Filipino-American cuisine

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Filipino American cuisine has been present in America ever since Filipinos moved there, but only recently[ when? ] has the Filipino food become more widely popular. [1] Filipino food has gone through its evolution of adapting other cultures' food practices into their own, or borrowing the food concept into their own. [2]

Contents

Filipinos took their food and debut it as they came to America by presenting it in catering and opening up the Philippines' most popular food chain, Jollibee. [1] There is also a long list of different Filipino types of dishes that represent Filipino Americans. [3]

American influence

American influence on Filipino food is how some authentic meal was turned into frozen, ready-cooked meals. [4] This technique was used on Filipino dishes when Marigold Commodities Corporation teamed up with Ditta Meat Food Service Company to create these frozen Filipino meals. [4] They started in Austin, Texas, and released a few dishes that would incorporate the meat of America with Philippine flavors to create Filipino American food. [4]

Types of food

There were four of these Americanized Filipino dishes released into Texas under the work of Marigold Commodities and Ditta Meat Food Service. [4] Beef tapa uses Texas meat marinated with garlic, citrus flavors, and soy sauce, then grilled or fried. [4] The other dishes are tocino using chicken and pork meat, and pork longaniza. [4]

Restaurants

Catering

The Filipino restaurant trend of catering is continued in many restaurants such as Sunda in Chicago and Purple Yam in Brooklyn. [1] They have also continued to sell typical Filipino dishes in bulk such as lechon. [1]

Types of Filipino American dishes

A typical Filipino American dish consists of a soup, ulam (any food), kanin (rice), type of meat, fruits, and dipping sauces. [3]

Different soups may include things such as Munggo gisado sabaw, a soup consisting of Mung beans and pork or shrimp. Another soup dish is pancit molo, [3] a Filipino style of the Chinese wonton soup. Meat dishes include adobo [3] made with pork or chicken; the dish is then cooked with vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic. [3]

Suman banana leaves containing sticky rice can be dipped in sugar to make it sweeter. Taho is a dessert that uses a syrup and boba inside of a jello-like soybean material. [3] There are numerous different Filipino dishes, and these are only a couple of them. [3]

Staples in Filipino food

Filipino Americans eat up to five to six times a day across meals and snacks. [5] Almusál is a large breakfast containing rice and meat. [5] Tanghalian or lunch is preceded by a merienda or small snack. [5] Another merienda is eaten before dinner or hapunan. [5] Then, after dinner, there is another merienda and dessert or panghimagas. [5]

Commonly eaten food for Filipino Americans includes steamed white rice, fruit, fish, vegetables, eggs, and meat. [5]

Rice

Steamed white rice is often present at all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and is considered an important part of the Filipino American diet. [5] It is made in large quantities so there is enough to eat throughout the whole day and it is used as a side dish to both sweet and savory foods. [5]

For example, rice is used to help intensify some flavors, [2] or create other Filipino dishes like puto and bibingka . Puto can be meat-filled, ube -filled, or turned into cakes; it is made by making rice into flour. [2] Puto and bibingka are two specialized versions of the Filipino delicacy, kakanin. [6] Kakanin recipes vary depending on the region of the Philippines, so there are many specialized recipes of Kakanin from different locations. [6]

Rice is also created into a dessert called suman , a sweet rice wrapped in a leaf from a coconut or banana. [2]

Coconut

Coconut, like rice, is another staple in Filipino dishes; it is known as, buko, in the Philippine language and can be used in drinks, main dishes, or desserts. [2] There are dishes native to a specific region such as how in Quezon they make a dish using a leaf-wrapped shrimp, buko strips, and cook it in buko water. [2] Another region uses buko to mix it with chicken and ginger and cooking it inside of the buko; they also make a noodle dish where the noodles are made of coconut. [2] The white insides of the coconut are used to make milk, ginataan , and halo-halo , among others. [2]

