The Kitchen as History

Why did this book have to wait 20 years to be published?

After February 1986 I got very involved in cultural advocacy and management. So I lacked the time to continue needed research and shelved the book.

Twenty years later I pulled the manuscript out and felt that even without the additional research the material held. So I offered it to Anvil that had published some of my former Philippine STAR Sunday opinion page columns as "A Cultural Worker’s First Manual"– the book won best reference book of 2001 at the Manila Critics’ National Book Awards.

Also I became more concerned with what the vignettes meant about how well we handled our environment, our society, our humanity. And obviously to tackle any of those types of "hard" questions, one would need a specific research framework. So that would mean abandoning the Governor-General’s Kitchen totally.

I realized that the material had to come out as is... complete with the clear examples of a 20-ish-year-old writer’s immaturity and growing-up pangs.

Have you personally tasted adobo prepared in the style of different centuries and what are the differences? Did they use as much banana leaves for tamales back then?

Can’t say that I tried anything authentic for sure. I have had the pleasure of tasting food cooked in the provinces or in an old-fashioned manner. But I dare not say that I’ve had anything really authentically pre-war and older. Maybe food close to the original.

Cuisine is very dynamic. Ingredients are not consistent. Weather affects the sweetness of fruits, for instance. So this year the fruit for a dish may taste just right and next year not as right. The galapong may have been made from "perfect" sticky rice grain this year, and not as perfect grain next year.

As to what I (mean by) "perfect" that is the challenge: will we keep alive a particular traditional description of perfect–in taste, texture, for instance.

If a loving heart is borne out of a full tummy, does it follow that the hungry are more prone to hate?

There is much written on the biochemical relationship between food and mood. I will not jump to the conclusion that hunger will cause anger in the person who is hungry. Let the biochemists check that out.

But hunger, especially extreme hunger, is something all of us should not tolerate. Fortunately there are many ongoing efforts to stop hunger and malnutrition.

But I sincerely feel we need a publicized national mapping of where the hunger is and why, and a coordinated private and public effort to stem that hunger. I do not believe that any good Filipino, that (any) good person, will allow another person to go hungry if there are many clear routes open to help stem the hunger.

What are your own successful experiments in your kitchen?

Following the period recipes with their often vague measurements can result in disaster by today’s standards of taste. But the creative cook can fathom how the recipe can be made at its best and make adjustments. Also we can take a simple one-step dish and turn it into a multi-step dish that can improve the dish. Such as what I have done with Pollo a la Binondeña.

But there are some recipes where one-step slow-cooking that uses only the best ingredients is really the only key to success. Such as with fish soup stocks, lenguas and other stewed dishes.

What to you are the latest "revolutionary" or at least novel developments in food preparation, e.g. balut in jars?

The international trade of food flavorings is very exciting. So are the convenience foods with international flavors.

There is so much to select from. But Philippine competitors in that market will hopefully be ahead of rivals by closely relating to the health and science research.

I am also worried that the prepared foods are getting people used to "over-flavoring." Hell hot, saccharine sweet for instance. Our senses should be nurtured gently and allowed to savor the range of mild to over-the-top. If we are always used to over-the-top of the scale, we lose out on the beauty of subtlety in textures, tastes–life in general.

Why are particular foods endemic to a certain place, e.g. budbod kabog in Dumaguete?

Sometimes that is the only place where an ingredient grows or still grows. Millet–for budbod kabog–is a prehistoric Philippine food. But how it started growing here, where and when... to where did it spread, etc. ...those details have not been tracked fully.

Towards the end of the intro, can the word Alzheimer’s be substituted for amnesia?

Hahaha. Remember that Alzheimer’s was only "discovered" recently. Forgetfulness was considered characteristic of aging and Alzheimer’s was simply part of that aging process (although perhaps in its extreme).

Won’t Governor General’s Kitchen make a good concept for an upscale restaurant?

For anyone willing to take it on, sure.

Aren’t you afraid of criticism from hardliners that your book might only further Western culinary hegemony and thus lead to cultural impatso?

Cuisine is inherently dynamic. Every day that we prepare sinigang we open ourselves up to improvisation. We can sour with whatever is around us: green banana, kamias, green mango, calamansi, dayap, and we can make sinigang with fish, seafood, vegetables, pork, chicken, beef. And we can make today’s sinigang less sour or more sour than yesterday’s. That is the challenge of cooking. Do we want it the same every day, or do we want variation. That is why dipping sauces (and the salt and pepper shaker) allow individual desire to factor into sinigang.

What we need to determine is what foods do we want cooked always in a specific way. That specific way could be justified because of pride, affection, environmental or nutritional reasons. We want it that way because... and we will always make it that way because... that is how we create tradition.

But then tradition is forever challenged by newness. So tradition needs to reaffirm itself constantly. New traditions can be set and rival old traditions. Then it is the battle of the ages, so to speak.

Italian food did not get the tomato until after the Columbian expedition. Tomatoes are new-world. But Italians consider the red revolution part of their culinary heritage. And I believe the world is happy about the many variations of bolognaise sauce made in and outside of Italy. Italians are not about to deny their culture bolognaise sauce just because the tomato didn’t start on their shores.

Now what is very interesting are the types of tomatoes that eventually started to grow only in Italy and that can be had only when one visits Italy! Some things do not travel well, and enjoying them where they are grown at their best is an absolute delight. Try that scenario in the Philippines. It works.

What are some key ingredients through the centuries any kitchen cannot do without?

Salters, sweeters, sour-ers, "heat-ers," a carbo source. Some greens. and a protein source–for me, preferably vegetarian if the culture and its natural environs can allow it. Life feeds on life. Every meal is the sacrifice of life to let someone live. Food is far more precious than many allow ourselves to make of it.