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Philippine
Food
What is
Filipino Food?
by Doreen Fernandez
(Excerpted
from The Food of the Philippines: Authentic Recipes
from
the Pearl of the
Orient.
Text and recipes by Reynaldo G. Alejandro.
Introductory articles by Doreen G. Fernandez,
Corazon S. Alvina, and Millie Reyes.)
The
Philippines country culture starts in a tropical
climate divided into rainy and dry seasons and an
archipelago with 7,000 islands.These isles contain
the Cordillera mountains; Luzon's central plains;
Palawan's coral reefs; seas touching the world's
longest discontinuous coastline; and a multitude of
lakes, rivers, springs, and brooks.
The
population -- 120 different ethnic groups and the
mainstream communities of
Tagalog/Ilocano/Pampango/Pangasinan and Visayan
lowlanders&emdash;worked within a gentle but lush
environment. In it they shaped their own lifeways:
building houses, weaving cloth, telling and writing
stories, ornamenting and decorating, preparing
food.
The
Chinese who came to trade sometimes stayed on.
Perhaps they cooked the noodles of home; certainly
they used local condiments; surely they taught
their Filipino wives their dishes, and thus
Filipino-Chinese food came to be. The names
identify them: pansit (Hokkien for something
quickly cooked) are noodles; lumpia are vegetables
rolled in edible wrappers; siopao are steamed,
filled buns; siomai are dumplings.
All,
of course, came to be indigenized -- Filipinized by
the ingredients and by local tastes. Today, for
example, Pansit Malabon has oysters and squid,
since Malabon is a fishing center; and Pansit
Marilao is sprinkled with rice crisps, because the
town is within the Luzon rice bowl.
When
restaurants were established in the 19th century,
Chinese food became a staple of the pansiterias,
with the food given Spanish names for the ease of
the clientele: this comida China (Chinese food)
includes arroz caldo (rice and chicken gruel); and
morisqueta tostada (fried rice).
When
the Spaniards came, the food influences they
brought were from both Spain and Mexico, as it was
through the vice-royalty of Mexico that the
Philippines were governed. This meant the
production of food for an elite, nonfood-producing
class, and a food for which many ingredients were
not locally available.
Fil-Hispanic
food had new flavors and ingredients -- olive oil,
paprika, saffron, ham, cheese, cured
sausages&emdash;and new names. Paella, the dish
cooked in the fields by Spanish workers, came to be
a festive dish combining pork, chicken, seafood,
ham, sausages and vegetables, a luxurious mix of
the local and the foreign. Relleno, the process of
stuffing festive capons and turkeys for Christmas,
was applied to chickens, and even to bangus, the
silvery milkfish. Christmas, a new feast for
Filipinos that coincided with the rice harvest,
came to feature not only the myriad native rice
cakes, but also ensaymadas (brioche-like cakes
buttered, sugared and cheese-sprinkled) to dip in
hot thick chocolate, and the apples, oranges,
chestnuts and walnuts of European Christmases. Even
the Mexican corn tamal turned Filipino, becoming
rice-based tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The
Americans introduced to the Philippine cuisine the
ways of convenience: pressure-cooking, freezing,
pre-cooking, sandwiches and salads; hamburgers,
fried chicken and steaks.
Add
to the above other cuisines found in the country
along with other global influences: French,
Italian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Thai,
Vietnamese. They grow familiar, but remain
"imported" and not yet indigenized.
On
a buffet table today one might find, for example,
kinilaw na tanguingue, mackerel dressed with
vinegar, ginger, onions, hot peppers, perhaps
coconut milk; also grilled tiger shrimp, and maybe
sinigang na baboy, pork and vegetables in a broth
soured with tamarind, all from the native
repertoire. Alongside there would almost certainly
be pansit, noodles once Chinese, now Filipino,
still in a sweet-sour sauce. Spanish festive fare
like morcon (beef rolls), embutido (pork rolls),
fish escabeche and stuffed chicken or turkey might
be there too. The centerpiece would probably be
lechon, spit-roasted pig, which may be Chinese or
Polynesian in influence, but bears a Spanish name,
and may therefore derive from cochinillo asado.
Vegetable dishes could include an American salad
and a pinakbet (vegetables and shrimp paste). The
dessert table would surely be richly Spanish: leche
flan (caramel custard), natilla, yemas, dulces de
naranja, membrillo, torta del rey, etc., but also
include local fruits in syrup (coconut, santol,
guavas) and American cakes and pies. The global
village may be reflected in shawarma and pasta. The
buffet table and Filipino food today is thus a
gastronomic telling of Philippine
history.
What
really is Philippine food, then? Indigenous food
from land and sea, field and forest. Also and of
course: dishes and culinary procedures from China,
Spain, Mexico, and the United States, and more
recently from further abroad.
What
makes them Philippine? The history and society that
introduced and adapted them; the people who turned
them to their tastes and accepted them into their
homes and restaurants, and especially the
harmonizing culture that combined them into
contemporary Filipino fare.
Related
Articles About the Republic of the
Philippines:
courtesy
of the Official Websites of the Philippine
Department of Tourism
please visit www.wowphilippines.com.ph and
www.tourism.gov.ph for more information
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