All-Filipino Food Fest - Eating and Cooking

Greetings guys and gals! This may come as no surprise to you but, we're going to be going all-Filipino today. We visited a local restaurant called Pinoy in Somerville, New Jersey to indulge in some very delectable foods that they had to offer that day. Filipino food packs a lot of flavor and this experience was no different. But first, a bit of history since I've been getting a lot of questions regarding what Filipino food is.

The Philippines and its cuisine is very unique since the country has been colonized many times over. The Spanish came to the Philippines back in the early 16th century and basically stayed until the Americans kicked them out during the Spanish-American War in the latter part of the 19th century - that is over 360 years of Spanish rule. The Americans then took over for another 35 or so years until the Japanese kicked them out during World War II although, that did not last long when the Americans came back and liberated the Philippines. In 1946, the Philippines gained its independence and became a country all its own but also became amalgamated as a culture based on its past colonial masters plus all the other cultures who happened to pass through the islands beforehand or in between all the colonists.

So, back to the food. I also wanted to mention that the Philippines has the oldest Chinatown - Manila's Chinatown - in world so the Chinese has a very big influence in the culture and it shows in the food. Filipino food basically marries all difference flavors, from soy sauce, to shrimp paste to garlic (lots of garlic), etc. - everything is fair game. When you come to the Philippines, as Anthony Bourdain said, ".. it's strangely familiar and yet new." Philippine cuisine is also very regional just like any other culture so the flavors also change depending on who cooks your food and where they're from in the Philippines.

If you watch the video below, you can see some Chinese and Spanish influence in the food that we ordered and in the dish that I cooked later on. The dessert? Well, that's pretty local. Since the Philippines is in the tropics, we tend to use the local produce and incorporate those in our dishes. It's certainly not a "meat and potatoes" type of cuisine.

I really hope you enjoy my small take on Filipino food. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me an email.