I just had myself some fastfood nomz for dinner and in between bites, I couldn’t help but indulge myself with a little daydream. It started with a thought. “If I were back home in Manila, dinner would mean rice and ulam (viand) instead of greasy burger, lard fries, and sugar soda.” And then I went on to imagine a plateful of begukang babi, steaming white rice, with a banana on the side.

Yes, ladies like her also daydream with a nuninuninoo, albeit in fancy script.

Sadly, this isn’t a recipe post, it’s more of a mom-please-cook-this-for-me-when-I-come-home-post. This begukang babi I’ve been daydreaming about is the Kapampangan version of binagoongang baboy, or in English, pork with shrimp paste (the combo might sound weird to non Pinoys, but it’s nommy, I swear.).

It looks like this-

Homemade Begukang Babi

Unlike most binagoongan dishes in Manila, the Kapampangan version is more orange than pink, slightly sweeter, and is usually served with either sliced mangoes or bananas on the side. My Manila friends usually think it weird when they first see orange binagoongan with bananas or mangoes on white rice but as soon as they take their first bite, they wonder why they haven’t been doing it all along.

*Photo of lady nuninuninoo-ing and pink background ganked from the Internet, credits to original owners. We just tweaked it to our liking. ^^,