Terra Madre is a Slow Food International event that happens in Turin, Italy every two years. This year, the Philippine pavilion was a very big hit!
Slow Food is a global movement acting together to ensure good, clean and fair food for all.
Founded by Italian activist and author Carlo Petrini in 1986, the organization promotes local food and traditional cooking. It has since spread worldwide and strives to preserve tradi-tional and regional cuisine, encourages farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem, and promotes local small businesses and sustainable foods. It also focuses on food quality, rather than quantity and is against overproduction and food waste.
I wrote the good news last week that Bacolod City, Negros Occidental is now the official hub of Slow Food International for Asia and the Pacific. Filipino food has become so popular over the last few years and the number of people who visited the Philippine pavilion at Terra Madre proves it is getting more popular!
So, who prepared what at Terra Madre 2024 that made the Philippine pavilion the most popular and most visited international booth?
It is interesting to note that the pavilion was one of the biggest and one of the few that had its own kitchen where our talented Filipino contingent cooked and served hot and freshly cooked food!
The first day served coffee by Coffee Coalition Minoyan Murcia. Criollo hot chocolate was served by Chris Fadriga. Criollo cacao currently makes up just 0.01% of cacao grown in the world and is at risk of extinction. Fadriga says this cacao was brought to the Philippines during the Manila Acapulco galleon trade. He adds that Philippine criollo has been tested and is 99.7% pure criollo, something almost non-existent in the Latin American area where it originated. Dinuguan (pork and blood stew) and puto and langka (jackfruit) salad were prepared by Joeri Arro and April Justiniani. Jay Jay and Rhea Sycip prepared Beef Caldereta while Chicken Inasal was done by Pachit & Joey Cuaycong and Rico & Nikki Cajili of Chicken House Bacolod. Cocktails were prepared by Kalel Demetrio and the foreigners loved our local ube liqueur!
Day two was Bacolod, Negros Occidental Day with food prepared by Cooks Alliance Visayas composed of April Justiniani, Joeri Arro, Sylvia Golez, Mykolo Golez, Michelle Gerona, Andrew Peñalosa, and Vinsoy Abawan from Guimaras. Abawan is an advocate of tultul salt and has helped revive the dying art of making the only artisanal salt in the world that contains coconut milk or gata. They prepared humba with pipinito pickles and classics such as kadios, baboy and langka (KBL in Ilonggo), kansi, chicken inasal, adobo with batwan and bocayo (sweetened coconut strips). Tuyo on crackers, cheeses by Casa del Formagio, apan-apan (kangkong) wrapped in bacon with guinamos, and kinilaw were also served to guests who washed these down with cocktails made by Paul Javellana and Kiko Torno.
Day 3 was Luzon and Cavite Day with chefs Jay Jay and Rhea Sycip who made adobong tahong (mussels) adobong hipon (shrimp) sa gata (coconut cream), adobong baboy (pork) sa pula (using achuete), adobong manok sa dilaw (using turmeric), adobong atay sa tausi, lechon, atcharang ampalaya (bitter gourd), and atcharang labanos (radish). They also pre-pared merienda, which filled the Philippine booth once again! Afternoon fare consisted of pansit pusit (squid ink noodles), quesillo, sopas de Tanza, gurgurya, ensaymada, peanut butter, coco jam, palapad, pan de sal, Ensaymada Cavite, mango marmalade, honey, tablea, turmeric juice, and Liberica coffee.
Day 4 had Visayan food prepared by chefs Don Baldosano, Angelo Comsti, and Mary Fe Villanueva. They made Visayan adobo with burnt soy sauce rice, lechon paksiw champora-do, sinangag coffee, hot chocolate, sinigang na hipon sa batwan and sampalok, carne frita, pork lauya (with ginger), batchoy, tinuom nga manok (an Ilonggo dish with chicken soup wrapped in banana leaves), eangkoga or the Aklanon ginataan, Inday-inday (rice cake), and to the delight of the crowd, lechon was served again.
The last day was Cordillera Day with Rowena Gonnay, Daniel Maches and Neo Garcia who prepared coffee from the Cordilleras with inanchila (snacks), tipoy (viand), smoked meat with roasted bichuelas (white beans), linedled (chicken with ground roasted mongo). They also prepared intum (the Cordillera practice of the Slow Food approach, which does away with artificial food flavorings), such as kurchis (pigeon pea with two native mushrooms — ngollot and kaysop — and another intum of dried banana blossom with pumpkin and gata, and an indigenous recipe called kinarut of unoy rice with smoked meat, green pigeon pea, and native mushrooms.
Filipino cuisine is finally getting the attention it deserves and will get more of the exposure it should have with Bacolod now becoming the Slow Food International hub for Asia and the Pacific!
The Philippine contingent certainly did an amazing job in Turin! They certainly taught the world about our delicious Filipino cuisine!
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