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Embracing Our Diversity
By Margaux Salcedo
Inquirer
Last updated 01:14pm (Mla time) 02/02/2007

I love Filipino food. Actually I love everything Filipino—our land, our seas, our beaches, our skies, our people, our language. We are a festive people, maybe initially shy but really full of fervor and life. Like most of our dishes, we sit quietly at first sight, then when the spoon hits the mouth, boom! Ang asim (Sour)! Ang alat (Salty)! And of course, ang sarap (Delicious)!

Yet other people the world over do not know of our flavors because we have had such a dearth of literature on Philippine cuisine. Worse, some of those that have made it to print even diss what is true and what is ours, calling our cuisine “brown” or presenting our flavors apologetically, as though there were anything to be sorry for.

It breaks my heart when lists are made of the world’s best restaurants or foods, and the Philippines or Philippine cuisine is glaringly absent - or when I meet a foreigner and all he associates with Philippine food is balut (duck’s embryo).

So as a Filipino who loves our country and cuisine, I’m grateful and pleased when a kababayan succeeds in presenting Filipino food to a foreign audience (and maybe to a new generation of Filipinos growing up on fast food) as it is, and as it should be appreciated.

An amazing couple is to be especially lauded for their efforts and success, the tandem of Romy Dorotan and Amy Besa. This couple owns Cendrillon, a Filipino/pan-Asian restaurant in New York’s hip Soho district. They have also recently completed the book “Memories of Philippine Kitchens,” initially launched in the United States and again this January in Manila (currently available in A Different Bookstore and Fully Booked.)

It deserves all the praise it receives, and Amy Besa is a hero in her own right for having even dared the almost impossible feat of answering the question, “What is Filipino food?” She has answered truthfully, calling it a “rich, nuanced cuisine” (possibly also because of such a diverse heritage and several colonial influences), giving examples of “indigenized” dishes and carefully explaining that Filipino food is best appreciated in the context of the Filipino kitchen, where food is garnished with an abundance of hospitality and generosity.

The book is ingeniously divided into Food That Was Always Ours, Food That Was Borrowed and Made Our Own (what Doreen Fernandez called “the indigenization of Filipino food”), and Changing Landscapes, a section that discusses the challenge of the immigrant (or overseas Filipino workers) in replicating food from home.

Food That Was Always Ours includes adobo, sinigang, kare-kare and kakanins. Unlike the Kulinarya attempt to give a standard recipe for adobo, Amy Besa embraces our diversity, presenting variations to this well-loved recipe. She also states her theory that “If you free people from the tyranny of exact measurements, they can create their own perfect adobo,” explaining that “achieving (its) ultimate nuances of flavors is a very personal and subjective experience.”

I also like that she gives credit where it’s due, and mentions not only the aristocrats of an area but also the manongs and manangs who, more often than not, are the true authorities of real Filipino delicacies.

Over lunch at the Salcedo Market, she fondly recalled an experience with international figure skater Sasha Cohen, who chanced upon Cendrillon in her search for a Filipino restaurant because she was desperately craving adobo, which she grew up with because her nanny was Filipino. “She was craving for adobo, “because she was looking for what she associated it with, the love and care that came with memories of the food, the care from her nanny,” Besa observes. “Now there is a whole new generation of foreigners who are being brought up by Filipino nannies and they will grow up with memories of Filipino food and the love that comes with it.”

But the brilliance of Amy Besa is that she hits the nail on the head in presenting what is ours and in describing the heritage behind the cuisine. This is the result of years of research, going to the far ends of the country to experience the delicacies firsthand. “Every aspect of the book had an intellectual foundation,” she explains. “Doreen Fernandez gave us a common language and a common way to look at food, so I based the book on the intellectual underpinnings of Doreen Fernandez and coupled it with readings of Raymond Sokolov, author of the book “Why We Eat What We Eat.”

She describes food as a “reflection of culture, a document, an expression of where people are at that stage in their lives.”

On the day of her launch, all copies of “Memories” were sold out. To some readers, it’s a hot book because it has Romy Dorotan’s recipes for Cendrillon and delicacies from established families in the country, as well as alternative ingredients for those living abroad.

