The day’s festivities start at the crack of dawn, when a band plays music while walking the streets of the town, awakening the whole village. Richly embroidered tablecloths are spread and tables are set in preparation for the day’s feast. The culinary centerpiece of the celebration is the beloved Lechon, a whole pig stuffed with rice and roasted slowly over a charcoal pit. The sight of this distinctly Filipino fiesta food will immediately conjure mouthwatering childhood memories for all adult Filipinos.
Another time for food and celebration is All Souls’ Day when Filipinos visit cemeteries to pay respects to their deceased loved ones. All through the night of November 1st, Filipinos eat, sing, and gossip—while large amounts of food and drink are passed around and over tombstones. This same celebratory ethos applies to funerals, where refreshments are provided for everyone in attendance and there is a sense of communal gaiety. Typical meals eaten on these days are Pig Blood Stew (Dinuguan), Steamed Rice Cakes and Sautéed Bean Thread Noodles (page 95).
The biggest national Philippine celebration is Pasko, or Christmas. Filipinos do not confine the celebration to December but will start as early as September when they begin hanging Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols. They even continue the celebration past Christmas and make the first Sunday of January the official end to their holiday reveling. From the 16th of December through Christmas Eve, Filipinos celebrate Simbang Gabi, a Filipino version of Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster), a nine-day celebration held at four in the morning on each day. An integral part of Simbang Gabi is the availability of refreshments from local street vendors. Sleepy and hungry churchgoers can enjoy Coconut Sponge Cakes (Bibingka, page 103), Purple Rice Cakes with Coconut Shavings (Puto Bumbong), Chicken Tamales (page 28), Filipino Hot Chocolate (page 105) and Healthy Ginger Tea (Salabat, page 107) as a part of the celebration. As Christmas Eve becomes Christmas morning, family members gather to share a festive Noche Buena meal of Glazed Christmas Ham with Pineapple (Hamon, page 49), cheese, lechon, Spring Rolls (Lumpiang Shanghai, page 31), Fried Rice Noodles (Pancit Guisado, page 93), Barbequed Chicken Skewers (page 61), Fruit Salad, Chicken Macaroni Salad, and other dishes.
Finally, New Year’s Eve provides another chance for family to gather around a table of celebratory foods. This meal is called the Media Noche and is served just before midnight strikes. Filipinos believe that plenty of food on the table means a year of plenty for everyone in the family. Twelve different fruits, especially round ones like grapes and chicos (or sapodilla, a brown berry with a sweet and malty taste) that resemble money, are displayed to invite prosperity for the coming year. Other Filipinos believe that eating twelve grapes on New Year’s Eve will ensure a year of good luck.
If all of this isn’t enough, many Filipinos get married in the months of December and January providing yet one more reason to cook large amounts of food and gather together with family and friends for a celebration. Essentially, Filipinos love any reason to eat and enjoy each other’s company!
How to Eat a Filipino Meal
Most Filipinos prefer to eat with their hands, especially in informal situations. Making sure their hands are clean, Filipinos always use the fingers of their right hand (even left-handed diners) to take a small portion of rice and to press it into a mound. A piece of meat, fish, or vegetable is placed on top of this mound and picked up with the fingers, and then brought to the mouth where the thumb is used to push the food into the mouth. It might take some practice, but this is the authentic way of eating Filipino food.
The Spanish introduced forks and spoons and, since then, their use has become widespread. The fork is normally held in the left hand and the spoon in the right hand. A knife is not normally needed since most foods are either pre-cut into bitesized pieces or tender enough to be cut using the spoon. The spoon is used to collect and then scoop up a mouthful of food while the fork keeps it from moving off the plate. Only in the most formal settings will you see a knife used. Although the Chinese left a lasting impression on Filipino food and culture, chopsticks are generally not used. Filipinos use a flat plate, making it impractical to pick up rice with chopsticks.
Another unique part of the Filipino dining experience is the use of patis (fish sauce) and bagoong (either sautéed shrimp paste or anchovy sauce) as condiments. These condiments (pampalasa) are used in soups, stews, and to accompany just about any dish on the Filipino table. Even when a dish is flavorful and well seasoned, a Filipino will still want to add patis or bagoong. So remember to put a small saucer or patis or bagoong on the table during mealtime if you want to keep your Filipino guests happy.
Meals are served family style—that is, they are placed in the center of the table with individual serving spoons, allowing each diner to take only the desired portion. Viands —the dishes that accompany rice—mostly have bite-sized slices of meat and vegetables.
Filipinos are easygoing and hospitable. They love to share their food! If you are visiting a Filipino home, you will definitely be offered helpings of local specialties—and if it’s fiesta time, you’ll enjoy even more.
Guests are treated with respect, but don’t start to eat until the host says so. Don’t hesitate to take a second or third helping as your host will be delighted that you’re enjoying the dishes. If you don’t like the food, try to eat a little bit out of courtesy. It is always important for guests to accept food offered by the host or fellow guests—never decline! Make sure you finish everything on your plate; otherwise the hostess will think you didn’t appreciate her cooking. Above all, enjoy the hospitality of family and friends while sampling the variety of textures and tastes found in Filipino cuisine.
Essential Filipino Ingredients
Filipino ingredients can be found in Asian or Latin American grocery stores. If there are Filipino eateries in your neighborhood, it is worth checking with them to find out where they get their supplies. Chinatowns are also good places to look. Many hard-to-find fresh vegetables, such as bitter gourd, can be found frozen, canned, or bottled. Also, a wide variety of Filipino products are now available from online businesses (see Resources, page 112).
Agar-Agar is a thickening agent made from seaweed that is used to make desserts and jellies. It is flavorless and dissolves when boiled in water and sets to a gelatinous form when left to cool. It is similar to gelatin although gelatin is made from animal by-products and easily dissolves in hot water. Agar-agar gels more firmly than gelatin too. Known as gulaman in the Philippines, agar-agar is sold as dried white or colored bars or packed as flakes or powder. Look for them in Asian or health food stores.
Anchovy Sauce, or bagoong isda, is fermented fish sauce—anchovies are commonly used—that is popular either as an ingredient or condiment. Anchovy sauce is very salty, has a strong, pungent smell, and varies in appearance, color, and flavor. No need to sauté or cook the sauce when used as a condiment. Asian groceries sell bottles of gray-colored anchovy sauce either as bagoong monamon or bagoong balayan, and may contain whole anchovies. Do not confuse with regular fish sauce or patis. See also Sautéed Shrimp Paste.
Annatto Seeds are tiny, dried reddish-brown seeds used as natural food coloring. They have little flavor and are mainly added to impart a tinge of red color to dishes. The seed is usually soaked and squeezed in warm water or fried in oil to extract the reddish orange color (see How to Make Annatto Water, page 19). The seed is from the annatto
