Andrew Zimmern: The ‘next big thing’ is Filipino food

“I want to go on record—[Filipino food] is not something that’s hot now somewhere and will get hot everywhere else.”- Andrew Zimmern

In the words of the food and travel connoisseur Andrew Zimmern, the cuisine that has long been unnoticed and almost nonexistent to the world of gastronomy is not Peruvian cookery or Korean dish: it’s the food from the southeast, the Filipino food.

Image source: npr.org

The Filipino cookery identity

To Filipinos, their dish is more about “practicality,” a characteristic that is very opposing to that of other countries’ cookery, which is about “flair.” Indeed, due to poverty that has long spread in the country for decades, and because of the numerous colonizers that invaded the Philippines, their cuisine has become a product of the profusion of these colonizers’ diet. Hence, there is no nucleus of uniqueness in what they call “Filipino food.”

Philippines’ famous pinakbet is just an obvious over-embellished Chinese dish chop suey, and adobo is the “soy-sauced” version of any Spanish viand cooked in vinegar, and its kakanin—rice cake—is an amalgamation of Eastern pao and Western cake.

Image source: theaseannewsblog.blogspot.com

Zimmern on ‘Pinoy’ food

But the American TV personality took pride in proclaiming the glory in Filipino cuisine. And he is no alien to Filipino food. For his cable TV show he has visited Manila and some Visayan region once and braved the challenge of eating balut and various Pinoy foods.

It’s been a year since Zimmern proclaimed that the Filipino food would be the “next big thing” and the food lovers would talk about it for six months, and now everyone’s waiting for the harbinger’s words to come true. Especially the Filipinos.

Image source: summitmedia.com.ph

Herve Sedky is a traveler and a lover of local delicacies. Know more about his adventures by visiting this blog.