National food branding

Pampango food is scrumptious; the dishes prepared by my favorite cooking teachers, Sylvia Reynosa Gala and her son Ernest will attest to that.

But I can understand why President Marcos vetoed a bill proposing the declaration of Pampanga as the country’s culinary capital.

From north to south, other provinces and regions – including BBM’s native Ilocos – also have distinctive and delectable cuisines.

Bongbong Marcos would know about food, being an avid cook himself, like his Ate Imee, who has published a cookbook of their family’s favorite recipes, mostly Ilocano but also some they picked up while in exile post-EDSA revolt.

The Gala Stars Culinary School has a video of BBM giving a cooking lesson in the school, before he became president.

Sylvia’s Kapampangan classmate from Assumption, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also recently attended a session at Gala Stars.

In promoting our cuisine to the world, we can take inspiration from cultural powerhouse South Korea. Its cuisine promotion has been carried out with coherence and deliberation, with various sectors and government agencies on board.

You must have noticed that many K-dramas draw attention to Korean food and cooking, from traditional to modern gourmet and fast food. I developed an appetite for tteokbokki and jjajangmyeon or noodles in sauce with a base of black soybean paste from watching K-dramas.

We don’t have the cohesion of Koreans when it comes to promoting national interest. When they talk about a “whole-of-nation approach” in pursuing a goal, they fully understand and mean it, and they do it. But perhaps we can get some pointers from the global projection of their cuisine.

BBM’s veto of the bill ignited discussion on which region or province deserves to be considered the culinary capital.

Since tastes vary, it’s more productive and less divisive to work instead for the global recognition of Philippine culinary heritage.

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While there have been many events staged to promote Filipino food to the world, foreigners still ask me what Philippine cuisine is.

Besides adobo, lechon, inasal and balut, perhaps we can promote food products that use extensively agricultural crops unique to our country: our luscious “carabao” mango, ube or purple yam and pili nuts, for example. We have what I think is the best variety of lakatan banana for baked goods. Dalandan and calamansi can be used in local dishes as widely as the Thais use kaffir lime (which we now also grow in the Philippines).

Food preparation and food production go hand in hand. Promoting Philippine cuisine must be closely coordinated with the agriculture sector.

Officials from some countries renowned for their agriculture have told me that our farming methods are unscientific, which is a shame, they said, considering the richness of the soil across the archipelago.

The officials, who have visited farms in our country, noted the lack of research and development for crop varieties that are most suited to the land and climate in a particular area – varieties that give the best yield in terms not only of volume but also quality, including crop taste, appearance and smell.

Some large farms have these types of operations, with their owners sourcing seeds or mother seedlings from around the world for propagation or crossbreeding in the Philippines. They grow top-grade cacao, for example, and process pricey chocolate for both export and local consumption. The Philippines is gaining global renown for its premium chocolate, with the cacao grown mostly in Davao.

But why not make the top-grade crops widespread? The government can help ordinary farmers get access to high-quality seeds and seedlings, for example in the areas where coffee and cacao are grown.

Apart from crops, there’s livestock. Lechoneros say native pigs make the best lechon. Native chicken is the tastiest for tinola.

Our native water buffalo or carabao produces what has to be one of the creamiest and most delectable milk in the world. The milk can be processed into high-grade mozzarella and burrata. Scientists in Nueva Ecija told me that the carabao does not produce the enormous quantities of milk like dairy buffalo breeds. Rather than give up relying on the carabao for milk, however, it can be bred to produce premium and therefore higher-priced milk and cheeses.

Last Wednesday I was ecstatic about the return to some grocery shelves in my neck of the woods of my favorite carabao milk brand, DVF – the initials of owner Danilo V. Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. I don’t think DVF uses native buffalo milk, but its carabao milk is still excellent.

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It’s a relief to get a break from all the stories related to thousands of extrajudicial killings and one “extrajudicial rendition” (which do you think is worse)?

Between the Duterte Diehard Supporters and an elder sister who seems bent on sabotaging his governance and legacy building, BBM can de-stress through karaoke and cooking.

The dramatic events of the past two weeks involving the Dutertes have pulled national attention away from so many other urgent matters, from food to health, education and collapsing bridges.

BBM’s veto of the culinary capital bill provides an opening for renewed discussions on food, whose supply is inadequate for millions of Filipinos, and whose prices have been fueling inflation since the start of the Marcos administration.

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Better than declaring any province as a culinary capital, we need more effort to promote Philippine cuisine to the world.

Other countries have been doing this, as part of national branding. China, Japan and India, drawing from their ancient cultures, are way ahead in this department.

Food trips are among the top tourist packages for Taiwan; the self-ruled island has managed to offer dishes that are distinct from those on the Chinese mainland. Pineapple pastries and bubble or boba pearl milk tea have become identified with Taiwan.

In Southeast Asia, the Thais and Vietnamese are ahead in national food branding. Even tiny Singapore has managed to promote a multicultural cuisine as its own, called Peranakan or Nyonya, although the cuisine is also widely available in neighboring Malaysia as well as in Indonesia.

Philippine cuisine has so much more to offer apart from lechon and all the permutations of adobo. But making the world aware of them requires more effort.