Chicken Adobo, Lechon, Pusit, and Tocino are only a few among a large large large, and I really do mean large, selection of Filipino Dishes. Each household has their own and "secret" recipes for every dish, what ever it may be, these dishes hold a huge back bone into Filipino Culture. Now, I am not saying not only Filipino's love their own food, however parties, get togethers', small meetings, whatever the situation may be, almost always has food. During College, I would go home often for Family parties and "Martin! Dala ka ng baon?" was a phrase I always heard from my mom, my dad, aunties, unlces, practically from everyone in the family. Oh, by the way, it basically means "Martin, did you pack any food for you to bring back?"... its not the direct translation, but that's what it means. Which brings me to my next point that I'd like to bring up, Parties. Having 20 Aunties and Uncles, that is not including family friends who I call Auntie or Uncle, who have 2-3 kids each, its no big surprise that there is always something to celebrate. And with large Filipino families, come large Filipino parties, which results in everyone cooking food, and when you have a large family (which is culturally almost every Filipino family) there is going to be a lot of food. See, food is what brings Filipino families together, food is what makes memories for us, food is a huge part of our culture so it does not surprise me that food, although it can bring us together, it can also damage us. The Filipino diet is very greasy and oily, but when living in a 3rd world country, you take what you can and make it edible. Filipinos in the Philippines don't have the luxury of organic ingredients, and not only until recently, that Filipinos here in the states started to look for alternatives to these dishes we all grew up with. As I dive more into this research, I want to rise the awareness of the health risks our dishes can have on our community. More in the weeks to come.
