Slow food, a discovery of the rare
Ahike into the rainforest of Mt. Banahaw in Quezon is one of my greatest pleasures in life. It is both meditation and discovery. In my last visit there, it was a trip of discovery upon finding two new rare items.
On a tree, lumped together, were native figs called tigbis. Figs! I only had these dried from the Middle East, or as a jam in small bottles, which I would painstakingly carry back home from my travels. And there was the sampinit, a local raspberry — again, a fruit I had always associated with travels abroad. But there they were before me.
As an advocate of the Slow Food movement in the country, I was excited in that I knew these were two rare finds that could raise up to the Ark of Taste list. This list is a grouping of all the rare small-scale quality productions that belong to the cultures, history and traditions of the entire planet. It is an international catalogue of endangered heritage food that is maintained by the global Slow Food movement. The Ark is designed to preserve at-risk foods that are produced sustainably, are unique in taste and endemic to specific and distinct eco-regions. As we list produce, seeds, grains, etc. in this list, we promote growing and eating of food, which are sustainable and preserving the biodiversity in the human food chain. At present, the Philippines has approximately 62 items in our list!
To further propagate the idea of Slow Food — or the connection among plate, planet, people