Filipino Food Offers Much Variety and Nuances in Taste and Flavor; Its Diversity Is an Asset Than a Liability |
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Sections - Food | |||
Written by Gov. Ben Sanchez | |||
Saturday, 05 June 2010 09:02 | |||
By Gov. Ben Sanchez T he Los Angeles Times published an article "Filipino Food: Off the Menu" on http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-filipino25-20100225,0,6202861.story
Here is the The Editor Dear Sir: In defense of Filipino food T his is in reference to the article, Filipino food: Off the menu (LA Times, Feb. 25, 2010, by Amy Scattergood. http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-filipino25-20100225,0,6202861.story featuring Filipino chefs working in Los Angeles who the author says grew up eating Filipino food although the cuisine “has yet to assimilate into mainstream culture, much less their restaurants.” Ms. Scattergood, for instance, quoted Filipino-American chef Andre Guerrero who, by the way, I commend for being voted Another Filipino-American featured is LA-based food blogger Marvin Gapultos who describes Filipino food as “regional (and) we don’t have one unifying dish; there’s adobo, but there’s about 7,000 ways to make it.” Does one unifying dish like hamburger or hotdog make a national cuisine any better? I would like to stress that having such a diverse culinary heritage certainly puts the Filipino at an advantage. Filipino food offers so much variety and nuances in taste and flavor and the diversity is an asset rather than a liability. In Author Scattergood remarks that the “diversity of people, landscape and (Philippine) history … is reflected in the haphazard etiology of the food.” To that, may I say, rather than dwell on the differences amongst the people, geography and the different foreign cultures that have colonized and influenced the Another LA-based Filipino chef Rodelio Aglibot says we probably have “one of the least understood cuisines: are we Pacific Islanders? Are we Asians? There isn’t a defined identity.” The Mary Jo Gore, a Filipino chef instructor at
Ms. Scattergood mentions the notion in her article that “if there are 7,000 adobo recipes, then only one of them is the one you grew up with.” To say that there are 7,000 such recipes is an understatement. Truth to tell, there are as many kinds of adobos as there are Filipino households. To treat adobo as a dish is incorrect. It IS a cooking technique, that is, it is the braising of any meat (chicken, pork, beef, quail, duck, venison, seafood, etc.), or vegetable in vinegar, garlic, black peppercorn and bay leaf, with regional variations or personal preferences in adding soy sauce, achuete (annatto or Mexican achiote), coconut cream, lemongrass or turmeric. It can be made like a saucy stew, or thickened with chicken liver, or the adobo-cooked meat may be pulled apart to be deep fried into crispy flakes. This versatility makes it the most popular and well-loved Filipino comfort food, along with sinigang, a clear-broth soup dish made sour with certain kinds of local fruit which, again, is used depending on the region or season when such fruit is available.
Filipino cuisine is ‘happy food.’ It is meant for sharing, just like most other Asian cuisines which are served family style. All said, in spite of all the political turmoil and economic setbacks the country has been plagued with since time immemorial, Filipinos are found to be the happiest people in T he sense I get as I read Ms. Scattergood’s article is that the Filipino-American chefs she interviewed seemed to be apologetic and/or ashamed of their cultural heritage. I wonder, could their having adapted to and excelling in the Western way mask an inordinate desire to belong and be accepted in the Western mainstream, leaving them at risk in forgetting their provenance (Ang taong di marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay di ....)? They have been away from the Aglibot asked rhetorically, “Why hasn’t Filipino food assimilated? Because it’s still assimilating.” On a final note: Filipino cuisine is “happy food.” It is meant for sharing, just like most other Asian cuisines which are served family style. All said, in spite of all the political turmoil and economic setbacks the country has been plagued with since time immemorial, Filipinos are found to be the happiest people in At this point, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite any or all of the Filipino-American chefs interviewed in the article to share a meal with me at Bale Dutung and reacquaint themselves with the food of their childhood and how it has evolved in these current, contemporary times. Ms. Scattergood, you’re very much welcome to come, as well. The tab is on me. Truly yours, Claude Tayag Bale Dutung,
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Last Updated on Saturday, 05 June 2010 09:19 |
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