BULAKAN, Bulacan—Many native Filipino dishes that we continue to prepare and enjoy these days are not only daily and special occasion heritage foods for our family, but have played significant roles and have spiced up our freedom and democracy as banquets in victory celebrations and in ensuring triumphant battles during the Philippine-Spanish Revolution.
On June 24, local officials in the town commemorated the 127th year of the Freedom Day of Bulakan from the Spaniards, 12 days after Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine Independence in Kawit, Cavite which begun the fall of the Spanish colonizers and later had eventually led to the end of the almost 400 years Spanish rule in the country.
Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, considered the youngest general in the Philippine Spanish and American Revolution led his brigade in championing the freedom of the province in the said battle.
On June 23, 1898, the Spanish troops who were suffering from weeks of hunger were forced to surrender to Del Pilar and his brigade after three weeks of being held captive inside the Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion Parish church and convent. The Spaniards lost their supply of guns and food. Those who attempted to escape were being arrested and sent back inside the church.
Del Pilar known as “Gen. Goyo” ordered the preparation of a banquet at the town’s Glorieta, now called Plaza Del Pilar just opposite the said parish church.
The concept and gesture was part of a military tactic employed by Goyo to entice the enemy troops. Bulakan then was the capital of Bulacan.
“At habang naghihintay naman sa anumang hudyat ng pakikipag-usap, isang magarbong piging ang inihanda ng mga rebolusyonaryo sa Glorieta (tinatawag na Plaza Del Pilar ngayon). Tinakam ng mga taga-Bulakan ang mga kalabang nasa loob ng simbahan,” Isagani Giron, Bulacan historian also said in his book “Goyo”.
Perfecto Teodoro Martin, former president of Kabesera Inc., the cultural and historical group of Bulakan said the same narrative about delicious dishes used as military tactic by Del Pilar were written in the books about Goyo of Jose P. Santos at Teodoro M. Kalaw.
The said military strategy, Giron told NEWSCORE Bulacan on Sunday was also staged by Del Pilar in the battles in San Miguel town and in Baler, Aurora province, where special dishes were intentionally prepared in front of the province respective churches that led to the surrender of Spanish soldiers who were held captive inside.
Philippine Culinary History and Evolution
Contemporary Bulakenyo culinary and heritage expert Jaime Corpuz had shared the different heritage foods prepared by Filipino revolutionaries during Philippine Spanish and and American Revolution and the aucceeding political eras in the country during the first of a series of talk, “Kasaysayan at Ebolusyon ng Kalutong Pilipino” held on June 21 at Bahay Nakpil-Bautista that was sponsored and initiated by Advocates for Heritage Preservation (AHP).
Spice Island
Corpuz said Pinoy’s current tastebuds evolved from the precolonial period which was dependent on the rich natural resources in the country. For one, he said, the Chinese in the Philippines have used grains and root crops as primary food. The Arabs, who were traders used spicy foods in which the country, called the Philippine Archipelago was known as “Spice Island”.
Spanish era
What had continued over the centuries and decades Filipinos love and patronage for grilled foods like fish and meats began since the time of our ancestors. This includes “Tambalolo,” grilled stuffed fish with flavored leaves and herbs and Pinais (steamed with banana leaves) and the use of plain water, in small and large quantity for pinangat, halabos, paksiw and sinigang and tinola.
The Spanish era and Christianization also introduced to the Filipinos the Spanish concept using native/local spices through sauteing and the use of European (spicy & salty) and Asian taste (sugary) and the usage of “serbesa” (beer) for added taste. During this time, the ilustrados hired cooks or “Cocinero de campanilla” based on their belief and culture that cooking is not for them who belong to the “alta sociedad”.
French banquet
While local food like “serbesa,” roasted chicken in banana trunk, “suwam na kuhol, kilawing hipon, inihaw na bulig, dalag, hito sa patpat at dayami, ensaymada ng Katipunan, kababayan bread, karakoles, trianggulo, corbata de sebo, putoseko, gurgurya, masa pudrida, tortilla, bicho-bicho, bibingkang insik, minasa, pionono, binanli, paborita, pilipit at inipit were among the best and the favorites during the Philippine Revolution, it was a French Banquet that was prepared during the Inauguration of the Philippine Republic in January 1899 held at the Barasoain Church in Malolos.
American period
During the American or the Commonwealth period, ice box (Yelo-nievera) was introduced as ice cream including, butter/ margarine, chorizo, raisins, pan-Amerikano bread, ham and bacon, chocolates, cake with almonds, peaches and strawberry, candy at doughnuts, macaroni, hotdog, hamburger, sausage, rolls, cookies, apple pie and others such as Mashed potato, lumpiang ubod, relleno bangus, beaf steak, lechon paksiw, peanut brittle, orange leche flan, pizza pie, apple pie, corned beef, Canned goods, nestle cream and longanisa.
Creolization
After the American period, creolization of food began, or the convergence of old and new recipes, wherein different cultures have mixed up together the different food and tastebuds of the Filipinos people which had created a new different special delicacies, meals, menu, Corpuz said.
Marichelle Santos, a puni artist in Bulacan and focal person of the tourism section in the City Government of Malolos demonstrated the cooking of “pinaso,” Filipinos favorite desert during Philippine Spanish and American Revolution that is made out of a batter of plain biscuit and milk using heated ladle direct from a flame and placed on the sugar coated top of the batter.
Until today, the desert is served in Bistro Malolenyo, a Philippine Revolution and Modern taste restaurant in City Proper in the City of Malolos, just opposite the Malolos Cathedral, which had served as the Malacanang Palace that housed then President Emilio Aguinaldo during the rein of the First Philippine Republic.
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