Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Filipino Food Appreciation Lessons

9:11:00 AM 1 Comments
Adolf Aran, Jr., President of the Food and Hospitality Events Specialist Inc. organized a quarterly Filipino food forum entitled "The Filipino Cuisine: Why we eat what we eat, Then and Now" which I have attended. I have never learned in history why Filipino food is such and have grown up getting used to having "Filipino food" from Barrio Fiesta and Jollibee when I dine out.

Adolf Aran, Jr.


All these thoughts I had about "Filipino food" were slashed immediately the moment Alex Orquiza, a doctoral candidate in history at the John Hopkins University, started to discuss history with his talk called, "Pacific Exchanges: Filipino food culture and the response to Americanization." He showed samples of food print ads during the American Period which shows how much the American influence has affected the Filipino's choice of food. Even Magnolia Ice Cream should only be eaten by those with light complexion.

Alex Orquiza

Orquiza also showed menu of high class hotels in the Philippines during the 1900s on what they serve on banquets. Surprisingly, the hotels during those era served French food! They don't use much of our local ingredients or even a local dish for festivities like lechon was not on the list! The few Filipino food that went on the menu shown were lapu-lapu, Cafe Lipa, Cafe de Batangas and mango which I found very interesting. Imported food must be really cheap at that time to be able to have a majority foreign food on the menu.

Menus of different occasions in high class hotels during the American Period in the 1900s.

What about Filipino food making it to the US? According to Orquiza, there was a book that states during the 1900s there were fish with coconut sauce, pork with coconut sauce, lechon, adobo and dinuguan which found their way to the US. This information is impressive! He also showed a slide which quoted Edith Moses in 1908 that describes how Filipinos love feeding their guests with plenty of food and the goodness of carabao milk that makes one forget how (ugly) a carabao looks like.

Quote from Edith Moses in 1908


Owner of Purple Yam (a popular Filipino restaurant in New York whose Adobo is on the list of the must-try food in New York), Amy Besa, said "Our food is characterized by sour flavors." She gave an example through her restaurant's best-seller adobo. She said that adobo is sour and salty, not sweet. She explains that putting sugar on adobo will ruin its taste because it's not supposed to be sweet. She also gave another examples like sinigang and kinilaw which needs sour fruits, and not sachet powders, to make it sour.
"When you feed people, nourish them and make them healthy," describes Besa, "mass produced food is not bad but if it's unhealthy, it's bad." She also notices how despite our country has very rich soils, we do not have a lot of vegetarian food. Another thing she points out which I agree is that the usual vegetable dishes we have are boiled vegetables, pinakbet and ensalada. I have to personally add, crispy kangkong to this list of usual vegetable dishes. Sometimes I don't understand why despite the richness of our soil, we have so few native vegetables in our market and the quantity of our vegetable is low which makes it as expensive as meat. These expensive vegetables make a lot of Filipinos opt to buy meat since cooking meat gives one more food than vegetables which shrinks when cooked.

Cyrene Dela Rosa who stayed in the US for a long time came back to the Philippines to try as much Filipino food as she can to observe the trends of Filipino food. She showed so many slides of Filipino food on which she photographs on her very food trip while discussing what's good in the restaurants she have tried and on how a simple dish like laing can be reinvented into something Filipino-Italian like the laing pizza in Bicol. She points out the different halo-halo which she has encountered on her trip like the Pampanga Kabigting Halo-halo has pastillas and Bicol's halo-halo includes cheese but it's the local cheese only that will make it taste good. She also showed a slide of the crops people sell in Baguio which now includes blueberries (aside from the usual strawberries) which is only P7.00 a kilo!

Cyrene Dela Rosa

Pictures from L-R: Home-cooked meals in Cecile's friends' house, Mely's sisig and barbecue chicken ass in Pampanga, and different products found in Baguio's market - strawberries, carrots, tupik (a Filipino delicacy which sadly, I've never heard, seen or tried yet), blueberries and a store that sells ube, strawberry jam, etc.

Pictures from L-R: Different types of lechon from different places - regular lechon, Zubuchon and Rico's spicy lechon, Bicol's specialties - halo-halo with cheese, monay putok with meat inside.

