by Doreen Fernandez
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What's Cooking? "The old and the new. The provincial and the pop. The slow and the fast. The past, the present, the future. That's what's cooking in Philippine cuisine. Which means that, as the most popular (people-created, people-processed and people-consumed) segment of popular culture, it is dynamic and changing, living and lively."
Writing about Food. "When one describes food, one does not use words alone, but the readers' remembering as well -- of past pleasures, savored sensations. One writes on and with the readers' palates, alluding to food tasted as children, drawing on their reservoirs of pleasure. In effect, one draws on all of the culture that shaped oneself and one's readers."
On Mangoes. “... we wager that the mango memories of many a Filipino still revolve around the fruit ripening to fragrance in Maytime; around fat golden halves dripping their juice on glistening suman in Antipolo; around mangoes peeled whole with the hands on farms and at fiestas...to drip on chin and clothes; around mangoes chilled in river water rather than in refrigerators, while the feasters-to-be swim in the rivers of childhood; around mangoes sweet because stolen from consenting uncles or neighbors; around the fruit not as commercial product, but as pledge of time and season and memory."
