La Molo

[Queila Neubecker]

Pancitmolo is a native dish that bears resemblance to Chinese wonton soup. Made with chicken broth, it contains rounded pork and shrimp dumplings mixed with shredded chicken, spring onions, and fried garlic. As the name suggests, it comes from the town of Molo, once the center for trade and commerce in Panay Island, and the designated Chinese quarter during the Spanish colonial period.

History shows that the Chinese began trading in Panay as early as the 10th century, bartering silk and porcelain with agricultural products from the locals. Like in many places around the Philippines, some of these merchants eventually married native women and brought pieces of their culture inside their homes. This might explain why a dish like pancit molo came to be, featuring ingredients like ground pork, chives, and wheat-based wonton wrappers also commonly found in other popular Chinese dishes.

Eventually, after going through the painstaking process of extracting the juice from the shrimp heads, and folding and drying the molo balls, combining everything in the main pot came easier. I watched the molo balls swirl as I took a spoonful of light amber soup, surprised by the savory outcome of my own dish. At dinner, I asked my dad how he liked it; he was the closest reference I had to the original chef.

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