Case 5: Cultural Melting Pot in the Philippines

a. Show and Tell

i. Each person selects a province.
Pampanga
ii. Choose a food item (a snack, main dish or dessert) that is distinct in that area.
Snack – Panecillos de San Nicolas (San Nicolas cookies)
Main Dish – Sisig
Dessert – Tibok-tibok
iii. Bring a picture and/or the actual food sample.

Panecillos de San Nicolas (San Nicolas cookies)

Sisig
 Tibok-tibok

iv. Present the food, history, ingredients, taste, and cultural influence of the food.
1. Panecillos de San Nicolas (San Nicolas cookies

The cookies are said to have healing powers, but not just because of the cookies’ link to
the saint who healed with bread. Supposedly when kept in a jar, Pan de San Nicolas would start
to grow mold similar to penicillin. Just like we use that fungus in medicine today, the cookies
were said to help the sick fight an illness. When someone did fall ill, the sick person would eat a
cookie while a special prayer was recited, according to The Daily Meal. The cookies have
intricate embroidered-like design that was shape in a hand carved wooden mold creates a
beautiful unique Panecillos de San Nicolas.

Panecillos de San Nicolas (or Pan de San Nicolas) are a buttery shortbread-like cookie
made with arrowroot flour, coconut milk, and egg yolks. But what really sets them apart is their
shape. The dough is stuffed in ornate wooden molds before baking, which leaves an intricate
design of a saint on the pastry. Panecillos de San Nicolas, also known as putu saniculas or simply
saniculas to the Kapampangan, is one of the heirloom recipes learned by some of the older
families in Pampanga from the Augustinian friars during the Spanish era. Actually, these
panecillos or little pan, are not classified as bread, but rather as biscocho or biscuits. These
biscuits have the characteristic image of San Nicolas de Tolentino, also called Apung Kulas,
embossed on its flat round surface. San Nicolas is one of the important saints of the Augustinian
religious Order and is the designated patron of one of the oldest established pueblos in the
Philippines, the town of Macabebe in the province of Pampanga.

For Catholic Kapampangan, saniculas is not just an ordinary biscuit. It is usually blessed
by the priests, and as such, some believe that it is an effective treatment of pain as well as
pampaswerte or lucky charm. The biscuit becomes a festive delicacy during the feast day of
Apung Kulas every 10th of September. In Macabebe, thousands of pieces of saniculas are
distributed to the worshipers. There are some who immediately eat the biscuits after the mass,
while some put them in their bags as pampaswerte or otherwise they display them in their altars
at home.

2. Sisig

Pampanga, being the center of cuisine in the Philippines has a lot of dishes to offer. One
of these dishes is the famous sisig. Sisig in Kapampangan language means ‘sour’. Sisig is an
original kapampangan dish more than 2 centuries before the sizzling sisig version was
accidentally invented by Lucia “Aling Lucing” Cunanan (Sisig Queen) from Angeles City.
Based from Aling Lucing during her interview in Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, her invention of
sisig was an accident. She burned a pig’s ear accidentally while grilling it and she did not want it
to be a waste, so she chopped the pig’s ear and put other ingredients on it. Sisig is composed
mainly of grilled pig’s ears or head, with a lot of calamondin (also known as calamansi), onions,
hot peppers and soy sauce. It happened that people who eats in her carinderia loved it, thus the
birth of the dish sisig. Sisig, the Filipino street food of chopped pig parts and chicken livers
tossed with a spicy and sour dressing, is said to have originated in Pampanga, a province
centrally located on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines, although the dish was very
different from what's commonly served today. Crispy, tangy, and meaty, it's a perfect
complement for beer's natural earthy flavors.

Back then, the US Air Force personnel were stationed at the Clark Base in Angeles City,
Pampanga, and the commissaries in charge of preparing their food would dump unused pig heads
into the garbage. Aghast at the waste of edible parts, nearby local residents offered to purchase
the unwanted portions and were allowed to do so cheaply. They boiled the pig heads, sliced off
the ears and jowls, and added these to the sour relish, thus making the prototype of the modern
sisig. While Aling Lucing may be gone, her biggest culinary contribution seems to have taken on
a life of its own. Angeles City is now known as the country’s Sisig Capital, a title that was
solidified further back in 2003, when the city held its first Sadsaran Qng Angeles (Sisig
Festival). The celebration featured a giant sizzling plate on which HRM students cooked up tons
of sisig for the thousands of revelers, which included representatives from the Guinness Book of
World Records.

Sisig is enjoying significant international acclaim. It’s included in CNNGo’s LIST of 50

delicious Filipino foods, a sentiment echoed by Anthony Bourdain himself after he sampled the
fare at Aling Lucing’s.

Tom Parker-Bowles, the food writer for Esquire UK (and the stepson of Prince Charles
himself), also raved about sisig in an ARTICLE he wrote for the said magazine, and even
traveled all the way to Angeles City (a mere two days before his FAMOUS STEPBROTHER’S
WEDDING!) just to sample an authentic version of this Kapampangan specialty.

Sisig became part of Kapampangan’s culture. It is not only famous in Pampanga or in the
whole Philippines but in different parts of the world too. It is one of the dishes that us,
Kapampangans, can proudly say it is our own. And we feel the strong urge to protect and
preserve its original recipe. In fact, there is a city ordinance in Angeles City that safeguards the
original recipe of sisig which stipulates the folowing:

3. Tibok-tibok

Tibok-tibok, or carabao milk pudding, is an authentic Filipino dessert pudding made

primarily from carabao milk and galapong (ground glutinous rice soaked overnight), and topped
with latik (browned coconut cream curds). It is also served as a snack.

It originated in the province1 of Pampanga2, in the Central Luzon3 region4, in the island
group of Luzon5, Philippines. It is also popular in the province of Cagayan.

Whole fat cow’s milk can replace carabao milk in areas where the latter is not available.
Just add a pinch of salt to the former since the latter has a slightly salty taste. Remember,
carabao’s milk has 100% more fat content than cow’s milk, so it makes a thicker and creamier
pudding. Tibok-tibok literally means “[like a] heartbeat”. Why? During its preparation, when the
mixture gets to be reduced to a firm consistency, the bubbles barely break the surface and seem
to be pulsating. When this happens, the dish is done!

It is very similar to another Filipino snack or dessert, the maja blanca, which is a coconut
pudding, basically made of coconut milk, cornstarch and sugar. Thus, some call tibok-tibok as
the Maja Blanca of Pampanga. Tibok-tibok has a jelly-like texture and is made of carabao’s milk
and rice flour and topped with latik before serving.

b. Mark the origins of the food item in the Philippine map.

c. Conduct a poll if food was:

I. Previously tasted by classmates;
II. Acceptable in taste; and
III. Similar with or unique from other food items from other provinces.
 OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE

Main Campus

Multicultural Diversity in the Workplace for

the

Tourism and Hospitality

Case 5: Cultural Melting Pot in the Philippines

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Gianne Kyle R. Dia

Kaye Zhel D. Espinosa

Jonas Ogena

Uliver E. Serna