Tinolang Kamonggay!

 

We call it 'kamunggay' in bisaya; in tagalog, they call it, 'malunggay'. Scientifically known as Moringa oleifera Lamk, is one of the world's most useful plants.  It is used as food, effective flocculant or water treatment, antibiotic, source of oil, and coagulant for turbid waters.

I remember well the plant because it's a common herb in my hometown. I am melancholic whenever I remember the place where our house stood on a hill. Ours was a house built on a rolling Tag-ibo hillside. The lot carved by my father's own hands and the house from his own sweat.

Me and my brother always at his side. He'd be doing the carving, me and my bro would be doing the cart. We were sprouting teenagers that time. It'd be my parent's first owned house. Roofed with 'nipa', life was so simple then. We had to fetch water from below the hill and pour them over into a tub just beside our house. This is exhausting though yet simple compare to life in a city.

By the time the house has finished, the house was ornamented with these plants. The place is never complete without this plant.

These plant is one of my father's favorite. He'd plant this thing along side other crops in his garden. My father is an advocate of 'sariling sikap' by the government in the finale of martial law in 1986. The same enthusiasm he had brought when he came to Dubai to work as an OCW. Once working in a hard-labor, the same assignment he had been doing in the middle east. And the same passion he brought with him - gardening.

Once a British supervisor told them off harvesting the plant because of, they say, the plan is poisonous. They laughed it over because, as they said it, '..this is food in the Philippines'.

One can easily rid of the hang-over at night after a drinking session or during the morning by simply sipping a soup made out of this plant. This plant has been known as one of the best detoxifier for decades. Because of its unique properties, it is well researched and farmed in Africa for medicine.

But its miracle is best tasted when the leaves are sprinkled in a bucket of fresh fish simmered with freshly sliced tomatoes, onions and a little bit of salt and vetsin (Monosodium glutamate, common Filipino dish additive); A handful of tomato will make it sour adding to the taste extremely and homely wonderful.

Read more about this plant in http://bluemen.multiply.com/journal/item/11; Or, more about this plant in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera; For a nice Bisayan tinola recipe with malunggay, see http://www.filipinorecipe.com/soups_and_sauces/fish_tinola.htm 

LiveJournal Tags: Food,Filipino,Recipe,Medicine,Health