MARKETS : Shopping for the Melting Pot

Asian Ranch, 13722 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, (818) 781-0385. Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

After nearly 400 years of Spanish domination, centuries of Chinese trading and almost 50 years of American occupation, the Filipino table is laden with mixtures and borrowings. The same Malay-like kitchen that turns out taro leaves cooked in coconut milk with fermented shrimp also offers up chicken relleno . The chicken, according to my Filipino cookbooks, must be marinated in Chinese soy sauce and tropical lime juice before it is stuffed with a mixture of Spanish chorizo, olives and toasted “American” bread.

It’s not surprising, then, that Filipino markets resemble international bazaars. They are filled with ingredients that include Spanish chocolate, Chinese bitter melon and thoroughly Southeast Asian jackfruit or fish sauce. Last year Asian Ranch, a medium-size supermarket and one of the city’s newest and largest stores to stock such an inventory, opened at the corner of Sherman Way and Woodman Avenue.

Even the baked goods here span the globe. On racks against the front window the slightly sweet fluffy yeast rolls, pan de sal, and the Filipino-style ladyfingers ( lengua de gato ) vie for attention with hopia . These are Chinese-inspired pastries--basically traditional mini-teacakes but with fillings made from tropical ingredients such as immature coconut or an intensely colored purple yam called ube .

Where you really notice the Chinese influence is in the produce section, for it was the Chinese settlers who introduced market gardening to the islands. Filipinos have long since given these vegetables names in Tagalog, the Philippine national language: Chinese long beans are sitaw , Asian eggplant is talong , bitter melon is ampalaya . There are also non-Chinese items such as the green papaya used for pickles and as a vegetable.

The most impressive thing about Asian Ranch, apart from its size, is its fish department. Along an entire side of the store, an immense selection of fish, from tiny silvery fresh anchovies to pointy-nosed barracuda, gleam on beds of ice. The store provides a “you buy, we fry” operation where you can have any fish deep-fried to order. With rice and a dipping sauce on the side, this is a great convenience for shoppers.

No cook should be timid about dealing with all this exotica. Most Filipino cookbooks I own or have borrowed from local libraries are filled with well-written recipes in English. What’s more, they call for techniques that are already familiar to Western cooks. But if you take home some of the packaged seasoning mixes from the center of the store or some prepared items from the freezer, you won’t have to give recipes a thought. All of these products have clear directions and offer quick ways to sauce fish, season vegetables, make soup or marinate meats. The resulting dishes will most certainly be happy blends of East and West.

SHOPPING LIST

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FILIPINO COOKING

Unlike cooks in Thailand, Cambodia and Burma, who pound complex spice and herb mixtures in a mortar for most of their dishes, Filipino cooks base much of their cooking on a simple saute of chopped onions and garlic or plain garlic. Gisado , the Tagalog spelling of the Spanish guisado (sauteed), is one of the Filipino kitchen’s most common cooking methods whether it’s employed for Spanish, “local” or other dishes.

* Palm vinegar: Filipinos love a little zing of tartness in their food. And one of the most convenient sour flavorings in a Filipino cook’s larder is palm vinegar. A slightly cloudy white liquid distilled from fermented palm frond juice, palm vinegar is noticeably milder than cider, distilled or wine vinegars. It’s one of the major ingredients in any adobo , a dish that could rightly be called the national food of the Philippines.

Adobo may have adopted a Spanish name but it is nothing like the ground chile seasoning pastes used in Mexico or the wine and herb marinades of Spain. Rather it is meat, fish, chicken or even vegetables cooked in a very Asian-tasting palm vinegar, soy sauce and garlic marinade. The tenderized meat is then grilled or broiled to crisp it while the tart marinade is reduced to a tangy rich sauce.

If you substitute a stronger vinegar for palm vinegar, reduce the quantity by one-third and replace the decreased liquid with stock or water.

