soul food
we're not on the international food map, and sometimes it's not hard to see why. our food is taken from a hodgepodge of cultures (then again, aren't a lot of asian cuisines like that too?), and just like our different dialects, they vary from place to place and can't be classified under one name. another opinion is that it's because pinoys don't cook with a passion; we don't employ the same techniques other countries have perfected; we haven't uplifted our cooking into a culture. but does it really need all that sophisticated to be renowned worldwide? what's wrong with home-cooked comfort food?
anthony bourdain was here recently and was asked in his visit here what it would take to put us out there. sorry, can't remember his answer although i did see it in a local forum somewhere. in another article, this pinay explains what sets us apart. i share her sentiments. for me, i guess it's not so much what goes on during cooking, but what happens after: comfort food paired with lovely company.
Reposted from here.
Food for both body and spirit
By Amy Besa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 13:25:00 12/18/2008
Filed Under: Food, Lifestyle & Leisure
MY husband and I opened our Filipino pan-Asia restaurant in SoHo in Manhattan on Aug. 8, 1995. We called it Cendrillon and we celebrated our 13th year in the business last August - 8/8/8, a lucky 13 on the Chinese good luck date of 888.
Despite the recession and looming threat of a depression, we consider ourselves blessed to have survived seemingly insurmountable problems in building a reputation for showcasing what is delicious, healthy and good about Filipino food.
Our biggest source of pride is the publication of our book, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens” in November 2006. It is a beautiful book because the editor and the publisher treated it with great care and respect for the country and its culture.
When we launched the book in the US and gave talks to Filipino communities in different cities and states, the question that was always asked was why Philippine food was unknown and invisible in the US landscape.
Everywhere there was disappointment among Filipinos that their adoptive country did not reciprocate their love of American food. The feeling was so intense that sometimes I felt I was holding a therapy session to salve bruised egos and boost people’s self-esteem about their food and culture.
This is because food is more than something we put in our mouths to give us energy to get through the day.
I will never forget an e-mail I received from a Filipino-American chef who came upon our book at a bookstore in California. This woman is apparently a highly trained chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, trained with chef Daniel Boulod and is steeped in French culinary techniques.
She went into the bookstore to buy Boulod’s latest book on braising since he was her mentor and idol. Then she happened to see “Memories of Philippine Kitchens.” She opened the book and upon going through the pages and looking at the photos, a flood of tears came and she started bawling along the aisles of Barnes and Noble, she said.
“I left the Philippines for the US when I was 11 and somehow lost my way,” she wrote in her e-mail. “Your book reminded me of all the loving food that my mother and aunts cooked for me as a child. Your book has rekindled my passion for food and now I feel that I can move forward in my career, knowing that my food heritage has to be the basis of whatever I do in the future.”
If you ask me as a restaurateur, what is the most important lesson I have learned that I want to impart to you today, this is it.
You will not be a successful chef or a happy, self-fulfilled food professional if you do not embrace your food heritage, if you don’t acknowledge that you are a Filipino born and raised eating all the wonderful flavors of patis, bagoong, sour fruits like tamarind, guava and kamias, reveling in the seafood and vegetation of our surroundings.
I hope I can instill in you the desire to embrace what is your own and not take it for granted because it is easily found in your surroundings.
Believe me, you have no idea what a sweet saba can do for my day. Whenever I come home, I have to drink fresh buko juice every day, have puto bumbong and all the other wonderful puto I can get at the Salcedo Market, marveling at all the varieties of fruit vinegars that one can still get over here.
When you leave home, that is the first thing you will realize- how lucky we are in the Philippines to have them.
I have learned that Filipinos are the most adventurous food eaters in the world. You have no idea how much ahead in life that puts you. I was astonished to meet some Indians abroad who will refuse to eat any dish that does not belong to their own region or locality. So please do not ever lose your love of food, your wonder of textures and flavors both familiar and strange.
It is also important for you to develop your own personal philosophy in your approach to food. What do you value in food? What is it for? How do you improve the lives of this generation and the next with the way you look at food?
Food is for nourishment not only of the body but also of the spirit. It is the glue that binds communities and instills fellowship among people.
The most memorable dinner I have ever had was when friends hosted a party at Cendrillon and at the end of the night discovered that they had forgotten to eat and were very hungry. Romy told them to sit around a table and proceeded to the kitchen. He came out with whatever he had left in the kitchen: adobo, kare-kare, sautéed vegetables. These were dishes that we ate every day, but on that night, they tasted especially delicious because they were being shared and given with generosity and hospitality.
And, of course, being Filipinos, we started chatting and gossiping while helping ourselves to the platters on the table. Romy was so inspired by our voracious appetite that he proceeded to peel some suha, the way we used to end our meals in our provincial homes when we were children.
