Philippine Food Reads: Of Bananas and Drinking Food

The Philippines is blessed with a substantial body of good food writing, both serious literature and research by the likes of Edilberto Alegre and the late Doreen Fernandez, and less 'learned' but nonetheless enjoyable books by professional and amateur food lovers. An hour spent browsing the shelves in the food writing/cookbook section of a Manila bookstore never fails to deliver something surprising and delightful.

In December I found a couple of gems: a thirty-year-old publication by the Philippine Banana Export Industry Association called 100+1 Banana Recipes, and a slim paperback called Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen. The first is what its title suggests, a straightforward collection of recipes (written in both Tagalog and English) featuring banana as the main ingredient. Included are fairly mundane dishes such as banana muffins and banana pudding, as well as recipes for more curious (to the non-Filipino, at least) concoctions such as banana omelet, banana-stuffed bangus (milkfish), banacorn soup (made with corn grits, unripe banana, and green onion), and banana chicken with ubod (palm heart). It's a quirkily enjoyable illustration of the centrality of the banana in Philippine cuisine - for less than U$5.

Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen is, perhaps, an 'only-in-the-Philippines' sort of creation: a book of anecdotes and recipes written by two junior military officers serving time for their alleged involvement in what is referred to in the Philippines as the 'Oakwood Mutiny', an event in which some 300 soldiers took over the Oakwood Hotel in Makati (Manila) and declared their withdrawal of support from the government of current Philippine president Gloria Arroyo. The recipes in the book are all for pulutan, a category of food perhaps best explained by the authors:

'Pulutan conveys many things Filipino. That is probably why there is no English word that truly captures the concept of pulutan.

Finger food is not quite accurate because many pulutan are eaten with a fork or with a spoon. Neither is appetizer quite right because pulutan is a meal by itself. In fact, when the plate stops being replenished, that means it's time to go home.

Pulutan conjures comraderie. A drinking session is the Filipino concept of breaking bread. Pulutn is the bread.

The word pulutan has also evolved to mean being a main topic of conversation. If one is absent in a drinking session, he gets talked about and becomes the pulutan. (p. xv)

Each chapter ('All Time Favorites', Goat Meat, Lasang Exotic, 'Not the Usual Parts', etc.) opens with a discussion that mixes memories and anecdotes ('For my twenty-sixth birthday in 2005, I wanted something different to celebrate it with classmates who were also fellow detainees. I didn't want the usual spaghetti and fried chicken.'); Philippine food-related factoids (humba, a pork and vinegar dish, is often served at festive occasions in the Visayas, and a Philippine drinkers' tale says that fathers cook better than mothers because while the latter only learn to cook when they marry, the former learn to cook as soon as they start drinking alcohol); and kitchen tips (when preparing Bloody Belly Grill, an Ilocano dish, 'the swine's blood must be fresh and pure. Do not add water to increase the volume').

Many of the recipes are for dishes that might be 'challenging' to the Western palate. I doubt that I'll ever cook Vampires' Delight, a pork loin preparation that also includes intestines, liver, and fresh blood, or Sinigang na Adidas, sour soup of chicken feet (nails removed). But Ginataang Kuhol (snails cooked with coconut milk, squash blossoms, ginger, and chilies - mussels or other shellfish might be substituted for the snails) sounds delicious, and how can you go wrong with Steamed Stingray?

I love books of this sort for the highly focused and sometimes offbeat slices of culinary culture that they offer the reader.

Ginataang Kuhol (From Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen, Ellen T. Tordesillas and Yvonne T. Chua, eds.)

30-50 pieces edible snail

2 Tbsp. chopped garlic

4 medium onions chopped

2 Tbsp. grated ginger

1 cup gata (coconut milk)

4 pieces siling haba (finger chile)

1 cup water

1 cup squash shoots and/or flowers

1. Wash the snails in boiling water and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a pan then saute garlic, onions, and ginger.

3. Add snails. Cover pan and cook for 10 minutes.

4. Add coconut milk, siling haba, and water. Cover pan and bring to the boil.

5. When the sauce is thick, add squash shoots. Season to taste.

6. Turn off heat but leave the pan covered for 5 minutes before serving.

Comments

[santos.]

oh the irony. i'm pretty sure one of the reasons that the 'oakwood mutiny' occurred where it did was because of the abundance of restaurants in the area. i heard that everyone involved ate well. or at least, better than staging an insurgence in an area with less culinary resources where the cookbook could have come in handy.

