Raw leafy vegetable salad tossed with a dressing is not a native concept in filipino cuisine. Serving a garden-style salad ahead of the main dish was not a native practice either until the american occupation that began in 1898 and ended in 1946, and urbanites slowly adopted it. Serving side dishes made with vegetables are, however, a native practice. They were not considered salads in the western context but more of the plant component in a meat or seafood meal. Think of them as a desirable accompaniment, not exactly essential but their addition turns generic fish and rice, for instance, into a uniquely filipino meal. The most ubiquitous mixture would be diced salted duck eggs and tomatoes, which needs no dressing, as the natural tartness of the tomatoes and the saltiness of the duck eggs provide all the flavors that the mixture needs. There are green mangoes, tomatoes, and onions tossed with bagoong (fermented fish or shrimp paste), the filipino equivalent of the indonesian and malaysian belacan. Either can go with grilled or fried chicken, meat, or fish. Then, there's lato (a local seaweed that looks like miniature grapes) dipped in freshly-squeezed kalamansi juice, a traditional accompaniment for grilled fish. If you are living in the western hemisphere and have no access to ingredients like salted duck eggs, green mangoes, bagoong, or lato, you can still have a taste of traditional filipino side vegetable dishes in another formpickled vegetables. These native pickled vegetables are called buro and the process of pickling is called binuro, a method of preservation. The pickling solution can be sweet and sour (as in the case of atsara which is made with green papaya), salty or salty and sour, depending on the regional origin and the food to be pickled (the term and process are also used in fish and other seafood preservation). There is also a school of thought that it is not "Binuro" Unless allowed to ferment for a couple of days. In this recipe, a medley of vegetables is soaked in a sweet and sour pickling solution. Fermentation is skipped and the pickled vegetables are kept in the fridge.
