FOOD ROOTS: LUMPIA, SIOPAO, MAMI, HOPIA
Trace the origins of classic Chinese food flavors and ingredients and find out how they entered the Filipino food scene
Like Spanish cuisine, Chinese culinary influences are deeply ingrained in the Filipino food culture. Chinese food or its Filipino adaptations would invariably end up on the Pinoy dining table. Whether it’s a formal feast, a family celebration, or a simple snack, there is a high probability of standard standbys such as pancit or lumpia as menu options.
What most Filipinos don’t know is that these two dishes are not, as we say, “pure Chinese.” In fact, the common advice given to Filipinos going to China is, “do not look for Lumpiang (spring rolls) Shanghai in Shanghai, or look for Pancit (noodle dish) Canton in Guangdong.”
Meah Ang See, managing director of the Bahay Tsinoy Museum explains that unknowing Filipino tourists in China some- times assume these two most popular dishes in the Philippines to be of “China” in origin. “Actually, these are examples of how ‘Chinese’ food has transformed and become indigenized, and they in turn have influenced foodways in the Philippines. Filipino cuisine has influenced ‘Chinese food’ to the extent that eventually it has evolved into a localized Philip- pine version, like the Lumpiang Shanghai and Pancit,” she says.
The Chinese have been on Philippine shores for centuries as merchants and traders. This business relationship has paved the way for a cultural exchange, of which, food is the most visible. Through the years, the food has been indigenized. The Chi-
nese noodles or pancit has taken on many incarnations in many places in the country -there’s Pancit Malabon, Pancit Habhab, Pancit Molo, Pancit Bihon and Pancit Canton. It is the same way with Ramen in Korea and Japan and the Laksa in Singapore and Malaysia, which have evolved into their localized versions of the noodles, Ang See says.
Fresh produce
She adds that some fresh produce that are common to the Filipino table have Chinese names, such as pechay, sitaw, kuchay, wansoy, and kinchay.
“These food items have become integral parts of Filipino cooking. The names are in the Hokkien dialect of Southern Fujian (Minnanhua), where 90 percent of the local Chinese Filipinos (Tsinoys) hail from,” she says.
Even meat cuts such as goto, kenchi, kamto, and kasim have retained their Chinese names, which leads to the thought that many early butchers may have also been Chinese.
In her research work titled “Acculturation, Localization and Chinese Foodways in the Philippines,” Ang See says that during the Spanish times, the Chinese arrived in the islands primarily as sojourners, much like our overseas Filipino workers of today. “They need to work, and send money back to China to support their families. Many of these sojourners eventually settled in the country, married Filipinas, and started their families here. With the introduction of the tobacco industry to raise revenue for the Spanish colonial government came food hawkers who catered to the dining needs of factory workers. They offered cheap and ready-to-eat food to hungry laborers.”
These same hawkers were able to set up their own establishments, which were later called the panciteria, the common name for “Chinese restaurants” then. The term itself shows the mixture of Chinese and Spanish influences, as pancit is the Tagalog word for noodles while the suffix “-eria” means place where something is done, like the panaderia. The menus in Chinese restaurants -- even today -- carry full meals called Comida China and the names of their dishes are in Spanish. One popular example is the camaron rebosado or deep-fried battered shrimp served with a sweet and sour sauce.
In the late 1960s up to the mid 1970s, there was a fresh wave of migrants from southern China, mostly through Hong Kong.
“These were immediate relatives of the Chinese businessmen in the Philippines who were cut off in China or left behind in Hong Kong after the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Because of this migration, more Chinese restaurants, Chinese drug stores, and convenient food outlets selling siopao (hot Chinese buns with meat), siomai, Emeng lumpia (Xiamen spring rolls) and the like sprouted up,” Ang See says.
From street food to lauriat
Because of the long, continuous and persistent Chinese influence, particular Chinese dishes have been so firmly entrenched in Philippine cuisine that many of them are now considered Filipino even though their Chinese roots are recognized. One example is the taho, a favorite Filipino breakfast filler for those who have no time to sit down to a full meal. The hot and sweet beverage that is hawked in neighborhoods every morning by men with loud voices in buckets suspended on poles is actually Chinese in origin. Soybean and soybean products are not indigenous to the Philippine islands. They were brought to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries by the Chinese. This is why they still carry their Hokkien term, utao.
According to Ang See, all soybean-based “Filipino” foods retain the Hokkien nomenclature. From the softest to the hardest, these include taho (bean curd custard), tofu (bean curd), tokwa (dried bean curd), tausi (fermented soy beans), and toyo (soy sauce).
Long before dim sum became a byword in Philippine cuisine, siopao and siomai were already being snapped up as snacks by Filipinos who enjoy the flavors, as well as the convenience of be- ing able to eat their meaty treats on the go. The regular Tagalog terms are again derived from the Hokkien terms for these dim sum foods, even though they are Cantonese in origin.
Hopia
When hopia first arrived in the Philippines in the early 1900s, it was a simple pastry made from beans and flour. They were sold in the streets by ambulant vendors, on bilaos hung at the end of a pole. Ang See says the early Philippine versions sold in Quiapo were made from mung beans and flour or red beans and flour. More beans than flour in the pastry meant a higher class of product, thus a higher price as well. “Curiously enough, these were called Hopiang Hapon or Japanese Hopia. Older-generation Chinese explained that Hopiang Hapon is named as such because the old hopia makers used the Japanese version instead of the Chinese version. It was a more desirable product because it stored well, and was easier to make than the flaky Chinese version.”
Mami originated from ba-mi or noodles with pork. Gilda Cordero-Fernando, in her book The Mami King, wrote: “the fame and popularity of mami is generally attributed to one person -- MaMon Luk, a Cantonese schoolteacher who had to “make something of himself” before he married. Thus he walked the streets peddling chicken noodle soup. The broth, which Ma made from fat native chickens, is continuously heated in a metal container with burning coals underneath, while the noodles and utensils are in a large basket. Both containers are carried at the ends of a bamboo pole slung over his shoulders.”
Food traditions were also imbibed in Filipino culture, with beliefs such as serving lucky dishes during the Chinese New Year, and giving out tikoy to friends and colleagues to cement relationships. Ang See adds, “Tikoy has also become a ‘thank you’ gift for people who have helped the giver in previous years.”