The cultivation of the pigeon pea goes back at least 3000 years. The centre of origin is most likely Asia, from where it travelled to East Africa and by means of the slave trade to the American continent. Pigeon peas are very drought resistant and can be grown in areas with less than 650 mm annual rainfall.

Pigeon peas are both a food crop (dried peas, flour, or green vegetable peas) and a forage/cover crop. They contain high levels of protein and the important amino acids methionine, lysine, and tryptophan. In combination with cereals, pigeon peas make a well-balanced human food. The dried peas may be sprouted briefly, then cooked, for a flavor different from the green or dried peas. Sprouting also enhances the digestibility of dried pigeon peas via the reduction of indigestible sugars that would otherwise remain in the cooked dried peas.

It is useful in the treatment of internal organ swelling. Some herbal practitioners/researchers are of the opinion that it diminishes the swelling of internal organs like stomach, liver, intestines etc. In case of wound or cancer of these organs it is helpful in reducing them.

You can find authentic Filipino Pigeon Peas on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Pea is an annual plant, with a life cycle of one year. It is a green, pod-shaped vegetable, widely grown as a cool season vegetable crop.

In early times, peas were grown mostly for their dry seeds. In modern times, however, peas are usually boiled or steamed, which breaks down the cell walls and makes the taste sweeter and the nutrients more bio-available.

Fresh peas are often eaten boiled and flavored with butter and/or spearmint as a side dish vegetable. Salt and pepper are also commonly added to peas when served. Fresh peas are also used in pot pies, salads and casseroles. Pod peas are used in stir-fried dishes, particularly those in American Chinese cuisine. Dried peas are often made into a soup or simply eaten on their own.

You can find authentic Filipino Peas on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The legume gained Western popularity when it came to the United States from Africa. It had become popular in Africa after being brought there from Brazil by the Portuguese around 1800.

Edible peanuts account for two-thirds of the total peanut use in the United States. Popular confections include salted peanuts, peanut butter (sandwiches, candy bars, and cups), peanut brittle, and shelled nuts (plain/roasted). Peanut oil is often used in cooking, because it has a mild flavor and its relatively high cooking temperature. Its high monounsaturated content makes it heart-healthy and resistant to rancidity.

Peanuts are common ingredients in Peruvian Creole cuisine reflecting the marriage of native ingredients and ingredients introduced by Europeans. Common Indonesian peanut-based dishes include gado-gado, pecel, karedok and ketoprak, all vegetable salads mixed with peanut sauce, and the peanut-based dipping sauce for satay. Boiled peanuts are a popular Chinese snack and appetizer. Peanuts are also used in the Mali meat stew maafe, and in many sauces for South American meat dishes, especially rabbit. Peanuts can be used like other legumes and grains to make a lactose-free milk-like beverage, Peanut milk.

Peanuts are nutrient rich, providing over 30 essential nutrients and phytonutrients. Peanuts are a good source of niacin, folate, fiber, magnesium, vitamin E, manganese and phosphorus. They also are naturally free of trans-fats and sodium, and contain about 25% protein (a higher proportion than in any true nut). While peanuts are considered high in fat, they primarily contain “good” fats also known as unsaturated fats.

You can find authentic Filipino Peanuts on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum). The softer, orange variety is commonly marketed as a “yam” in parts of North America, a practice intended to differentiate it from the firmer, white variety.The sweet potato is very distinct from the actual yam, which is native to Africa and Asia and belong to the monocot family Dioscoreaceae. To prevent confusion, the United States Department of Agriculture requires that sweet potatoes labeled as “yams” also be labeled as “sweet potatoes”.

Sweet potatoes are native to the tropical parts of South America, and were domesticated there at least 5000 years ago.

Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin C, and vitamin B6. Pink and yellow varieties are high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A.

In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables. Considering fibre content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.

You can find authentic Filipino Sweet Potato on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, but it is not part of the Dioscoreaceae family.

Although it is unclear which came first, the word yam is related to Portuguese inhame or Spanish ñame, which both ultimately derive from the Wolof word nyam, meaning “to sample” or “taste”.

Yam tubers can grow up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and weigh up to 70 kg (154 lb).

The vegetable has a rough skin which is difficult to peel, but which softens after heating. The skins vary in color from dark brown to light pink. The majority of the vegetable is composed of a much softer substance known as the “meat”. This substance ranges in color from white or yellow to purple or pink in ripe yams. Yams are a primary agricultural commodity in West Africa and New Guinea. They were first cultivated in Africa and Asia about 8000 B.C.

Yams are still important for survival in these regions. The tubers can be stored up to six months without refrigeration, which makes them a valuable resource for the yearly period of food scarcity at the beginning of the wet season.

You can find authentic Filipino Yam on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food in the world.

Cassava roots are very rich in starch, and contain significant amounts of calcium (50 mg/100g), phosphorus (40 mg/100g) and vitamin C (25 mg/100g). However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients. In contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein if supplemented with the amino acid methionine despite containing cyanide.

Cassava-based dishes are widely consumed wherever the plant is cultivated. Some of these dishes have regional, national, or ethnic importance. Cassava must be cooked properly to detoxify it before it is eaten.

