If I ask you to pick your favourite dish from Japanese, Mexican, or Italian cuisine, I’m sure you will be flooded with options. Ramen or sushi? Tacos or enchiladas? Pasta or pizza? However, if I ask you to think of your preferred dish from the Philippines, you will most likely not be able to come up with a single dish. Though five years ago, food writer Andrew Zimmern predicted that Filipino food would be the next great cuisine, its flavours are still largely misunderstood by most people. A perfect example: food stylists continue to place chopsticks next to Filipino dishes, yet Filipinos use forks and spoons.
However, it appears that this neglected cuisine is no longer being ignored. This year, Bloomberg noted that Google searches for “Filipino food” have doubled in six years, and searches for “lumpia near me” have skyrocketed 3,350 per cent. Noted food magazines are listing Filipino restaurants in their best new restaurants lists, and Pinoy food is attracting numbers of loyal customers across the U.S. and Canada, especially in Los Angeles, which has the largest Filipino community outside the Philippines.
Filipino food is the original fusion cuisine, a mix of Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Western, and Pacific Islander flavours that shows the country’s rich and varied cultural history. While the popular Filipino dish known as adobo uses a Spanish term, and kare kare (oxtail stew) gets its name from “curry” from its Indian heritage, Filipino food is entirely its own. It has no dairy or gluten, which makes the cuisine friendly to restricted diets. It is eaten family style, with heaping plates of sharing dishes. It uses vinegar instead of Western sauces full of sodium and fat. While its dishes are pork heavy, seafood and tropical fruit are made into light dishes that are far from bland. And it is full of acids and sweetness more than any other cuisine.
Since most of us are still novices when it comes to this cuisine, let’s explore some of its most popular dishes. Lechon, or whole spit-roasted pig, is crunchy on the outside, and tender on the inside, with a sauce made from vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of liver. Pork Longganisa, a sausage made of ground pork), is a savoury dish, and Jollibee-style spaghetti (pasta with a sugary tomato sauce) is sweeter than you are used to. The flavours don’t blend, but sit like layers, with one tangy, one salty, one sweet. There’s mango and tomato salads dressed with tart calamansi juice and bagoong, a Filipino fermented fish sauce, and tilapia sinigang, an exquisite soup made with the poached whitefish with water spinach and bok choy in a sour tamarind broth, adobong dilaw or vegan empanadas, stuffed with beef, egg, and bean sprouts, fried dilis (sun-dried anchovies) sprinkled with spicy white vinegar and layered on top of thick slices of avocado and black rice, chicken tinola, steamed free-range chicken simmered in ginger rice broth with chili leaves and green papaya. Not all Filipino food is fried or saucy.
Since our palates have been expanded by the flavours of cuisines from around the world, it seems that now is the time we can finally appreciate the layered and nuanced flavours of Filipino food.
Source: Vogue.com
Featured Image: Instagram/@platitotoronto
Which are your favourite Filipino restaurants? Let us know in the comment!
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From making your life easier when it comes to cooking, to learning more about what’s good and bad for us, Loblaw’s has helped us uncover the Canadian food trends for 2018. Here are some of the predictions:
(1) Meal Kits:
With Canadians working longer hours, who’s interested in coming home late and spending precious time slaving in the kitchen? That doesn’t mean living on junk food. You can still prepare quality meals with a little help from meal-kits. Meal-kits, which come with fresh ingredients measured out for a specific recipe created by top chefs, allow you to throw everything together in minimal time for maximal taste. As 2018 approaches, these kits will gain in popularity and consumers will look for value pricing and increased customization options.
(2) Breakfast with a Twist:
For hardworking people, trying to make time for breakfast is a challenge. But eating breakfast is important, as it provides protein to fuel you through the day. Watch out for the increase in portable breakfasts for morning commuters. They will be less traditional breakfasts, with an emphasis on proteins such as chicken, seafood, and beans.
(3) GIY:
Canadians are getting on-board when it comes to the Grow-It-Yourself culture. We are constantly bombarded with news about chemicals and unhealthy additives in our food supply and want to know where our food comes from. People will increasingly use public spaces to grow food, from backyard beehives to balcony herb and sprout gardens.
(4) Reduced Sugar:
We’ve learned that some fats can be good for you (ahem, avocados!). As we learn the effects of sugar on our bodies, no one is suggesting sugar is good for you. Consumers will be more conscious of searching for foods low in sugar content.
(5) Gut Health:
It’s something nutritionists are talking about these days, and a topic we should all read and learn more about. The use of pre- and probiotics, as well fermented food, will continue to gain in popularity as more people gain an understanding of the importance of gut health.
(6) Decadent Desserts
Millenials put a major focus on food that aesthetically pleasing. We’ve seen the demand and love for macarons shaped like animals and other Instagram ready foods! Continue to enjoy crazy toppings on shakes and emoji shaped dumplings, but keep your eyes peeled for the latest craze.
(7) Wake and Cake
Who doesn’t love cake in the morning? Eating your sweets earlier in the day allows for more time to work it off by the evening. So, why not indulge every so often?
(8) Fat Focused
Now that we know that some fats that are good for you, many will return to more full-fat options, including dairy products such as yogurt and milk.
(9) Retro-Inspired
Find inspiration in recipes from the past, with a twist to the future. These types of foodie options are popping up in menus all over the city.
(10) Food Experiences
Living in a virtual world has opened our minds to new food themes and ideas. People are seeking novel food variations that appeal to the senses and nostalgia. What’s more exciting than a unique and memorable experience with food?
Image: Instagram/@KiinToronto
What other food trends do you predict for 2018?
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Canadians love food, and we can thank influences from many places for sharing the exquisite tastes of their cuisines with us. Restaurants have become a big business in Canada, with sales increasing 6.3 percent in 2016, bringing in $80 billion in revenue. Food is now photographed as much as famous landmarks and shared on social media. One major source of our increasing culinary landscape is Los Angeles.Some of the prettiest and most delicious new dishes on the market come from L.A. With the help of Discover Los Angeles, we have uncovered three of the most popular and tasty food trends that have traveled from their sunny climes to Toronto:
1. Veggies as main courses. Many L.A. chefs have changed menus to feature vegetables as the star, with meat as the side dish.
2. Food halls. L.A.’s Grand Central Market, a model for the food hall trend, just celebrated its 100th anniversary. Toronto just welcomed CAMPO, a Spanish style food hall, this weekend, and five more are set to open in the next few years.
3. Gourmet tacos. Toronto has followed L.A.’s authentic taco scene, with taco hotspots such as Grand Electric growing by the day.
Other L.A. food trends will be in Canada sooner than we realize: influences from Nordic cuisines, re-imagined Mexican dishes, South American Chifa; spices such as za’atar, Kampot pepper, and Vadouvan; savory courses with dessert flavors; plant based protein; vegan/nut based spreads, pop ups and takeovers; sipping veggies for green intake; coffee cocktails; Scandinavian spirits and flavors; sour beers, Japanese whisky, and small batch production of wines.
