MAMA Chit Evangelista
A commercial along Edsa—“Crispy Pata “Aming Imbento, Enjoy ang Pilipino!”— helped me realize what size an effect Barrio Fiesta makes on the culinary landscape.
For that longest time, Barrio Fiesta was the site to visit to for any deliciously cooked home-style Filipino meal.
In the middle of the meals revolution, a lot of us have ignored the contributions of Barrio Fiesta.
But in some way, sudden unpredicted bursts of nostalgia make us long for comfort food, which Barrio Fiesta continues to be giving Filipinos.
Within the ’50s, Sixta Evangelista, fondly known as mama Chit, catered for that production teams and also the actors of Everlasting Pictures, a business of her husband, Bonifacio Ongpauco Sr.
Equipped with what her grandchildren known as a “killer recipe” for kare-kare, mama Chit opened up the very first Barrio Fiesta in 1958 in the Ongpauco ancestral home in Caloocan.
Alongside her kare-kare, she offered other family dishes that grew to become equally famous for example crispy pata, “rock roll” (shrimp wrapped with ground pork, engrossed in crunchy tempura-like batter), adobo barrio-style and crispy chicken.
I requested Cora Ongpauco Tamayo, mama Chit’s daughter, what dish her mother was proudest of. She stated Crispy Pata and Kare-Kare.
Around the origins of crispy pata, The trainer told us it had been Cora’s brother, Fishing rod Ongpauco, who considered the name.
It had been his “sideline.” He offered deep-fried lechon legs towards the restaurant.
An all natural-born entrepreneur, Fishing rod grew to become very effective to promote the merchandise, states Cora. But there is a restricted way to obtain lechon legs so mama Chit concocted a recipe this time around, using raw pork legs, these pork legs are actually what is known the legendary crispy pata.
I revisited Barrio Fiesta to celebrate Chinese Year with a few of my good Filipino-Chinese buddies and participated in Sisig with Aligue, Bouillabaisse, Adobo Barrio Style, Crispy Pata, Kare-Kare, Sinalab (grilled meats, sea food and vegetables).
Everything sampled just like it ought to. However their bouillabaisse, was simply fantastic—rich yet light, tasty, malinamnam! A classic well-performed, Filipino form of the classic. It had been everyone’s favorite!
The Barrio Adobo in my experience continues to be best—large chunks of pork and chicken, with quail eggs offered inside a thick brown adobo sauce that's more “gravy” as with consistency. So scrumptious and happily still tastes the identical, when i recall it.
Their Crispy Pata still as deadly—crisp around the outdoors, tender, juicy, succulent inside.
It’s nice to understand that within this fast-paced, ever-altering realm of ours, there's something that remain unchanged which Barrio continues to be certainly one of individuals places we are able to go to to possess a taste of the items our food was like, cooked “authentically” and “originally,” because they did once they first opened up their doorways in 1958.
Based on the Ongpaucos, when you attend Barrio Fiesta, it’s not just for that food. It's also since it revives recollections. For in the end, who hasn’t celebrated an event whether it's a birthday or perhaps a graduation at Barrio Fiesta?
ORIGINAL Barrio Fiesta in 1958
Barrio Fiesta’s scrumptious
6 c chicken stock