Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – Philippines
February 19th, 2009 | 24 Comments »
The un-anointed are always surprised at how good Filipino food is, offering well-meaning but condescending compliments I’ve long learned to accept with a smile and a lighthearted “I told you so.” Probably has a lot to do with that old stereotype that we Filipinos love dogs. For dinner. I once had a friend (a white guy, if you wondering) over for dinner in 6th grade. As my pops handed him a plate, he paused and stared at the rice and chicken adobo and asked “what is this, dog?” before he excused himself from the table. We stopped being friends shortly after.
Somehow, suddenly, we’ve become the flavor of the month. Filipino chefs have been making noise on the last couple Top Chef seasons (Dale was fucking robbed!). Still can’t forget George W.’s backhanded compliment about his personal Filipino chefs during dictator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s last US visit. And now, with the Travel Channel‘s Anthony Bourdain finally taking his No Reservations food/travelogue show to the Philippines, our sweet, salty and sour secret is out.
Though I only catch it when it happens to be on, I’m a fan of Bourdain’s show. Yes — there’s a tourist, exoticizing element to it, but you can’t front on Bourdain’s presence and palate. And when he says that our lechon is the “best-cooked pig in the world,” it almost makes me want to eat pork again.
Of course, an hour isn’t enough but the representation is respectable: Tapsilog in the opening breakfast scene, followed by street vendor foods (Chicken balls, Tofu w/ Tapioca Syrup), Pancit Palabok (“Not the greatest thing ever, but good” – and I agree), before moving onto provincial dishes such as Sinigang. Kalamansi rightfully gets its own quick feature. And when sisig makes a cameo (and is pronounced correctly) it becomes official that this episode is a pretty big deal. A redemption of that borderline-racist episode of Bizarre Foods that featured Filipinos eating bugs like it’s our national dish.
Funny though, how our history of forced colonization and foreign domination gets reduced to “influences” as if we’re just willingly eclectic like that. American cultural influence and military presence is highlighted for a brief segment, but somehow leaves out the biggest part of the story: The Philippine-American War. It’s true that our national cuisine has incorporated many others, but I’d much rather this story be presented truthfully than liberally. That we, resilient and crafty people that we are, make masterpieces from scraps (on that Jeepney shit) – you can force your shit on us but trust that we’ll flip it (uh, no pun) and make it our own.
In defense of my squarish, bowl-cutted compatriot Augusto (who hosted Bourdain’s provincial excursion), although he wasn’t our most cultured representation, he’s also a reality for many of us. Hearing him fumble a response to Bourdain’s question “Who are the Filipinos?” was excruciating to watch. “I’m not fully Filipino, but not fully American” he says, lamenting his assimilation as a New Yorker trying to “find his roots.” Which is cool, but dude, you’ve never had lechon in your life? Really? Having your culture explained back to you by an outsider is not the business, but I guess if it’s gonna be anyone, it might as well be Anthony Bourdain.
Not that we need the validation, but it’s refreshing to know that we’re at least getting the respect we deserve. Perhaps folks will patronize our restaurants enough to keep em open for more than a year. Shit, perhaps some of you Americanized-palate ass Filipinos will recognize the real and learn to eat that ampalaya without that bitterface. And maybe, just maybe, my kids wont be mockingly called dogeaters.
Hey, just wanted to give you a shout-out. I like reading your critiques on film & Filipino culture. (As an active foodie, I especially appreciate the entries on eats.) I just read about the docu-film ‘Serbis’ from the San Francisco Chronicle and was wondering if you were going to review it sometime: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/MV9P15VQ1M.DTL&type=movies
February 20th, 2009 at 3:17 pmI recall one time at school my “Asian Cultural Society” was selling food as an attempt to raise funds (we don’t get scrilla from the school, unlike most other cultural clubs). Despite my greatest efforts, people couldn’t refrain from referring to the Pancit as Lo Mein. Very amusing.
And speaking of dogeaters, ever read the novel “Dogeaters” by Jessican Hagedorn? (the book is not cuisine-related)
February 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pmyou said everything i was thinking (havent got around to blogging about it myself, but i did do a repost of his blog). i thought it was interesting that they referred to the jeepneys and ube while avoiding to say the words “jeepney” and “ube”. just say what it is, dunny (no dummy).
bourdain and batali at the paramount in a couple months. holla!
