15 MARCH 2019

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
LIFESTYLE 23
A story in every bite
For Karay-a poet, fictionist and teacher from De La Salle University, Dr.
John Iremil E. Teodoro, “Food, or culinary arts in general, is a living
repository of the collective memories of a certain race or community. It
that way it is like literature
From page 24
as well,” Dr. Sabanpan-Yu said.
For Karay-a poet, fictionist and teacher
from De La Salle University, Dr. John Iremil E.
Teodoro, “Food, or culinary arts in general, is
a living repository of the collective memories
of a certain race or community. It that way it
is like literature. So if we combine food and
literature, the experience is both physical (in
the realm of the senses) and mental. It could
also be emotional in the case of comfort food
and comfort eating.”
Teodoro read his paper, “Ang Damil Kang
Dagat (Ang Lasa ng Dagat): Ang Lasa ng Asin
sa Kontemporanyong Literatura sa Kanlurang
Writer John Iremil Teodoro, National Artist Resil Mojares and
NCLA head Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu.
Bisayas (The Taste of the Sea: The Taste of Salt
in Contemporary Literature of Western Visayas).”
“The inspiration for my paper was the sea
and the seafood. Panay and Guimaras are
surrounded by the sea. The Malayan settlers in
Western Visayas came all the way from Borneo
in the balangays. The sea being a very powerful
presence in the region, I thought I would look at
the manifestations or the mirroring of the sea
in contemporary West Visayan literature. And
since Namnamin was about food and literature,
I concentrated on the taste of the sea. After all,
Panay (specifically Roxas City) is famous for its
seafood,” he shared.
Initially, he wanted to write about seafood and
generally the taste of the sea. He then realized that
the taste of such sea is actually the taste of salt and,
in this country, salt is associated with poverty, as
evidenced by the idiom, “magdildil ng asin (to dip
in salt),” that is, to eat salt for lack of food. He also
found out that there is a dearth in writings about
food in his home region.
So if we combine food and literature,
the experience is both physical (in the
realm of the senses) and mental. It
could also be emotional in the case of
comfort food and comfort eating.”
In an essay he wrote in Filipino, Teodoro
concluded: “There is almost no work in contemporary
Western Visayan literature that celebrates the
deliciousness of seafood, maybe because such work
is considered a fantasy in the midst of poverty.
Indeed, how can you savor in words the delicious
taste of the sea when you have to spend so much
for it, a big deduction from your wage, and the
country is floating in a sea of poverty? Instead of
writing about the flavors of oysters, crabs, prawns or
lobsters if budget permits, the experience remains
on the tongue and goes directly to the stomach.
While poverty, which includes hunger, may not be
an enticing way to discuss food, it is still a force that
also shapes culinary culture.”
“It is not just food in abundance but also food
deprivation that was tackled in Namnamin. The
spoken-word poetry performance of a young poet
also depicted this theme. Food production and other
areas related to food were also discussed in the
different panels,” said Mallari.
“It is also important to remember that the other
face of food is hunger, that the obverse of the richly
laid table is the poor person’s empty plate,” Dr.
Sabanpan-Yu expounded.
“While modern food research and food technology
seek to eradicate hunger, the great famines of
the past centuries remind us that in all societies,
entitlement to food has been the most precarious
of rights.”
Culinary richness
Teodoro’s companions in the session “Eat and
Be Merry,” on the other hand, talked about culinary
richness such as Maguindanao writer Mubarak
Tahir who presented “Aden Bon Besen Uyag-uyag:
Kultura’t Kakanin ng mga Maguindanaon (Culture
and Rice-Based Sweets of the Maguindanao);”
Lualhati Abreu with her “Mga Pagkaing Kakaiba
(Unusual Foods);” and Gawani Domogo-Gaongen, a
NCCA Writers’ Prize winner for Kankanaey poetry,
with an essay on native Kankanaey foods she
remembered from her childhood.
Abreu remembered her own childhood wherein
people visited their home, bringing unusual food
items such as eel, suahe and “jumping salad” or
small shrimps served alive and still jumping.
All aspects of culture are “time-bound,” she said,
including food. Thus, what was unusual then may
not be unusual anymore. She also related foods
encountered during her travels around Mindanao
since 1974 as a settler from the Visayas and an
activist.
Kaning mais (corn as rice), kinilaw na isda
(fish ceviche), law-uy or laswa (vegetable soup)
and sugba na isda (grilled fish) she observed to
be prevalent fares, while she considered lumad
and Moro practices and dishes to be unusual or
at least new to her — cooking using bamboo tubes
among the Mandaya and other groups; freshwater
fishes previously unknown to her such as sautnon
and daupingan; sea turtle eggs among the Tausug;
mantis shrimp in Agusan; palapa and pastil in
Cotabato; and different sea creatures such as
sea anemone, stingray and sea urchin in Sulu
and Tawi-Tawi.
