February 17, 2009

Anthony Bourdain And Kulinarya

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What did you think of Anthony Bourdain's drool worthy No Reservations last night? The fat crabs, the beer, giant prawns, spicy dishes with coconut milk, the beer, fiddle fern salad, sinigang, the beer. A few minutes into the show both the husband and daughter opened bottles of beer.:)

We thoroughly enjoyed watching him eat sisig, bone marrow, and goat head in Pampanga. He really seemed to love most of the food specially the crispy lechon and we appreciate his keen understanding of the diverse Filipino cuisine having only tried the food in Manila, Pampanga, and Cebu. I was also touched by his genuine concern for Augusto, the young man who convinced him take a look at the Philippines. I hope he goes back to try the specialties in the North.

I read in Claude Tayag's (his host in Pampanga) homepage that he gave Anthony a copy of KULINARYA: A Guidebook To Philippine Cuisine which Claude contributed to as the stylist and has a few of his recipes, one is the Fiddlehead Fern Salad with boiled quail eggs that Anthony had. Click here to read the full article he wrote for The Philippine Star on Anthony's visit to his home.

I like this guidebook very much. The photos are beautiful and the recipes are easy for a new cook or someone who has never cooked Filipino food before. The recipes are unpretentious in their simplicity, no fusion or anything fancy here, the Leche Flan has canned condensed and evaporated milks, NOT fresh milk, as majority of Filipinos cook leche flan using these. The book does not have all the recipes, it is just impossible to include everything because Filipino food, as Anthony has found out, is very much diverse and varied. There are few minor mistakes but I am glad that dishes that are unappetizing to look at like dinuguan (pork blood stew) are not included in the book. KULINARYA is a good start to introduce our food to the world.

Glenda Barretto writes in the Introduction:
The principal problem in branding and defining standards for Filipino cuisine is that Filipinos are by nature highly individualistic and diverse. Standards in our culture seem to exist not so much to be followed strictlty, as to serve as a basis of personalition. In fact, variation and diversity are the standard. The preparation and presentation of Filipino food is tremendously varied, even within the same province, town, or neighborhood, in the same way, for example, that villages separated by less than an hour's walk in the Cordillera mountains speak completely different languages and regard each other as foreigners.
Go get a copy and help KULINARYA's mission to inspire world-class preparation and presentation of Filipino food!:)


11 comments:

What's Cookin Chicago said...

I'll have to scope out that book to add to my library!

Anonymous said...

The show and the book simply show that Filipino food is definitely world-class! :)

Sidney said...

Ok...ok... I will buy me a copy ! ;-)

Anonymous said...

nice review of the book. I hate that I missed the show. I'm going to get it on DVD when it comes out :)

Based on your review, I have to get Kulinarya too.

Anonymous said...

You're lucky to have a copy of that book, oggi. There doesn't seem to be any available on Amazon.

caninecologne said...

i wonder how much is the shipping fee from the national book store website? the book itself is about $15-16 American dollars, but it probably costs just as much to ship it to the U.S.

anyways, i liked the Bourdain Philippines episode when they weren't showing Agosto. It focused too much on his identity and not enough on the food. he was all braggadoccio on his video - all talk and no action. but i have to hand it to him for getting Bourdain to go to the Philippines!

Chibog in Chief said...

oh thanks for sharing about this!! cant wait to have a copy of my own :-)

ps, musta na ??its been a while i was out :-)

Oggi said...

Hi all, I am puzzled as to why this guidebook is not sold at amazon. The husband made a dummy order at national bookstore website and got a whopping $50 for shipping. He emailed the publisher on how to order the book from the US and will email anyone who is interested of the outcome.:)

Dhanggit, where have you been? Welcome back.:)

Anonymous said...

Oggi exactly. It just pisses me off that the book isn't on Amazon. I assume that the book is also something that would promote Philippine food and culture and yet they don't push for it to be sold on Amazon. Doesn't make any sense at all.

Oggi said...

Anonymous,

I have since posted the email address of the store that sells Kulinarya.

Anonymous said...

my mom bought me this book from her last trip to the Philippines...and i love it! also makes a good conversation piece on coffee table..def a must have!

stef

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