Cecilia M. Brainard
introduces A LA CARTE FOOD & FICTION, Collected and Edited by Cecilia
Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa
(Anvil,
Philippines, 2007 and an Ebook published by PALH, CA)
BOOK LINK (click on book
cover)
[A La
Carte is the winner of the Gourmand Award
2008
as the Best Food Literature Book from the
Philippines]
INTRODUCTION
In some places in the
Philippines, people greet you by asking if you have eaten: not Good morning, or
Good evening but — Kumain ka na? — Have you eaten? And even if you
have, they will serve you food anyway, and it would be considered an insult if
you did not eat.
Even when I was young, I
had an inkling about the special relationship Filipinos have with food.
At home my mother was constantly prodding people to eat more— a habit I have
picked up, sometimes to the embarrassment and annoyance of my American
sons.
Another thing that annoys
them and my American husband is my difficulty to throw food away, so much so
that my refrigerator is filled with bowls of forgotten dishes, some of them
with very interesting multicolored mold on them. I had a son threaten to use
one of those forgotten containers for a Science project!
I had to explain to them
that the inability to waste food came from my mother, who with the family spent
the World War Two years in Mindanao, and who, like many other Filipinos during
those War years, experienced hunger and deprivation. But I suspect the
reluctance to throw food away runs deeper than that; perhaps to Filipinos, it
is clear that food is life, and life should not be thrown away or treated with
disrespect.
Indeed the connection
Filipinos have with food is almost religious. Eating is the time when the
family gathers, when the community is one, and is something of a sacred time.
In the home I grew up in, the entire family sat down for breakfast, lunch, and
supper. Lunch and supper were elaborate, with soup, and fish, and meat, and
rice, and vegetables, followed by a variety of fruit and/or some sweet for
dessert. I believe there are still many Filipino households that have meals
like this. Others, because of their modern hectic lives, have simplified
their daily meals, but when it comes to parties, Filipinos still go the full
length to have a grand spread.
It was this deep
connection that Filipinos have for food that prompted Marily Orosa and me to
edit this collection of Philippine stories and recipes. Marily and I have
shared a love for fiction primarily because stories reflect the soul or culture
of people. So does food and we thought combining stories and recipes in one
book would reveal Filipino culture in a unique manner and would invite lovers
of both stories and food to take a look at our delectable collection.
Soon after the release of
the other book Marily Orosa and I co-edited (Behind the Walls: Life of
Convent Girls, Anvil, 2004) we publicized a search for this collection.
Initially, we anticipated we’d get light stories, possibly comic ones. When the
stories started coming in, we were surprised to see that the topic of food had
triggered some serious stories. We quickly realized that food and eating bring
back memories of families and friends, and relationships are always complex.
The stories we finally selected were by writers from America, the Philippines,
Singapore, Australia, France, and Germany. The majority of the contributors are
published writers who are well-known in the literary and academic
communities.
An inspiration to this
book is Laura Esquiviel’s novel, Like Water for Chocolate. Each chapter
in Esquiviel’s book is introduced by a recipe so that the chapters flow out of
those recipes. Likewise, the 25 stories in our collection are preceded by
related recipes. Following the food theme, we arranged the book like a menu,
and so we have categories of Breads, Appetizers, Salads; Soup; Rice; Main
Dishes; and Dessert, with the recipes and stories falling under the appropriate
sections.
The recipes included in
the book are: Aragula in Blue Cheese Sauce; Shrimps on Leeks; Tokwa’t Baboy;
Banana Turon; Pan de Sal; Ensaymada; Green Mango Relish; Feta Cheese with
Greens, Artichokes, and Crabfat; Shanghai Fried Rice; Garlic Fried Rice; Pork
Adobo; Manok Inasal; Paella/Arroz; Kare-Kare; Lumpia, Laing, Sinanglay na Karpa;
Pork Sinigang; Filipino-Korean Lumpia; Rellenong Bangus; Humba; Escabeche;
Binagoongang Baboy; Cascaron; and Halo-Halo. They have not been taste-tested
and we suggest that those who wish to try the recipes do so in the spirit of
experimentation and adventure.