FRUIT

* Calamansi : Until fairly recently this tiny citrus fruit was difficult to find even in Filipino markets, and cooks would substitute lemons or limes. But the small, slightly orange fruit (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter), has a tart character all its own. In the Philippines, calamansi wedges garnish many foods from iced tea to noodle dishes, and the juice is especially good with fish. Calamansi juice mixed with patis or soy sauce is a favorite dipping sauce. For desserts, calamansi rind is sometimes candied and used as a garnish.

* Tamarind: Another tart ingredient, tamarind ( sampalok in Tagalog) is a sour pulp from the crusty brown pods of the tamarind tree. The pulp comes pressed into blocks or as a concentrate made from the strained pulp. These convenience products are simple to use in soups and sauces. Although the pulp must be soaked in warm water, mashed slightly and then strained to remove its seeds and strings, its taste is superior to the concentrate.

Tamarind is the sour flavoring in sinigang , a soup that shows up frequently at Filipino meals. The soup can be mostly broth with a little meat or seafood and bits of vegetable, or more like a hearty main dish soup-stew. The clear tart broth resembles the hot-sour Thai soup tom yam goong without its chile heat. Like it, sinigang is perfect for tropical climates.

FISH SAUCE AND FISH PASTES

Fish sauces, like the soy sauces of China and Japan, are the all-purpose seasonings of Southeast Asian cooking. Every cuisine in the region has its own collection of fishy condiments, which are made by the fermentation of salted fish or crustaceans. Such a process may sound less than appetizing but the resulting ingredient, particularly when cooked, adds a nice depth of flavor and saltiness. The taste of these products is, fortunately, not as strong as their pungent aroma.

There are three major fish sauces in the Philippines:

* Patis , a clear amber liquid much like Thai nam pla or Vietnamese nuoc mam , is sprinkled into dishes as they cook or incorporated into dipping sauces.

* Bagoong (pronounced with an oh, not an oo sound) differs from the clear patis in containing the fish along with its fermented liquid. Bagoong isda is made from tiny long-jawed anchovies (called dilis ) and bagoong alamang from pinhead-size shrimp.

* Bagoong gisado , or shrimp fry, like its counterparts, Indonesian sambal or Indian chutney, is a strong-flavored condiment used to boost the flavor of a dish according to the preferences of the diner. You can easily make it by sauteing garlic, onion and tomato in oil and adding shrimp bagoong . A pre-made shrimp fry comes in jars but finicky cooks like to prepare their own.

COCONUT MILK

Ginataan refers to a dish cooked in coconut milk. Its contents depends as much on what’s available at the local sari sari (general store) as on the whim of the cook. There is ginatang gulay, a dish of vegetables--usually eggplant and green beans--sauteed with garlic, onion, ginger and bagoong cooked with creamy coconut milk sauce and hot pepper. Ginatang hipon is similar but made with shrimp while ginatang isda uses fish and ginatang kalabasa at hipon , a mixture of squash or pumpkin with small shrimp.

The Bicol region at the southern tip of Luzon Island is noted for its coconut milk dishes and its use of hot chiles which, except for the Muslim island of Mindanao, are uncommon in most of the Philippines. Laing , the trademark dish of this region, is a blend of meat or shrimp and vegetables seasoned with bagoong and hot chiles, wrapped in taro leaves, all simmered in thick coconut milk. A simpler version of laing is taro leaves in a chile-hot coconut milk sauce.

Coconut milk is also the base for many pudding-like desserts made with various sorts of rice--long-grain violet-colored rice, for example--as well as sweet guinatan , a dessert soup of root vegetables cooked with sugar and coconut milk.

LUMPIA WRAPPERS

Asian Ranch carries several brands of crepe-like lumpia wrappers in its freezer section. Fresh lumpia , the Filipino national snack, could be likened to an Asian burrito. It’s a pastry wrapper lined with lettuce. Its filling, usually a mixture of vegetables with bits of meat or seafood, is up to the cook; it might include diced sweet potato, garbanzo beans and smoked ham.

Deep-fried lumpia , a version closer to a spring roll, also has a host of filling possibilities. Hearts of palm or crab meat are both popular, and when lumpia are stuffed with ripe cooking bananas or sweetened jackfruit and sprinkled with sugar, they make a wonderful sweet.