But I like it especially because through food, it paints an accurate picture of who we are as a people. Plus it has stories from home you can connect to – of grandparents, parents and even yayas who complete our own memories of Philippine kitchens—where, as Amy Besa points out, a recipe will never be without the unwritten staple ingredients of hospitality, generosity, and love.

Ed’s Note: GN contributor Grethel Bolandrina informs us that Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan will hold a talk at Iskwelahang Pilipino in Bedford, Massachussetts, sharing recipes and food lore with students on April 1, from 2 to 5 pm.)

A Japanese hangout away from home

By Margaux Salcedo

Inquirer

Last updated 09:04am (Mla time) 02/04/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Iza what? Izakaya!

I am a big fan of Japanese cuisine but not of the whopping prices that come with it. And since I am not sold on Japanese fast food, I am always on the lookout for a decent alternative.

On my way to F&B World’s office in Mile Long the other day, I passed a curious facade of what was clearly a Japanese restaurant. Quiet and obscure, I initially wondered if the place was an undercover sleaze-bar because its closed doors are situated opposite a bar. But I boldly took a peek anyway and was pleased to find out that it is, in fact, a very decent, clean and quite tasteful Japanese restaurant!

The name of this quaint Japanese resto is Akitaya, after the hometown of its chef and owner, Yuri Kawamura. Chef Kawamura, I learned from his wife Shirley, who co-owns and manages the restaurant, used to be with Sugi and Kimpura. But unlike these two well-known restaurants, which have become Filipino favorites (who doesn’t love Sugi?), Akitaya’s menu caters specifically to a Japanese clientele, offering items which are unfamiliar to most foreigners and possibly not suited to their tastes.

The restaurant, in fact, is an izakaya, a type of drinking establishment where drinks are the main offering. The food, known as sakana, is served to compliment the drinks, but unlike a simple bar, more substantial recipes are offered. So when you enter Akitaya, you are greeted at the table by a bottle of sake, which is usually consumed with either nabe or udon.

Nabe is the house specialty. These are hot pot dishes, the ones most common to us being sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. But Akitaya offers a whole array of nabe specialties. These include the Yose Nabe (the restaurant’s menu separates the words, although this is more commonly spelled as one word), one of the most popular nabe in Japan, and the Chanko Nabe, which is supposedly a nabe that was originally served only to Sumo wrestlers to help them gain weight. Akitaya is most proud of its Kiritanpo Nabe, a specialty of the Akita Prefecture in Japan, which contains rice, chicken, Japanese parsley, and thin konnyaku. I searched Kiritanpo Nabe on the Net and this testimonial by a Japanese blogger made me appreciate the culture behind the dish. (Edited for easier reading, because I’m assuming this is a web translation; his/her site was mostly in Japanese characters!):

“Many Japanese like eating Nabe especially in winter time. We can get warm when we eat it. There are many kinds of Nabe such as Yosenabe, Kimuchinabe, Chankonabe and so on. I ate Kiritanponabe last month. Kiritanpo is made of rice and it’s a very famous and traditional food in Akita prefecture. Kiritanpo is derived from the word “Tanpoyari” in former times. Tanpoyari is the name of a spear and the shape of it looks like Kiritanpo. To make Kiritanpo, we mash rice until it begins to thicken. Then, we make rice sticks by using chopsticks like popsicle. After grilling them, we let them cool a bit and then take out the sticks. The soup is made of chicken and other ingredients like burdock, leek, shirataki, maitake, and whatever else you might like. I want to eat many kinds of Nabe this winter. (http:// solanon.no-blog.jp/fluffy/2006/11/ nabe.html)

The restaurant claims to be the only Japanese restaurant in the Philippines to offer Kiritanponabe. Truth be told, the pots are pricey, ranging from P850 for the Kimuchi Nabe to P1,250 for the Chiri Nabe. But considering that the ingredients are flown in from Japan, it should at least be worth a try.

On a more affordable scale, there is the rest of the menu. For starters, I highly recommend the Maguro Tataki, P290, a simple dish of seared tuna presented with slices of lemon. I also recommend the Atsuyaki Tofu, which is a more filling alternative to the healthy but sometimes uber plain agedashi tofu. Served on a sizzling plate and showered with chopped mushrooms and onions, it is slightly spicy and very flavorful. Warning to vegetarians, though: it has bits of ground beef as well, so you might have to stick to agedashi.

