Rodolfo Lagua, a thirty-year California barbecue veteran of Filipino heritage, was the inspiration for this recipe. Lagua learned this way of preparing tri-tips from his friend Sammy Ariola, one of the area's first Filipino immigrants. "I have no money for you to inherit," said Ariola, as he lay on his deathbed, "but I'll give you the recipe for my marinade." Since then Lagua has won numerous barbecue contests with his Filipino-style tri-tips, raising thousands of dollars for Filipino community charities. He's now working on bottling the sauce commercially, once again as a fund-raiser. The interplay of salty, sweet, and sour is pure Filipino, and the lemon rind adds an intense blast of citrus flavor. I've adapted my approximation of Lagua's recipe to London broil; in the Tips [below] you'll find instructions for making tri-tips with this marinade. Lagua would serve the meat with boiled rice.
You won't find London broil on a meat cutter's chart — it can refer to any of four beef steaks that ordinarily tend to be on the tough side: flank steak, sirloin, top round, or bottom round. When thinly sliced against the grain on a sharp diagonal, all of these give you tender ribbons of meat. To make London broil with a flank steak, pick one that's about 3/4 inch thick. If you prefer sirloin or top or bottom round, it should be between 1 and 1 1/2 inches thick.
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36 Classic and Modern Filipino Recipes
These traditional (and sometimes not-so-traditional) recipes showcase some of the sweet, sour, and deeply savory notes characteristic of Filipino cuisine.
