TIKIM by Doreen Fernandez
Colonizing the Cuisine: The Politics of Philippine Foodways
Philippine foodways reflect Philippine history: foreign influences indigenized into a changing
culture
Study of food as culture can help in the understanding of national identity
Within the context of colonization, the study leads to an understanding of the fate of local culture
amidst the dominance of the cultures of the colonizers.
o Geography: We are able to drink from the fount of three physical and cultural worlds: the
Asian, the Pacific and the Occidental.
o The Culture and the People
A gathering of related yet different ethnic cultures
Since all these people live in the same Island, draw sustenance in the same
landscape, their foodways have similarities.
The Chinese barters and pansit.
Christianity, Islam and food for feasting and fasting.
American colonization, McDonization
What is Philippine Food?
o Precolonial food from Malay.
o Foreign influences
Chinese-barely recognized to be foreign
Spanish-mainly fiesta food
American-food of speed and convenience, reinforced by education and the
media
o All of the Above
since they are adjusted to the Filipino palate (indigenized)
usual means: sawsawan and relish
The Politics of Food in the Philippines
o Factors:
Status symbol: Hispanic food for special occasions.
Media: Reinforces American food through advertisements.
Formalization: Filipino dishes in fine dining restaurants are merely tokens.
Urbanization: Rural restaurant scenes are less penetrated by these foreign
influences.
o Indigenous cuisine wins out in the power play if the criteria are geographic spread and
breadth of market.
Similar to the vernacular languages
o But in terms of media publicity and hype, the colonial cuisines win.
o The power belongs to the lowly, the staying power and assertive power, but they have
little flash and projection.
Salty and Sour, Bitter and Sweet: Philippine Flavorings
The 4 flavors that dominate the Philippine palate:
o SALTINESS or ALAT
Example: tuyo, daing
Source: asin, patis, bagoong
o SOURNESS or ASIM
Example: sinigang, sinampalukang manok, tinola, paksiw, adobo
Source: sampalok, panuka, suka
o BITTERNESS or PAIT
Example: mostly found in the cuisine of the Ilocos region
And so the Ilokanos, begin their day not with mapait na kilawin, but with kilawin
na may papait—as a confirmation of a way of seeing, a way of living a credo.
o SWEETNESS or TAMIS
Example: preserved fruits, rice desserts
Source: asukal
Manamis-namis and pakla
Conclusion
o Filipino flavors are drawn from the flavors and flavorings available on the land.
o Main Reasons for these flavors to come about:
Practical purposes: to preserve, surplus of raw foods, efficient use of resources
Flavor against the blandness of rice
To keep cool under the hot weather
Legacies of nature
Balut, Kamaru, Sawa: What Exotica Do You Eat?
Exotic:
o that which you are not used to eating; not your usual childhood fare (hindi kinagisnan)
o a way of seeing, and adventure is its other side
Chinese cuisine is legendary for its adventure.
Filipinos have absorbed Western inhibitions through Americanization
Why do we have “exotica”?
o We are close to the source.
o We consider them biyaya ng lupa.
o Alegre: “For the poor, every little possibility help”
o It would seem that everything starts from being exotic.
Balut to Barbeque: Philippine Streetfood
Street food as a lifestyle.
Main criteria: ambulance, impermanence, transience
Types:
1. “Walking” Street Food
Doings of early Chinese vendors
Examples: mangga, taho, peanuts
Taking advantage of the traffic
Pagkakaroon ng suki
2. Sitting Vendors
Examples: home products like banana cue, carinderia
Left overs are consumed by the household
“SOP in carinderias”
Usually found near establishments
3. Market and Churchyard Food
Examples: breakfast foods in the market, Christmas nostalgia
These are the places where provincial delicacies are remembered.
Products usually require ingredients/methods found in the province.
Products cannot be found in restaurants (too “ordinary”)
4. School Street Food
Example: corn, ice drop, dirty ice cream, ice scramble, fishball
Vendors make their own sawsawan
5. Food at Office, Factory and Construction Sites
Pantawid gutom: sandwich, siomai, siopao
6. Transportation Center (terminals)
One could survey regional specialties from a bus.
Pang-pasalubong
7. Barbecue
Pop, amusing names
8. Balut Vendor
Agulto: One can call it the national street food of the Philippines.
Reasons
o Economic factor
Small , fast, cash operation
Means of earning
Fills the need of people
o Cultural Factors
Filipino Meal has leeway of time, space and character (few dishes are for a
specific meal.)
o We are comfortable with street food (not different from home-cooked meals)
o Pantawid gutom to major meals.
Filipino Idea of Community:
o From the practices of agricultural and riverine communities
o Congeniality among vendors and consumers of street food
Tabu
o One brought what one grew, caught, made, or cooked
o Filling the spaces consecrated by the culture as communal.
