History Of Filipino Food
Lane Stefano
When we set out to produce an episode all about Filipino food, we knew we'd need a general overview of the cuisine of the Philippines: what it's like, what influenced its past, and how it's evolved to become the hottest new thing in the food world. We couldn't think of anyone better to turn to for this important lesson than Amy Besa; she's the award-winner author of Memories of Philippine Kitchens, and lovingly known as the "godmother of Filipino food in America." Besa and her chef-husband Romy Dorotan also own the Purple Yam restaurant in New York. Bring a taste of the Philippines to your table with her recipe for Ukoy, Filipino crispy shrimp and vegetable fritters.
Amy Besa: There are three dishes that are actually cooking methods; they are adobo, sinigang, and kinilaw. Kinilaw is like our version of ceviche. The sinigang is a sour broth, soured by citrus and sour fruit. And adobo has a Spanish name, but as the American food scholar Ray Sokolov said, he looked up all the adobos in the Latin hemisphere, and we're the only ones that braise our adobos with vinegar. When I traveled all over the Philippines I found these three dishes were cooked universally. What is great is that they are eaten from the richest to the poorest people. That's why I call them foods that were always ours. They are united by sourness; that's why I know they belong to us.
Adobo is a cooking method that plays with sourness and saltiness. The saltiness can come from different sources as well as the sourness can come from different vinegars. There are many types of adobo that do not use soy sauce all over the Philippines. There is adobo sa dilaw (yellow) which uses turmeric and many Visayans use achuete or annatto to give it color. Soy sauce is primarily used for color as well as a source of salt. The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7000 islands so the primary source of flavor is salt coming from the seas surrounding our islands. The Chinese came very early on. The first recorded transaction between Chinese and Filipino natives was in the 10th century hence the influence of soy sauce came at around that time. The history of soy sauce is also interesting as I have read that soy sauce came as a result of vegetarianism. Fish sauce came from Southeast Asia and as it reached China, soy sauce came about as a vegetarian alternative to fermented fish sauce.
FL: The Philippines was colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s. At the same time, there was a big rise in the Chinese traders who were moving there. What are some of the dishes we still see today that show the influence of the Chinese traders and the Spanish colonists?
AB: The first thing the Americans did was to prove to Filipinos that our diet of rice and fish was inadequate. We were a good market for American products, if you look at what was happening in the United States at that time: canned goods, evaporated milk, skim milk.
For me, one of the most obvious indigenized American products is the buko pie, the young coconut pie. Americans are all about the double-crusted pie, right? But then we filled it with young coconut, and it is such a classic. People think of it as Filipino. There are also a lot of chiffon cakes everywhere. Even the Chinese stores make chiffon cakes. So, that's the influence of the United States.
From a gastronomic perspective, throughout its history, the Philippines acted as a large stop for cultural food exchange. The Manila galleons of the Spanish Colonial era brought ingredients like chayote, avocado and papaya along with culinary ideas like the Mexican tamale to our shores, ultimately integrating these overseas food customs into our cooking. Over time, we replaced ingredients of the tamale with what was abundant in our native soil to make it our own. Filipino cuisine evolved by the intermixing of food brought along by traders, merchants, travelers and colonizers who passed through the island chain over the centuries. It is a melting pot and cross-cultural mash-up of Indonesian/Malaysian, Chinese, Spanish/Mexican and American food culture incorporated into local food traditions. Although centuries have passed, outside influence remains in our cuisine, ultimately adding depths of flavors and techniques unique to our culinary story.
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the 7,641-island nation was never ruled by one homogenous group of people or culture to establish a society with shared foods, customs and traditions. Instead, several tribes, maritime states and kingdoms such as the Tondo Kingdom of Luzon, Rajahnates of Cebu, and Islamic Sultans of Mindanao ruled independently from each other carving out their own territories in the region. Maritime Southeast Asia was based on customs of seafaring, trade, cultural exchange and migration. During this time, culinary practices in the region began to be established. Remnants of these food exchanges can still be seen today.