February 20th, 2009 at 7:28 pmI know I should write more about this, but after reading the last sentence I would like to say that I’ve only met one other American person (Fil Am actually) who likes ampalaya as much as I do. I just don’t understand what’s wrong with it.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:34 pmV. true– I’m reviewing the episode in segments on my food blog, and want to (carefully) shit on this internally colonized mentality that is running through the narratives by every Filipino/American host in that show. 500+ years of empire, militarism, and war, and all anyone can think to say is “sorry, we have no culture, it’s because we are so adaptive?” Um… no. And also, are we supposed to thank Bourdain for “showing” that Augusto guy “his culture” since it seems that’s what he needs? Thank you, massa, for showing us the light!
February 21st, 2009 at 4:06 pm[...] Reservations — Philippines Jump to Comments (Prometheus Brown and Critic After Dark both did reviews on last week’s Filipino episode of No Reservations, so [...]
February 21st, 2009 at 5:15 pmDo yall know Filipinos who refuse to eat Filipino food, but eat greasy and nasty ass “American food”? Like its any healthier. That’s troubling.
Ampalaya is good for the blood, as mom says! haha. Pinakbet is my shit.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:59 amhey MV, this song is for you.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruuDWQ_3_ik
Sarah: Thanks! I’m looking forward to seeing Serbis after becoming a fan of Brillante Mendoza’s work this past year. Hopefully soon.
Joseph: Ampalaya is the best. In fact, I’m eating some (ginisang w/ eggs) RIGHT NOW. I can see why someone wouldn’t like it, but people act like it’s the worst food they’ve ever had.
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 amMV: Yeah, that bugs me out. I can understand if you just weren’t raised on it but the extent to which some Fil-Ams refuse or, even worse, talk shit about Filipino food is beyond me.
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:55 amlast year i saw a locally produced performance (i won’t say what) where at once point, a pinay girl sings about hating filipino food and the smell and that’s why she doesn’t date filipinos.
crowd, incl. filipino elders, laughs. zarah and i almost walked out.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 amOk so I’ve spent way too much time yesterday morning/afternoon “marathoning” no reservation re-runs and still haven’t seen the one about the Philippines. I also never had Filipino food so if you know of a good place near Pdx, I will check it out. My filipino friends say they don’t know how to cook filipino food so we sure could use your help on a restaurant recomendation…They taught me how to play Mahjong filipino style instead and I am totally ADDICTED!
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 amNathalie: I’ve heard good things about this place in PDX: Tita’s Pista. Let me know how it is if you go. Cheers.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:37 pmNew slang: Ampalaya
Definition: Bitter, salty about something or someone (also see: Lawry’s).
Usage: You just ampalaya cuz Bourdain said Philippine Lechon is the best ever.
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:05 pmEy Daps. I like the new slang
I got my folks the Memories of Philippine Kitchens book a couple years back and it’s been the focus of many of our family conversations since. Besa and Dorotan single out sinigang, adobo, and kinilaw as the most quintessential Filipino dishes.
My dad, being the hardcore Ilocano is adamant that while Thai is about the spice and Indian is about the curry, Filipino is about the “pait” — the bitterness. He’s beginning to win me over on this one. In past seasons, Bourdain has repeatedly celebrated the simplest foods—the peasant/worker’s fare—as a testament to a people’s resilience. Good cuisine is able to turn the unwanted cuts of meat (or bitterest vegetables) into dinner, yeah?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 pm[...] by Guest Contributor Geo, originally published at Prometheus Brown [...]
February 27th, 2009 at 8:00 amwell while i dont have much to say bout the whole phillipino(sp?) thing, i gotta say dude i feel ya on the dogeating shit. here in the central valley all we got are “minorities”(funny how were still called that but everywhere you go youll find brown skin..). like hella mexicans and asians dude. but here our dogeaters are usually the hmongs, who get critisized too damn much! or the “dirty” cambodians… that sucks that your friend growing up acted like that. i think one of the plusses of growing up in such a diverse community is getting exposed to the different “minority” cultures, whose food turns out to be off the chain lol. just thought id put my two cents in aight. thanks for the post dude -k
February 28th, 2009 at 6:14 pmI watched the Tony B episode with my husband, who is filipino. He looked at me as it started– “Ok, here we go…” and took a deep breath.
Whenever something like this is on tv, we can’t help but be a little apprehensive. Will filipino culture be exoticized? Will filipinos stick up for their food, their culture and themselves?