Tahir remembered his childhood in Datu
Piang, Maguindanao, specifically the observance
of the first day of the Ramadan, market days and
different kakanin or local sweets such as dudul,
tinadtad, panyalam and pastil with different
kagikit (filling).
Domogo described the naturally fermented
foods in Mountain Province, including the
notoriously foul-smelling drink called safeng,
made of sweet potato or cassava.
Another session, “Sticking to Recipes,” dealt
with traditions and innovations.
In “Creativity and Uniqueness in Developing
Culture through the Industry: Describing the
Contemporary Balut-Eating Culture through
Recent Recreations of Balut in Metropolitan
Manila,” Emmanuel Jeric A. Albela surveyed 15
restaurants in Metro Manila whose owners were
fond of balut and promoted new ways of eating
it by offering more choices and transformations
into modern dishes such as balut tempura and
balut in red wine sauce, which elevated the
street food into gourmet fare.
In “Bicol Express as a Site for Regional
Pride and Identity,” Maria Eloisa Sevilla-Perez
used structural anthropology in her research to
assert that food is a powerful way of thinking about
place and identity.
In “Rekado
asin Rekwerdo: A
Book Presentation,”
Maria Leny E. Felix,
a social development
worker, talked
about her
forthcoming book
about spices and
memory, written
in Rinconada,
the language of
her late mother,
whose recipes are
preserved in the
book, and Central
Bicol spoken in
Naga City, the
language of the
author.
The book
featured traditional
dishes and
recounted the ways
of cooking she
remembered from
her mother. The
book, which took
seven years to finish,
is interspersed
with stories and
rawitdawit or
poems.
In “A Memory of
Starch: Storytelling
and Traditional Palm Starch Extraction,” John
Bengan, Andrea Malaya Ragrario and Myfel Paluga
followed how a traditional and ancient food item,
the starch from palms, has fallen out of the Filipino
table. Once a prestige food traded between Mindanao
and Indonesia, and described by Spaniards as a local
bread made from wood, the sago is still extracted in
Aklan, Cebu, Leyte, Samar, Burias Island and parts
of Mindanao.
Many of the talks demonstrated the multi-faceted
link between food and literature and art in general.
Mallari added: “Since literature is a representation
of life, food and eating which are directly connected
SISIG by chef Sau del Rosario.
Cultural researcher and
culinary historian Felice Prudente
Sta Maria.
At 25 Seeds, Anak Bale-Balayan performs while there is a fashion show.
with human existence can be very significant
thematic elements of literary writing. Food can be
an important imagery and metaphor. As food is
in itself a possible literary ingredient, its appeal
to the gustatory and other senses when ‘cooked’
up in a literary piece can be tremendous. Poetry,
fiction and drama make use of food to create visual
and other images as well as metaphors expressive
of human behavior and needs. On the other hand,
eating, being a human act, can be a focal point in
weaving a literary work. Many aspects of eating,
including social, economic and ethnographic, are a
good source of literary writing.”
Culinary historian and cultural scholar
Felice Prudente Santa Maria filled
minds and souls with “Philippine
Culinary Arts: Manifestations of
Cultural History.”
“Food also indicates regional identity as shown in
the delightful reception and perception of delegates
regarding Kapampangan food. For instance, Ilocano
delegates commented on the ‘big difference’
between Ilocano and Kapampangan cooking and
food presentation. Thus, food can project local color
in literature,” she further said.
Savoring history
Culinary historian and cultural scholar Felice
Prudente Santa Maria filled minds and souls with
“Philippine Culinary Arts: Manifestations of Cultural
History.” She started with an investigation of how
rooted is the concept of hospitality in Filipino culture
by examining words and old records.
She said there did not seem to be a native word
for hospitality until she came across the Cebuano
“nayanaya,” recorded in 1885, which means “to
entertain, give food, serve guests and friends; a happy
person, one with good humor.” Nayanayaon is “a
person who is happy, of good humor, who entertained
and was affable as well as benign and content.”
The Filipino is happy feeding others, she
remarked and concluded, “Nayanaya is a unique
Philippine recipe for hospitality and happiness.”
Santa Maria also observed history and its effects
on food and food production, looking for clues in
Chef Sau del Rosario welcomes Namnamin
delegates at 25 Seeds.
old records.
Records from 1609, for example, note that Indios
made paksiw or “cooked in vinegar.” They did not
have sauces but used only salt and vinegar. Boro is
mentioned, using pork or fish especially tamban.
