roots of the pinoy Noche Buena
B y now, you’re probably thinking of what to buy and prepare for your annual Christmas Eve feast, which is one of the most awaited events in the Philippines’ long Christmas season. But while you list down these items and think about your budget, you’re probably putting little thought about the origin of these Christmas food items.
Well, you should. After all, part of being Filipino is knowing and understanding where and when certain aspects of our culture originated and began. To help in tracing and explaining the origins of Filipino Noche Buena items, The
Philippine STAR talked to renowned
food historian Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, author of the distinguished books on Filipino food history such as The Governorgeneral’s Kitchen and The Foods of Jose Rizal.
But first, a ‘bite’ of history
Noche Buena translates to “good evening” in Spanish as it is, indeed, a very good evening throughout Christendom, because it celebrates the evening of Jesus Christ’s birth.
“If one thinks about the other evenings mentioned in Christ’s biography, they were not happy. They are associated with Easter and the story of pasyon and resurrection,” says Sta. Maria, who adds that we’ve been spelling the feast the wrong way all this time. “In peacetime, the celebration is spelled as one word —
Nochebuena — exactly as it is spelled in Spain up to now,” she says.
Of course, it’s already common knowledge that Christmas and Nochebuena were brought to the country by the colonizing Spaniards; but exactly how different Christmas and Nochebuena was during the Spanish colonial period escapes modern people like us. One must look into the writings of people who have lived under that historical epoch in order to understand the difference. For this, Sta. Maria cites Jose Rizal’s
El Filibusterismo. The novel’s Chapter 5: A Rig Driver’s Christmas Eve has food references that give glimpses of
Nochebuena traditions: “… hens and chickens were saying noisy farewells amid the rapid clatter of knives and the chopping blocks and the sputtering of lard in frying pans. There was a promise of good eating in the succulent smells of stews and sweetmeats that reached out to the streets.”
Of course, with the arrival of American influences and Filipinos’ penchant for creativity, the Nochebuena has evolved throughout the decades into something uniquely ours.
Now, to the food!
According to Sta. Maria, while the items on our list are Christmas season fare, others are available year- round while some may not be on everyone’s
Nochebuena menu, especially today when there are so many innovations inspired by heritage fare, as well as new additions from all over the world. QUESO DE BOLA. Among the Nochebuena staples is the easilyrecognizable queso de bola, that red ball of cheese cut into slices or melted into a fondue and used as a dip for various finger foods.
“Our ‘ ball- shaped cheese’ is Dutch Edam. Hard cheese was a maritime staple for officers in galleons. There are archival documents proving that cheese of some sort was carried as provision in trans-Atlantic and Pacific voyages. During
peacetime, Chinese groceries and Spanish comestibles sold queso de bola,” Sta. Maria explains.
HAMON. Another maritime staple that turned into Nochebuena fare is Christmas ham or hamon. According to Sta. Maria, there are basically two kinds of hams that were carried as provisions by merchant ships: the Spanish- style and Chinese- style hams.
“From Europe came Spanish types although the exact kind has not been specified in archival documents. They just say hamon. These would arrive around Easter on galleons from Acapulco and could be preserved ‘til Christmas. Meanwhile, as early as 1588, Chinese style hams arrived in Manila. Bishop Domingo Salazar documented that every November, 20 Chinese trading vessels would anchor until May. They brought in salted pork and hams, chestnuts, pineapples, Chinese oranges, among others,” Sta. Maria notes.
Ham preparation in the Philippines evolved throughout the centuries with the addition of Hispanic and American elements in Filipino cuisine, as well as the availability of foreign ingredients and new cooking techniques. Before, ham is cooked in several changes of water to decrease the saltiness and make the meat tender. By the ‘50s, canned pineapple juice, anise, cinnamon, brown sugar, and other spices and condiments were mixed with the ham. This is fried until a caramelized topping has formed.
In the ‘ 60s, baked ham was introduced, topped by a fruit jelly glaze, canned pineapple rings, and cherries. It was only recently that balled hams by Purefoods and Swift have made hams available for almost every home as they are affordable and easier to cook.
