Que traigan la tinola…

Dr Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines. He became a hero not because of fighting skills, or shedding blood other than his own, but because he wanted a free Philippines from the constraints of the Spanish rule through peaceful means.

A bit of Philippine history here, if you please.

Rizal battled the Spaniards with his pen, not sword. “The pen is mightier than the sword” quote he. He attacked the Spanish colonisers not by brutal strength, but through the power of the word. He wrote books, the most popular being Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster), that acted as symbols of revolution against the Spanish colonisation of the Philippines.

In the first few scenes of Noli Me Tangere, the main character Crisostomo Ibarra was having a meal of chicken tinola. He had the best parts of the chicken, as the dish was cooked specifically for him. He was dining with a few important characters in the novel, including the host Kapitan Tiyago (Captain Tiyago) and Pari Damaso (Father Damaso).

*A synopsis of Noli Me Tangere is found at the end of this post.

Moving away from Jose Rizal and Noli Me Tangere, chicken tinola is the ultimate chicken soup for the soul. When I was younger, I would get sick all the time and would have to go to the hospital every few months. Chicken tinola is one of the dishes that mum cooked for me since it was the only one that I could stomach – it is therefore the ultimate comfort food for me.

Now that it’s winter time and the temperature has been dropping every few single day until we reach freezing point, it is only fitting to go back to my childhood comfort food and relive the days of mum’s hugs and her infamous chicken tinola.

Chicken Tinola

Mum’s Chicken Tinola

Uses 1 whole chicken

1 whole chicken, chopped into small sections

Olive oil

Ginger the size of a big thumb, sliced thinly

3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 medium onion, chopped finely

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 medium chokoes or green papaya, peeled and sliced

Chilli leaves (if available)

1. In a deep pot, saute ginger, garlic and onion together with olive oil.
2. Add fish sauce and chicken. Cover with lid and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add water enough to cover the chicken and cover with lid again. Cook for 30 minutes.
4. Once chicken is cooked, add chokoes or papaya. Return lid and cook vegetables for about 5 minutes.
5. If available, add chilli leaves.
6. Adjust the taste by adding more fish sauce or plain salt. Serve hot with rice.

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This post is in celebration of our national hero, Dr Jose Rizal. This is also me going back to my roots, digging up a rich Filipino history filled with bravery, a love for the country and people, and the ultimate quest for independence and democracy.

Coincidentally, my good friend Ala Paredes is on a play commemorating the life of Jose Rizal from childhood to his execution. I’m extremely excited to see this play and hope that through this, people can get an insight to a rich history of the Philippines and of the Filipino.Tickets can be purchased at Ticketek.com. I’m going to the 18th showing so it would be great to meet you!

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*The extremely simplified synopsis of the novel is this: Ibarra comes home to the Philippines from studying in Europe, and sees the love of his life Maria Clara (Kapitan Tiyago’s daughter) again. He also finds out that his father was wrongly accused as a reformist by none other than Pari Damaso, and that the same priest has been insulting him and in modern terms, “talking behind his back to Maria Clara’s father”. All these Ibarra ignored until one day Damaso insulted Ibarra’s father which precipitated Ibarra to almost killing Damaso. Ibarra was excommunicated from Maria Clara, who was in turn betrothed to marry a Spaniard Linares.

But there’s always a twist to the story, eh?

Maria Clara soon found out her father is not Kapitan Tiyago as she initially thought, but is actually Damaso. In the meantime, Ibarra was wrongly accused again and was imprisoned, but was helped to escape by a mysterious character Elias. In a bid to escape the Spanish soldiers, both went in a boat but was tracked down. Elias told Ibarra to hide inside the boat while he jumped out in the water, and was consequently rained down with gunshots. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, it was Elias that they were shooting and not Ibarra. News travelled back to Maria Clara that Ibarra has perished, and thus begged Damaso that she be put in a nunnery.

This is where the story ends, and Rizal’s second book El Filibusterismo begins. But… that’s another story for another day.