Philippine Food Culture and History

The Philippines country culture starts in a tropical climate divided into rainy and dry seasons and an archipelago with 7,000
islands.These isles contain the Cordillera mountains; Luzon’s central plains; Palawan’s coral reefs; seas touching the world’s longest
discontinuous coastline; and a multitude of lakes, rivers, springs, and brooks.

The population—120 different ethnic groups and the mainstream communities of Tagalog/Ilocano/Pampango/Pangasinan and Visayan
lowlanders—worked within a gentle but lush environment. In it they shaped their own lifeways: building houses, weaving cloth, telling
and writing stories, ornamenting and decorating, preparing food.

The Chinese who came to trade sometimes stayed on. Perhaps they cooked the noodles of home; certainly they used local
condiments; surely they taught their Filipino wives their dishes, and thus Filipino-Chinese food came to be. The names identify them:
pansit (Hokkien for something quickly cooked) are noodles; lumpia are vegetables rolled in edible wrappers; siopao are steamed, filled
buns; siomai are dumplings.

All, of course, came to be indigenized—Filipinized by the ingredients and by local tastes. Today, for example, Pansit Malabon has
oysters and squid, since Malabon is a fishing center; and Pansit Marilao is sprinkled with rice crisps, because the town is within the
Luzon rice bowl.

When restaurants were established in the 19th century, Chinese food became a staple of the pansiterias, with the food given Spanish
names for the ease of the clientele: this comida China (Chinese food) includes arroz caldo (rice and chicken gruel); and morisqueta
tostada (fried rice).

When the Spaniards came, the food influences they brought were from both Spain and Mexico, as it was through the vice-royalty of
Mexico that the Philippines were governed. This meant the production of food for an elite, nonfood-producing class, and a food for
which many ingredients were not locally available.

Fil-Hispanic food had new flavors and ingredients—olive oil, paprika, saffron, ham, cheese, cured sausages—and new names. Paella,
the dish cooked in the fields by Spanish workers, came to be a festive dish combining pork, chicken, seafood, ham, sausages and
vegetables, a luxurious mix of the local and the foreign. Relleno, the process of stuffing festive capons and turkeys for Christmas, was
applied to chickens, and even to bangus, the silvery milkfish. Christmas, a new feast for Filipinos that coincided with the rice harvest,
came to feature not only the myriad native rice cakes, but also ensaymadas (brioche-like cakes buttered, sugared and cheese-
sprinkled) to dip in hot thick chocolate, and the apples, oranges, chestnuts and walnuts of European Christmases. Even the Mexican
corn tamal turned Filipino, becoming rice-based tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The Americans introduced to the Philippine cuisine
the ways of convenience: pressure-cooking, freezing, pre-cooking, sandwiches and salads; hamburgers, fried chicken and steaks.

Add to the above other cuisines found in the country along with other global influences: French, Italian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Thai,
Vietnamese. They grow familiar, but remain “imported” and not yet indigenized.

On a buffet table today one might find, for example, kinilaw na tanguingue, mackerel dressed with vinegar, ginger, onions, hot peppers,
perhaps coconut milk; also grilled tiger shrimp, and maybe sinigang na baboy, pork and vegetables in a broth soured with tamarind, all
from the native repertoire. Alongside there would almost certainly be pansit, noodles once Chinese, now Filipino, still in a sweet-sour
sauce. Spanish festive fare like morcon (beef rolls), embutido (pork rolls), fish escabeche and stuffed chicken or turkey might be there
too. The centerpiece would probably be lechon, spit-roasted pig, which may be Chinese or Polynesian in influence, but bears a Spanish
name, and may therefore derive from cochinillo asado. Vegetable dishes could include an American salad and a pinakbet (vegetables
and shrimp paste). The dessert table would surely be richly Spanish: leche flan (caramel custard), natilla, yemas, dulces de naranja,
membrillo, torta del rey, etc., but also include local fruits in syrup (coconut, santol, guavas) and American cakes and pies. The global
village may be reflected in shawarma and pasta. The buffet table and Filipino food today is thus a gastronomic telling of Philippine
history.

What really is Philippine food, then? Indigenous food from land and sea, field and forest. Also and of course: dishes and culinary
procedures from China, Spain, Mexico, and the United States, and more recently from further abroad.

