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- Title:
- Eat Like Indios
- Date Created:
- 2021-02-24
- Description:
- Father Domingo Fernandez Navarrete, whose experiences are used for this set of vignettes left Filipinas for China 8 years before 1665 when the second century of Filipinas as a colony began. His book was released in 1676, 11 years into the new century. The missionary challenges he records remained into the 1700s. Navarrete and his companions, for example walked from Calavit uphill to Guistin in Mindoro over jagged rocks that wore out their soles. The bare feet of his Indian companions bled “causing us to overflow with compassion”. They clambered up slopes holding roots. For supper they had a small bit of biscuit soaked in a trifle of mass wine which they also drank for fear of the cold. Natives shared eggs, rice, potatoes. They killed a carabao near a spring and cut it into pieces on the spot to sun-dry. Some of the places they reached had not celebrated mass in 2 to 3 years; no Cura had set foot in others for 14 years. Yet in Mindoro all the Indian villages were full of crosses set up with great neatness. The locals were hospitable. Dugong (mentioned in earlier vignettes) was native food and its bones used to make rosaries. The roe of skate was salted for food. On Bacco Island they were treated to a meal of ray fish. Its liver was considered a finest native delicacy. The Spanish discovered and liked it. To survive, foreigners needed to eat local foods.
- Subjects:
- Domingo Fernandez Navarrete O.P. Hiking Dominicans -- Missions Water buffalo Mount Calavite (Occidental Mindoro, Philippines) Cooking, Spanish Baco Island (Oriental Mindoro, Philippines)
- Exhibition:
- 100 Minus 8
- Source:
- Ray fish. Publicdomainpictures.net
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Eat Like Indios", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll187.html