Other starters include maki, which range from P95 to P280. The Princess Akitaya Roll, the most expensive item on the maki menu, is an original maki of Chef Kawamura, containing shrimp tempura, unagi or sea eel, cucumber and lettuce. It is a complete and filling roll, with a touch of sesame seeds in addition to the more common fish eggs decorating the rice. An order contains six large and densely packed pieces and may definitely be shared.

For the main course, if you decide to skip the nabe, you may opt for either udon (thick Japanese noodles) or soba (thin). However, if you are hungry and want rice, try their gyudon. Chef Kawamura does it the authentic Japanese way, garnishing the beef with beni shoga. Beni shoga is ginger cut into thin strips, colored red, and then pickled using a solution called Umezu.

By this time, you will be so full because the servings are relatively huge. There will be no room for dessert, a dilemma addressed by the owners with practicality: they dispensed with a dessert menu altogether. Instead, they give a piece of fruit at the end of the meal for free.

A bonus to the well-executed menu is the offering of Iichiko, which I learned from a friend is not sake but shochu, another Japanese indigenous alcoholic drink that is distilled instead of brewed and whose alcohol level ranges between 25-45 percent!
But Iichiko aside, the most commendable quality of this izakaya is the fact that Chef Kawamura does not compromise the flavors of his province to cater to (what to him is) a foreign crowd. At this restaurant, there are no illusions about taking a trip to Japan—no servers in kimonos, not even wasabi with the soy sauce. The focus of the place, aside from the sake, is the quality and authenticity of each dish; and the fact that the place is full on a Tuesday evening with an all-Japanese crowd is clear evidence that Chef Kawamura achieves his purpose.

I was surprised to learn that the restaurant has in fact been around for almost seven years. But a look around the restaurant shows how it has achieved longevity in spite of its lack of publicity: word of mouth has made this izakaya a Japanese immigrant’s hangout away from home. Simple, no-fuss, clean, reasonably priced with unique and specialized dishes, Akitaya was a really pleasant find.

Attire: casual. Alcohol: Iichiko, P1,350/bottle; unfortunately, no Japanese beer. Wheelchair access: restaurant is on the ground floor with access from the driveway. Visa, Mastercard and Diners Club accepted. Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 to 11 p.m on weekdays; 6 to 11 p.m. on Sundays. No reservations required but call 813-7475 if you’re the type. Location: Ground Flr., Mile Long Bldg., Amorsolo St., Legaspi Village, Makati.

