ABSTRACT
The bedrock of the Philippine food landscape is indigenous food, drawn from land, sea and air, cooked in simple ways (roasted, steamed, and boiled). This includes such dishes as sinigang, fish, meat or fowl stewed with vegetables in a sour broth; laing, taro leaves in coconut milk; pinais, river shrimps steamed with young coconut in banana leaves; pinakbet, mixed vegetables steamed in a fish or shrimp sauce, and kinilaw, seafood dressed in vinegar. Foreign influences came to play upon this matrix which built up the totality now known as Philippine cuisine. The earliest input was Chinese, brought by merchants who, according to historians, have certainly been trading in the Philippines since the eleventh century, and quite probably as early as the ninth century (from the evidence of ceramic and other trade ware). Later came the Spanish-Mexican food traditions, then the American, brought in by two waves of colonization (1571–1898; 1899–1947). The Chinese influence on Philippine food is thus several centuries old, and as a result almost invisible. Most Filipinos do not realize that ingredients they buy in markets, and dishes they cook for everyday meals and for feasts, are Chinese in origin. They are so familiar now, so much part of the diet, that even though their names are not in any Philippine language, they are simply part of Philippine life.
