The Philippine Online Chronicles

One of my favorite things about being Pinoy is food. Sinigang na baboy? Oh my. Adobong manok? Yes please. Dinuguan at puto? Yes, yes, yes. More than the deliciousness of these dishes, I love how eating the Filipino way is such a transcendent experience. Food is a language. Eating is a social experience. From “Kain tayo!” to leaving one last morsel behind on the serving plate, there’s always a story behind a Pinoy eating habit. Maybe I’m a romantic. A foodie romantic, if you please.

A foreigner friend once told me, “You Filipinos eat a lot.” It was a quiet observation that I almost took offense in. Before I opened my mouth to correct her, I sat back in my chair and pondered on her statement. There is truth in what she said after all. We Filipinos love to eat. If we look at a typical day in our lives, you’ll see how we love to eat a lot. What does that make us? Gluttons? Patay-gutom?  Are we candidates for Overeaters Anonymous?  I don’t think so.  Eating is a Pinoy passion. Eating a lot, well, it’s part of our food culture.

Let’s take a look at how many times we eat in a day. There’s breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, merienda, dinner, and maybe even an after dinner snack. We eat five to six meals a day. That doesn’t count the little nibbles we hide in our office drawers or the glass of taho we have before breakfast. Yummy. Main meals plus panawid-gutom meals (“bridging the hunger” meals) equals a day of good eating. It’s nothing out of the ordinary in Juan’s eyes, but to a foreigner that makes quite a buffet of a day.

Then let’s take a look at the spread on the table. Western practice follows courses – an appetizer is served first, followed by a bowl of soup, salad, the entrees, then finally dessert.  A Pinoy meal serves everything at the same time. A bowl of steaming hot Pork sinigang could be at the center of the table, surrounded by a bowl of white rice, a dry viand such as fried fish (to balance the soupy dish it is served with), dipping sauces such as fish sauce and catsup, and fresh fruits. A dinner plate is a medley of  all these servings, with the white rice swimming in the sour broth of sinigang. It’s normal to see slices of banana being eaten with a spoonful of rice, especially among the older folk.  Every dish is important. Every dish is a star. It brings the term “salo-salo” to life. We partake of the food all together – all the dishes laid out, all the family members gathered ‘round the table. Eating is a social experience for Pinoys, with food as the magnet that draws everyone together.

Step out of your home, explore the neighborhood, and kiosk after kiosk of food will welcome you. A siomai stall is right next to a stand selling barbecue, which is next to a stall selling gulaman drinks of different colors, followed by a man selling day-old chicks who stands right next to an old lady selling platters of peanuts... There’s always at least one food stand on your regular street. It’s hard to resist the savory aromas that travel down the street along with you. You find yourself digging up change in your pocket to go for a stick of fish balls then later realize that just one stick is not enough. After several servings, you walk down the street to buy fresh melon juice from Manang. There’s no escaping the lure of Pinoy eats on the street. There’s always that one stall that’s out to seduce your appetite, no matter if you’ve just eaten a heavy breakfast at home or not.

If there are no food stalls in your neighbourhood, then food will make its way to you. Baluuuuuuuuuut, you’d hear a man bellow in the early morning or late evening. Tahooooooooo, another man hollers just before you go down the stairs for breakfast. In the afternoon you might hear the jingling of a bicycle bell, signalling the arrival of the man selling binatog. These snacks may not be part of the structured breakfast-lunch-dinner or even the breakfast-mid-morning-snack-lunch-merienda-dinner-after-dinner form. Still,you run out of the house, grab some balut or penoy, offer your own glass to Manong for your taho (with extra sago please). Food is making its way to you. Food is not to be refused. And so we down our balut happily, or kick off our day with taho. Ah, Pinoy snacking bliss.

Let’s not forget how “Kain tayo” is such a beautiful greeting. If we have food, we share it with others. Sometimes we do sit down with those who invited us to their meal out of respect and nibble on the food.  It is a greeting of selflessness, a good example of how food is part of our language. The staff invites the boss to eat with them, “Ma’am, kain po tayo,” and food becomes an equalizer. “Tara, kain tayo,” says a group of friends to another friend passing by and it’s a symbol of acceptance and welcoming into their group.

I also like coming home to this greeting: “Kumain ka na?” There are times that I’d say yes, I had already eaten, but my husband would putter around the kitchen to fix up a meal for me anyway. Even if it’s just a pack of instant noodles set before me, I eat it up because it was prepared with much thoughtfulness and love. Who can pass up such a meal?

If you combine all these examples into one day, it does look like we eat a lot. A six-meal day, all dishes presented on the table at the same time, salo-salo, street food in kiosks, street food that comes to you, food as an invitation, food as a token of love... it’s easy to say "Yes, we may be eating a little too much." A foreigner would say that. But ask another Pinoy and he’ll say it’s nothing out of the ordinary. It’s not gluttony. It’s not binge-eating. It’s not making us candidates for Overeaters Anonymous. It’s just plain and simple love for food, a passion for the eating experience.

“You Filipinos eat a lot,” my foreigner friend did say.

After sitting back in my chair and reflecting on what she said, I just smiled. “Maybe,” I said. “Maybe we do. Tara, kain tayo.”

Photo: “Images_IRRIDB0203_er8” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved. Photo: “Images_IRRIDB0203_er9” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved Photo: “This is for Luming, she who have diamonds in the soles of her feet...” by Shubert Ciencia, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved. Photo: “Balut” by Jun Pinili, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toni Tiu is a strategic planning consultant by profession and a writer by passion. She also loves to eat. Her favourite street foods are fish balls, squid balls, and kwek kwek. She also loves taho. For stories on her delicious finds and food trips, visit her personal blog at Wifelysteps.com.