PHILIPPINE GASTRONOMY PRELIM The information we have about prehistoric

REVIEWER Filipino eating habits is based solely on

archeology. For instance, excavations in Solana,
Cagayan discovered rice husks and stems dating
back 3,500 years.
CHAPTER 1
In Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, 10 th- to 13th-
century yellow fin tuna bones were found with
GASTRONOMY and TOURISM tabon-tabon, a native fruit.

This according to the late food anthropologist

Doreen Gamboa Fernandez, suggests that
 Applies to tourist and visitors who “kinilaw may be one of the most ancient of the
plan their trips partially or totally in Philippine foods and methods of preparation.”
or totally in order to taste the cuisine
of the place or to carry out activities
related to gastronomy. Kinilaw and numerous other indigenous cooking
methods have survived the many foreign
 Another name gastronomy tourism influences brought about either by trade,
is “ Culinary tourism or Food contact, or colonization.
tourism”
The earliest and most persistent food influence
 GASTRONOMIC TOURISM refers must have come from the Chinese traders who
to trips made to destination where regularly visited the Philippines as many as five
the local food and beverages are the centuries before Magellan.
main motivating factors for travel.
There are a few references in Chinese
chronicles from the 14th century that are
thought to refer to the country, a land called
 FOOD & TOURISM
“Ma-Yi” by Chinese traders.
- play a major part in the We can speculate with some confidence that
contemporary experience Chinese cooking methods were incorporated
economy. into the local cuisine and local ingredients were
 FOOD substituted, but more research is needed to
specifically identify these influences.
- is a key part of all cultures, a
The written history of the Philippines begins in
major element of global intangible
earnest in 1521, when the Spanish expedition
heritage and an increasingly
led by Ferdinand Magellan landed on Limasawa
important attraction for tourists.
Island, now part of Southern Leyte, en route to
 The linkerages between the two also completing the first Western circumnavigation
provide a platform for local of the globe.
economic development, and food The earliest written account of Filipino food was
experiences help to brand and by Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian chronicler of
market destinations, as well as the expedition. Pigafetta describes the dinner
supporting the local culture that is so served by Raja Colambu of Limasawa Island as
attractive to tourists. “pork in its sauce served in porcelain platters…
roasted fish with freshly gathered ginger, and
rice; turtle eggs; chicken; and peacock.”
FOOD PROVIDES A BASIS FOR
Magellan was later killed in the Philippines, but
TOURISM EXPERIENCES by:
his expedition managed to make it back to
 Linking culture and tourism Spain. The Spanish sent another expedition in
1541, led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, but upon
 Developing the meal experience arrival, could not find food, and left, starving.
Villalobos thus failed to secure any territory and
 Producing distinctive foods succeeded only in naming the country “Las Islas
Filipinas”, in honor of King Felipe II of Spain.
 Developing the critical infrastructure
for food production and consumption Another two decades passed until the next
expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi
 Supporting local culture arrived in force, in 1565. The expedition
established the first Spanish colony in Cebu, and unmistakable close relative of Filipino sinigang.
the second in Manila 1571. The fan-shaped banana fritters called maruya in
the Philippines are similar to the Indonesian
The Spanish ruled most of the Philippines until pisang goring kipas. The Tagalog sapin-sapin
Filipinos launched the first successful revolution resembles Thailand’s kha-nom chan. Filipino
against a Western colonizer, 1896, and declared chicken rice soup with ginger, called arroz
their independence in 1898. caldo, is just like the chao ga of Vietnam, and
the Filipino pickled vegetable salads called
As an historical aside, the menu at the 1899
atchara are undoubtley descended from Indian
Malolos Convention, which organized the First
achar.
Republic, consisted largely of sophisticated
European dishes was written in French. Closer to home, Filipinos have only recently
begun to discover their own food from the
The First Republic didn’t last long, as the United
different islands and regions.
States overwhelmed the Philippine Revolution
with superior military force and modern Raymond Sokolov wrote, “Filipinos, isolated
technology, gaining control of the islands for from one another by their many local languages
the next half-century. and their island geography, are just beginning
to learn about (their cuisines) in their
American rule was interrupted by a Japanese
multifarious totality.”
occupation from 1942-1945, and the country
again became an independent republic, There is also an emerging generation of food
permanently this time, in 1946. writers who are travelling the country in the
footsteps of Doreen G. Fernandez and Eliberto
Three hundred years of Spanish rule resulted in
Alegre, documenting and reporting on regional
the introduction of ingredients such as
cooking.
tomatoes, annatto (locally called as achuete),
corn and avocados from other colonies of This self-discovery has led to such phenomena
Spain, principally Mexico, Peppers were native as the pinakbet (mixed vegtable stew) of the
to Mexico, Central and North America and provinces of Ilocos in the far north of Luzon
spread to Asia in the 15 th Century. The Spanish, now the far south of Mindanao, replete
of xourse, also brought their own styles of ingredients not included in the original recipe.
cooking from the different regions of Spain.
Some of these dishes are still popular in the THE CULINARY HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES
Philippines, such as callos, gambas, and paella.
Sisig, the sizzling Pampanga dish of finely
Because Spain ruled the Philippines chopped pig’s cheeks, boiled then broiled, is a
administratively through Mexico, Filipinos were standard in beer gardens and grills throughout
also introduced to Mexican delicacies such as the country. The Ilonggo Inasal, grilled chicken
tamales, pipian and balbacoa. marinated in annatto oil, is likewise very
popular outside the Western Visayas, with
Those names are still used today, but some several large competing food chains featuring it
ingredients of cooking procedures have been as their main attraction.
changed. The tamales Filipinos know are are
made of rice instead of the corn Mexicans use;
pipian uses peanuts instead of pumpkin seeds;
and balbacoa is boiled beef shanks instead of Filipino cuisine is a sum of Philippine history,
Mexican barbacoa, slow-roasted meat cooked from the indigenous food of the prehistoric era,
in pit. to the influences of Southeast Asian cooking
brought by trade, and the colonial influences
American rule influenced Filipino cuisine mainly brought by conquest.
in the cakes, salad, sandwiches, soda fountain
items, and cocktails we enjoy. In recent years, because of domestic migration,
tourism, national food businesses, and through
The American colonials were also obsessed with the mass media, regional dishes have gone
hygienic and sanitary procedures in food beyond their borders and become part of the
preparation, which they enforced through a national table.
Bureau of Sanitation and taught in home
economics classes.

All the influences mentioned above have been

extensively studied and written about, yet the
connection between Filipino cuisine and those
of its neighbors in Southeast and South Asia
have only been explored in recent years.

Malaysia’s sour soup, singgang is an