CHICHARRON

Asian Ranch sells several brands of these crispy, deep-fried pork skins. As a garnish they are often pulverized and strewn over the top of noodle dishes or fried rice. Small chunks are sprinkled atop stewed vegetables. And you may find them on the merienda table with a vinegar-garlic dip.

SAUSAGES

Filipinos love to incorporate bits of sausage into all sorts of foods including noodle and vegetable dishes and their version of paella.

* Longaniza: This sausage, flavored with vinegar, brown sugar, garlic and a dash of hot pepper, has a family resemblance to the Portuguese linguica. It’s a favorite breakfast link and cooking sausage.

* Chorizo de bilbao: A Spanish-style dry-cured sausage with lots of paprika, this chorizo shows up in the Spanish-influenced stews such as beef puchero with chickpeas, plantains and an eggplant sauce. It is also essential in the classically Spanish pastel de lengua , a deep-dish pie of beef tongue stew spiked with pimiento-stuffed olives. But the sausage is equally at home in such creations as pansit sotanghon manok , a dish of clear Chinese-style noodles made with chicken and Chinese tree ears.

VEGETABLES

* Ampalaya : Light green and cucumber-like with a warty-looking skin, ampalaya is the Chinese fu gua , or bitter melon. It adds a strong personality to any dish and it’s not necessarily to everyone’s liking. Still, ampalaya has a wide range of uses in Filipino cuisine. You’ll find it sauteed with garlic, pork and shrimp in a stew, or in pinakbet a popular multi-vegetable melange flavored with bagoong . The melon should be debittered either by peeling and blanching 4 to 5 minutes or by salting peeled slices, allowing it to stand for 15 minutes, then rinsing it.

* Patola : Not quite as bitter as ampalaya , this long, thin-ridged vegetable slices into pretty star-like shapes. Patola or angled luffa is known as si gua in Chinese. Trimming its ridged protrusions helps decrease its bitterness. Favored for soups by Filipino cooks, patola is essential in the popular bola - bolang misua , a soup made with amazingly fine noodles and succulent little meatballs or fish balls.

* Kangkong: In English, this leafy, hollow-stemmed green goes by the unappealing name of swamp cabbage or water convolvulus . It’s also called water spinach, and spinach is its most commonly called-for substitute. Kangkong adds its mild, leafy flavor to sinigang and other brothy soups as well as to Filipino-style laksa , a vegetable stew made with transparent noodles.

* Taro leaves: Known as gabi in the Philippines, these broad, wavy leaves are the main ingredient in laing (see above). They are also used for wrapping Filipino-style tamales, where they add their particular fragrance to a filling of sticky rice studded with bits of ham and peanuts or stuffed with sweet mung bean paste.

* Talong : Eggplant, the long, thin Asian variety commonly called Japanese eggplant here, is one of the Philippines’ most popular vegetables. You find it made into adobo , in the vegetable stew pinakbet , or stuffed with sauteed ground pork, dipped in egg then fried in rellenong talong (stuffed eggplant). Talong is also made into pickles and pureed for eggplant sauce.

BAKED GOODS

Asian Ranch carries baked goods from many shops and purveyors around the city.

* Bibingka : From Dec. 16 until Christmas, vendors in the Philippines sell bibingka in front of churches after each Midnight Mass. But no Filipino could wait all year to enjoy them. These slightly springy, moist rice pancakes that are topped with cheese and sometimes a salted duck egg are also available in cafes and made at home year round. Bibingka are served brushed with melted butter, a sprinkling of sugar and shredded fresh coconut. The market sells them plain, and you have to add these garnishes yourself. You’ll find tiny cups of coconut for this purpose in the cooler with the tofu.

