Garlic

Garlic, called "bawang" or "ajos" in the Philippines, is known for both its culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking. It is a fundamental component not just in Philippine and Asian cuisines but also in the other parts of the world. We often pair it with onion and tomatoes, a good pair for sautee.
Garlic is claimed to help prevent heart disease including atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and cancer. Garlic is also alleged to help regulate blood sugar levels. Oh, I remember my grandmother eating a whole bunch of this pungent spice, that is why.

With mortar and pestle, one can crush it into pieces. But what I usually do is first separate it into cloves, cut the harder tip and peel the skin. I then slice it into preferred size. Easy.

Ginger

"Luya" or "luy-a", a fragrant spice of a root crop family, has been used as a medicine in Asian, Indian and Arabic herbal traditions since ancient times. Ginger contains up to 3% of an essential oil that causes the fragrance of the spice. "Salabat", the Filipino version of the powdered ginger tea is said to be a good help to common cough and colds, and a relief to hoarseness. In addition to its medicinal uses, ginger continues to be valued around the world as an important cooking spice and is believed to help the common cold, flu-like symptoms, headaches, and even painful menstrual periods.

You can just wash the ginger in cold water before using it without even peeling it, especially if you are just gonna need a minimal ginger flavor. You can crush it, add it to the concoction and can just remove it after about 2-3 minutes. But if you are using it together with the dish, here is one tip that you can use. It's fairly hard to peel a ginger, admit it. What you can do is just to slowly slide the knife on its skin, not to "really" peel it. A peeler can come in handy but you might find it a little hard to do the curves. So just slide the knife from top to tip putting a little pressure, then just slice it to your preferred size. One can crush it for a more fragrant and spicy taste.

Bell Pepper

Derived from its 'bell' shape, "sili" is a type of large mild chili pepper that is considered by many to be without heat. It is mostly considered a vegetable rather than a spice because of its mild chili taste, though some people also find it slightly hot. Bell peppers are green while developing and then ripen to a variety of colours, of which red and yellow are the most common but purple and orange are also found.

Placing bell peppers in a preheated broiler or griller can add a distinctive smokey flavor. Bell peppers are commonly added to pizza, stir-fry, and sweet and sour. They can also be opened at the top and deseeded, then stuffed and baked. To prepare bell peppers, slice it horizontally in half, deseed it and slice it to preferred size.