[renato]

There is some truth to the drinkers' tale though, not that men cook better than women, but the things they do know how to cook well are often "drinking food" type dishes.

[Joey]

I have seen this book in bookstores here...thanks for giving it a review :)

Pulutan is definitely cultural and I love it! Gotta have these bits to pick on when drinking ;) After offices let out, at the hour we refer to as "five-thristy" you will see many Filipinos at bars near their offices, enjoying some beer and pulutan. This is in the urban setting, but wherever you go in the country, there is some form of this happening :) We know how to kick back and what to eat while doing it!

On another note, I love ginataang kuhol! This is my favorite way to have snails. I have tried escargot in France and I still stand firm by my kuhol :)

[Robyn]

Santos - Astute observation. It certainly is true that Filipinos do not like to be far from good grub.

Renato - yes, I've heard that as well. I've also heard that in the PHI sweets are strictly women's territory. True?

joey - 'five-thirsty' -- I love it!!! Right up there with 'beer o'clock' and 'martini time'. Thanks for the chuckle. ;-)

[Marie]

Maybe you could illuminate us on the Philippines' lanzones? I love those. Your photographs are absolutely beautiful.

[juls]

i think this pulutan culture is an off-shoot from the Spanish tapas culture.... small finger foods enjoyed during happy-hours... it can be as simple as garlic-fried peanuts or as complex as sisig and gambas al ajillo....

cheers! (pun intended)

[RST]

I really don't think that pulutan has much to do with tapas, which emerged from a very specific type of bar culture (or bar-hopping culture if you wish) in Andalucia, an expression of sociality that never really "took" in the Philippines. Pulutan should be seen in the context of drinking food that could be found throughout Southeast Asia: in Cambodia, in Vietnam, in Laos, in Southern China. Several years ago, there was a Vietnamese restaurant in Chicago that specialized in grilled game meat-venison, wild boar, rattlesnake etc (in rural areas of Vietnam or China, wild-caught animals such as pangolin, civet etc might be enjoyed instead). At that restaurant, braziers were set amongst carousing men, along with slices of meat and mounds of onion and fresh herbs (mint, basil etc) for grilling. As in the Philippines, strong-flavored victuals (goat, snail, offal) are preferred in this type of gastronomy. (Incidentally, wasn't there an article on northern Vietnamese drinking food in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago?) The Thais in turn have what they call aahaarn waang, i.e. "empty" food or "drinking" food, although this phrase is now often used to headline the "appetizer" portions of western Thai menus. For an example of aahaarn waang, you might want to check out this old translation of a so-called "secret" Thai menu in Chicago by foodfirst AKA Robyn in 2002. It was one of a series of translations of "secret" Chicago-Thai menus that completely revolutionized the city's connoisseurship of Thai food back in 2002/3.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/111669

Richard

[RST]

The finest account of pulutan is still Edilberto Alegre's "Pulutan: the pleasure of the changing" collected in "Sarap: Essays on Filipino Food" (by Edilberto Alegre and Doreen Fernandez) published in 1988 and out-of-print for many many years. This volume is the best single book ever written on Filipino cuisine.

[Robyn]

Marie - thanks. I don't think I have any photos of lanzones (aka langsat, I think, in Malaysia). We did have some in the PHI in December and they were wonderful ... but a bit labor-intensive to peel a very small fruit.

RST - I have to agree with you. I think pulutan are in this class of SE Asian drinking food. And yes, that pulutan essay is wonderful.

[Ellen Tordesillas]

I'm so happy I discovered this site.

I appreciate good food but I've never developed the confidence to cook. That's why I was so thrilled to be part of the "Pulutan" book project.

[Emerson Rosales]

hi guys! am one of the authors of the pulutan cook book. thanks for the review. writing the book is a great experience, aside from the daily taste test!
more power to this site! thanks!

[Robyn]

Ellen, Emerson, welcome! An honor to have you comment here. I enjoyed the book immensely.

[patatas]

nice book.have it and deeply recomend it to all.buy it if you see it,its worthy book.
havent yet tried out any ,got the book today straight from the philippnes to my mailbox in finland.