A foodie forecast By Margaux Salcedo Inquirer Last updated 07:10am (Mla time) 01/07/2007 WONDERING what 2007 will bring in terms of restaurants and food? I certainly am. Not one to count on my own predictions, I have gathered forecasts from a few of today’s leading food authorities and chefs. Here’s the lowdown: REGGIE ASPIRAS, Chef/Culinary Professor/Columnist, Kitchen Rescue, PDI: My forecast, considering that I am a chef and not Madame Auring, is more of comfort food. New renditions of the old. A lot of nicely plated artsy food. It will make use of a lot of fusion ingredients from the east and west. Spumas, I think, will find their way into the country, as is the trend in Europe. I look forward to many possibilities on the new ways of executing the classics. I think, more than ever, we will see the genius of our local chefs. The ingredient costs these days are fantastic. In such instances, creativity is called for. So I reckon it will be the year of non-loin cuts such as beef cheeks, short plate, ox tongue, etc. J GAMBOA, Chef, Tsukiji: I think beef will make a comeback in ’07. Not so much the US beef carvings in hotel buffets, but prime and wagyu beef will show up in menus. Also, more cuts will be available, like wagyu beef cheeks, tongue, hanging tender, shoulder clod tender. ED QUIMSON, Chef, Teak: God really blessed me this year with a lot of travel, and this is what I noticed all over the world: that you can buzz (microwave/cook) mostly any kind of cooked food over the counter. Think freshly cooked food presented for individual orders packaged beautifully to entice your appetite. A perfect example are the food choices found at the Salcedo Saturday Market. The array of ready-to-eat food is amazing. Maybe a new type of deli will emerge where you can find an array of delicacies from bottled binagoongan na santol (santol in fermented shrimp paste) to duck liver paté. That would be a dream destination deli. There will be more people buying ready-to-eat food rather than cooking at home. PAUL POBLADOR, Chef, Kusina Salud: Next year’s trends: quality, locally grown organic or even non-organic produce, which means fresher, better-tasting ingredients which are not too expensive, that will in turn give reasonable prices for high quality dishes. NANA OZAETA, Editor in Chief, F&B World: There will be gourmet deli items by top chefs: Watch out for some local chefs coming out with a gourmet deli line of food items. Personally, I think this would be great, especially if they could come out with Pinoy deli items, but more upscale! Another trend in the US is for top-ranked chefs like Tom Collichio, Thomas Keller, etc. to open more casual, affordable restaurants. I call it gourmet pang-masa. There will also be more interest in ethnic and exotic cuisines like Middle Eastern, Greek, Moroccan, Indian, etc. For desserts, restaurants will be using more Asian flavors/fruits like pandan, calamansi, ube, etc. Healthwise, banning trans-fats is now a big issue in the US and this may soon become a bigger issue here (or at least I hope so), especially for food manufacturers and fast food chains. For my two cents, since I don’t consider myself an authority (yet), here is a wish list in lieu of predictions: I’d like to see better educated servers. I want to see waiters who don’t just take orders but who actually know their food, who can educate the customer. I remember being very impressed by a waitress at Pastis in the Meat Packing District in New York City, who gave me a very good description of sole, which sea it comes from, how it compares to other fishes. Chefs should educate their servers, and not just the kitchen staff, on matters of taste. After all, the servers are pretty much the frontliners and have the responsibility of selling the food items on the menu. I’d like to see sommeliers at fine dining restaurants. I was most impressed in Singapore to find a sommelier at a Chinese restaurant. This was at the Majestic Hotel and he was pairing Chinese dishes with French, Californian, Australian wine. His knowledge of wines was very impressive and we happily discussed each bottle as our plates were changed. I’d like to see more environment-friendly practices. In the United States, the Green Restaurant Association certifies restaurants that are environment-friendly. This guarantees that a restaurant works to save water, recycles, and employs other good practices. We should follow this example, especially because the weather is already showing how hurt and angry Mother Nature has become over our carelessness with the environment. I would like to see celebrity farmers. I would very much be interested in watching a show with Jill Sandique explaining how to grow papaya in your backyard. I would like to see a wider selection of beer. Someone should really follow the footsteps of Beer Paradise and increase our beer selection. I would really like to see some Yebisu in this country. And more Guinness. Lastly, I want to see an international recognition of chefs from the Pearl of the Orient Seas. If people fly to Australia for Tetsuya’s or to Shanghai for Jean Georges, why not fly to Manila for, um, Segismundo? Dorotan’s? Bebot? Well, whatever the name or whoever that amazing chef might be, 2007 should really see a shout out of adobo pride. Anyway, I have confidence in our chefs. If Martha Stewart