New Reads
For your consideration
I. Third edition’s the charm
Tomorrow, a labor of love returns. Every new edition of a book is like a rebirth.
When it first came out in 2014, it was lauded:
In this groundbreaking book, the authors take us into the fascinating and unexplored world of Chinese Filipino food culture. From the kitchens of migrant families to the secret eateries of Binondo, from market stalls to gourmet restaurants, this book is a journey into the cuisine of the Fujian based traders, merchants, and farmers who made the Philippines their home.
Part recipe-book, part photo-essay, part ethnographic study, these pages are a culmination of years of research to capture a world of treasured recipes, food culture, and secret techniques, passed down from generation to generation, and now accessible to all.
Leave it to the good folks at Esquire to tell us about this latest edition:
My Angkong’s Noodles, the groundbreaking Filipino-Chinese cookbook from writer Clinton Palanca, chef Ginny Roces de Guzman, and photographer Neal Oshima, has returned to print in a brand-new edition.
Originally published in 2014, My Angkong’s Noodles features more than a hundred recipes, collected from the kitchens of Chinese-Filipino families. The word angkong means grandfather. The recipes in the book are treasured heirlooms that have been passed from generation to generation. Within these pages are the hearty, homey staples of Fujianese cooking, as influenced by Filipino culture and ingredients and tastes—oyster cake, pata tim, roast pork asado, lumpia, fried misua, almond jelly, and more.
Award-winning author Clinton Palanca, who earned a doctorate in food anthropology in London, took on the momentous task of researching for and writing the book, which would turn out to be one of his last major works before his death in 2019. Ginny Roces de Guzman, founder of Sugarhouse restaurant, synthesized each recipe, which was then photographed by master lensman Neal Oshima.
“If this book can introduce a new generation of Chinese Filipinos to the cuisine of their parents and grandparents, then we’ll be happy enough, but we have written and photographed this book in the hope that anyone with the inclination to browse and try a recipe or two will find something they like in this undeservedly neglected cuisine,” wrote Palanca.
Also collected in this book are insightful essays on food and culture from Mara Coson, Rafa Ongpin, Jeffrey Yap, and the late Doreen Fernandez.
Included in this new edition is a new introductory essay from L. Ling-chi Wang, professor of Asian-American and Asian diaspora studies in the University of California-Berkeley, which praises the book as a “major and lasting contribution to Filipino culture and cuisine.”
Also in the 2023 reprint is a tribute to both Clinton Palanca and publisher Elizabeth Yu Gokongwei, who both passed away in 2019.
Where to get it:
My Angkong’s Noodles (Third Edition) is out now for P1,500. It’s now available on Shopee and select book stores. All proceeds from the sale of the books will go to the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, the education-focused foundation of the Gokongwei Group.
II. The New Filipino?
Just launched is the 2023 Philippines Yearbook: The Filipino National Identity. I had the privilege of being roped in by Paulo Alcazaren to be the Guest Editor for this year’s edition of this venerable annual publication (it began, once upon a time, as the Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook). Besides an editorial team led by Paulo Alcazaren, the cover artwork and illustrations were by Deng Coy Miel. Check out the fantastic launch photos at Joel H. Garcia photography! His recent post listing those he was able to photograph for this volume, gives you an idea of the variety of its contents:
Nobel Peace Laureate, Maria Ressa, Historian, Ambeth Ocampo, PBA Player Matthew Wright, Filipino sports analyst, and television color commentator, Quinito Henson, Fil-Chinese Historian, Carmelea Ang See, Expatriate, Steven Rood, Sociologist Dean Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu, Award Winning Author, Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Freelance Writer / Publicist / Musician, Joey Dizon, and Filipino broadcast journalist, anchor, host, and documentarist Howie Severino.
Leave it to our dynamic publisher Vernon Go to tell us what’s what:
"As we enter into this new era of our collective history, we believed that who is the Filipino and what is the national identity of the Filipino is a very important question that we must continue to address."
ABS-CBN boils it down this way:
This year's edition of the yearbook aims to celebrate and revisit a discourse that has been ever-present in our country which is "Who is the Filipino?"…
This year's edition presents a diverse range of ideas and essays contributed by prominent figures in Philippine history, as well as accomplished local athletes and artists, that illustrate the intricacy and distinctiveness of the Filipino identity.
This annual project is the last of its kind: it commissions new pieces by a wide variety of writers; it brings together writers and illustrators and photographers and editors into a merry mix of talent; and it provides a thematic look, every year, at an aspect of our being Filipino. This publication deserves your support —a lot of hard work went into it, and the views in it are a buffet of ideas.
III. The Filipino Washington
Recently released, too, is Erwin Tiongson’s Philippine-American Heritage in Washington, D.C.:
Journey into the Philippine-American experience in Washington, DC. Washington is famed for its place in the history of the United States, but few know its close connections with the Philippines. Trace the intertwined histories of the two countries along the streets of Washington, from the end of the Spanish American War in 1898 through Philippine independence in 1946, and the many years since. West Potomac Park was inspired by Manila's Luneta, and District streets are named after pivotal Philippine battle grounds. These landmarks are often unmentioned in guidebooks. Hidden in plain sight are the stories of the fascinating figures that once inhabited these spaces. Professor and community historian Erwin Tiongson offers a first account of the city's Philippine heritage.
Erwin and his wife have achieved a kind of celebrity status in Washington, D.C. A sampling of his work can be gleaned from these three ineresting pieces:
Nina Thomas and Manuel Quezon Part 2
The Quezons at the White House
Having been published in the States, you can find the book easily online!