Lakewood Ranch club cooks up cultural cuisine

Teresa Reeck learned some of her favorite lessons as a child while standing beside her family members in the kitchen of her home in the Philippines.

She loved the sweetness of coconut milk and bold, spicy flavors that were staples in her childhood kitchen. Reeck said she grew up eating adobo, a popular Filipino dish unofficially known as the "national dish."

Adobo can be cooked with chicken, pork, fish, squid, shrimp, vegetables and a range of other key ingredients. The common thread among the dishes is using vinegar, salt and garlic.

"The procedure makes it adobo more than the ingredients," Reeck said.

Now the Lakewood Ranch resident is educating her fellow members of the Asian Women's Club of Lakewood Ranch on Filipino cuisine. April 20, Reeck and club President Maria Cora Gaffar teamed up to cook and present the dish to a handful of women at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall during the group's monthly meeting.

Reeck's favorite part of cooking adobo is that it tastes better the second or third day, and can be cooked and prepped in one pot.

"It's simple and uses every day ingredients," Reeck said.

Next month, the women will taste a dish with South Korean origins.