Bayron, Marie Keith C.

2010-26762 CAS BSAP NASC6 D

My Family Food Tree

1. Commonality of food. One thing I found common in the food menu of my

family, from my grandparents down to us, was the combination of fish and vegetables as viand, and the consummation of carbohydrate-rich foods particularly champorado, lugaw, and sweet potatoes. Also, I was a bit surprised to discover that my grandparents from both sides often drank not only coffee, but also salabat (ginger drink) before. About the preparation and the use of ingredients, I would say that my family loved soupy foods, as well as different variations of cooked fish. Other than that, I was also able to trace the use of bagoong as sawsawan (dip). Generally, this commonality of food was made possible and is affected by several factors. The first one and perhaps the most obvious one is geography; because we all know that for some reason, people sharing the same community tend to have similar food

choices. But in this context, I am referring to our whole nation instead of the regions in it because even though my fathers side is Kapampangan and my mothers Zamboangenos, in some way, they also managed to consume similar food choices. Next factor is culture, because just like in geography, people sharing the same or similar kind of culture or tradition ought to share their choices of food, too. And for me, the last factor is economy; specifically the abundance and/or scarcity of certain foods in the market. For instance, if my grandparents mostly used corn or camote as rice substitutes, one reason could be the abundance of these and of course, the scarcity of rice or wheat.

2. Food beliefs and practices. In my mothers side, my grandma told me that

they actually have neither any sort of food belief nor food taboos in their family. But in my fathers side, they did not eat pork meat during Fridays because according to some sort of religious beliefs, they are not good to eat during this day. They also ate exotic foods such as frogs, dagang bukid, and salagubang.

3. Origin of food beliefs and practices. Since most of us were born as

Catholics, I believe that most, if not all, of my familys food beliefs and practices originated from religious beliefs. Since the idea about the eating of pork during Fridays rooted from our earlier ancestors, I cannot tell exactly why this is so. But I think it is somewhat in connection to the Sabbath Day, which is originally Saturday. And since Saturday comes after Friday, perhaps this was the reason why they considered eating a dead pig during Fridays a bad practice.