Traditionally, fermenting ground rice has been used for leavening bibingka before the eggs and sugar were added to the batter. The pancakes were then steamed in banana leaf-lined earthenware dishes surrounded by charcoal. Nowadays, many cooks use baking powder to replace the fermentation step; however, this affects the flavor. Near the Western-style cake mixes, Asian Ranch even carries a bibingka mix made by White King. Ambitious cooks will find the salted duck eggs to go with it above the freezer section.

* Ensaimada : The Filipino equivalent of coffee cake, ensaimada is a slightly sweet, eggy yeast bread made with cheese that comes variously topped and filled. It’s popular at Merienda , the Filipino equivalent of English midmorning and afternoon tea time. The versions sold here (La Pacita brand) come topped with pure butter and a light sprinkling of shredded Cheddar or filled with macapuno , a kind of sweetened coconut variety with soft, rich gelatinous meat.

* Pan de sal: Although these soft white, slightly sweet yeast rolls resemble ordinary American-style dinner rolls, somehow they also manage to have their own character. I became acquainted with pan de sal in the Philippines, where they were warmed and served with butter for breakfast. Asian Ranch carries several brands; I recommend the La Pacita mini- pan de sal , which are slightly porous inside, almost like English muffins.

NOODLES

The Filipinos embraced Chinese noodles early on as an inexpensive, delicious alternative to rice. Although some noodle dishes such as mami --flat Chinese egg noodles flavored with soup and a topping--remain thoroughly Chinese, most noodles have been transformed into “local” dishes with the addition of non Chinese accompaniments and flavorings.

The noodles, called pansit (often spelled pancit ), derived from the Chinese word fenxi , fall into three categories according to their major ingredient: rice, vegetable starch or wheat.

* Rice noodles ( pansit bihon and pancit lug lug ): Rice vermicelli or “rice sticks” are called pansit bihon in the Philippines, where they are cooked every imaginable way. Lightly boiled, they are set adrift in soups. They get topped with a shrimp-egg yolk sauce for pansit Malabon , and they are sauteed with plenty of garlic, meats and seafood and seasoned with a little patis for pansit bihon gisado .

* Pansit lug lug : Another sort of rice noodle, about the size of spaghetti but much longer. Lug lug, loosely translated, means dip dip , and the traditional cooking method for these noodles requires dipping them in and out of hot water until they are tender.

* Vegetable starch noodles ( pansit sotanghon ): Asian cooking aficionados will recognize these mung bean starch noodles as bean threads or cellophane noodles. And they know how wonderful these clear, springy noodles are for soaking up pan juices and broths. The trick is to soak them only until they soften (which will vary according to their thickness). If oversoaked they get waterlogged and won’t absorb other flavors as they should. Filipino cooks use sotanghon along with meat and seafood to stuff vegetables or in Chinese-style soups. Pansit sotanghon gisado , a noodle saute that seems an excuse for using up whatever little morsels they might have around, starts out with a delicious saute of garlic, onions and ham or sausage; then the cook adds whatever strikes his fancy.

* Wheat noodles ( misua, pansit miki, pansit Canton ): Misua , possibly one of the thinnest noodles you’ll ever encounter, is virtually as fine as human hair (angel hair pasta of Italian origins is at least four times as thick). I have found that misua needs no real cooking. You simply stir the noodles into boiling-point hot soup shortly before you are ready to serve it and allow to stand about a minute.

Pansit miki , found in the cooler near the produce section, is the Filipino answer to fresh Chinese water noodles. They are round like spaghetti, but thick, chewy and substantial. Usually these noodles turn up in stir-fried dishes variously named pansit Canton or pansit Shanghai . This is fairly confusing when you discover that there’s also a noodle called pansit Canton . This one is a dry precooked wheat noodle, a cousin to the Chinese e-fu noodles that need only a few moments to cook. It too turns up in the stir-fried dish pansit Canton as well as in soup noodle dishes.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

* Chicken tosino: Pork is most commonly used for the Filipino-style cured meat, tosino (often spelled tocino, though in Spanish, tocino means bacon). Chicken thigh meat cured like bacon in brown sugar and pineapple juice is an updated version of the classic. The best use for this sweet savory meat is to fry strips of it and stir it into fried noodles, fried rice or vegetables. Or serve a few strips of it fried with an egg on the side. Look for chicken tosino in the freezer.