Some stories in the
collection are light-hearted. Edna Weisser’s “Merienda Alemania” is an
autobiographical piece about a Filipina and her husband in Germany who have
invited their friends over for merienda, but this time with the German touch.
The stories of Dean Francis Alfar and Ian Rosales Casocot, combine
magic-realism and slapstick. Alfar’s “Sabados Con Fray Villalobos” relates the
Spanish friar’s attempts to win the hearts of Filipino Indios although some
Indios have other ideas. Casocot’s “Pedro and the Chickens” is about the
blossoming of a romance in the town of Dumaguete and the accompanying strange
events that happen to the town’s chickens. The story “Wok Man” (by Jose
Dalisay) is about the kinship of a short-order cook and his employer who both
find joy in cooking. “Hanging Rice” by Carlos Cortes is a short-short about a
Visayan eating Cebu’s common street meal; what’s uncommon about it is how the
rice is wrapped in a work of weaver’s art.
The other stories have a
more serious style. “In Bread” (by Ma. Romina Gonzalez) a 26-year old
woman prepares bread as her mother had taught her and recalls the time her
father left her mother. “Ensaymada” (by Corinna Arcellana Nuqui) is about a
homesick Filipina in the U.S. who in the act of baking visits her past.
Margarita Marfori’s “Mango Seasons” is a first-person piece focusing on the
narrator’s memories of a special summer, brought on by the cutting down of an
ancient mango tree. Alfred Yuson’s “Romance and Faith on Mount Banahaw” is a
surreal piece accompanied by the salad recipe (in poetry form) of “Feta cheese,
with Greens, Artichokes, and Crabfat.”
Linda Ty-Casper’s story,
“Visit to Myself,” is about a 15-year old girl and a 94-year old woman, and how
they, one hurrying to the future and the other living in the past, recognize
one another. My story (Cecilia Manguerra Brainard), “Romeo,” focuses on the
narrator’s mother, now old and whose sole companion is the dog, Romeo, who had
once belonged to the narrator. Janet Villa’s “Close Open” and Joel Tan’s
“Sinanglay na Karpa” look at people trapped in relationships that they cannot
escape. Marie Aubrey Villaceran’s story, “Sinigang” is about a girl, who while
cooking, recalls the funeral of a half-brother and it is also during this time
that she comes to terms with her relationship with her father.
Shirley Mae Mamaril
Choe’s “Kitchen Secrets” is about a young girl who struggles to reveal a
terrible family secret. Through her weekly cooking lessons, she develops a
strong relationship with her mother which enables her to finally share her
burden. Reine Arcache Melvin’s “The Fish” is about complex relationships among
members of a household that come to head during the gutting of a fish caught
after a shipwreck. Erma Cuizon’s “Secret Scent” is nostalgic piece about a
woman who yearns for the old life that is gone forever. “Two Drifters” by
Veronica Montes is about a young woman who has to cope with the addiction and
brokenness of her family members. Brian Ascalon Roley’s semi-autobiographical
piece, “In Memory,” remembers a menacing encounter at summer camp in the ‘70s,
involving his Filipina mother and white father.
Edgar Poma’s “Desperata”
is set in Hawaii, about a struggling writer’s break when a firefighter managed
to find an editor’s note to have his work published. The firefighter’s visit to
Hawaii makes the writer realize that his mother needs more than phone calls,
but that, as the firefighter said: “You gotta see her every chance you get
while you still can and you gotta hold her in your arms." Oscar Penaranda’s
story, “Mango Lady,” recounts a Filipino American’s visit to the Philippines
after an absence of 19 years and his search of the fruit vendor who a part of
the memories of his youth. The accompanying recipe is a favorite dessert,
Halo-Halo.
The stories in this book
are a mixed bag of joyful stories as well as more somber ones; all of them
explore the dynamics of human relationships. The editors of this book
sincerely hope the reader will find enjoyment in them.
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