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- Title:
- More by 1610
- Description:
- Pioneering Spanish settlers from different walks of life documented culinary ingredients typical to Insular Southeast Asia that were used by Filipinos. The first colonizers arrived in 1565 on the expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. Two sources dated to 1609 are valuable. One is by Antonio Morga, senior auditor of the Manila Audencia (court) who was in Manila from 1595 to 1603. He wrote his book while stationed in Mexico. The other is by a Dominican, Francisco Blancas de San Jose, who also arrived in 1595. Two other examples, but which will not be cited in this vignette, include a Visayan dictionary published in 1841 that augmented an original work from 1637 compiled originally by Alonso P. Mentrida. He was an Augustinian who reached the Philippines in 1598. The other is the first published Spanish-Tagalog dictionary. Pedro de San Buenaventura, a Franciscan, began the project in 1606. Pioneers like them caught native cultures around the islands still unaffected – or if so, barely -- by Spanish ingredients, foods and cooking styles. In addition to Asian ingredients noted in the previous vignette, “By 1610,” the following were documented: in 1567, tamarind and pepper plants (sent to Mexico), if the latter was sourced in the Philippines is unverified; in 1584 (Mexican report), clove plants sent there, if Philippine grown is unverified. In 1598 the following were noted: mountain buffalo; bred duck (if newly introduced unverified); sun-dried fish (1598). Sources of 1609 cite the following ingredients in mostly Manila and Tagalog cooking so far not included in #100philipinefood -- like garlic, ginger, sugarcane, vinegar. They reveal the wide range of culinary permutations and combinations offered naturally by existing ecosystems. Surely a lengthy litany of other ingredients was unknown to the 1609 writers. Many of their original entries were written in beautiful and steady penmanship. This is an initial attempt at their transcription and collation. Future researchers can improve on it. (1) Bivalves: balibis, capiz, cabibi, cohol, halaan, labibin ouac, parus, soso, talaba. (2) Fish and shellfish: alamang, aligasin medium sie fish, alimango babayi, alimango babayinin, alimango lalaqui, white asojos, calag [dalag], banac, candoli, small cotocoto fish, damis, long and boneless dolong from the lake, dolongasi, dujay (?), very small gagapang fish, hipon (camaron), laulau sardine, talaba, talangtalang, tamban sardine, sauolsauol sardine, salobaybay sardine. (3) Fruit: alinsanay (wild banana), cabuyao (wild citrus), sour calitcalit likened to grapes that were not found, calubbanan citrus, condol and tabayag when there was no calabasa [squash], catmon, dayap also called colongcolong, lukban [possibly cultivated], lukbang matamis that were small and sweet, paho [local substitute for olive], sampaloc, sungay cambing banana, tanyang anuang banana. The onion in the document dated 1225 might be LACONA, the “cebolla” of Fr. San Jose. It is described as having “helmets” the size of those like a catmon fruit (Dillenia philippinensis). Catmon is an endemic Philippine tree with edible, spherical green fruit that at present is about 5 to 6 centimeters (1.9 to 2.3 inches) in diameter encased in large fleshy sepals. (Its fruit size may have been smaller in the 13th and 17th centuries.) Perhaps the “helmets” refer to the sepals. Catmon fruit is described as similar in taste to a sour green apple and is used to flavor fish. It is also turned into sauces and sweet jams. Catmon adds to a rich cache of diverse souring agents available throughout the archipelago. Cuisine is challenged to maximize the use of what is natural to it. Today’s food writers need to highlight the variances in sour tastes Philippine cuisine has. Catmon souring is different from coconut vinegar souring, for instance. Defining, appreciating and sustaining awareness of such nuances are what help to establish native cuisine as having “refinements.” (4) Pork: babuy, babuy damo the mountain pig, small biyic pig. [There was no beef yet.] (5) Poultry: large dumalaga chicken, malatikling, small pogo. (6) Rice: galapong flour, pinipig, malagquit, buntut pusa, calangcabgan, cquilongquilong, cquinobibi, cumag, gallo, maga[f]ang, mandorugo, maxintic, paua, pinaotong, salungcay. (7) Rootcrop: gabi, obi, togi. (8) Sweetener: polot (honey), polot ng buli (syrup of buri; syrup was also called honey or miel), polot panilan (honey from beehive), polot ng pocyotan (honey from bee), polot sasa (syrup of nipa), polot tubo (syrup of sugarcane).
- Subjects:
- Southeast Asia Ingredients Bivalves Fishes Fruit Pork Poultry Rice Sweeteners
- Exhibition:
- 100 Philippine Food
- Source:
- Detail of the map Insulae Indiae Orientalis by Gerhard Mercator/Jodocus Hondius. c. 1619 [1613]. From the exhibition catalogue of the 36th International Map Collectors Society (IMPCOS) Symposium, Manila 2018, Ayala Museum.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "More by 1610", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll131.html