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—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—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.
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