Filipino cuisine is set to get a big boost next year.
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| http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/280115/filipino-cuisine-to-become-biggest-ethnic-food-trend-of-2018-says-report/ |
Like other immigrant populations before it, growing Filipino communities across the United States — from caretakers, nurses, tech and hospitality workers — have given rise to interest in Filipino cuisine, says the group.
Likewise, the Philippines’ biggest fast food chain, Jollibee, has been aggressively opening locations in the United States, introducing diners to dishes like Palabok Fiesta (a noodle dish served with shrimp sauce, topped with pork chicharon, tinapa flakes (smoked fish flakes), sauteed pork and slices of egg); and pineapple-topped burgers. The chain has 35 restaurants across the U.S., along with locations in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei.
“Most of the places where I’ve lived didn’t or still don’t have a single Filipino restaurant. Hardly anybody knows the cuisine. It’s always a struggle to make others understand what it really is all about.”
“By doing this book, I hope I can help raise awareness and memorability for our food and culture. And hopefully silence that voice in my head nagging me to do something for the motherland!”
Quite a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the OFWs. The world puts out the call for labor and Filipinos scramble at the chance to get out of the country and earn real money at a real job which some of them even trained for and still can't make a living off of like nursing. Naturally enough these people bring their customs with them which includes their culinary traditions. Enough Filipinos migrate to a country and the Philippines starts to follow them with restaurants like Jollibee opening up near by.
But is Jollibee an appropriate representative of Filipino food? Is McDonalds a representative of American food? No to both. Americans don't eat Big Macs, hash browns, french fries, and sundaes regularly at home. This is stuff you eat out at restaurants. Likewise with Jollibee.
But is Jollibee an appropriate representative of Filipino food? Is McDonalds a representative of American food? No to both. Americans don't eat Big Macs, hash browns, french fries, and sundaes regularly at home. This is stuff you eat out at restaurants. Likewise with Jollibee.
The normal meal for the average Filipino is rice plus fried fish or fried chicken or some other fried meat or vegetable. Not burgers. Spaghetti is usually reserved for celebrations and it is very sweet unlike Italian style spaghetti. The food pictured in this menu is restaurant food which does take a few cues from Filipino cuisine but remains essentially outside the realm of ordinary culinary experience and is not indicative of what Filipinos eat on a regular basis at home.
Jollibee is an aggressive imitation of McDonald's anyway.
Jollibee is an aggressive imitation of McDonald's anyway.
Worried that his store, which had just started selling burgers, might get floored by the new competition, Tan Caktiong, a Filipino of Chinese descent, took a leaf from the Chinese military tactician Sun Tzu: he flew to the United States to know his future enemy.
When he returned to the Philippines a few weeks later, Tan Caktiong brought with him an arsenal of ideas on how to fortify his store, called Jollibee, to face the newcomer.
As for the second article about the planned cookbook? Take look at the pictures at the link. The food is well presented and photographed nicely. It's trick photography designed to sell the consumer an idea. An idea which is far from reality. No food, be it Filipino or American or Chinese, looks that good.
"It’s always a struggle to make others understand what it really is all about."
I am sure it is difficult to tell others what Filipino cuisine is all about. But instead of romanticising or generalising the food, i.e. it's all about fish or chicken or pork, let's take a look at real examples of food Filipinos eat everyday. Admittedly these examples will come from restaurants. But these are not fast food restaurants and are therefore more representative of actual Filipino cuisine.
Roast chicken is very common sight and delicacy in the Philippines.
This is a restaurant featuring many homemade and authentic Filipino dishes. Yes that's a fly in the last picture. But never mind about that. When the fly lands on the food and rubs his legs he doesn't alter the taste of the food. So there's pork barbecue and lumpia and fish chopped up into various parts and whole lot of vegetable dishes. More variety here than at Jollibees. No spaghetti and no burgers. Will any of these dishes make the Filipino cookbook?
This restaurant has more variety than the previous one. Look at all those pots and pans. Each one containing something different. Beef and eggs, hot dogs and bologna, green beans, and various other dishes. This restaurant is also on the sidewalk right next to the road. Patrons and food alike are covered in smoke as the cars and trucks blast their exhaust. Eating at shanty restaurants is a common practice in the Philippines and I dare say it adds to the overall culinary experience.
Back to the Filipino cookbook.
“By doing this book, I hope I can help raise awareness and memorability for our food and culture. And hopefully silence that voice in my head nagging me to do something for the motherland!”
Now that I have presented faithful and accurate representations of Filipino cuisine I hope you can see what is wrong with this statement. For outsiders the memorability of Filipino food lies in it's grody presentation and taste. Foreigners around the world time and again tell of the horrors Filipino cuisine has wrecked on their stomachs. This cuisine is not palatable to the non-Filipino unless it is considerably cleaned up and presented beautifully. Of course Filipinos love their food and culture. That goes without saying. Food instills memories like eating cotton candy as an adult and remembering that time long ago at the fair when you were a child. It's a psychological fact that you are what you eat.
Proust taught us this long ago.
Proust taught us this long ago.
Undoubtedly what is thus palpitating in the depths of my being must be the image, the visual memory which, being linked to that taste, has tried to follow it into my conscious mind. But its struggles are too far off, too much confused; scarcely can I perceive the colourless reflection in which are blended the uncapturable whirling medley of radiant hues, and I cannot distinguish its form, cannot invite it, as the one possible interpreter, to translate to me the evidence of its contemporary, its inseparable paramour, the taste of cake soaked in tea; cannot ask it to inform me what special circumstance is in question, of what period in my past life.
https://www.fisheaters.com/proust.html
Anyone remember a couple years back when they said Filipino food would get a boost and make the international stage? Speaking of food. We went to a Japanese buffet style restaurant the other day day and what do the filipinos get? Filipino food.
ReplyDeleteSo is "Filipino Food set to become worldwide trend" a meme or rumour that springs up once in a while?
DeleteI remember when Filipinos praised that pinoy chef for his world break through culinary delight, yes sushi covered in Nutella. Then we cannot forget the article from that female visitor to the Philippines titled " I would rather starve than eat Filipino street food." Oh the outrage of the Filipinos over that one.
Delete