The increasing homemade baked goodies sold through internet or bazaars that is becoming highly popular around the metro like the Macademia Sans Rival made by someone in Valle Verde and the Custaroons made by Gigi were also pointed out by Dela Rosa as a potential booming food industry because of these people's innovative ideas. She also notices the increasing good selections of wine being offered in the restaurants today.

Found member and Past President of The International Wine and Food Society Manila Ladies Branch, CJ Juntereal read an article regarding this visitor who came to the Philippines to try our food find Tsumura as the best place to eat but Tsumura serves Japanese food which is quite weird. She explains how there are lots of mediocre Filipino food so quality is always important no matter what happens. She admits that sometimes a lot of people accepts the mistake they did in their dish but still serves it because they need to earn but it should not be the case. She encourages restaurant owners, cooks and chefs to strive hard and give quality food because this is something which we Filipinos have and should be proud of.

CJ Juntereal (with Alex Orquiza on the background)


Executive Chef of Circulo and Milky Way Restaurants, J Gamboa raises the question if we should cook for ourselves or for other people which is what he faced during a cooking competition in Hong Kong. According to him, "We (Filipinos) are used to aggressively seasoning our food." The food they made during the competition was very salty according to the judge and told them that they're cooking for themselves. He said that they (chefs) should know the history of Filipino food as discussed by Orquiza but when they're at the kitchen, all they think about are cooking techniques, modern equipment and knife cut. However, he stresses an important point between the difference of simmering and boiling. Simmering is a common technique in cooking Filipino food since we love clear soup and we want soft meat. If soup is boiled, it results to cloudy soup and stringy meat. He also discloses about Les Toques Blanches Philippines, which he is the director of education, that is a group of chefs sponsoring teachers to study about culinary trends and practices.

Chef J Gamboa


JJ Yulo, who is a blogger and food entrepreneur behind Pinoy Eats World, tells us how important it is for Filipinos to know where their food is coming from and the story behind it. In his food tours, he brings people to the provinces to try what these people made at home and tell them the stories behind the food. Aside from Filipino food, he said, he also tours Filipinos to try Philippine's Korean food while showing them the TV series "Jewel In the Palace" during the meal to explain to them what they're having. I hope someday I'll be able to join one of the tours and write about it. I'm very sure, it will be a remarkable gastronomic experience.

JJ Yulo


Besa closes the discussion on what we should do to enhance the traditional ways of cooking Filipino food, how to make Filipino food popular and make it known to the world. If Filipino food becomes popular, it will put the Philippines into the map of must-go-to-places and help our economy the way other dishes like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, French, Italian and American cuisine has made a lot of people go to their places just to taste the authenticity of the dishes.

From L-R: Alvan Young, Cyrene Dela Rosa, CJ Juntereal, Chef J Gamboa, JJ Yulo, Amy Besa, Chef Romy Dorotan, Alex Orquiza, Adolf Aran Jr.


I have realized through this talk on how important it was for my high school to teach us how to make Filipino dishes like longganiza, tocino and krispy kang kong because it was part of our culture. Somehow making these dishes enhances the Filipino in me and makes me proud we have these dishes. However, due to the popularity of baking, the lower batches were made to bake cakes and cookies instead of making Filipino dishes. I hope that school administrators who teaches home economics will be able to attend one of these forums for them to realize the gravity of teaching how to make Filipino dishes to their students. We should love not only to eat Filipino dishes but to make them perfectly for Philippines to be part of the world's culinary map to somehow help boost our economy and uplift the lives of our countrymen.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Coffee Farm Tour: From Plantation to Roasting

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I have been living in a condominium for years until early last year when my family has moved to a place with a garden. I was so excited that I tried planting vegetables like tomatoes, string beans and okras. Unfortunately, my tomato plants died after bearing one small tomato which was eaten by our neighbor’s chicken. My string beans showed no signs of growth. On the other hand, my okra plants grew for months and provided my family free okras until it grew higher, started to dry up despite being watered everyday and eventually died. Somehow, this little experiment made me realize how our country is really blessed with fertile soil and a tropical weather that makes all these wonderful plants grow easily.

