Tikim : essays on Philippine food and culture

FROM THE BOOK What's Cooking? "The old and the new. The provincial and the pop. The slow and the fast. The past, the present, the future. That's what's cooking in Philippine cuisine. Which means that, as the most popular (people-created, people-processed and people-consumed) segment of popular culture, it is dynamic and changing, living and lively." Writing about Food. "When one describes food, one does not use words alone, but the readers' remembering as well -- of past pleasures, savored sensations. One writes on and with the readers' palates, alluding to food tasted as children, drawing on their reservoirs of pleasure. In effect, one draws on all of the culture that shaped oneself and one's readers." On Mangoes. ... we wager that the mango memories of many a Filipino still revolve around the fruit ripening to fragrance in Maytime; around fat golden halves dripping their juice on glistening suman in Antipolo; around mangoes peeled whole with the hands on farms and at fiestas...to drip on chin and clothes; around mangoes chilled in river water rather than in refrigerators, while the feasters-to-be swim in the rivers of childhood; around mangoes sweet because stolen from consenting uncles or neighbors; around the fruit not as commercial product, but as pledge of time and season and memory." "Writing about food has been my pleasurable activity of some 25 years. My teachers are all those who give me information about food : market vendors, street sellers, cooks, chefs, waiters, restaurant and carinderia owners, farmers, tricycle drivers, gardeners, fishermen, aficionados, nutritionists, readers of my columns, friends, food critics and historians, fellow researchers, authors of books (and cookbooks), writers of columns, food anthropologists -- everyone who eats and cares. The essays in this book are the fruits of this research and learning. All were published in the last ten years, in my columns in 'The Philippine Daily Inquirer' and 'Mr. & Ms.', and in other publications like 'The Graphic', 'Metro Magazine', and 'The Sunday Inquirer Magazine'. Some were papers presented at conferences, like The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. I have brought them together in this book to provide a taste -- TIKIM lamang -- of Philippine food -- its dishes, flavors, books, feasts, people, places, and history. I hope that some of the information gathered may be useful to others, may encourage some to explore further, might at the very least create a bit more pleasure, and may at the very best help the reader towards a wider understanding of what is Filipino."-- adapted from Tikim : Just a Taste, page ix