Filipino American Food at Celebrations

Celebrations and festivals are a key part of the Filipino American lifestyle and culture. [5] There are particular dishes at these celebrations that hold important significance for Filipino Americans. [5] For example, adobo, pansit, and léchon. [5] Adobo includes braised meat, vinegar, and garlic, but there are several variations of it depending upon the ingredients available. [7] Pansit consists of noodles with seafood, meat (pork or beef), poultry (chicken), or vegetables and herbs and spices. [8] Lechón is a whole, roasted pig. [5] Lechón leftovers are used as ingredients in other Filipino dishes, including adobo. [7] Some of these dishes also hold symbolic significance like pansit which means long life. [5]

Dessert is also an important part of celebrations with dishes like kakanin or leche flan present at these gatherings. [5] Kakanin is a rice cake eaten daily as a snack, but it is also served at celebrations and gatherings. [6] Leche flan is a caramel custard made using eggs and milk. [5]

Filipino American health

Food and health

A 2012 study across Asian American subgroups in Southern California (Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese Americans) found that Filipino Americans self-reported the highest body mass indexes (BMIs). [9] This is because after the migration of Filipinos to the U.S. their diets changed and showed to have increase in energy-dense food, processed food, decrease in fruits, vegetables. [9]

This seems to have has a negative effect on the body leading to increase body weight and other health-related problems. [9] Specifically in Filipino American diets, there was an increase in milk, meat consumption, less starchy food and snacks. [9] This increase in eating by Filipinos has led to an increase in the calorie intake. This increase was almost doubled and along with it was a double in protein consumption and triple consumption of fat. [9]

United States and Canada

There was a study done in Canada on the average Filipino woman's health focusing mainly on the idea of body size, eating, and health. [10] Western culture has spread an idea that there is a concept of "healthy" and this concept in terms of woman would be that there is an association with being thin is attractive and vice versa for being fatter. [10] The study was then analyzed and what was found is that there was a risk of being "fat" associated with eating rice and an association of being thinner when watching[ clarification needed ] fat and rice. [10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rodelas, Paola (Winter 2010). "Menu To Go". Hyphen Magazine. No. 22. p. 37. ProQuest   847143746.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fernandez, Doreen (Spring 2014). "Why Sinigang?". centerforartandthought.org. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Goody, Cynthia M.; Drago, Lorena (January 1, 2010). Cultural Food Practices. American Dietetic Associati. ISBN   9780880914338.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Andrei, Mercedes (July 28, 2004). "Sauce maker sells Pinoy frozen comfort food in US" . Retrieved April 24, 2017– via lexisnexis.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Johnson-Kozlow, Marilyn; Matt, Georg E.; Rock, Cheryl L.; de la Rosa, Ruth; Conway, Terry L.; Romero, Romina A. (November 2011). "Assessment of Dietary Intakes of Filipino-Americans: Implications for Food Frequency Questionnaire Design". Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 43 (6): 505–510. doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2010.09.001. PMC   3204150 . PMID   21705276.
  6. 1 2 3 De Villa, Bianca Denise M.; Domingo, Thea Mari M.; Ramirez, Rhema Jenica C.; Mercado, Jame Monren T. (June 1, 2022). "Explicating the culinary heritage significance of Filipino kakanin using bibliometrics (1934–2018)" . International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. 28: 100522. doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2022.100522. ISSN   1878-450X.
  7. 1 2 Mishan, Ligaya (March 12, 2018). "Filipino Food Finds a Place in the American Mainstream". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  8. ↑ Mercado, Jame Monren T. (November 2, 2022). "Pancit: Explicating the Culinary Safeguarding Culture of Philippine Noodles – The Case of Luzon Island" . Journal of Culinary Science & Technology. 20 (6): 473–497. doi:10.1080/15428052.2020.1871146. ISSN   1542-8052.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Maxwell, Annette E.; et al. (2012). "Health risk behaviors among five Asian American subgroups in California: identifying intervention priorities". Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health . 14 (5): 890–894. doi:10.1007/s10903-011-9552-8. PMC   3298627 . PMID   22089979.
  10. 1 2 3 Farrales, Lynn (1999). "Filipino Women Living in Canada: Constructing Meanings of Body, Food, and Health". Health Care for Women International. 20 (2): 179–194. doi:10.1080/073993399245872. PMID   10409987.
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