I was reading Stef’s post about sitaw [string beans in the Philippines or Chinese yard-long green beans as it is called in most Asian markets] in her blog Noodles and Rice and it reminded me of an incident and an entry I never got to post since leaving Brunei last March.

Indeed, there are loads of ways to cook long green beans. In Filipino cuisine, the sitaw is a versatile vegetable ingredient. It can be used for stews like kare-kare, vegetable dishes like pinakbet, soups like sinigang, or cooked adobo-style usually with slices of meat. These long beans however, are not cooked as a whole long bean, but broken into 3 to 4-inch segments with the fibrous strand that runs on the side of the pod removed.

Here’s one of the dishes [with sitaw, of course!] my good old friend Jovic prepared for me back in Brunei when I lost my taste buds and couldn’t cook my own meals. Yes, I literally lost my taste buds for two months [between February and March 2006] after arriving in Brunei from a one-week trip to Manila. It was a dreadful experience because the doctors in Brunei couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.

During the first few weeks, I was fine even though I couldn’t taste anything. I ate heartily and filled my tummy to the max just like a carpenter would! LOL! I relied mostly on hotel food, food deliveries, and meals cooked by friends. I became an expert in imagining the taste of a particular food! LOL! However, after a month, I started to panic because I couldn’t even swallow my food any more, no matter how hard I imagined what the taste was. I went to another doctor when I started losing appetite and weight! I was prescribed some medication which didn’t do any good.

Anyway, this dish was out of my craving for some kind of a spicy ‘crab-y’ dish and veggies cooked in coconut milk.

Ingredients and Method:

Wash and clean crabs and steam in a large pot for a few minutes until done. Set aside and cut into halves when cooled.

In a large sauce pan, saute garlic, onions, and chilies. When onions are cooked and transparent, add in cubed squash and string beans. Pour in coconut milk. Add fish sauce to taste. Simmer until vegetables are tender but not soggy. Remove from heat and arrange in a large serving platter. Retain some sauce in the pan.

In a large wok saute saute sliced ginger, chopped chilies and crabs for a couple of minutes. Pour in the remaining sauce from the vegetable stew and quick stir. Remove crabs and place on top of vegetables.

I don’t really eat crabs but surprisingly I enjoyed this dish even though I could only taste [or feel?] the zing of the chilies on my tongue! And guess what? I got back my taste buds on my first night here in Manila – while eating some ginataang tuyo for dinner in the ‘orfanage!’