herself was impressed by Romy Dorotan (of Cendrillon in Soho), whom she invited to demo on her show, this wish shouldn’t be too far-fetched! Green cuisine By Margaux Salcedo Inquirer Last updated 08:26am (Mla time) 01/21/2007 I’M driving on the highway to heaven, I thought to myself as I drove alone on the Star Tollway. Guiding the highway were coconut plantations, and straight ahead were fogged mountains. The road appeared to stretch to forever. I was making my way to The Farm at San Benito in Batangas, and as I approached the marker that read “Welcome to Baranggay Tipakan,” I laughed and shook my head in disbelief as I realized that I had just traveled three hours to experience raw food. My doubts were somewhat allayed by the sign that greeted me as I drove past the cemented zigzag that is the final stretch to this end-of-the-world destination. It enumerates The Farm’s awards as a spa center, and as you enter the site, you immediately see why. The place is a beautiful sanctuary, a real getaway. Walking to the Vegan Restaurant, which I came for, you pass a small man-made pond that is home to a very regal black swan that makes you pause and wonder where you are. At the Vegan restaurant, I was greeted by a very pleasant German manager named Christian Knoeppel, who clarified that although they offer a strict diet of juices and salads for guests who are on a detoxification program, they do also offer cooked food for other guests, such as myself, who may be at The Farm just for the day. Everything, of course, strictly vegan. For those new to the concept, a vegan is a strict vegetarian who lives by a philosophy that rejects the use of animal and animal products for food, clothing, and pretty much everything. So as opposed to a semi-vegetarian, who can still enjoy creatures of the sea while giving up pork and beef, or a lacto-ovo vegetarian, who can still enjoy dairy products while giving up pork, beef and seafoods, a vegan’s menu would have absolutely no animal products. Absolutely means no meat, no fish, no poultry; and worse, no eggs, no dairy products. So I was very curious to see how they survived with what was left in the world that they could eat. For starters, there was—you guessed it—salad. I helped myself to a salad buffet that was quite impressive, an offering of different cuisines: there was a Mexican salad, a rice tomato salad, sayote salad, and Indian sweet potato salad, among others. “I like to play with different cuisines because I am concerned not just with health but also with the food’s taste, flavor, and texture,” explained Felix Schoener, The Farm’s German chef who has been a vegan for five years now. Indeed, a bite into any of the salads will give you an explosion of flavors, which made my introduction to vegan food really pleasant. Then the waiter came over to begin a set menu that included a raw appetizer, cooked soup, a raw entrée, a cooked second entrée, and raw dessert. The appetizer, Spinach and Cilantro Flan with Smoked Pepper Chili Sauce, looked very appetizing. It was a green flan served in a martini glass and topped with spicy cashew nuts. Expecting another strong infusion of cilantro, my heart sank as it found the flan to taste like … Gerber. Gerber in a martini glass. I had all of two teaspoonsful. The chili sauce was a clever decoy, though. It makes you think you are eating more than you really are! At this point, Christian came over and asked how I was enjoying my meal. Not one to be less than candid, I blurted out in the most charming way possible, “How do you … live?” To which he laughed and replied, “Well, I’m very healthy.” A vegan of four years, he spoke of the benefits of eating raw food. To be considered raw, food is not heated beyond 42° Celsius (the maximum temperature varies among the different forms of the diet, from 33°C to 48°C) because at this point the enzymes in food are killed. Enzymes, Christian said, are important because these aid digestion; without these, the body must depend on its own enzyme production to digest food, and this somehow leads to toxicity in the body, excess consumption of food, and eventually obesity and chronic disease. This is the reason, he explained, why we feel sluggish after eating a heavy, processed meal. He said that after trying the raw food diet, he was able to work longer hours and focus better on tasks at hand. With such conviction in his dreamy gray eyes, I was convinced to give up processed foods forever. Health is wealth! I decided to give the cilantro flan another shot… but no, it was still Gerber. There is really only one flan, I thought to myself, and her name is Leche. The entrée, however, redeemed the baby food. It was Adobo Style Mushroom with Almond Corn Tostados, Onion Relish and Sour Crème. The tostados is a very thin crust made of coconut meat, corn and almond nuts. Then the mushroom plus some red and yellow bell pepper is cooked adobo-style. This is something I would have as an appetizer in a regular restaurant. It was sufficiently chewy and not just gooey, and surprisingly very filling. I honestly liked it. The next part of the menu contained faux meat made of wheat flour called seiten (as in “sigh!"