Cassava can be cooked in various ways. The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in many uses: as an accompaniment for meat dishes, or made into purées, dumplings, soups, stews, gravies, etc.. Deep fried (after boiling or steaming), it can replace fried potatoes, with a distinctive flavor. Cassava flour, also called tapioca flour or tapioca starch, can also replace wheat flour, and is so-used by some people with wheat allergies or coeliac disease. Boba tapioca pearls are made from cassava root. It is also used in cereals for which several tribes in South America have used it extensively. It is also used in making cassava cake, a popular pastry.

The juice of the bitter cassava, boiled to the consistence of thick syrup and flavored with spices, is called cassareep. It is used as a basis for various sauces and as a culinary flavoring, principally in tropical countries. It is exported chiefly from Guyana.

You can find authentic Filipino Cassava on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The name “taro” is from Tahitian or other Polynesian languages; the plant is also called kalo (from Hawaiian), gabi in The Philippines, dalo in Fiji, Alu in Marathi, seppankizhangu in Tamil, chembu in Malayalam, Arvee, Arvi, or Arbi in Hindi, Kosu in Assamese, Kochu(কচু) in Bengali, and Karkalo in Nepali.

The small round variety is peeled and boiled, sold either frozen, bagged in its own liquids, or canned. The plant is actually inedible when raw because of needle-shaped raphides (calcium oxalate) in the plant cells.

Typical of leaf vegetables, taro leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals. They are a good source of thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and zinc, and a very good source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, niacin, potassium, copper, and manganese. Taro corms are very high in starch, and are a good source of dietary fiber. Oxalic acid may be present in the corm and especially in the leaf, and these foods should be eaten with milk or other foods rich in calcium[9] in order to remove the oxalate in the digestive tract. Absorbing a large quantity of the oxalate ion into the blood stream poses health risks, especially for people with kidney disorders, gout, or rheumatoid arthritis. Calcium in the body reacts with the oxalate to form calcium oxalate, which is highly insoluble and is suspected to cause kidney stones.

You can find authentic Filipino Taro on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The mixture is placed in airtight jars where it will keep even without refrigeration. However, once opened, atchara is preferably stored in refrigeration to maintain its flavor.

There are two main types of atchara dressings 1) vinegrettes, which are based on oil and/or an acidic liquid such as vinegar or fruit juice. 2) creamy dressings, which are based on mayonnaise, milk, sour or sweet cream, buttermilk, or yoghurt

A good dressing enhanes the freshness and natural taste of all the ingredients. In most cases, atchara is dressed and tossed just a few minutes before serving. However atchara use the dressing as a marinade to “cook” the ingredients, thus transforming their flavor and texture.

You can find authentic Filipino Atchara on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

It is a beef stew dish that the Filipinos have inherited from the Spaniards. However, over the centuries Filipinos have put their own local twist and flavor into the dish making it their own.

The dish originated from a Spanish recipe whose name originally referred to the strips of pork back-fat that are threaded (mecha – wick) through thick pieces of cheaper lean beef to render them more tender and less dry. The larded pieces of beef are then marinated in vinegar, soya sauce, calamansi juice, crushed garlic, black pepper and bay leaf, browned quickly on all sides in hot oil or lard and then slowly braised in its marinade with the addition of soup stock, onion slices, and tomatoes until tender and the liquid is reduced to a thick flavorful gravy.

You can find authentic Filipino Mechado on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.

The main ingredient is a roasted peanut-based paste such as peanut butter, which together with soy sauce gives it a nutty and salty taste. Several different recipes for making peanut sauces exist, resulting in a variety of flavours. A typical recipe usually contains peanut butter (smooth or crunchy), coconut milk, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and spices (such as coriander seed, cumin, etc). Other ingredients may also contain chili peppers, milk, fried onions, sesame seed, olive oil or peanut.

One of the main characteristic of Indonesian cuisine is the wide applications of bumbu kacang (peanut sauce) in many of Indonesian signature dishes such as satay, gado-gado, karedok, ketoprak, pecel. It usually applied upon the main ingredients (meat or vegetable) to give the taste, or might simply as dipping sauce such as sambal kacang (a mixture of grinded chilli and fried peanuts) for otak-otak or ketan. Introduced from Mexico by Portuguese and Spanish merchants back in 16th century, peanuts took place within Indonesian cuisine as the popular sauce. Indonesian peanut sauce represents a sophisticated, earthy thing rather than a sweet, gloppy sauce. Peanut sauce reach its sophistication in Indonesia, with the delicate balance of taste acquired from various ingredients according to each recipe of peanut sauce; fried peanuts, gula jawa (coconut sugar), garlic, shallot, ginger, tamarind, lemon juice, lemongrass, salt, chilli, pepper, sweet soy sauce, grinded together and mixed with water to acquire right texture. The secret to good peanut sauce is “not too thick and not too watery.” Indonesian peanut sauce tends to be less sweet than the Thai one (which is a hybrid adaptation). Gado-gado is eaten with peanut sauce throughout Indonesia showcasing the delicate balance of sweet, spicy and sour.

You can find authentic Filipino Peanut Sauce on many Filipino Restaurants in Los Angeles.