Kilawing Rabong

Labong or Rabong (Bamboo Shoots) are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species. This kind of food are mostly used in Asian cuisines like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and the Philippines. In our country, it is mostly served pickled but the two most popular dishes for this are ginataang labong (shoots with coconut milk and chilies) and dinengdeng na labong (shoots in fish sauce with string beans and saluyot). 

In the locality, Ilocos Norte, rabong as we call it, is a favorite ingredient to the dinengdeng or some prefers it cooked with soy sauce and garlic or inadabong rabong. Personally, I am a fan of both dishes, but sometimes you get fed up with the same style of cooking, you would want to reinvent the dish that can excite your palate. That exactly what I discovered months ago, in the most unexpected place you can imagine, our classroom.

After our MWF morning class, we would always be sneakingly eating our lunch together, my professor, my classmates and some others in our own classroom. We'll be bringing our own lunch and share it with the others. My professor and a certified food genius, would be cooking her specialty for the day and shares it with us. That Wednesday lunchtime, she brought rabong, but its totally different from what I'm used to, it was boiled, drained, seasoned with generous amount of calamansi and salt, ginger and spring onions, chilled for a few minutes, and it's ready to eat. It is not pickled, but more of an "kinilaw" minus the vinegar and the seafood. It was indeed a fulfilled wish, when I was asking for a reinvention to the rabong dish. And so weeks after that incident, I tried my hand in somewhat making my own kilawing rabong.

INGREDIENTS:

Uncooked Rabong

Ginger (chopped)

Spring onions (chopped)

Calamansi 

Salt to taste

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil the uncooked rabong in a pot until it changes color or after 5-10 minutes, then drain.

2. After draining the rabong, put it in a mixing bowl, put the chopped ginger and spring onions, calamansi juice, sprinkle some salt to taste.

3. Kilawing rabong is best serve chilled.

FINISH PRODUCT

It was abrupt when I decided to try my hand in doing the kilawing rabong. I love food and I love watching cooking shows but I have not tried imitating any recipe's from other person, not until I discovered this kilawing rabong. With the sour and seafood-like taste of the dish, I immediately fell in love with it when I first tasted the dish months ago in our classroom.


With the success of my very own kilawing rabong, at the moment I am thinking of trying my hand in imitating dishes that hopefully will be successful as the first.