and it begins. a new chapter in my life. and a new blog. i hope with this blog to evaluate my culinary and gastronomic travels both as a chef and a ordinary foodie, with tidbits of my everyday life in between.
I have to say that nothing excites me more then good food, and being that Anthony Bourdain had finally taken some insight on doing a show about the Philippines, I decided to turn the channel and watch(actually DVR is my friend).
No Reservations: Philippines, begins discreetly on the streets of the oldest Chinatown in the Philippines, a place of which obliquely feels all too common to us named “Ongpin”. Angie and I recently visited the Philippines last fall and we stayed at Angie’s grandparent’s apartment in Ongpin. Angie and I are both Chinese born in the Philippines, but have been instilled with many Filipino cultural values since childhood, so we have always enjoyed going back home. Barring obvious language barriers and our so-called stupor to explore the area, we didn’t get around as much as we had wanted, partly due to the fact on my 2nd night I caught an amoeba virus and was sidelined to MetroManilaHospital for the rest of my stay. Nevertheless this fall, we will once again return back to the motherland and resume our quest to seek out the best the Philippines has to offer.
Filipino cuisine has evolved over the centuries and has had major influences from Malay, Spanish, Arab, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and even American cooking. With its vast array of diversity I feel that Filipino cuisine lacks that 1 defining characteristic to make it to the mainstream arena, on this episode Bourdain reflects on how and why Filipino cuisine has always been a turned page, marginalized to the other SE Asian cuisines that have become more accepted and established in today's society(here in America). However, with this episode I feel that Tony has done all Filipinos proud and laid a great foundation for the world to see and of which we all can build upon.
Street food to me is the most basic yet authentic food you can get, with a few hitches. I for one am the type to seek out hole-in-the-walls rather dine at a fine dining establishment, and on the streets of Ongpin you can find many of these vendors, who turn out cheap and yet scrumptious chow, but be fore warned street food in any country may not be the cleanest or for the faint of heart. Often vendors are serving delicacies of their society and culture that are unaccustomed to western society. In the Philippines you can find balut (fertilized duck eggs), banana que (whole plantain skewered on a stick, rolled in brown sugar), turon(fried lumpia of plantain and jackfruit), shish kebabs of chicken butts, squid balls, fish balls, liver on a stick, betamax (chicken blood), Chicaron Bulaklak, Okoy(batter based deep fried bean sprout and shrimp pancake) and sweet taho(soft beancurd) prevailing the cart lined streets. Most of these delicacies sound both delicious and disgusting however nonetheless all filled with immense flavor! Inadvertently and unknowingly these street vendors are veiled as great chefs dishing out food that connects the poorest and richest to one aspiration, fine and delicious street fare, but keep in mind it is best to have an open mind and empty stomach before chowing down at these eateries.
The show continues and guides us around Manila to a prominent open market (dampa), where you pick out fresh and local seafood from vendors and then take all your produce to a master chef at one of the nearby stands/restaurants to bring it all together. From there Bourdain seeks out and even journeyed to the meekest of places and provinces, trying Filipino dishes that I love – adobo, pancit, sisig, sinigang, oxtail, milk fish to name a few and some dishes to the likes I have never heard of, goat 4 ways which included eating bile and gut soup to braised goat head and brains. I’ll give credit where credit is due, as his crew in some ways even made those delicacies’ look good.
Bourdain finally made his way to Cebu to meet up with the Augusto the Filipino American whose video letter inspired him for the show. There they feasted on a buffet of a regional “Cebuan” menu that included chicaron, garlic peanuts, dried magoes, grilled mackerel, prawns, shrimp paste, and most notably “the best pig ever” as exclaimed by Bourdain. We were able to see at first glimpse Augusto’s animated Filipino pride on his video interview which shines, but the cameras then caught Augusto in an weird stupor of looking like an outcast as he ate with his family in Cebu, which firmly illustrates the fact Augusto was as much as an outsider to them as Tony was. Bourdain hit it right on the nail identifying how Augusto had major reservations on returning to the Philippines as do many Fil-Ams(Filipino Americans) today still do. I see this due to the fact most of us aren’t completely accepted as Filipinos by the locals. Families have uprooted their past lives in the Philippines to seek out “better” ones here in America and in their journey have assimilated so much to American culture that they have left their behind their old customs and traditions. These new generations of Fil-Ams are unable to speak the language nor understand the culture of life and how it was growing up in the Philippines, but yet still yearn to identify themselves to a culture and society that they are even exiled from. The funny thing is even as more and more Filipinos grow up here in America and become more prevalent in American society; we are also overlooked here in our new motherland of America. Leaving most of us feeling stuck in a void and between 2 cultures.
All the guides Bourdain had on the show did a great job in showing their pride of the Filipino food and culture. For me the dude with the “I love Adobo shirt”, exudes what it is like to being Filipino in Manila today. Tony also did a great job in expanding on who exactly the Filipinos are, which was quite unusual, since this was a show about food, but I believe Tony was trying to covey what most people forget, that food is directly correlated back to its culture and society. Filipinos heavily tie in their food to enjoying it with family and friends, which have can be seen in their major backyard fiestas to their daily merienda(snack time), food is sole bond that brings people together. Filipino cuisine can be distinguished as an outright blend of numerous cultures which reflect the major influences and colonization periods the Philippines and people have been through. The best example of this is shown in a Filipino dish called Pinakbet, which is a medley of various vegetables cooked together, were savory and bitter flavors blend and assimilate together to symbolically represent the people and culture of whom have endured so much.
Kuma Inn 113 Ludlow St, 2nd Fl, New York 10002
Btwn Delancey & Rivington St
Phone: 212-353-8866
(It's more Thai and Filipino tapas style stuff than real Filipino food)
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