* Halo halo mix: Halo halo means “mix-mix,” and that’s just what everyone does with this extravagant tropical shake of ice and sweetened milk with a bizarre panoply of ingredients ranging from squares of leche flan (custard) to chickpeas. Asian Ranch sells a make-at-home version. Layers of cooked sweet red beans, taro, jackfruit, chickpeas, sweet plantains, macapuno , tapioca pearls and other miscellany in a sweet syrup are all layered into a huge jar. At home you spoon some out and add your own evaporated milk and ice.

* Pinipig: This pressed and toasted young rice looks like breakfast cereal. The most popular use for it is to sprinkle it on top of halo halo or ice cream.

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PHILIPPINE BARBECUE RIBS ADOBO

1/2 to 5 pounds country-style loin spare ribs

2 cups palm vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

Cut exterior fat from ribs. In large glass baking dish or enameled roasting pan, combine vinegar, water, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns in pan. Add ribs, turning in liquid to coat all sides. Marinate 1 1/2 to 2 hours at room temperature, turning ribs several times.

Pour marinade into wide pot or 2 deep skillets with lids. Heat liquid to boiling, add ribs, cover and simmer about 1 hour, turning once until ribs are almost completely tender. Add coconut milk and simmer about 15 minutes longer until ribs are tender but not falling from bone. Remove ribs from pan and boil sauce to reduce it to about 3/4 cup. Strain sauce. Ribs may be prepared to this point up to day ahead.

To finish ribs, bring ribs and sauce to room temperature. Brush ribs with sauce and place on barbecue grill over very hot coals. Cook, turning once and basting with any remaining sauce until outside is slightly crispy, 1 to 3 minutes each side.

To broil ribs, preheat broiler. Baste ribs with sauce. Place ribs on rack about 2 1/2 inches from heat source and broil at medium-high heat until slightly crispy, about 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Makes 6 servings.

Note: To remove thick coconut milk from canned coconut milk, first chill. Then, without shaking can, open and scoop thick portion out, leaving watery portion behind.

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PANSIT BIHON (Rice Noodles With Chicken and Deep-Fried Garlic)

6 medium dried Chinese mushrooms

4 ounces rice vermicelli (pansit bihon)

2/3 cup oil

7 medium cloves garlic, minced

2/3 cup chopped onion

1/2 chicken breast and 2 small chicken thighs, boned

1 2/3 cups water

1 tablespoon fish sauce (patis or nuoc mam or nam pla)

1 chorizo de Bilbao, diced

1 large carrot, cut julienne

2 cups coarsely shredded cabbage

2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and quartered

Soak mushrooms and rice vermicelli in separate bowls of hot water 20 minutes, remove tough mushroom stems and cut caps into thin strips. Drain noodles.

In soup pot or deep skillet, heat about 1 tablespoon oil and saute 1 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic and onion until tender but not browned. Add chicken and water. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until meat falls away from bones. Remove chicken from broth. Chill broth and remove fat or, if you are not working ahead, just degrease warm broth. Shred chicken meat. (Can do above ahead.)

Combine defatted broth and fish sauce and bring mixture to boiling. Add rice sticks and simmer about 5 minutes until most of liquid is absorbed. There should be some unabsorbed broth with noodles to act as sauce for all ingredients.

Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in small heavy skillet and deep-fry remaining garlic just until pale golden. Pour oil through strainer and drain garlic on paper toweling.

Heat 2 tablespoons of garlic oil in wok or skillet. Stir-fry chorizo until heated through. Add carrot and fry until almost crisp-tender, add cabbage and mushrooms and continue to stir-fry until cabbage is almost crisp-tender. Stir in chicken, then stir vegetable mixture into noodles.

Arrange noodle mixture on platter and surround with hard-cooked egg quarters. Sprinkle fried garlic over noodles. Makes 3 main-dish servings or 6 side-dish servings.