Real food rules in Sidcor Sunday Market

There have been many articles on the internet about food resolutions to start the year right. These are mostly related to dieting, the knee-jerk reaction to all the binge-eating we did over the holidays. However, most resolutions end up more as wishes than real courses of action. We stop after a few weeks of trying to stick to a healthy regimen of diet and exercise. We hit the gym a couple of times to get back on track but going back the week after and the next remains true only for those with a strict resolve (that’s the root word of “resolution," by the way). We’d rather go back for seconds on the buffet table than go back for seconds on the treadmill. We then trick ourselves and say we’re only human and allow ourselves to slip back to old habits. To keep our food resolutions (if we’ve made any), we must cultivate a firm resolve to make eating more of a pleasurable experience than something we do to pass the time or an activity we simply must engage in several times a day. We should show a better appreciation of food -- real food -- the way our grandmothers know food to be. This is what I’ve learned reading Michael Pollan’s 140-page bestseller, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Foodie readers know Pollan from his best-selling and controversial The Omnivore’s Dilemma which bravely took the lid off the highly-industrialized food industry of the U.S.

To eat right and be healthy, there is but one thing we should all follow: cook our meals from ingredients that we can still recognize, have no more than three syllables in them, and don’t carry labels with their nutritional information. This means avoiding pre-cooked or processed foods which, as Pollan says, your great grandmother won’t be able to recognize if she walked down the grocery aisles today. Pollan’s food rule number 19 states, “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t." Simply put, if you can’t even imagine what a certain type of food is made of, or it’s something no human would dare keep in his pantry, then it’s best to avoid it. This is perhaps easier said than done, what with all the choices we have these days – greasy fast food offerings and tons of soda or high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as thirst-quenchers. How do we get more pleasure than calories from our dining experience? The answer is simple. Go back to basics: back to the market and back to cooking. Pollan says to go back to eating real food. How long ago has it been since you went to a real market or one that has stalls with vendors selling just-harvested vegetables and fresh meat and fish? Or one that has all the ingredients that supermarkets don’t carry because they will spoil easily? If you’re looking to get back that loving feeling about food, then try and wean yourselves away from your bed on weekends and visit a food market. And the one that sells the most of the freshest produce and ingredients is Sidcor Market at its new venue at Centris Walk along EDSA leading towards North Avenue. Sidcor is open on Sundays and has a wide assortment of good food finds. Skip breakfast and head on over for a serving of warm ginataang bilo-bilo or ginataang munggo (Php 40 per plastic cup). Have a freshly squeezed dalandan juice to go with it. Or some suman and kakanin (sticky rice) for Php 25 a serving. At Sidcor, you’ll find there’s more to baked goods than the sugary cupcakes and brownies that everyone is hawking in other food markets. There are freshly-baked breads of all kinds, some of the best are the Greek breads and Italian flatbreads from Ginang Bukid (in English, Mrs. Fields). There are also several stalls selling cassava cakes by the bilao which could nicely take the place of a decadent chocolate cake that you normally find in bake sales elsewhere. As for fruits and vegetables, none can compare with the variety of choices in Sidcor. This is where I got to see what a real bataw (as mentioned in the song Bahay Kubo) looks like and where you can find herbs to buy at the most unbeatable prices in town. With vegetable stalls here, you get to compare the goods including their prices and get the best bargains. The market is also a haven for seafood lovers. You’ll find baskets and baskets of prawns, shellfish and crabs including the ulang (freshwater shrimp), diwal (angel wing shellfish), curacha (spanner crab) and pitik (rock lobster). The vendors are also only too happy to give suggestions on how to cook these creatures especially when they spot a sense of fear on your face as you gaze at the little sea “monsters" in their stalls. We brought home a couple of huge crabs (around Php 450 to Php 500 a kilo) which we cooked Singaporean-style with black pepper sauce. We also brought home some soft mantou buns from one of the stalls selling siopao and a pack of really crispy Ilokos bagnet with some Manila clams for soup. With a nice bottle of chilled white wine, they made for a perfect leisurely Sunday lunch feast. Regional food is also abundant in Sidcor as you spot several stalls selling lechon Cebu, lechon kawali, bagnet, homemade longganisa and embotido and such meaty delights. Ham, chicken or pork, is glazed and given a sweet crisp finish under a blowtorch right before your eyes. Freshly-cooked food is plentiful for those who want to just bring home ready-made dishes. You’ll get lost just by looking at the choices you can get here from the barbecues to the stews. And who hasn’t been to Sidcor and gone home without an order of a ginataang tulingan or Bicol express at the very least? Lastly, there are lots of fruit stands to choose from where you can get bargains like three melons for Php 100. For those looking for hard-to-find fruits like the balimbing (starfuit), chances are they would have it in Sidcor. Sidcor has a good combination of wet and dry goods, including native houseware and other merchandise like clothes, bags and even plants. While not as fancy as the gourmet markets on the other side of Manila, Sidcor is definitely a foodie’s paradise as it’s difficult keeping oneself from running from stall to stall and being delighted by the discoveries that can be had here. Start making a commitment to eating real food and go back to the basics of cooking and buying food at your local market. On the side, you’d be helping our local economy while enhancing your family’s health and well-being. And while you’re at it, try to grab a copy of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. You can read it one sitting and it could change the way you eat, forever. - GMANews.TV