During the Coffee Origins Press Farm Tour, I felt like it is an extension of my planting experience. The first stop of the tour was at Echofarms in Indang, Cavite. We were given a basket each to put the vegetables that we’re picking. Before we raid the field, we were given house rules and tips to follow before we harvest the vegetables. The first rule was to read the signs if they’re “ready for harvest.” The second rule is to use pruning shear when necessary which is to avoid hurting the plant. It will help the plant grow again.



Echofarms in Indang, Cavite


In the farm, I felt like I was back in kindergarden again running around the field with my basket. Each row of plants is labeled and noted if they are ready for harvest. It was quite weird that the vegetables are cleared of insects when I was looking at them. It’s either they’re clean or the insects are hiding in it. I picked up my favorite vegetables, lettuce, pakchoy (Chinese pechay) and arugula which were “ready for harvest.” Before putting them in my basket, I shake the vegetable a bit to make sure I don’t take the soil in the basket and also to drive away insects if there is an insect living in the vegetable. I also went to the trellis to harvest gourd (patola) although I didn’t know which one to pick so I asked Neil who was in charge of the farm to help me choose which to pick. He took his pruning shear out and cut a medium-size gourd for me.


Managing Director of CommTrends Majivel Marbibi-Maullon and Kendrick Go


Aside from the grown vegetables, there were also seedlings of different plants on the side that were on sale. I also noticed that there’s a row of Caffea Liberica (barako) seedlings. Interested with the Caffea Liberica (barako) seedlings, I asked if I can grow a plant in my garden. Sadly, it grows in 400 meters high land so if I bought it and bring it to Manila, chances are it will just die.

Our next stop, the Cavite State University Coffee Farm where Dr. Alejandro Mojica, Head of the National Research Center on Coffee and author of the book “Barako: The Big Bean,” gave us a lecture about the current state of the coffee industry in the Philippines. He said that over the years, there’s a drop of coffee production in the country because of the low price of coffee in 2001. A lot of the farmers shifted to planting other crops or to other industries to sustain a living. The coffee trees in the country are already 40 to 60 years old which also causes the production drop. This year, there’s a 40% drop of coffee production in the Philippines caused by the El Nino. To help out the remaining coffee farmers in the country, The Philippine Coffee Board encourages them to plant other crops suitable to be together with coffee plants like pepper, banana and yam so that these can sustain their livelihood despite a low harvest in coffee. The government of Cavite is also helpful in providing funds for a coffee tissue culture laboratory that helps Dr. Mojica to create new seedlings. At present, they’re evaluating the plants on the field if they’re pest resistant. According to Dr. Mojica, this has helped them grow coffee plants faster since it takes 3 to 5 years before a coffee tree bears the coffee cherry.



Coffee plants nursery in Cavite State University


A closer look at coffee cherries. The red ones are riped cherries good for harvest.


To encourage kids of coffee farmers to go back to farm, they offer short courses in Cavite State University with the help of the Philippine Coffee Board and the government. They also give loans with very low interest to those who would like to start up on a coffee farm business. The present average age of coffee farmers is 56 years old which is quite old. The Philippine Coffee Board also held a competition on the most number of yields per tree during harvest season to encourage the farmers to do their best.


Freshly grinded coffee beans from coffee cherries. They're small because they're organicly grown.


The third stop was at the Beneficio Amadeo Coffee Fill where Nicholas Matti, Chair of Philippine Coffee Board explained how the mill works. The usual time of milling is on December to January and April to May. According to Matti, “Farmers harvest (coffee) cherries on November to December. It is better when it is raining to induce flowering (of the plants).” He also said that the farmers only mill the parchment when there’s a buyer to protect the freshness of the beans. He gave a milling process show for us to understand more on what happens when the parchments are milled. A lot of us noticed that the beans are quite small. Matti said that organic beans are smaller. He added that the reason why they can’t ask all the farmers to go organic because their yield will go lower and the farmers need money.




Chair of Philippine Coffee Board Nicholas Matti



This measures the moisture of coffee beans.