What makes them Philippine? The history and society that introduced and adapted them; the people who turned them to their tastes
and accepted them into their homes and restaurants, and especially the harmonizing culture that combined them into contemporary
Filipino fare.

By Doreen Fernandez

(Excerpted from The Food of the Philippines: Authentic Recipes from the Pearl of the Orient. Text and recipes by Reynaldo G.
Alejandro. Introductory articles by Doreen G. Fernandez, Corazon S. Alvina, and Millie Reyes.)

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Gas or Charcoal?
By Robert L. Wolke
Wednesday, July 7, 2004; Page F01

I never write about politics in this column. But this is an election year, this is The Washington Post, and I cannot
remain silent any longer. The most vital issue facing our nation is so critical, and the two candidates so contrasting,
that I cannot resist asserting my position on this, the most contentiously debated concern of our time: Which is better
for grilling? Charcoal or gas?

I hereby express my wholehearted endorsement of charcoal.

Caution: The opinions expressed in this column are inflammatory. Reader discretion is advised.

I have 11 grilling cookbooks on my shelves, but they all shrewdly gloss over two important points: that grilling and
barbecuing are not the same thing, and that all fuels are not created equal.

Recognizing that almost no one understands the distinction between grilling and barbecuing, the cookbooks include
both kinds of recipes to appeal to as many backyard cooks as possible. And because a majority of all "barbecue grills"
(a name that only compounds the confusion) in the United States are gas-fired, the authors stifle their unanimous
conviction (which they would admit only under oath) that charcoal is clearly superior to gas for grilling. An author
cannot afford to lose a major segment of his or her potential readers, many of whom have shelled out big bucks for
Brobdingnagian stainless steel, 18-wheeler gas grills equipped with everything but cruise control and global
positioning systems.

In true grilling, the food is placed within several inches of a very hot (500 to 1,000 degrees), smoke-free fire and
cooked quickly. Think of steaks, chops, hamburgers, kebabs, sausages, chicken parts and shrimp, to name the most
commonly grilled foods. Barbecuing, on the other hand, consists of long (several hours), slow, relatively low-
temperature (300 to 350 degrees) cooking, with the food confined in a pit or some sort of enclosure along with a
smoky fire. Think of beef or pork ribs, pork shoulder or brisket being slathered with top-secret sauces by men wearing
cowboy hats.
For grilling, which is the subject of this column, there are three kinds of fuels: lump charcoal, briquettes and gas.

Lump Charcoal

If wood is heated in the absence of oxygen (a process called destructive distillation), it can't burn. Instead, it
decomposes. First, its water is driven off. Then its carbohydrates (mainly cellulose and lignin) begin to break down
into methyl alcohol (therefore known as wood alcohol), acetic acid, acetone, formaldehyde and many other smokes
and gases. Eventually, nothing is left but virtually pure carbon. That's lump charcoal.

For at least 4,000 years, people have been making charcoal from wood, for use as a cooking fuel. Today's commercial
lump charcoal, still retaining the shapes of the wood chunks it was made from, burns hot and clean, with minimal
amounts of smoke. It therefore earns my vote (and the secret ballots of most grilling experts) as the best possible fuel
for grilling.

Briquettes

Briquettes -- and I won't call them charcoal briquettes because they contain so much other stuff besides charcoal --
were invented and patented by one Orin F. Stafford, a professor at the University of Oregon. Henry Ford then built a
plant to manufacture them on a grand scale, thereby turning the waste sawdust and wood scraps from his Model T
plant into a profitable product.

Originally, briquettes were made from powdered charcoal, compressed and bound with starch. But today, they're not
that simple. According to a 2000 publication of the Kingsford Products Co., heir to Ford's charcoal company, their
briquettes contain wood charcoal, mineral char (a soft, brown coal), mineral carbon (graphite), limestone (to produce
that nice coating of white ash), starch (as binder), borax (helps release the briquettes from the molds), sawdust (for
easier ignition) and sodium nitrate, which releases oxygen when heated and speeds the burn.

Personally, I would rather not have tar-laden coal, starch, borax and sawdust burning beneath my steak.

