For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #3

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
- Harriet Van Horne

In rural areas in the country, kitchens would always have a dapug - the Hiligaynon word for a raised platform in the kitchen where cooking is done by fire through earthen stoves. The floor of the platform has layers of hard-pressed soil and ashes. Pots and pans are placed underneath or hanged on the sides. On top of the dapug are stacked firewood supported by widely spaced bamboo slits for flooring. The wood are left to dry by smoke and heat.

 

Featured is my aunt cooking in her kitchen's dapug lighted by a kerosene lamp. Fried rice was on the menu that night complemented by boiled eggs and dried dilis (anchovies) saute'd in garlic, onions and tomatoes seasoned with vinegar and soy sauce.