Feasting through five generations

Two became eight became forty–three became two hundred plus. That’s the math of the Hidalgo clan, five generations’ worth of family–and food.

The dual saga is shared with the public in the book, Potluck, Hidalgo Bonding: A Family Heritage Cookbook (Anvil Publishing, 2006, available at National Bookstores and Powerbooks) launched recently in the appropriately ancestral setting of the lovely home of Laling and Fr. Pat Lim along what used to be Vito Cruz, within sight of Manila Bay, which made the location a prime area for the homes of genteel folk, back when life was genteel and unharried.

The story of the book is worth telling. It is quite an achievement, really, covering not just generations but countries and continents. Luis Hidalgo and Eulalia Lardizabal de Hildalgo (who lived in the second half of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries) had eight children, who make up the eight "houses" upon which the book is structured. At family reunions–and there were many–over the years, the idea for a family cookbook was intermittently discussed but not seriously pursued.

Until–as editor Jaime Laya, an in-law, writes–the reunion in February 2005, when "Marcia Sandoval roped two cousins, three nieces and an in-law (me) into a huddle. The group sketched out the concept and a timetable and rashly took an oath to finish by Reunion 2006."

Rash turned out to be good. Representatives of the eight houses formed some sort of council, who met every last Wednesday of the month. "Naturally, the meetings had to be over lunch–and potluck, of course!" writes co-editor Adelaida Lim. "The house representatives would arrive bearing dishes, the recipes of which appear here (in the book)."

Indispensable to such an endeavor is the internet. Writes Adelaida: "The Internet was the virtual venue of our workspace. In the e-group hidalgocooks@ yahoo.com, recipes and anecdotes were submitted, edited and reviewed for publication. Contributions came in from Boston, Bahrain, London, Madrid, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia for the Hidalgos of the 21st century, like other Filipino families, are dispersed all over the world."

Dispersed they may be, but the memories of their tummies are definitely rooted in the family kitchens in Manila, and so the recipes and the stories connected with the recipes–for all family food have stories–flew through cyberspace and around the family members, edited and "tweaked for taste" until, just a year later, the Hidalgo family potluck was served to the public.

First there is a family history, with roots in Marinduque, covering the early Hidalgos, Don Luis’ parents, and then on to the second generation, the eight children of Luis and Eulalia. The ordinary reader may perhaps be forgiven for skimming through all the names and heading for the "meat" of the book, which is the eight chapters representing the "houses" and the recipes from each.

For the record, the eight houses are Rafael, Augusto, Clemente, Ursula, Pilar, Nieves, Conchita and Nicanor. For the wealth of recipes gathered, one must be thankful that family planning was unheard of in those days!

Each chapter starts with a family tree and short essays tinged with memory and nostalgia. There are photographs too, old family pictures that are interesting to look at, whether one knows the people in the pictures or not.

The recipes come with stories, and these take the reader along into the family kitchen or dining room, and into their lives through all the ups, downs and arounds of a family. Mothers teaching children away at school how to cook old favorites, food remembered from the old family kitchen modernized or simplified to adapt to available ingredients in a foreign land, new innovations as third and fourth generations settled in different parts of the world.

The Hidalgo potluck is rich indeed, more like a smorgasbord. As one reads and cooks through this delightful book it really is like getting to know this prolific and accomplished family, and being welcomed into one of their reunions.

I just wonder how many pounds I’m going to gain by the time I get to the eighth house!