Fruits, Vegetable and Spices

Lemon grass-
Tangead - Aklanon
The best use of tanglad I have ever tasted is in tinolang manok. A
whole piece of the tanglad plant is added to the stew, to take out
the chicken smell and add a nice citrusy flavor. Another
wonderful Filipino dish that uses tanglad is binakoe (Aklanon) or
binakul (Tagalog). This is a type of cooking that uses green
bamboo; the food (usually chicken) is put inside the young
bamboo and then the whole bamboo is put into the fire. Chicken
soup with tanglad cooked like this is heavenly.

Eggplant-
Talong (Tagalog) or Taeong (Aklanon). The Philippine eggplant is
the long and slender type, royal purple in color. It is very tasty
compared to the large aubergine which tastes like cotton. It's a
really a fruit but it is eaten as a vegetable. It is probably native to
the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region as the original
name for it in Chinese translates as the Malayan purple melon.

Hot Peppers-






Green beans
Sitaw (Tagalog), I've heard people call this as Chinese string
beans (I guess anything that is Asian is Chinese when it comes to
ingredients).


Ginger-
Used in a lot of vegetable and meat dishes. I use it a lot in my
version of chicken stew: ginger, chicken, spinach boiled together
(salt or patis and pepper to taste of course). I also love salabat
(ginger tea)! It's very easy to do. Just boil ginger slices with sugar
to taste. Use brown sugar so the tea will have some coloration.
That's it.

Salted Eggs-





Banana Blossoms-
Puso ng Saging (Tagalog) literally means heart of banana, because
it is red and it sort of heart-shaped. It's actually the banana
infloresence from where (probably) the banana fruit comes from.
The banana florets are protected by these sheaths of red colored
leaf-like things that form the cone/heart- shaped "puso." I
wouldn't say it's the heart of the banana because the heart of the
banana could also mean the inner pith or core of the banana
trunk, white and tender, which when cooked with coconut milk,
chicken and fresh basil leaves, is another dish to be discovered
and enjoyed. "Discovered" because it is a regional dish and a
staple specialty of the province of Aklan (manok nga inubaran). I
don't think manok nga inubaran is popular throughout the
Philippines.
But back to puso ng saging, the bloom itself is used as a spice,
especially when dried in many Chinese dishes. But the whole
"puso" when sliced thinly crosswise is the main ingredient of
"ginataang puso ng saging" (Tagalog) or "linabog" or "labog"
(Aklanon). It is nothing but the puso cooked in coconut milk with
shrimp or whole dried fish added. The twist with linabog is that
instead of simmering it in coconut milk alone, vinegar is added to
the sauce so it is has the sauce is tangy and tart. "Linabog nga
eangka" (a similar dish but instead an unripe jackfruit or
breadfruit is used) is even better. Linabog doesn't look good when
cooked - it's colored brown or purple, but it's utterly delicious.
You guys don't know what you're missing!
Philippines