What an event it was the other Saturday, 14 April! I expected a busload of curious culinary enthusiasts, eager to learn more about Pampanga’s cuisine. True enough, there was a family from Bicol who thought of doing the tour to learn about the food which seems to have reached mythical proportions in the realm of Philippine cuisine. What I was not prepared for was a handful of Capampangans hoping to better understand their roots.

Cultural appreciation through food! Isn’t that what I’m really advocating? Fantastic.

After a day eating and discussing the principles and little-known facts about Capampangan cuisine, what do our guests have to say about their tour?

Read all about it on Karlo’s blog.

There you have it! Indeed, a proper presentation of our cuisine, in its right context and a showcase of its evolution is much appreciated. Even with the heat of summer, the tour was such a success that not even a day passed when the organisers were already getting requests for succeeding trips. They just had to schedule another one.

The next trip will be on 5 May 2007. The details are also on the Sleepy Traveler’s announcement.

Some of you may have seen the tour featured on QTV 11’s Sapulso last Monday, 23 April 2007 at 10:00 p.m.

“A special sauce? Don’t we just have patis with pesa?” my cousin Beng asked.

Patis if it’s served in a hurry but if not, it needs to have the tiltilan that goes with a proper pesa was the answer she got from the members of our clan’s Kitchen Cabinet.

To be honest it is only recently that I have rediscovered the paniltilan but yes, I distinctly remember my grandmother served pesa with a red sauce on the side. This sauce was so fragrant and tasty, it could very well have been the only thing served.

But with all things tasty, let’s start from the top. What is pesa? Perhaps to Capampangans along and near the coastlines, pesa can only be fish, be it bulig, bangus, lapu-lapu or whatever. To others, it has further evolved to include other meats, chicken most especially. This is by no means a nuance in dialects but as a matter of fact, historical.
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Easter Sunday or Pascung Pangasubling Mebie to Capampangans is traditionally celebrated like Christmas in homes. Food on the table approximates the Christmas feast but what I notice is how the food is more Filipino. Perhaps it has something to do with the summer season which makes it more appropriate to serve tropical food instead of Western temperate zone food which can stand our cool December climate.

In our beloved town of Sta. Rita, Easter morning breakfast consists of what dreams are made of. Many families would serve pistu, the requisite celebratory breakfast dish. This is paired with pandesal and a cup of suclating batirul with singlé duman. It is possible that some sopas would be available, also some ensaimada which might then be carried over to the minindal or the mid-morning snack.

Lunch would most probably consist of asado and a soup. Pochero might also be part of the meal, this time with meat instead of the pochero of Good Friday which is made with fish. Unlike in the Western tradition, our Easter meals are varied although there are patterns of seasonal cooking by town or region.

For merienda or the afternoon snack, my grandmother made lacatan or glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and served with grated coconut (puto maya). What struck me even then was how it was so simple, almost austere compared to the back-breaking and very special bico of Good Friday when we were supposed to be fasting. My grandmother’s simple explanation was that the puto maya was symbolic (mibabague) of the white of the risen Christ.

Very interesting, and if I took it further down the line of literary analysis, it would be pregnant with meaning. White and austere = pure and simple. I really haven’t asked around to find out if this was just our household tradition my Lola started late in her life (because I remember it but my mother and aunties do not) or if it is something more customary.

Happy Easter!