What is Filipino food anyway?

April is Filipino Food Month. You may wonder why we even celebrate something so obvious, so seemingly ordinary and everyday like local food. That’s because many of us do not remember what real Filipino food is. It is not Filipino just because it is served at home. So what comprises Filipino food?

For me it is what our pre-colonial ancestors cooked. It is also what has evolved with what the Spaniards taught us for 400 years and then sprinkled with 50 years of America. Did you know that our taste profile is affected more by the American occupation than the Spanish conquest?

A discussion among beverage and snack experts revealed that we are the only country in Asia that prefers cheese-flavored snacks. If you went to China, it is difficult to find cheese-flavored snacks. Or in Indonesia, Malaysia or Vietnam. But in the Philippines, cheese, thanks to America, ranks high in the flavor profile preference.

How about coffee? We are the only country in Southeast Asia that prefers coffee to tea, grows coffee not tea and is one of the highest per capita drinkers of coffee in any form in the world. Could you give credit to Spain for bringing the first Liberica or Barako coffee plants to Lipa? The Americans for bringing Arabica to Benguet? How did we learn to drink more coffee than tea? It truly has a lot to do with history, colonizers and then the current proliferation of US coffee chains in the country.

We are just so glad that after working on coffee promotion for the last 20 years, our Philippine coffees are priced higher than other origins, giving farmers the impetus to continue propagating the crop.

Then there are the discussions about adobo. Our national dish that everyone has debated about due to its various styles of preparation and cooking ware (palayok, Le Creuset or stainless steel cookware). In any case, adobo remains to be a staple not only because of its sour-salty-peppery flavor, but because it can stand no refrigeration and is a true mainstay in all classes of society. It makes for a perfect lunchbox viand or a standby food in every home.

We also discuss food security during Filipino Food Month. Why do we need to support local farmers despite the sometimes more expensive tags the products carry? Because it is not always about scale and retail price, even if China-grown carrots are perfect and smooth. We like to promote ugly vegetables grown in organic farms and those that come from heirloom seeds or open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) rather than GMO and hybrids. We like to help farmers who cannot scale up by sending them to chefs who appreciate their value and serve them to consumers who can help appreciate these natural-grown uglies.

What about rice? With so much rice imports and a myriad of varieties available, what should we look for when buying rice? I personally look for freshly-milled rice, not laon or “old rice” as I find the texture of new rice more palatable. This is why I talk to a rice farmer and buy what I can on a regular basis, even if I do not eat much of the grain. I should be eating more rice than bread, because bread comes from wheat which we do not grow. So wheat is 100 percent imported and is affected by world market price for oil and other commodities. And with the Ukraine situation, wheat prices will shoot through the roof. Maybe we can instead use rice flour, as in for puto and bibingka, and other flours like camote and banana flour, which we have a lot of.

On local fruits, what is really local are those that grow and what we can find in every sari sari store like banana and papaya. When in season, we have watermelon, starapple and lanzones.

It is not Fuji apple and kiatkiat that’s local. We must teach our children about local citrus like calamansi, dalanghita and dayap. Not Valencia oranges. Or orange juice. How about promoting buko juice instead. Again, as our palates are trained with juice drinks and powdered orange flavored drinks, our children will also shape their palate to like those flavors instead of our local juice counterparts like mango juice.

The other most discussed recipe is for sinigang or our very own sour stew. I think this could not have come from the Americans or Spaniards. This must be original Filipino. And the souring ingredients come from one’s backyard – sampalok, kamias or calamansi in Luzon. In Negros or Panay they use batwan. In Mindanao they use tabon-tabon. Is it not interesting that everyone can cook sinigang, but the souring ingredient depends on the location as we have different sour fruits in every province.

The other sour recipe is paksiw – anything with vinegar and some distinct local vegetables like eggplant, ampalaya and chilies. But the vinegar used could have come from rice or coconut. And they are called by different names depending on their source. And once the vinegar further ferments, it does turn to alcohol for drinking and entertainment like lambanog, basi and tuba.

It’s interesting that Filipinos now also make wine from fruits like lipote, bignay and duhat. But wine-makers we are not, in the true sense of the word, as we do not grow grapes in quantity, even if some have tried to propagate grapes. Best we stick to lambanog and our award-winning rums.

If you start to be mindful about Filipino food, it will tell you something about history. How our forefathers used an animal from nose to tail to avoid waste and to not need refrigeration. This is why we have tokwa’t baboy, bopis and other dishes using unfamiliar parts of an animal. Why we have tapa to use parts that can be hung dry, smoked and preserved. Thanks to advocates like chef Jam Melchor, who has made it possible to make this an official celebration year in and year out. And thanks to Slow Food (www.slowfood.com) which has influenced us to save our food heritage.

We do have many influences from the Spanish and Americans, but what we have now is Filipino food colored by history, a tapestry of influences brought about by travels to other places and influences also from our Asian neighbors.

Happy Filipino Food Month!

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Visit the Filipino Food Month FB page and the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement (PCHM) on FB and Instagram.