The Chabacano Picadillo

A few days ago, someone from Spain who purchased a copy of El Diutay Principe sent  this article about a Filipino dish called Picadillo. 

I never knew that this dish was called Picadillo (although a quick search online will confirm this). Since coming to Manila, I have only heard this dish being called Giniling in carenderias which means something that is ground.

The article also says that this dish is similar to the Spanish dish called jardinera. Interestingly, I found out that there is also a Filipino dish called hardinera.

When I was growing up in Zamboanga city, the dish I knew as Picadillo consisted of ground beef with cubed white squash which we called calabaza blanco.

Today, I chanced upon a post from the Lutong Cavite Facebook page talking about the Caviteño dish called Picadillo. The reason that I decided to write this article was because it was very similar to the Picadillo in Zamboanga city that I grew up with! Even the way the upo is sliced was the same.

The post says that the vegetable in this dish can either be Baguio beans (green beans), Upo (bottle gourd), Chayote, or potatoes. In my personal experience though, we only used upo or bottle gourd for our Picadillo in Zamboanga city. 

The Facebook post further explains that this is not anymore the Picadillo that is known by many Caviteños today (perhaps due to influence from immigrants).

Surprisingly, I found out through Facebook, that in Zamboanga city, the dish Picadillo is also no longer what I used to know it as. 

It seems like the dish I have always known as bopez (a dish made from raddish and beef lung) or bopis (in Tagalog) is now known as Picadillo. 

Upon researching about this, there may be a difference in how this dish is cooked in Zamboanga city. Looking at recipes online, I found out that adding raddish to this dish is unique to Zamboanga city. 

Interestingly, all the websites I found about this dish talked about how its name is Spanish in origin but that the meaning in its original language is already lost.

But is it really? Let's look at the Diccionario de la lengua española.

There you go. The origins of the name of the Filipino dish called bopis is indeed Spanish and it came from the word bofe meaning 'beef lung'.

Here is a list of websites that supports this.

Going back to Picadillo, perhaps because the term picadillo simply means ground meat in Spanish, any dish that has ground pork or beef (even beef lung) could be referred to as picadillo.

Here are some comments from the Facebook group Zamboanga de Antes talking about the dish Picadillo.

While there are people who know Picadillo only as the dish with ground beef and bottle gourd, it sounds like the other version of Picadillo also definitely exists and cannot be considered a 'recent invention'.

What about you? Which version of Picadillo do you know?