Throughout history, vinegar has been revered for its versatility. During ancient times, Egypt’s Cleopatra dissolved pearls in vinegar to win a wager that she could consume a fortune in a single meal. Helen of Troy bathed in it to relax. It helped African General Hannibal’s army cross the Alps. Hippocrates, Greek physician and writer, prescribed drinking vinegar to his patients with ailments. In 17th century Europe and England, citizens used it as deodorizer by holding sponges soaked in vinegar to their noses to reduce the smell of raw sewage in the streets. During World War I, vinegar was used to treat wounds on the battlefields. Among lowland  northern Filipinos, either a vinegar rub or poultice on the forehead is folk remedy for high fever.
        In Asia, vinegar was introduced from China where it has been brewed from rice for over 3,000 years. Indonesian vinegar called cuka is concentrated acetic acid and is normally thinned down with water
and used to make food asam (sour).
        The word vinegar comes from the French word vinaigre which means ‘sour wine.’ It was believed to have been discovered accidentally, after a cask of wine had gone bad. Over time, bacteria in the air transformed the alcohol in wine, which is a form of fermented sugar, into acetic acid which resulted to the sour wine taste.
        Give a bottle of native vinegar and include a basic adobo recipe. Here is a chicken adobo recipe from Enriqueta David-Perez’s Recipes of the Philippines cookbook circa 1953 taken from The Adobo Book Traditional and Jazzed Up Recipes by Reynaldo Gamboa Alejandro and Nancy Reyes Lumen.

Chicken Adobo
Ingredients
1 chicken, regular size
salt to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
pepper to taste
half bay leaf
1/2 C (120 ml) vinegar
2 C (475 ml) water
lard

Procedure
Clean chicken, cut into pieces. Rub salt, minced garlic, and pepper to chicken. Put in a kettle and add bay leaf, vinegar, and water. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender and liquid has evaporated. Add fat and fry meat until brown. Add thick coconut milk, if preferred, and simmer for a few minutes. Serve hot or cold.

 

Philippine vinegar

Arenga. Made in Cavite, arenga vinegar is produced from the sap of the arenga pinnata tree (wild sugar palm tree) known as kaong or irok and fermented in burnay jars for months. It has a mild, smooth, aromatic, and distinctly sweet flavor.

Paombong. From the province of the Vinegar Capital of the Philippines, Paombong, Bulacan, its namesake vinegar is extracted from the sap of sasa or nipa palm. It is full-bodied with a delicate tingling sour to sweet taste.

Sinamak. This cane vinegar variety from Western Visayas is simply a spiced version which mixes cane or coconut vinegar with siling labuyo (bird’s eye or Thai chilies), onions, and garlic.

Sukang Iloko. Cane vinegar, made from sugar cane juice, is most popular in the Philippines. In the Northern region of Ilocos, sukang Iloko reigns supreme. It ranges from dark yellow to golden brown in color, and has a mellow flavor, somewhat similar to rice vinegar, with a fresher taste. It is often dubbed as sukang maasim and comes in two variants: basi (sweet) and suka (sour). Basi is used as a wine by Ilokanos, while the other type of vinegar is used as a condiment and a preservative.

Tuba (coconut sap). It is vinegar from fermented coconut sap or tuba produced in coconut-growing areas in the Philippines. It has a cloudy, white consistency with sharp, acidic taste and a slightly yeasty note.

Red, Hot Chili Pepper
The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper has a Scoville rating of 1,463,700 (SHU), making it the hottest chili in the world according to the Guinness World Records. Named after Australian Butch Taylor, owner of a hot sauce company who grows the peppers, the pepper is dubbed as the ‘scorpion’ because of the pointed end of the chili which resembles a scorpion’s stinger. The pepper is so strong that exposure to the eye or skin near the eyes when handling it could cause temporary blindness.
        Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat (or piquance) of a chili pepper. The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin, the chemical compound responsible for the pepper’s burning sensation. The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who devised the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912.


Spicy Vinegar

Ingredients
12.5 g sugar
10 g salt
475 to 300 ml vinegar (white, cane, or coconut vinegar)
45 g whole peppercorns
43 g sliced ginger
1 head garlic
1 medium-sized white onion
170 g siling labuyo (Thai bird’s eye chilies), fresh
empty pint-sized jar or tea bottle like Sola brand, dried and cleaned


Procedure
          In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, salt, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Set aside. Combine whole peppercorn, ginger, garlic, onion, and chili in a jar or bottle. Using a funnel, fill the bottle with vinegar then tightly cover. Shake bottle lightly. Allow mixture to cool and store in the refrigerator for 3 days to a week before using. The longer the storage time, the spicier the vinegar will become. Serve as condiment for fried and grilled food.

 

Bicol Express

Ingredients
700 ml oil or thick coconut milk
1 kilo pork, deboned and sliced into thin strips
1 large onion, peeled and chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
400 gms siling haba (green finger chillies), stems removed and sliced or 1/2 cup siling labuyo (Thai bird’s eye chilies)
10 g bagoong (shrimp paste)

Procedure
       In a pot, combine oil or coconut milk, pork, onion, and garlic and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the pork renders fat and meat is tender. Add chillies and continue cooking until sauce is thickened. Add bagoong and cook a minute longer.


Other edible gift suggestions:
• Crushed panocha in a jar
• Dried fish in a transparent bowl or garapon
• Salted red eggs in native bird basket