I thought that the episode was ok– Tony liked the food (what’s not to like?) and seemed to be having a good time there. We’ve all watched episodes where he gets way more pissed of by a bad time…
It’s great in one way to have this exposure– filipino culture is not “out there” too often on tv, or really in general. My husband is proud of being filipino and we would like our sons to feel proud also.
It’s too bad Augusto kind of acted intimidated during the show– was it that he realized that he really did feel in between two cultures, and not really “expert” enough to host Tony, or sad that he did not know his own family in the Philippines well enough to be a part of what was going on, or having some sort of general “who am I” crisis or what?
I hope that my boys will feel comfortable wherever they are: in the philippines with the family (lolo and lola will be retiring and moving back to Cebu soon), in NY, DC, city or country, filipino, amercian, whatever…..
Wish that there had been some angry filipino or filipina who could have explained the “influences” of other nations on the philippines–
and……did he eat turon there? It’s kind of my favorite food ever…..
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:31 pmFilipino food is solely underestimated as foods for being full of cholesterol and oils, I partly think of it as true. Though we never fail to impress tourists and foreign friends by our cuisine.
I especially love how sisig and kalamansi are mentioned. Those two are very important vices in filipino cuisine.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:02 amJust watched the episode on youtube. I love it. God, i gotta go there and have some of that giant crawfish in my sinigang.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:37 pmI hate Anthony Bourdain for one reason and it will explain it all.
HE TALKS TOO DAMN MUCH!!!!!!
i was always told people who talk the most spew the most bullshit.
and all i know is he talks more shit about cultures he don’t understand the typical ugly american.
At least Zimmerman and Brown embraces the cultures around them.
they don’t try to act like thier the best thing to happen to the world.
like an ego maniac who has to have the last word in everything.
some times the best thing to do is to shut the fuck up before you suck in your foot.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:29 amI am a white American, born and raised, but I crave ampalaya and sisig and calamansi and tapsilog over a cheeseburger/milkshake any day. I don’t have cable, but I just downloaded the No Reservations episode… ueah, I am a little apprehensive as well (some of my Pinoy friends say I must be an honorary Filipino)>>> I love travel & cultural programs on TV but I hate when they patronise or stereotype the groups they are portraying. I’m sure Bourdain has more sense than that…
May 16th, 2009 at 6:47 pm[...] Reservations — Philippines Jump to Comments (Prometheus Brown and Critic After Dark both did reviews on last week’s Filipino episode of No Reservations, so [...]
September 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pmThis commentary is way late. I’ve just seen a re-run of Anthony Bourdain’s Philippines episode from way back. I have to say, however, that as little representation of the Philippines as we Filipino-Americans think was shown in the program, I think a non-Filipino viewer will find it a substantial introduction to the Philippines as it is now. We know there is much more to show about our foods, about our culture, about our present status as a country, but one hour is not enough to show all that.
I am happy at least a slice of the Philippines was featured. Those who were hard on the Filipino-American host (Augusto) are overlooking the fact that Augusto in fact represents one hard-to-deny present-day-Pinoy who is trying to claw his way into the culture that his parents knew. I think he is typical of us (the ones who live in the US). We are proud of our heritage and would kill to defend it even, but we have also chosen to be Americans who love rock concerts, hamburgers, fine dining and travel. We even want to speak like typical Americans but the accent gets in the way.
I am displeased with some of the local Filipinos in my town who choose to alienate themselves from the mainstream America, choosing to socialize among themselves only. There is something wrong there. I don’t get why they choose to live in the States and would only consider immersing themselves in only what is ‘Philippines’. That is not right. What is right is Augusto, a product of the dynamics that was the Philippines and its intermingling with the foreign settlers. As sad as it seems, this has become some of us…like Augusto.
But at least, like Augusto, we are passionate about our heritage. We are proud of things that spell Philippines. We are happy to see others appreciate the things that are ‘Philippines’.
What was really questionable in the show, were, to name a few, that the filipino hosts used the word ‘bitter gourd’ instead of ampalaya; that the pinakbet (Ilokano-origin) was not braised but sauteed, making it guisado instead; that adobo main ingredient is soy sauce? (my parents made adobo with bagoong as a salting agent). So there were things misrepresented, or, maybe just mis-stated. It is just faulty research, or ignorance on the part of the Filipino info source.
But all in all the feature was good…more substantial than it actually showed. And we, Filipino-Americans, we ought to be thankful we have the best of both worlds: Philippines and America.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:58 am