important not to include the skin of the tamarind. With the instant mix, you just open the pack and pour.

The ingredients include meat and vegetables. Our Sinigang today only contains a few vegetables as prices are high these days. I recall when my grandma cooked Sinigang she always includes all the vegetables.

If you want all the vegetables here is the list:
okra, radish, eggplant, water spinach, sitaw (beans),taro, radish,camote tops, siling haba(long chili), tomato, onion and sigarilyas (winged bean).

As for the meat, it is difficult to choose as they all taste very good. You can use shrimp, pork, beef or chicken.

My wife chose to use shrimp and what we locally call "Hipon". She bought .75 kilos for 300 pesos or $6.24 USD which is a lot for 4 people.

The vegetables that she included are camote tops (sweet potato leaves), tomato, onions, okra and green long chili. If we get all the vegetables our meal would be expensive and also our kids wouldn't be eating all the veggies.

Okra is a vegetable that I hated when I was a kid. I didn't like the slimy texture inside but as I grew up I began to enjoy okra.

Now the most important vegetable is the long green chili. It is a must and should always be included when cooking Sinigang. I will show you the reason behind it shortly.

We Filipinos love dipping sauces in almost all our dishes. For sinigang, fish sauce is used but what I love to use is soy sauce.

Now, this is where the long chili plays its crucial role. You add it to the soy sauce.

Next, you crush it completely until you see the seeds come out.

As for the Sinigang it is best served over newly cooked rice. Get a portion of vegetables and shrimp. Then you pour some soup over the rice.

We say "Kain Po Tayo" whenever there are visitors. It is in our culture to invite them to eat whenever they visit during meal times. Now let's enjoy a meal of hot rice, shrimp and the savory sour soup of the Sinigang.

Don't forget to dip the shrimp in the dipping sauce that we made earlier.

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you enjoyed our lunch together.
Hope to see you again soon and happy eating.

All photos are original and taken with

Lumix GX85 and Olympus 45mm f1.8