LECHON. According to Sta. Maria, during the medieval Reconquista in Spain, wherein the Spanish Catholics fought the invading Moors and expelled them from the Iberian Peninsula, consumption of pork (either as ham or roasted pig) served as proof of one’s Christianity. Hence, the Spaniards’ predilection for pork dishes such as ham and lechon.
“Lechon is the Spanish word for roasted pig. In the Philippines, we use lechon for the fiesta pig rather than native words that antedate lechon in the archipelago, perhaps because fiesta culture was introduced during Hispanic times,” says Sta. Maria.
In 1767, a French visitor to the Philippines, the scientist Guillaume Le Gentil, reported that during fiestas “one is sure to find as the principal dish a roasted suckling pig, which is placed in the middle of the table.” The practice can still be seen in paintings of the mid- through late 1800s.
The preferred animal for lechon is a suckling pig (a live weight of 15 kilos) that assures tender flesh. Today, hog farms can breed large pigs for lechon by varying diet and other factors so that even an adult pig can have tender flesh.
BIBINGKA. Sta. Maria describes bibingka as fundamentally a baked pancake made of ground rice. She says there are many interpretations as to its origin.
“I am certain bibingka was introduced by Chinese cooks who migrated to the Philippines. Where and when they learned it remains uncertain. But the
bibingka clay oven, or bibingkera, was called in the 17th and 18th centuries (perhaps even earlier) as the dos fuegos cooking technique, meaning “two fires.” There is a fire below the pan and another above it. The top fire consists of burning charcoal in a clay dish or an improvised metal tray,” Sta. Maria explains.
Meanwhile, the author Lizzie Collingham suggests that the prototype of the bibingka is the Indian
bebinca. It began in the Portuguese colony of Goa as an adaptation of Portuguese layered cakes. Her research explains that bebinca was made of rice flour, coconut milk, and butter and made into layered cake topped by almonds. It was possible that the recipe travelled with the Portuguese to Malaya and from there to the Philippines.
Sta. Maria contradicts Collingham regarding this theory. “Bebinca and
bibingka are worlds apart in flavor and looks. Bibingka is one solid-layer. It can be topped by a sprinkling of freshly-grated coconut, some sugar, or even carabao cheese and red salted egg. Also, the linguist Arsenio Manuel concludes that bi- is Chinese for “rice”. Thus, biko and bibingka are both words of Chinese origin,” Sta. Maria elucidates.
PUTO BUMBONG. Nochebuena would not be complete without the
puto bumbong, that sticky, dark purple rice cake topped with muscovado sugar, grated coconut and margarine. According to Sta. Maria, puto bumbong has been around since the 1880s, as noted by Jose Rizal in a letter from Madrid to his father in 1883:
“Because this letter may not arrive there until the 15th or 20th of December, thanks to the quarantine and the slow movement of the ships, I wish you a merry Christmas, poetic because of the early morning Masses, the puto bumbong and the salabat which ought to be the enjoyment of the little nephews and nieces,” Rizal says in the letter. Sta. Maria adds that what gives
puto bumbong its singular purple color is a sticky rice called pirurutong, which is harvested only in November, and grown only in some provinces.
SALABAT. Puto bumbong is best served with salabat or ginger tea. Made with ground ginger and water, the concoction is a known healing beverage. “It helps ease sore throat common when cool season arrives. It is taken all year round as desired. But it has become a Christmas and
tag- lamig season native leitmotif. Before the advent of the Thermos, freshly-brewed salabat is served in churchyards after Misa de Aguinaldo,” says Sta. Maria.
TSOKOLATE. Like salabat, tsokolate is another staple Nochebuena drink, which became popular when the Spaniards began cultivating cacao in the Philippines in 1670.
“Through the request of Jesuit priest Fr. Juan de Avila, cacao plants were imported from Mexico and were cultivated in Southern Luzon and some parts of the Visayas. In fact, Cebu’s cacao beans were once deemed superior to the best cacao imported from Guayaquil, Ecuador,” Sta. Maria states.
In Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Chapter 11 makes several mentions of chocolate-eh, with eh being a code for thick chocolate, while chocolate-ah was a watered-down chocolate.
With these tidbits of historical information, you’ll definitely look at and enjoy your Nochebuena feast with greater appreciation and in a whole new light. But, whatever you’re partaking with the family this Christmas Eve, it’s not really the food that makes it special — it’s with whom you share it with.