We all love to eat and we all have our favorite dishes. One of my favorites is the chicken sopas, which is great for any time but perfect for the rainy season. I’ll share with you how to cook my own homemade chicken sopas, which uses penne instead of the usual macaroni.

Suam na Mais is a classic Filipino soup which consists of corn kernels sautéed with shrimps, in a clear broth with spinach leaves and flavored with fish sauce (“patis”). Use either regular soup stock or rice wash, which is called "hugas bigas" for the broth. I took advantage of the sweet corn season this summer by using 4 large ears for this recipe

Juliet Lazo Rivera of Vigan made miki for me, the quintessential noodle soup of the Ilocos. There was boiling broth in a caldero (pot) that contained a rich mixture of chopped shrimps, beef and chicken flavored with juice from crushed chicken bones and bagoong isda (fish paste), then colored by achuete (annatto).

Iloilo is a Philippine city in the central island of Panay, located in the Western Visayas Region. It had the distinction of being called “Queen City of the South,” because of its continued loyalty to the Spanish crown during the Philippine revolution (Nowadays, the title likely refers to Cebu City, also in the Visayas Region). Each year in January, the city celebrates one of the most colorful and joyous festivals — the Dinagyang.

You don’t encounter a lot of recipes using chayote (sayote) fruit. In the Philippines, it is most commonly used to prepare chicken tinola. But chayote fruit can be quite versatile. Sliced into tiny pieces, you can mix it with ground beef and other greens to make a hearty and filling soup dish. In fact, if you’ve tried upo or bottle gourd, you will find that chayote fruit can have the same taste and texture.

Misua Soup with Vegetables and Meatballs is made with wheat noodles or ‘Chinese vermicelli noodles’. This is a classic Filipino soup and easy to make any day. My mother cooked this often when we were children especially because my younger sister was a picky eater. Misua soup was the only thing my little sister ate then. Start with a good soup stock and mix in the meatballs, noodles, vegetables and beaten egg.

What does a healthy cup of soup and Filipino longganisa (sausage) have in common? Nothing. But it doesn’t mean they can’t go together in your kitchen cooking.

Boil chopped goat innards until tender. Then, sauté garlic, onion and ginger for a minute. Mix the boiled and drained goat innards to the sautéed vegetables for about 5 minutes. Pour the goat stock and put the jalapeno and bring to a boil for another 10 minutes. Add beef base and salt and pepper to taste. Add the goat bile. Then, garnish with fried or toasted garlic and chopped spring onion before serving.

Place water, onions and tomatoes in a saucepan and bring to boil, then cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add beans, hot pepper, garlic, tamarind water solution, fish sauce and salt, then re-cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Add shrimps and cook for a further 8 minutes. Turn off heat and add spinach, then cover and allow to cook in own steam for 10 minutes.