Amy Besa was in town recently to give a UP Centennial lecture and receive the Pamana ng Pilipino Award for 2008, a presidential award for overseas Filipinos, for the internationally acclaimed culinary book she co-authored with her husband, chef Romy Dorotan - “Memories of Philippine Kitchens,” published in the US by Stewart Tabori & Chang, with photographs by Neal Oshima.
anthony bourdain was here recently and was asked in his visit here what it would take to put us out there. sorry, can't remember his answer although i did see it in a local forum somewhere. in another article, this pinay explains what sets us apart. i share her sentiments. for me, i guess it's not so much what goes on during cooking, but what happens after: comfort food paired with lovely company.
Reposted from here.
Food for both body and spirit
By Amy Besa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 13:25:00 12/18/2008
Filed Under: Food, Lifestyle & Leisure
MY husband and I opened our Filipino pan-Asia restaurant in SoHo in Manhattan on Aug. 8, 1995. We called it Cendrillon and we celebrated our 13th year in the business last August - 8/8/8, a lucky 13 on the Chinese good luck date of 888.
Despite the recession and looming threat of a depression, we consider ourselves blessed to have survived seemingly insurmountable problems in building a reputation for showcasing what is delicious, healthy and good about Filipino food.
Our biggest source of pride is the publication of our book, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens” in November 2006. It is a beautiful book because the editor and the publisher treated it with great care and respect for the country and its culture.
When we launched the book in the US and gave talks to Filipino communities in different cities and states, the question that was always asked was why Philippine food was unknown and invisible in the US landscape.
Everywhere there was disappointment among Filipinos that their adoptive country did not reciprocate their love of American food. The feeling was so intense that sometimes I felt I was holding a therapy session to salve bruised egos and boost people’s self-esteem about their food and culture.
This is because food is more than something we put in our mouths to give us energy to get through the day.
I will never forget an e-mail I received from a Filipino-American chef who came upon our book at a bookstore in California. This woman is apparently a highly trained chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, trained with chef Daniel Boulod and is steeped in French culinary techniques.
She went into the bookstore to buy Boulod’s latest book on braising since he was her mentor and idol. Then she happened to see “Memories of Philippine Kitchens.” She opened the book and upon going through the pages and looking at the photos, a flood of tears came and she started bawling along the aisles of Barnes and Noble, she said.
“I left the Philippines for the US when I was 11 and somehow lost my way,” she wrote in her e-mail. “Your book reminded me of all the loving food that my mother and aunts cooked for me as a child. Your book has rekindled my passion for food and now I feel that I can move forward in my career, knowing that my food heritage has to be the basis of whatever I do in the future.”
If you ask me as a restaurateur, what is the most important lesson I have learned that I want to impart to you today, this is it.
You will not be a successful chef or a happy, self-fulfilled food professional if you do not embrace your food heritage, if you don’t acknowledge that you are a Filipino born and raised eating all the wonderful flavors of patis, bagoong, sour fruits like tamarind, guava and kamias, reveling in the seafood and vegetation of our surroundings.
I hope I can instill in you the desire to embrace what is your own and not take it for granted because it is easily found in your surroundings.
Believe me, you have no idea what a sweet saba can do for my day. Whenever I come home, I have to drink fresh buko juice every day, have puto bumbong and all the other wonderful puto I can get at the Salcedo Market, marveling at all the varieties of fruit vinegars that one can still get over here.
When you leave home, that is the first thing you will realize- how lucky we are in the Philippines to have them.
I have learned that Filipinos are the most adventurous food eaters in the world. You have no idea how much ahead in life that puts you. I was astonished to meet some Indians abroad who will refuse to eat any dish that does not belong to their own region or locality. So please do not ever lose your love of food, your wonder of textures and flavors both familiar and strange.
It is also important for you to develop your own personal philosophy in your approach to food. What do you value in food? What is it for? How do you improve the lives of this generation and the next with the way you look at food?
Food is for nourishment not only of the body but also of the spirit. It is the glue that binds communities and instills fellowship among people.
The most memorable dinner I have ever had was when friends hosted a party at Cendrillon and at the end of the night discovered that they had forgotten to eat and were very hungry. Romy told them to sit around a table and proceeded to the kitchen. He came out with whatever he had left in the kitchen: adobo, kare-kare, sautéed vegetables. These were dishes that we ate every day, but on that night, they tasted especially delicious because they were being shared and given with generosity and hospitality.
And, of course, being Filipinos, we started chatting and gossiping while helping ourselves to the platters on the table. Romy was so inspired by our voracious appetite that he proceeded to peel some suha, the way we used to end our meals in our provincial homes when we were children.
Amy Besa was in town recently to give a UP Centennial lecture and receive the Pamana ng Pilipino Award for 2008, a presidential award for overseas Filipinos, for the internationally acclaimed culinary book she co-authored with her husband, chef Romy Dorotan - “Memories of Philippine Kitchens,” published in the US by Stewart Tabori & Chang, with photographs by Neal Oshima.