-tun) to create a sandwich. Chef Felix explained that this is for people who are in their transition period from carnivore to vegan. Rebound meat, I laughed to myself. Kudos to Chef Felix for lathering it with flavor, but there is still nothing like the real thing. Dessert, thankfully, pulled through with the real thing. Called Tropical Fajitas, it was a fruit salad on wafer. Probably because all the fruits were organic (or maybe because the previous meal was fake meat), the distinct flavor of each fruit was really emphasized. I also liked the chef’s addition of honey and hint of lime juice. It was a wonderful dessert. I could have consumed five servings of it. Even with this blissful dessert, though, completely giving up animals and animal products seems too much of a challenge, too drastic a lifestyle change, for someone who grew up with the concept of a food chain. But the advocacy at The Farm is pushed very gently. “You can start with simply having some greens, some salads, once a week, maybe even once a month,” Chef Felix said. “It’s not about taking out items from your diet but about adding more—adding more greens, adding organic produce.” This Spa Cuisine, as Chef Felix calls it, is also something you can practice from your very own home. He suggests starting with a green shake. “Just put spinach and some fruits in a blender, and there you have your power shake.” Well, it may work for you. Truth be told, The Farm really is a kind of heaven for vegans because Chef Felix really does his best to make the vegan experience as pleasurable as possible. For the rest of us, well, it’s an experience, a wake-up call to a healthier lifestyle, and maybe a pleasant start. A ‘Tsokolate’ Fix November 23, 2006 Updated 12:56:30 (Mla time) Margaux Salcedo Inquirer THANKSGIVING’S HERE and you know what that heralds: Christmas! The season for cheer, charity—and chocolate! Tsokolate, to be culturally precise. What I love about it, aside from the obvious, is that almost everyone has a hot chocolate story, usually involving a jolly grandmother who would prepare it carefully in the kitchen and serve it with ensaymada (a Spanish pastry) or suman (a sticky rice snack) for Noche Buena or Christmas Day. My hot chocolate stories involve my maternal grand aunt from the province of Bulacan, whom we fondly call Nana Meng (yes, she’s the woman behind Nana Meng Tsokolate, if you’re acquainted with this gourmet chocolate brand). She turned 90 this 2006, still playfully punches me when I try to be funny, still grabs my handful of stomach flab to show how fat she’s made me, and to this day makes this hot chocolate for me and my 600 cousins using her circa 1915 tsokolatera (chocolate pitcher). In 2003, I spent the holidays in Manhattan and badly craved for Nana Meng’s tsokolate. I searched the city for a similar kind of concoction, going to practically every google-able chocolate bar in the city. I discovered many variations to the drink: SQC of Chef Scott Campbell on the Upper West Side had at least a dozen variations of American hot chocolate—all, unfortunately, too sweet for my taste. Payard on Lexington offered velvety French hot chocolate (for an equally velvety price). Jacques Torres in Brooklyn had an amazing Aztec hot chocolate that was curiously spicy. But none offered anything similar to Nana Meng’s Bulacan tsokolate mix. I even went to Filipino (or “pan-Asian”) restaurants Cendrillon and Kuma-Inn, but I was searching in vain. That was when I realized how special Filipino hot chocolate is. We are one of the very few countries where the tradition of making hot chocolate from bean to froth lives on. The rest of the non-cacao growing world, including European countries known as leaders in chocolate manufacturing, such as England or Switzerland, are instead accustomed to the end product of powdered hot chocolate or processed chocolate blocks that have already gone through the process of pressing – separating the cocoa butter, or “conching,” introduced in 1879 by Swiss Rodolphe Lindt. The “conche” refines the cocoa and blends it with sugar and cocoa butter. This creates that silky texture that has become the norm for chocolate candy bars. However, while these countries and big industrial names in the chocolate business undoubtedly use best quality cacao from the most reputable growers in the world, e.g. Venezuela, the processes used to produce powdered hot chocolate, especially on a huge commercial scale, oftentimes distance the consumer from the direct flavor of the cacao. Worse, “over-conching” can also increase the viscosity of chocolate, so the flavor of the cacao is sacrificed for the desired smooth texture the Swiss prefer. In the Philippines, as in other cacao-growing countries in Latin America, we go traditional: We use ground cocoa beans, also known as cocoa liquor, let this harden into what we call tableya, which we then directly cook with milk and sugar to make tsokolate. There is no separation of the cocoa butter fat, nor any conching, so the result may be a little grainier, but what you experience is cocoa in its full glory. This intense flavor was what I was craving for, and more specifically, Nana Meng’s tsokolate, characterized by what Doreen Fernandez called an “indigenized” twist: the blending of peanuts with the cocoa, an ingredient Bulakeñas use to thicken the paste. In Latin America, they economically extend their cocoa by adding thickeners; for example, in Cuba they used flour. Bulacan natives chose peanuts, creating this unique, nutty-flavored