Food as Culture

Philippine food was shaped by the land in which it was born, and so were its cooking processes, ingredients, ways of serving, and social functions. Seven thousand one hundred islands, one the longest coastline in the world. Predominance of plains with occasional mountain ranges, forests as well as seas and rivers. All these laid down the factors for indigenous food throughout the country through the centuries.

Spanish and American colonization before independence, history and trade relations, brought influences that made an impact on Philippine food causing adaptation and indigenization. Society – the ways people lived and managed their lives, families and communities -  finally determined how food was cooked and tasted, how and when it was served, how it was savored and regarded, what it meant and said.

Food may shape events or celebrations that become cultural norms, or assimilate into another culture, become intrinsic to it, and then work to shape or drive agricultural demands and practices. In this context, any meal is more than a sustenance…but culture.

An indigenized version of the Mexican tamal through the galleon trade under the vice royalty of Spain is the Philippine tamal “tamales” found in Mexico in the central plains of the Philippines.  It is a steamed delicacy made with a mixture of ground white and brown (toasted) rice, ground peanuts and coconut milk topped with strips of chicken, chorizo and slices of hard boiled eggs or red eggs (salted) and wrapped in banana leaves.

What is Filipino Food? 

The Philippines country culture starts in a tropical climate divided into rainy and dry seasons and an archipelago with 7,000 islands. The population—120 different ethnic groups and the mainstream communities of highlanders, lowlanders and sea dwellers—worked within a gentle but verdant environment. Malays, the early inhabitants shaped their own life ways: building houses, weaving cloth, telling and writing stories, ornamenting and decorating, preparing food. 

The Chinese who came to trade sometimes stayed on. They cooked the noodles at home; certainly they used local condiments and taught their Filipino wives their dishes, and thus Filipino-Chinese food came to be. The names identify them:

• pansit (Hokkien for something quickly cooked) are noodles;
• lumpia are vegetables rolled in edible wrappers;
• siopao are steamed, filled buns;
• siomai are dumplings

All, of course, came to be indigenized—Filipinized by the ingredients and by local tastes. Today, for example, Pansit Malabon has oysters and squid, since Malabon is a fishing center; and Pansit Marilao is sprinkled with rice crisps, because the town is within the Luzon rice bowl.

When restaurants were established in the 19th century, Chinese food became a staple of the pansiterias, with the food given Spanish names for the ease of the clientele: this comida China (Chinese food) includes arroz caldo (rice and chicken gruel); and morisqueta tostada (fried rice).

When the Spaniards landed, the food influences they brought were from both Spain and Mexico, as it was through the vice-royalty of Mexico that the Philippines were governed. This meant the production of food for an elite, nonfood-producing class, and a food for which many ingredients were not locally available.

• Fil-Hispanic food had new flavors and ingredients—olive oil, paprika, saffron, ham, cheese, cured sausages—and new names.

• Paella, the dish cooked in the fields by Spanish workers, came to be a festive dish combining pork, chicken, seafood, ham, sausages and vegetables, a luxurious mix of the local and the foreign.

• Relleno, the process of stuffing festive capons and turkeys for Christmas, was applied to chickens, and even to bangus, the silvery milkfish.

• Christmas, a new feast for Filipinos that coincided with the rice harvest, came to feature not only the myriad native rice cakes, but also ensaymadas (brioche-like cakes buttered, sugared and cheese-sprinkled) to dip in hot thick chocolate, and the apples, oranges, chestnuts and walnuts of European Christmases.

• Even the Mexican corn tamales turned Filipino, becoming rice-based tamales wrapped in banana leaves.

• The Americans introduced to the Philippine cuisine the ways of convenience: pressure-cooking, freezing, pre-cooking, sandwiches and salads; hamburgers, fried chicken and steaks.

Add to the above other cuisines found in the country along with other global influences:

• French,
• Italian,
• Middle Eastern,
• Japanese,
• Thai,
• Vietnamese

On a buffet table today one might find, for example, kinilaw na tanguingue, mackerel dressed with vinegar, ginger, onions, hot peppers, perhaps coconut milk; also grilled tiger shrimp, and maybe sinigang na baboy, pork and vegetables in a broth soured with tamarind, all from the native repertoire.

Alongside there would almost certainly be pansit, noodles once Chinese, now Filipino, still in a sweet-sour sauce. Spanish festive fare like morcon (beef rolls), embutido (pork rolls), fish escabeche and stuffed chicken or turkey might be there too. 

The centerpiece would be lechon, spit-roasted pig, which is Roman in origin but bears a Spanish name, and may therefore derive from cochinillo asado. Vegetable dishes included an American salad and a pinakbet. The dessert table would surely be richly Spanish: leche flan (caramel custard), natilla, yemas, dulces de naranja, membrillo, torta del rey, etc., but also include local fruits in syrup like coconut, santol, guavas and American cakes and pies. The global village may be reflected in shawarma and pasta. The buffet table and Filipino food today is thus a gastronomic telling of Philippine history.

What really is Philippine food, then? Indigenous from its geographical environment: food from land and sea, field and forest. Also and of course: dishes and culinary methods from China, Spain, Mexico, and the United States, and more recently from further abroad.

What makes them Philippine?

The history and culture that introduced and adapted them; the people who turned them to their tastes and accepted them into their homes and restaurants, and especially the harmonizing cultural heritage that combined them into contemporary Filipino fare.