For the last stop, we were brought to Gourmet Farms Roasting Facility in Tagaytay. Lennard Reyes, VP for Operations of Escaler & Company, toured us around the farm and showed the roasting facilities. He said that they roast the beans as fresh as possible in their restaurant since they have their own roaster. He explained that the Arabica coffee in Benguet is at par with the world’s quality however, post-harvest processing of coffee has always been a problem in this country since the farmers are not well-educated about it. Reyes narrated the history of the coffee industry in the Philippines, “In the mid-1970s, Gourmet Farms was exporting coffee then we shifted to roasting coffee when Vietnam decided coffee was its gold crop.” He added, “The Philippines grow 40,000 million tons of coffee beans a year and the drinkers take 60,000 million tons (of coffee beans).” Based on economics, coffee beans from the Philippines should be more expensive than abroad since there’s more demand than supply. This is true for Arabica but it is not for Robusta. The price of Robusta in our country is being dictated by companies who are buying it since they can get it from the world market. It is quite sad to hear from him how our country has become an importer of coffee rather than export it when our country has good soil and the perfect weather to grow excellent world class coffee trees. However, our country still has hope and I’m glad that the Philippine Coffee Board is there to help improve the coffee industry rather than waste the potential that is already there.


At Gourmet Farms Roasting Facility in Tagaytay


In 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos declared October as Coffee Month. To create awareness to the public that our country can produce good coffee, the Philippine Coffee Board continued this celebration and created Coffee Origins in 2009. This year, Coffee Origins 2010 will be held at the Gallery, Greenbelt 5 until October 20 to give away free samples of coffee from Benguet to Sulu so that the public will be able to get a taste and appreciate what our land has to offer. There will also be displays of coffee pods, coffee capsules and coffee machines. Aside from the coffee sampling, there will be other activities like Café Brew (coffee preparing concoction competition), Coffee Henyo (battle of the brains for coffee geeks), Café Art (latte art demonstration), Kape Literatura (poem writing contest for coffee enthusiast), How to Put Up a Coffee Shop Webinar, Coffee Farming Seminar and the 3rd National Coffee Summit.




VP for Operations of Escaler & Company Lennard Reyes


The words of wisdom which I’ve gotten from this tour were said by Lennard Reyes, “Coffee doesn’t expire, it just loses its freshness.” These words made me feel that it’s the same with our country’s rich soil for the coffee industry. The soil doesn’t expire and it’s always there just waiting for us to plant coffee in it.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

First of One, The Red Cross Ball

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Who is Furne One?


Heidi Klum with Furne One

Furne One is a famous designer in the international scene who has made wonderful creations for supermodel, Heidi Klum. He has been in Dubai for over 10 years now designing his imaginative, genius and dazzling creations for the elite Arabic women. He may sound foreign, he may look foreign with his blonde hair and curls but he is a Filipino.

The creative nature of a Filipino will be unveiled by One on his debut presentation in Manila, his first ever Philippine gala show entitled "First of One - A Fashion Collection by Furne One" on October 9, 2010, 7pm at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Tessa Prieto-Valdes and Kaye Tinga


This event is organized by two of the most well-known fundraisers, fashion lovers who has the heart for the Filipino people, Philippine Daily Inquirer's society columnist Tessa Prieto-Valdes and philanthropist Kaye Tinga.

Why did they choose One?

According to Tessa, she first heard of One from the MEGA Young Designer of the Philippines Award in which he won. When she saw his collection, she felt that it was larger than life and it matches her personality. She said that he was the one who made Kim Chiu's gown during the 4th Star Magic Ball. She also loves the heavy beading of Swarovski crystals that One does in his creations. She said, "Maybe the gown is as heavy as my weight." I can imagine how much Swarovski crystals are sewn onto the gown!

Kaye Tinga told us that we'll be the first who will be able to see these collection before being shown to the Dubai Fashion Week.

"First of One" features One's latest 50-piece collection, "Wars and Roses," which highlights lavish and intricate details. His collection is inspired by Queen Elizabeth I who is the 15th to 16th century matriarch of the Golden Age of England.

Directing the show will be Ariel Lozada who also directed this year's Bench Uncut.


Due to public demand, there will be another show the next day for students who won't be able to attend the ball since the tickets are P1,000 each and for a table, it is P10,000. However, please take note that this is all for charity. Proceeds from the show is for the benefit of the Philippine National Red Cross-Rizal Chapter and the Assumption High School Batch 1981 Foundation.


For ticket inquiries and reservations, please call Maggie Gineta at 0917-8325570.

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