Chinoy cooking class

When I got back to Manila my first order of business was to find a Filipino cooking class. I saw that Heny Sison, a professional cooking school, was offering a one day mami and siopao course, so I jumped on it.

Mami (noodle soup) and siopao (steamed buns) are both Filipino variations of Chinese dishes, and in fact, our teacher, Katherine Sion, was a genuine Chinoy--she was born in the Philippines to Chinese parents and married a Filipino.

It was interesting taking a class for professionals--much more serious than others I have taken. I went with a friend and we were the only ones there who weren't Filipino and who weren't planning on making siopao for a living (although I'm considering the idea). Siopao are often sold on the street, and one of the career paths I am considering is running a roach coach.


Beef mami before


Beef mami after


Hands-on demonstrations


Katherine making sure that everyone understands how important good stock is


Filling for the special siopao--pork, chicken, salted egg, Chinese sausage


Siopao showing varying degrees of skill on the part of my classmates to wrestle them into shape


Siopao, post-steaming


I snuck into the cake decorating class upstairs