I work for a regional organization based out of Bangkok. We supply policy advice to twenty five countries between Iran and Fiji. Realistically, I work in less than ten in Asia. I travelled to Manila for a week – the last week I was 30 in fact. I was sandwiched in between two typhoons. The first one was Ketsana that had devastated the city 3 days earlier. Ironically I was working on water governance. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. But it was more than water that makes this trip stand out. It is food.
Even the transport brings images of food to my mind. The wheels on the buses go round and round as I pass them on our way from the airport in a canary yellow, Asia Development Bank priced taxi-ride. The busses are something like a sardine can on wheels. Decked out of course. A glammed up KISS version sponsored by Rio-Tinto’s latest tin mine in the Northern Gobi.
It’s an important metaphor for the country, the wheels revolving, one revolution at a time. What does Filipino society revolve around? Food. Give me guts, innards and bone marrow. Meetings, conferences are organized by meal times. They are merely an excuse to meet and talk over and about food.
I had a meeting after breakfast. Eating breakfast and talking (not about work) was the number one priority. I had a meeting after lunch. Instead of meeting after lunch we all met up for lunch and shared an array of food from around the Philippines. This particular organization operates out of a house in the NGO district of Manila, not far from the University. Each day one of the staff cooks everyone else lunch and they share. We had fried squid, deep fried pork belly, a sea-food curry, a sea-food and bitter melon stirfry. I wouldn’t recommend you eat bitter melon as you would an apple – but it’s an amazing full flavour that sucks your cheeks away. It dominates briefly but then falls into a complementary role like a good introduction to a song. Each dish is served with a separate sauce. A long wooden table to share food flanked by long benches to share company. A typical Philippines set up I am told.
Then you have malls. One in particular stands out, where stores have been seemingly put in as an afterthought. But if you want a hamburger, a hot dog, some fried chicken or any other tiny piece of America’s input into Filipino cuisine knock yourself and your arteries out. One of the few stores you are able to visit might sell a basketball to help bounce a bit of burger out. But there is also a plethora of other options. I have never seen Mongolian cuisine promoted anywhere in the world apart from Mongolia. And now a mall in Manila. Even a colleague in Manila (best described as a jolly man who enjoys slightly larger than average portions, and organizes meetings at a certain hotel where he has a credit line so he does not have to carry cash and can enjoy a conveyor belt of food) thought that when he spent two weeks in Mongolia there was too much lamb and mutton – even for him! In short it is not a cuisine that has captured the imagination of the world – which is a shame because for what they have (and keep in mind the capital Ulaanbaator has an average temperature of zero degrees) they do well.
But Manila is more than celebrating other cultures food. It seems to be about celebrating food and friendships generally.
Establishing links – with food and friends. Sometimes you have to break the links – with negative experiences. It’s time to move on. It’s time to change. Other times its time to keep them – or find new ones and incorporate them into your lives. This spirit of sharing and enjoying company and food is one of those.
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