Edgar Maranan - A taste of home: Pinoy expats and food memories

Pinoy Expats and Food Memories

Pinoy Expats and Food Memories

Edited by

Edgar B. Maranan

Len S. Maranan-Goldstein

A Taste of Home

Pinoy Expats and Food Memories

Copyright of this digital edition, 2016

by Edgar B. Maranan, Len Maranan-Goldstein, and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the written permission of the copyright owners and the publisher.

Copyright of the individual pieces remains with their authors.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING INC.

7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Trunk Lines: (+632) 477-4752, 477-4755 to 57

Sales and Marketing:

Fax No.: (+632) 747-1622

www.anvilpublishing.com

Book design by Arnold R. Ramos

Cover design by Len Maranan-Goldstein

ISBN 9789712733031 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

Carla Montemayor

FH Batacan

Ruminations on Eating
(and Being) Pinoy Overseas

Evan P. Garcia & Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia

Greg B. Macabenta

Fe C. Abogadie

Annie Adlawan

Isabel Rojas Aleta

Pagkaon: Memories of Unrecoverable
Gastronomies and Lost Eateries

Patricio Abinales

Yvonne Belen

Catherine Batac Walder

Carlene (Kalifa) Sobrino Bonnivier

Jack Catarata

Maribel Zulueta-Consing

Amihan Gorospe

How I Went on a Hunger Strike Over
Gulay na Langka and Damn
if I Dont Miss the Stuff Today!

Rem Grefalda

The Reluctant Evolution
of a Filipino Gourmet

Agnes R. Quisumbing

Mel Tobias

Cynthia Buiza

Sophie Lizares-Bodegon

Gina Consing McAdam

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Edna Morales-Weisser

Luis Cabalquinto

Reflections on the Diaspora, Burung Babi,
a Favorite Uncle, Malayan Fish Head Curry
and a Trip to the Mountains

Rene J. Navarro

Nadine Sarreal

John Labella

Roger P. Olivares

Linda Ty Casper

Soul Comforts:
Kapeng Barako and Tsokolate

L. Marcelline Santos-Taylor

Vyvyan Tenorio

Cora Quisumbing-King

Connie J. Maraan

Luisa A. Igloria

Gigi Carunungan

Clinton Palanca

Manolita Farolan

Nilda T. Resano

Nene Martin

Gene Alcantara

Remy Reyes

Marla Yotoko Chorengel

Desiree Latimer

Aileen & Cecilia Ibardaloza

Rodney Dakita Garcia

Kate Yu

Agatha Verdadero

Angelina Lapid Varona

Colette dela Cruz

Of all the places in the heart, it must be the kitchen that generates the warmest thoughts of home, in more ways than one. Put another way, in the hearth of our memories, theres always something cooking.

Working with prolific food author turned painter Erlinda Panlilio got me thinking about proposing this book of delectations. I had been one of the contributors to her book, Comfort Food. In one of our email exchanges, I suggested to her that she put together a book that brings together Filipino expatriates reminiscing about their favorite Filipino native dishes, the food they grew up with, or on. Then somehow, when the idea was broached to Karina Bolasco of Anvil Publishing, both (or one of them) came back to me with the proposal that I edit the book, because I was then living in London and would have an idea of what the expatriate experience was, food-wise.

Months passed. I emailed Karina again: Just got back from Vancouver, attended my sons graduation. Would you still be interested in that book on Pinoy expats recipes and recollections of home and hometown cooking? Have had some ideas brewing in my mind. Met Prof. Nora Angeles who teaches womens studies and planning at the University of British Columbia and whos now a Canadian resident. She cooked us a delightful lunch of Filipino and western dishes, and I thought that that might be another aspect of the book: how expats have managed to mix and knead, so to speak, their Pinoy and adopted cultures, through cuisine and other expressions.

Karina emailed back: Yes, very interested, especially in how expats have held on to their food wherever in the world they end up. And of course, there will be stories, recollections, memories around these dishes.

The work cut out for me appeared simple enough: contact compatriots around the world who might be interested in writing down their memories of boiling pots and sizzling pans, and palayok over the dapugan or abuhan (the stove made from adobe stone, with kindling wood for fuel, set on a bamboo platform, common in rural areas).

I needed more contacts in the United States, and because my daughter Lennewly married to an Americanwas living there, I decided to ask her help as co-editor of the book, one of her tasks being to help me draw up a list of the people to whom we were going to send out the call for submissions. Also, with her skills in Word, printmaking, computer graphics, photoshop and illustration, she was just the right person to do the cover design and layout. She would later plow through the voluminous text proofreading and doing some editing.

And so we issued the call for submissionsto our friends in the overseas Filipino community, which included academics, writers, artists and professionals in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and colleagues in the diplomatic service. We also asked them to pass on the invitation to their friends who might be willing to contribute to the anthology. Thus we wrote to them:

This book will be a collection of Filipino expats reminiscencesespecially during the writers growing-up-into-adulthood yearsprimarily of home and hometown, but having Filipino cooking as the unifying thread: favorite dishes and native delicacies, family recipes and food rituals, favorite watering holes and memorable eating places anywhere in the Philippines; liberally sprinkled with anecdotes about and reflections on family histories, hometown tales and events, the social milieu during those times, etc., perhaps not directly related to food, but reflective of the mixed Filipino culture we grew up in.

It will be about Filipinos abroad writing on what they miss most, how they cope with this absence (hunting for Filipino restaurantsdecent or so-soor doing their own cooking, remembering old family recipes, etc.). The contributed piece could also include: a) how that culinary past has survived in the expats present life (the fact that many expats still hanker for, and actually still subsist on, home and hometown favorites, even decades after leaving the homeland, is most illustrative); b) the expats first encounter with foreign cuisine, and what comparisons he/she could draw between that and native cuisine, etc.; c) reactions of foreign-born or -raised children to Pinoy food; and d) as a side-dish, a culinary tip from the writer, such as a much-loved family recipe.

With that mouthful of an invitation, I thought we could interest enough people to fork up their contribution to a modest smorgasbord of sentimental morsels. Over a period of almost two years we finally collected forty-odd essays, about twice the number of polite demurrers and apologetic rain checks. Shortly before the contributors manuscripts and photos were to be submitted to Anvil, the daughter of an old friend was told about the book project, and she asked if it wasnt too late to submit a piece. She had a really interesting story to tell, she told it with much wit and warmth, and she was gladly welcomed aboard.