getting back to my roots?

lately (probably because my friend is dating a filipino and is being subjected to all that that entails) i've been thinking about my childhood memories of filipino food. for a while i felt like i had overdosed on it. i still can't eat too much pancit, but i get the sense that my taste buds are trying to get back to their roots.

when i was a kid i used to eat weird things, and this didn't bother me. crispy pata (pig's feet), vinegary blood stew with various meats inside it (we like to call it chocolate soup, but don't be fooled), ox tail kare kare (a kind of peanut butter soup. except this actually uses peanut butter), alamang (a shrimp paste condiment) - these were all part of the culinary cycle at home. traditional filipino foods were constantly on our table, dishes and dishes of them until you could barely make out the table. and then slowly it got phased out, and the table was again in sight.

the gradual disappearance of filipino foods was probably a result of a revolt against the exotic, the "other," in favor of more american fare. i began wanting what i thought my friends were eating for dinner. and i suspect my mom got sick of our complaints that the food made the house stink, or that the foods tasted "funny." and it probably wasn't worth cooking all these meals if we were going to throw most of it in the trash. and so the plates of pancit became bowls of spaghetti; the chicken tinola, pork adobo, and shrimp sinigang turned into fried chicken, pork chops, and fish sticks. and pretty soon the smells and flavors of home got a lot more bland, more "american."

by the time i was old enough to cook what i wanted for lunch or dinner, the flavors competed for my taste buds. sometimes i chose the uncomplicated, the five-minute meal. shortcut cooking. mac and cheese from a box was a favorite, pastas with tomato sauce, oven appetizers, pot pies and frozen dinners. or i would make homemade lasagnas, pizzas and burgers. but i also liked to cook shrimp. shrimp tempura, shrimp scampi, grilled shrimp. or i would have something like pork chops, but eat it with rice. everything with rice. even, bacon. delicious! i still liked tomatoes with hardboiled eggs, tortas, eggrolls, but i never learned how to cook like a filipino.

and eventually i stopped eating filipino foods altogether because it seemed that everything on the menu was bad for you. it bothered me that it always seemed fatty; it was often fried, there was always too much meat in the dishes, and sometimes it used ingredients i wouldn't dare think edible. and so for a long time, my filipino taste buds shrank.

but i feel them awakening. and i think about some of the dishes i pushed from my plate, my palate. and so every now and again i get these cravings for fritada, lumpia shanghai, sinigang, kare kare, ensaymadas, eggplant tortas, chicken tocino, pan de sal, tuyo, tinapa, lechon, longanisa...my mouth is watering listing them here.

it's 3:21, late for lunch, and i haven't yet eaten. i think now would be a good time to get back to my roots. :)