chocolate blend, which, to my dismay at the time, was nowhere to be found in the Big Apple. I had to remedy my craving on Reese’s peanut butter cups. So I am glad to be spending this Christmas in the Philippines, where I have my tsokolatera, batidor (wooden chocolate whisk) and Nana Meng’s tsokolate…and suman and ensaymada … and pandesal and kesong puti…We have so much to be grateful for! • Nana Meng’s Tsokolate is available in Glorietta IV Level 3, Market! Market! Activity Center, and at the Salcedo Market on Saturdays. For orders, contact (0920) 902-3216 or (0917) 833-9539. The birth of the Gastro Geek By Margaux Salcedo Inquirer Last updated 05:15am (Mla time) 12/03/2006 Published on page Q4 of the December 3, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer I USED to hate blogs. Especially the ones that do nothing but whine. Or the ones where the author crosses over from sarcastic to rude, thinking he’s being witty. Then, on a trip to Singapore, googling for the best chefs and restaurants in that country, I came across chubbyhubby.net, a site which has changed my perception of blogging forever. It is a great source of information (through the information on this site, I met one of Singapore’s most well-known chefs, Justin Quek), has very perceptive articles and amazing pictures, but most importantly, it also led me to a community of writers who seek neither fame nor glory but simply want to share their love for food. I discovered my people—the Gastro Geeks! (Sorry guys, I promise I mean it in a very positive way!) I was introduced to a world where two of my greatest passions, food and writing, converged; a world where food lovers become food writers and where food writers interact! For the skeptic (as I was), the first thing you must know is that blogs are a great source of recipes and other cooking information. People the world over share not only their recipes but their experiences in cooking a dish, as well as tips and recommendations. And once an author posts his recipes, readers can directly comment and usually share their own roller coaster ride in making that dish. Instantly you have the perspective of three, four, maybe 12 individuals on the best way to make, say, prune walnut cake. Secondly, since the bloggers like to share discoveries, you come across unique items, places and dishes all the time. Like the certified halal cappuccino KitKat sold in Malaysia that I discovered at candyblog (www.typetive.com/ candyblog), which I chanced upon through a chubbyhubby link. It is also a great source of honest restaurant reviews. Face it, sometimes printed reviews are not as honest as they claim to be, a result of the tragic combination of a free meal and a hungry writer. Or a result, sometimes, of editing so as not to offend others. Blogs have comment pages that expose what people really and honestly think of a new venue or menu. The most fun, though, comes when there’s a blog party! Yes, it sounds geeky, but I swear it’s really cool. The Wily Filipino (thewilyfilipino.com) hosted an “adobo blog party” in 2003 where Filipino food lovers the world over shared their stories, recipes and creative literature on our favorite Pinoy soul food. Recipes for chicken and pork adobo were shared; there were musings on turkey and python adobo, and even beautiful odes to this national dish. Leny, a.k.a. Kathang-Pinay, wrote: Duende Said, Poetry Is like Adobo It Slays Your Palate with love. - kathang-pinay.blogspot.com But the greatest development in this dynamic medium is that some authors have taken it upon themselves to make blogging a vehicle for meaningful causes. Aun Koh, a.k.a. chubbyhubby, is a staunch supporter of the arts, so he gives away opera tickets to winners of trivia contests in his blog. He also introduced me to the site of Chez Pim (chezpim. typepad.com ), a brilliant, witty and very observant food writer, who took the initiative of organizing Menu for Hope, where several bloggers offered Southeast Asian recipes to encourage readers to donate to Unicef for the benefit of tsunami victims in 2004, and then for the victims of the devastating earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan in 2005. A raffle of donations from fellow bloggers and some sponsors also helped raise thousands of dollars for these causes. Pim wrote, “It is an absolute joy for us food bloggers to be able to share what we are passionate about every single day on our blogs. And it is even a bigger delight to share them with those who need help the most.” You can start your own blog, too. My favorite blogs contain man-on-the-street stories from the guy next door. Kwentongtambay shares how Caucasians ask why there’s a number 5 to Soup No. 5; and Lori of dessertcomesfirst shares in journal-like prose every delightful food find from Binondo to Paris. Plus, this hobby can even become lucrative. Chubbyhubby, who started foodblogging only a couple of years ago, now averages 80,000 hits a month, that sponsors are lining up to get space on his site. But it’s never a money-making venture for food bloggers. The best thing about this community is that it is really driven simply by a love for food, the bloggers brought together by an appreciation of good cooking and fine cuisine. I must say, contrary to my earlier perception of blogs, gastro geeks create very tasteful sites!