Why Insist on an Asian Flavor

Yap, Mae Lynn Yi-Ju L.

2015 – 01323

HIST 2 C

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Why Insist on an Asian Flavor

Why Insist on an Asian Flavor is indeed a lengthy article. Nevertheless, it is different from other articles because it was very entertaining to read and comprehend. The author exhibited our history on a different approach and compared it to the other countries’ using an interesting topic – food. As we go through this paper, we will see why we should insist on an Asian flavor.

More often than not, history is shown by the people and the places that a country or a specific region incorporates through time. In the article though, Zialcita introduced our history and presented it on a different light, or should I say, a different flavor. He described the identity crisis of the country with its confusing cuisine –  that we do not have an “Asian taste” – as cited in the article. The stereotypical Asian people are famous for putting a lot of spices in their dishes, giving these foods a strong smell and taste. The Filipino dishes, however, is leaning towards a more sour-based food tastes, which is what leads us to the question, are we really considered an Asian country?

It is said that our country is “confused”. Accordingly, we do not have our own flavor. I personally think that this is not true because instead of having an “original” taste, we have some rather extensive ingredients that combine different tastes from different countries. Zialcita also explains in the article that the Philippines was colonized by different countries thrice, which is probably why we have a wider range of food flavors. The Filipino cuisine is very exquisite and unique in its own way. We tend to fuse different flavors from other Asian and western countries in our dishes with a prominent Filipino taste that makes our food have its one-of-a-kind taste that even people from foreign countries appreciate. I think our food is actually very original in its own way. Asians are believed to be very resilient in tolerating varying cultures. In a way, we show this through our food that somehow, we learn to adapt.

It is true that the idea of not having a very own taste and with the influence from countries outside Asia is not very Asia centric. However, we learned to embrace a new concept and that is continentalism or as mentioned in the article, “continentism”. It is a term that pertains to the patronization of a man’s own continent. In the case of the Philippines, we have a higher regard of Asia. It is indeed too late to change what has become of the Philippines (being colonized by the Spaniards, hence our cuisine being more non-Asian) but we embraced a new concept of our own by combining what we have adopted from other cultures. However, it is still evident that we still have our own spices and flavors in our dishes and thus, proving that we Filipinos still have a taste of our own – and that is what makes us Asian.