By Admin
People immigrate for many reasons; to escape turbulent social and political situations, to take advantage of opportunities to build a better life, to reunite with family. When studying this, researchers tend to focus on the effect a country has on immigrants, but interestingly, the effects immigrants can have on a nation can be more influential. The Philippine cuisine was shaped by many other national identities and cuisines, creating a conglomeration of “authentic” Filipino foods and fragments of other national cuisines. The military occupation by Japan and the colonization by Spain and the United States brought civilians who moved to the Philippines permanently, unintentionally assimilating their foods and recipes into the local cuisine.
For context, the Philippines began as a Spanish colony from 1565-1898. Following its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. World War II took place while the United States owned the Philippines. Because of this, many eastern states used the islands as military outposts. Japan was one of these states, occupying the Philippines for roughly four years (Orquiza). For centuries the Philippines were tossed between various powers with no say in what happened to their own homeland. Having enough of this, the Filipinos declared war on the United States in 1899, ultimately gaining independence in 1946 only after ~24,000 combatant deaths and many more civilian deaths (The Philippine-American War).
The Manila Cook Book (1919), compiled by the Guild of the Ventral Methodist Church in Manila, was an interesting read; it was created for American immigrants in the Philippines as a guide on how to navigate new ingredients without compromising on the comfort and familiarity of American dishes. As this book circulated, it gained popularity among Filipinos, increasing the nationwide demand for western foodstuffs.
A diary entry titled Marketing in the Philippines (1920) describes the experiences an Army woman has as she explores a typical morning in the countryside of the Philippines. Her personal account perfectly illustrates the cultural diversity of the Philippines, noting the Chinese cook market, Japanese gardener, Spanish town names and units of measurement, and Indian merchants. Additionally, taking the occupations into account, it is an intriguing detail to note that the immigrants decided to stay even after the occupation and homogenized to the culture wonderfully.
Far Eastern Cookery (1947) explores many diverse cuisines and the history behind them. For my exhibit, I will be focusing on the chapter “Philippine Islands”. The author goes into detail about the formation of the Philippine cuisine, noting that Filipino culture in and of itself is a “mixture of Malayan, Chinese, Spanish, and other groups.” Merchants and immigrants introduced many ingredients, such as the sweet potato, cacao beans, etc.
Orquiza, René Alexander D.. Taste of Control : Food and the Filipino Colonial Mentality under American Rule, Rutgers University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/lib/unc/detail.action?docID=6198503.
“The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902 .” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/war.
