My Food, My Culture

People often identify themselves by the country they live in, the language that they speak, and the foods that they eat. For those, such as myself, who live in America, have a hard time defining who they are and what their culture is. So I ask myself, “Who am I?”

My parents moved from the islands of the Philippines to the States in the 1970s. I was born in San Jose, CA. I am of Filipino descent, but I live in an English speaking country. I eat and love Filipino food, but I can’t speak Tagalog, the national language. I guess that makes me a Fil-Am, Filipino-American, as termed by the locals of the Philippines. Is the food I eat Fil-Am food also, or is it Filipino? I think it’s both.

Like many nations, food is an integral part of defining its culture. This is especially true for Filipinos. Any sort of gathering or party is not complete until there is food. Conversations, stories, and activities all revolve around food. Even a quick stop at my Lola’s (grandmother) house just to say hello is not complete until she forces me down at the table to eat something.

History

In order to understand the food culture of the Philippines, we must first examine the history of the nation. The Philippines is sometimes considered to be a nation without an identity. According to a Wikipedia article, entitled “History of the Philippines”, Spanish conquest and colonization began shortly after the arrival of Magellan in 1521. The Spanish rule lasted until1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War, in which the Philippines was handed over to the United States. The country prepared for independence, but that was interrupted by Japanese invasion during World War II. The Philippines finally gained its independence in 1946. Since then, the Philippines has been struggling to define a culture for itself.

The nation’s history shows the many cultural influences brought by the numerous hands of power. The largest contributing influence, which is most apparent in modern Filipino culture, is the Spanish, who ruled the Philippines for almost 400 hundred years. Cultural aspects from clothes to food have a large Spanish influence. They introduced tomatoes and garlic, sautéing them with onions in olive oil. This technique is used in many Filipino dishes. According to www.asiarecipe.com, more than 80 percent of Filipino dishes are Spanish-inspired. Many dishes served at parties, fiestas, and other special occasions have names like paella, embutido, relleno, and caldereta, all of which are also found in Spanish-speaking countries.

This makes me wonder if the Fil-Ams were the first to introduce this modern fusion style of Filipino cooking. But are we really the first? This notion of “East meets West” is something that pre-dates the discovery of America. Like I mentioned earlier, the Philippines is a country that has a hard time distinguishing its very own root culture. 20,000 years ago, the Ice Age created bridges between land masses. This enabled the Malays, who crossed over these land bridges, to be the first inhabitants of the Philippines. They brought with them dishes that are evident in today’s Filipino cuisine, such as kare kare, a meat and vegetable stew in peanut sauce. By 1000 AD, Chinese traders established coastal ports and colonies in the islands. They brought with them noodles, which has greatly influenced the Filipino noodle dishes, such as pancit, bihon, and sotanghon.

A Typical Filipino Meal

A typical Filipino meal is not just one dish, but a variety of dishes. In a book called Fine Filipino Food, Karen Bartell writes, “One difference between American and Filipino meals is the order of dishes served. American custom calls for soup or an appetizer, followed by a salad, followed by the entrée and side dishes, ending with desert. However, Filipino custom calls for placing all the dishes on the table at the same time, with diners deciding their own combination and sequence.”

On every Filipino table, you will find a bowl of rice. Rice is the basis for every meal, including breakfast. The rice terraces of Banaue, Philippines are iconic of Philippine landscape. They are over 3000 years old and today are maintained by a Filipino tribe called the Ifugao, who believe that rice has soul and is a provider of life, as written in Gerry G. Gelle’s book, Filipino Cuisine, Recipes from the Islands.

In today’s world of body conscious carb-avoiding diets, chefs try to eliminate rice from the dinner table, but in Filipino cuisine this is impossible to do. Rice is necessary to have a complete meal. As Karen Bartell puts it, “Rice is the blank canvas for each picture-perfect meal. Salty, sour, and spicy flavors are especially savory when eaten against the mild counterpoint of rice.”

Once we have rice on the plate, the ulam, or main dishes, comes next. In a typical Filipino meal, there is usually a starch dish, like pancit noodles, and a fish or meat dish, like adobo. This may seem like a lot of food. Well it is, but keep in mind that Filipino meals are usually eaten in the company of others. When you go to a Filipino restaurant, food is ordered “family style”, meaning the dishes are not individual meals, but are shared with the whole table. This shows the importance of food in Filipino culture.

Of the many dishes on the table, I will focus on my favorite dish, adobo. Adobo is a dish that consists of either chicken or pork marinated and cooked in a vinegar and soy sauce mixture with peppercorn and bay leaf. Adobo is considered to be the Philippines’ National dish because it has been recognized and tasted by many. It is one of the country’s most famous dishes. The story of adobo goes back to the days before modern refrigeration when there were issues with keeping the freshness of food. Vinegar was used to preserve meat because of its acidity, which retards bacteria growth (“Food Preservation”, Wikipedia.com). This same concept is applied to pickling. The vinegar in the adobo helps preserve the dish. The soy sauce comes from the Chinese traders that set up trading posts on the islands. Together the vinegar and soy sauce creates a delicious mixture of sour and salty tastes.