In 1613, adobo was mentioned and it meant vinegar
marinade. Fish or intestines of wild deer or carabao
were marinated in vinegar and eaten immediately.
Salmuera is mentioned, referring to the brining
solution to make bagoong.
During the 1830s, recorded ingredients included
different rice varieties such as lamuyo (in Batangas)
and bontot cabayo (in Ilocos); leaves from plants and
trees such as boyoc-boyoc, cadayohan, dampalit,
diliman, halon, libato and sagnit; anahaw
and talanas seeds; dauag berries and lobas (in
Pampanga); and pipisic and talangtalang fruits.
Santa Maria found that Filipinos had substitutes
for imported ingredients such as santol or bilimbi
preserves for quince preserve; pili for almond; paho
for olives; kasubha or Mexican annatto for saffron;
shallot for the red and white onion; coconut palm
heart for artichoke; and carabao milk for cow milk.
She also found older traditions of common
practices and ingredients: dayap being ahead
of calamansi, shallot ahead of onion, honey and
pakaskas ahead of cane sugar, turmeric ahead of
kasubha and saffron and pasiti ahead of labuyo
and siling haba.
In the 20th century, there were many
developments that shaped modern Philippine
cuisine. She considered the introduction of Home
Economics classes in 1904 to be a very important
milestone. In 1913, canned and bottled goods
increased in popularity in the country, then recipe
books in 1918 to 1937. Modernity, with its machines
and other conveniences, inspired a golden age of
home or amateur cooking, she said.
“Philippine cuisine seems to enjoy what is
fashionable, seems to use what is accessible and
convenient” but “always stay Filipino,” Santa Maria
contended.
The culinary artist, Santa Maria described,
“blends delightful aroma, flavor and visuality with
pleasantness and joyful intent.”
Another key guest was Pampangan visual artist
and chef Claude Tayag, whose talk on history was
personal, tracing his beginnings as an artist who
went seriously into food and cooking.
He kept drawing as a child, he remembered,
and was inspired by his father’s friends. His
father was a journalist, a best friend of artist
and gourmand Abe Cruz. Their circle of friends
included prominent painters. When he was 12
years old in 1968, they gathered and painted or
drew together, inspiring him to go into painting. In
college, he enrolled in architecture because fine
arts was then considered a vocational course and
hung out with the Saturday Group of Artists. In
1987, he seriously thought about cooking and food.
By then, he was known as the artist who cooked.
Restaurateur Larry Cruz invited him to be a guest
chef at his restaurant Ang Hang, reinterpreting
his artworks in food. Thus began his journey in
art and food.
Namnamin also featured a conversation with
newly declared National Artist for literature Resil
Mojares, Cebuano literary critic and cultural
historian, which was led by another National Artist
for literature Bienvenido Lumbera.
“The lectures of Santa Maria and Tayag
were informative and inspirational,” Teodoro
commented. “In fact, I want to write about our
food in Antique. I’m planning to write a book about
this. We should write about our food. We will not
only feed our body but we will also feed our soul.”
Sumptuous sides
Namnamin also featured feasting, cooking
demos and tours. Almost surrounding the
lectures themselves were booths offering food
from traditional kakanin to packaged food items.
Delegates were able to dine out at Balanghai
restaurant at SM City Telabastagan, which
featured buffet spreads from different regions
of the country; and at Bale Kapampangan, one
of San Fernando’s popular restaurants, providing
them a glimpse of the local dining landscape.
Cooking demonstrations were conducted
by one of Pampanga’s famous cooks, Lilian
Borromeo from Mexico, who made sanikulas
cookies; Dr. Lilia “Bebot” Teves, dean of the
College of Commerce of the University of San
Agustin, who prepared pancit Molo; and Shara
Dionaldo, who introduced audience to the
binaki, Bukidnon’s version of the tamale.
Marie Joy R. Sumagaysay talked about the
Hiligaynon ways of cooking — tuom, to wrap in
leaves; asal, to skewer and grill; and boog, to
throw into a fire — all over live coals. On the
other hand, Elizabeth Calinawaga talked about
how pinakbet pizza is made.
Sweet and savory ending
Namnamin was capped with a rousing, artsy
and multi-sensory program at chef Rosauro del
Rosario’s new 25 Seeds restaurant in Angeles
City, combining heritage, tradition, modern
creativity and innovation.
Chef Sau, who also owns Café Fleur and Frida
housed at the Dycaico ancestral house, welcomed
guests and talked about promoting Pampangan
arts and culinary heritage with Culinarya
Pampanga, an association of Pampangan chefs
and restaurateurs.
The main part was, of course, the eating. With
different components, Namnamin is like many
Filipino dishes, with many ingredients, rich in
different flavors, stimulating multiple senses.