Gas

The fuel used in modern gas grills is either methane (natural gas) or propane, two hydrocarbons whose molecules are
made of carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms. And that's the difference between solid charcoal and gaseous fuels: the
hydrogen atoms. While charcoal burns completely to produce only carbon dioxide, an odorless, tasteless gas, methane
and propane produce both carbon dioxide and water vapor. (Hold a transparent glass plate briefly above a gas flame
and you'll see it fog up with condensed water.)

Each molecule of burned propane produces four molecules of water. In a typical 40,000-Btu-per-hour gas grill, that
translates to 1 1/2 quarts of water being given off per hour. The bottom surface of the meat is thus being steamed, and
its temperature cannot get as high as with dry-burning charcoal. No wonder you can't quite achieve that flavorful,
seared, brown crust that charcoal produces.

Case closed.

When Heat Meets Meat

Grilling mavens distinguish between two techniques: direct grilling, where the meat is placed directly above a bed of
charcoal, and indirect grilling, where the charcoal pile is off to one side.

In the direct method, the heat reaches the meat by both convection (rising hot air) and radiation (infrared rays). In the
indirect method, since the meat isn't directly above the heat source, the heat reaches the meat predominantly by
radiation. (The third heat transmission mechanism, conduction, doesn't play much of a role in either grilling or
barbecuing.)

The meat therefore doesn't attain as high a temperature in the indirect method and cooks more slowly. If the cooking
apparatus is covered, the rising hot air from the coals is trapped and circulates throughout the enclosure, making it into
a sort of convection oven. Throw in a few chips of moistened hardwood and you can smoke the food at the same time.

Whoops! In that last paragraph we've slipped from grilling into barbecuing. It's easy to do, because the same
equipment can be used for both.

So I urge you to vote for charcoal over propane. There's no fuel like an old fuel.

Robert L. Wolke (www.professorscience.com) is professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and
the author, most recently, of "What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained" (W. W. Norton, hardcover,
$25.95). He can be reached at wolke@pitt.edu.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30691-2004Jul6.html
http://clark.com/family-lifestyle/charcoal-vs-gas-grilling-which-better/

Charcoal: A favorite of grill masters everywhere

First, let’s talk about the charcoal.

Charcoal has long been the favorite of the backyard grill masters for the taste that it adds to food. Many folks report that burgers and
hot dogs are just more flavorful coming off a charcoal grill. That’s because the charcoal and fire lend a smoky taste to whatever is being
grilled.

Of course, there are detractors but, in an informal poll, it was found that more people than not prefer foods like hamburgers, steaks and
hot dogs grilled over charcoal.

That’s easy enough. Or is it? A charcoal grill takes more time and more preparation to use. So, for convenience sake, it’s not your first
best choice.

In terms of cost, a large bag of charcoal costs anywhere from $6 and up. (Editor’s note: Check out this find from ClarkDeals.com: The
Home Depot has a great deal on 2-packs of Kingsford charcoal briquettes for just $9.88!)

Then there’s the cost of starter fluid, which will usually be a few more dollars. It costs, on average, about $2 dollars just for the supplies
needed to get a charcoal grill going!

Let’s look back at that starter fluid for a moment. A flammable and poisonous substance like starter fluid releases a very large amount
of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and the particulates from the charcoal also add to air pollution.

So, charcoal cooking may be tasty but it’s not very environmentally friendly. You also have to wait for the fluid to burn off so it does not
contaminate the items you’re grilling.

Another aspect to charcoal is the potential for trouble. From adding too much starter fluid to unattended grills, many afternoons grilling
in the backyard have ended in fire.

So, with the time to prepare the grill, the starter fluid issues and the fire potential, you may be thinking a gas grill might be the only way
to go. But is it?
Propane is low pain and hassle
Gas grills are simple to use because they require so little in the way of set-up. There’s no starter fluid and no charcoal. All that’s needed
is a tank of propane that is readily available at most home centers and supermarkets.

Quick and convenient is nice but fewer people polled preferred the taste of hot dogs, hamburgers or steaks cooked with gas.

As for the cost of gas, propane containers for gas grills generally cost anywhere from $15 to $30 (after a deposit) and provide up to nine
hours of grilling time.

An interesting side note to this is that some people reported that gas is far superior to charcoal if you tend to use lots of sticky BBQ
sauce because the temperature control is so much easier and results in less burned sauce.

Conclusion