A Filipino daily food custom, merienda, is a small mid-day snack or meal before dinner. Often you will find Filipinos having coffee and snacking on a warm savory empanada pastry or a pork bun siopao. Some seek something sweeter like my personal favorite snack, puto bumbong. This rice cake is made out of glutinous rice that is often a dark purple color due to the local black rice and ube (purple yam) in the dessert mixture. The rice is first ground, soaked and dried. It is then shaped and placed in a bamboo tube to be steamed. Coconut oil is used to coat the steaming bamboo vessel so the rice cake can be easily shaken out of the tube and still retain its cylinder shape. Once out of the bamboo tube, the puto bumbong is topped with muscovado sugar and freshly grated coconut. The result is a warm, soft and chewy textured treat. The coconut and molasses flavored toppings are a perfect complement to the bamboo-steamed rice dish.
Pancit palabok is a succulent shrimp and pork based noodle dish found throughout the country. Elements of indigenous Chinese and Spanish cooking and ingredients make up the recipe. Shrimp, annatto oil, patis, garlic, celery, onions and carrots are slowly cooked together to make the sauce. Sauted ground pork and more shrimp are then tossed into the medley. Chopped green onion, flakes of tinapa (smoked fish), and chicharron shavings are spread atop the saturated noodles. Sliced Philippine citrus, calamansi, is added to provide a smack of acidity. The thin rice noodles mop every bit of the orange-hued sauce. Each savory component is tangled into varying combinations of crunch, smokiness and funkiness in each bite. Palabok is distinctly Filipino: layered, deep, dense and deliciously excessive.
During the colonial era, Spanish dishes were mainly prepared for the elite and for special occasions of the common Filipino. Mainly holidays and town fiestas were the only times when embutido, arroz valenciana or stews such as afritada and menudo made their way onto the dinner table. Nowadays, these dishes have been integrated into everyday cooking in Filipino households.
Pochero is essentially a rustic stew with comfort food qualities. The dish has a flavor base of sauted garlic, onions and tomatoes. The Iberian-derived stew is prepared with a choice of meat, chorizo, carrots and potatoes. Filipinos incorporated their local hearty greens like pechay into the pot. To counterbalance the umami-laden flavors of the meat-based stew, pan-fried saba bananas are added to finish the dish. The local cooking banana cleverly provides a delicious play of savory and sweet in the cocido.
Spanish recipes have not only been inherited but also adapted and changed to become something completely different. Take the case of ensaymada (by way of Mallorca), which evolved from a simple flour-based pastry with powdered sugar into a sweet-savory brioche type bun topped off with a sharp cheese, sugar and butter in the Philippines. The transculturation process of Spanish food in the Philippines shaped the identity of Filipino cuisine.
The American influence on Filipino cuisine most famously brought the ideas of convenience in food preparation such as canned foods, pre-packaged foods and fast food. Spam was first introduced to the Philippines during World War II and has been a staple in Filipino breakfasts ever since. Growing up, on Sunday mornings my mom prepared us spamsilog (spam, fried eggs and garlic rice). I still love this combination, and to really complete my meal only one condiment is needed: banana ketchup.
This sweet and tasty topping to a Filipino breakfast has origins in a tomato shortage in the country during World War II. With bananas in abundance throughout the tropical island, the sweet fruit appeared to be a good alternative to tomatoes for the locals. Smashed bananas were mixed with spices, vinegar, brown sugar and red food coloring (to get the ketchup red hue). The result is a deliciously sweet condiment, which can be found in every Filipino pantry.
We spoke with Nastasha Alli, writer and creator of the podcast Exploring Filipino Kitchens where she talks about Filipino food, history, culture, and travel. Nastasha will soon be published in the book The New Filipino Kitchen alongside Filipino chefs and other key figures in the Filipino food community. Over the last few years, she's become a go-to resource for all things Filipino food, and has led several initiatives and community events to share the beauty and diversity of Filipino cuisine in all its shapes, forms, and flavours.
Today, our community extends globally across oceans. We share with you this statement in solidarity with all displaced people as we hold each other in the complexity of diaspora experience. And we claim our responsibility to work in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and across racial lines in the struggle for our collective liberation.
Fernandez wrote a culinary history that, to that point, hadn't been given serious attention. In plain but beautiful language, she identified the indigenous and colonial influence behind the Filipino palate of salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. Food was more than the act of eating, though she certainly enjoyed that; it was a signifier of culture, and she saw writing about food as not only the work of columnists and restaurant critics but of cultural historians, essayists, novelists, and poets especially. "For it is an act of understanding, an extension of experience," Fernandez wrote in Tikim's introduction. "If one can savor the word, then one can swallow the world."
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