According to the article, “Adobo: A History of the Country’s National Dish” from The Asian Journal Blog, the Filipino word adobo refers to its Spanish use of a pickling sauce made with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, thyme, oregano, and paprika. The Mexican and Caribbean cultures also have an adobo sauce, with similar ingredients.

Here is a recipe for pork adobo, from Karen Bartell’s book, Fine Filipino Food.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless pork, cut into 1 1/2” cubes
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 cup palm or white vinegar
• 4 tbs soy sauce
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tbs salt, or to taste
• 1 cup water

Directions:

Brown the pork in oil in a large, non-aluminum skillet. (Aluminum will discolor with the vinegar, and taste weird.) Add vinegar, garlic, pepper, bay leaf, salt, soy sauce, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat; simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until the pork is thoroughly cooked. Serve steaming hot with rice.

For added flavor and texture, I like to add about a cup of sliced potatoes to the simmering meat.

For me, adobo is my favorite Filipino dish. I can recall the days of elementary school, while the other kids would be eating PB&J sandwiches, there I was with a Tupperware filled with rice and my mom’s best adobo.

The Other Side

As I grew up, I was exposed and introduced to the many cultures here in the States, expanding my palette of tastes. In middle school, I had a lot of Indian friends, so I learned to eat Indian food. I also had Chinese and Vietnamese friends, so I was exposed to Asian cuisine as well. Out of all the cultures I was exposed to, my favorite was the foods that were wrapped. When you think of wrapped foods, what comes to mind? For me, being a native Californian, it’s the Mission-style burrito. According to a former classmate, Laura Plantholt’s, blog, “School and the City”, in her article, “The San Francisco Burrito”, she writes:

“ The San Francisco (Mission-style) burrito got its start when farmers in the Central Valley of California needed a cheap filling meal to give their immigrant workers on their lunch break. Most of these workers came from Mexico and Central America. The giant tortillas stuffed with hot, filling ingredients was just the right fuel to keep the workers going all day.”

There is something about a wrapped burrito that makes it so appealing. I’m not talking about the kind you eat with a fork and knife, but the kind that’s wrapped in aluminum foil. Perhaps it’s the portability of it all. The fact that you can peel away the shiny protective layer, and out comes a complete meal wrapped in a steamy fluffy tortilla. Inside you will find a plethora of rice, meats, salsa, sour cream, and sometimes guacamole.

Considering that I classify myself as a Fil-Am, I often combine the Filipino culture and the California culture. It may seem weird to others, but I enjoy the portability and deliciousness of a Pork Adobo Burrito. It simply is an adobo and white rice dish gently placed inside a flour tortilla, topped with sour cream, pico de gallo salsa, and cheese. The combination of the Filipino culture and the California culture defines My culture. In appearance, it may look like an ordinary burrito, but it is necessary to taste the salty sour flavor of the pork adobo against the spiciness of the salsa and the creaminess of the sour cream to realize the existence of the fusion of the two cultures.

What is this that I have created? Is it really a fusion of two worlds? Or is it really one culture just using its ingredients on opposite sides of the world? I am sure that generations from now will look at this dish, just as I am, and trace back its cultural roots, only to find similar ingredients in each culture. Perhaps, in the future, fusion food will be the norm. Our generation is already half way there. In the book, The Meaning of Food, it is stated, “The food court at the mall, may even best symbolize just who we are as a culture […] We take our ethnicities in discrete bites – Thai for lunch, Mediterranean for dinner, tomorrow maybe Korean”. The notion of being able to go to a single building and have access to food from cultures all around the world, is quite thought provoking.  Maybe, in the extreme case, there will not be many different cultures, but a single global culture, recognized and consistent with all walks of life. Perhaps food will be in the form of a pill, or a vile of green solution. Whatever it is, I hope it tastes good.

Works Cited:

• “ADOBO: A History of the Country’s National Dish «.” The Asian Journal Blog. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://asianjournal.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/adobo-a-history-of-the-countrys-national-dish/>.
• Bartell, Karen H. Fine Filipino Food. New York: Hippocrene, 2003. Print.
• “Food Preservation.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 8 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_preservation>.

• Gelle, Gerry G. Filipino Cuisine: Recipes from the Islands. Santa Fe [N.M.: Red Crane, 1997. Print.
• Harris, Patricia, David Lyon, and Sue McLaughlin. The Meaning of Food: the Companion to the PBS Television Series. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot, 2005. Print.
• “History of the Philippines.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines>.

• “Philippine Food and Culture.” Asian Food Recipes, Asian Cooking Culture, Recipes from Thailand, Asia Foods Recipe, with Asia Herbs,asia Culture, Hinduism and Islamic Food Recipes, Food Ingredients, Recipe Glossaries and Cooking Techniques. Web. 9 May 2010. <http://asiarecipe.com/phifood.html>.

• Plantholt, Laura. “The San Francisco Burrito.” School and the City. Web. 14 May 2010. <http://school-and-the-city.blogspot.com/2009/03/san-francisco-burrito.html>.

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