The Foods of Jose Rizal

By Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

What did Jose Rizal eat? What food did he write about? Did he hunger for bagoong or mango jam while overseas? 

This book shares stories collected from Rizal’s autobiography, works penned by him, biographies written about him by admirers, interviews of people who knew him, and accounts written about the Philippines, Europe, and Hong Kong during his lifetime. 

As it gives glimpses into the man’s everyday life, this little tome reveals sacrifices made to keep patriotic advocacies his priority. Rizal’s nobleness and supreme sacrifice for his love of Filipinas becomes all the more worthy of never-ending praise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9789712729027

Book preview

The Foods

of

Jose Rizal

Philippine National Hero, 1861-1896

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

Published on the Occasion of

Rizal’s 150th Birth Anniversary

The Foods of Jose Rizal

by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

Copyright to this digital edition © 2012 by

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or

retrieval system, without prior written permission except in the case

of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

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www.anvilpublishing.com

Book design by Ariel Dalisay (cover) and Ani V. Habúlan (interior)

All images provided by author reproduced here with permission.

I Read Rizal logo by Ani V. Habúlan

© Anvil Publishing, Inc.

First printing, January, 2012

Second printing, October, 2012

ISBN 9789712729027 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

This book is humbly dedicated to the cousins

Atty. Max Garcia, Sr.

Defender of Laborers,

My maternal grandfather

and

Dr. Gumersindo Garcia, Sr., M.D.

Humanitarian and Rizalist,

My granduncle

CONTENTS

SALUD!

Chapter 1

CHILDHOOD AND TEEN YEARS

Chapter 2

THE FIRST SOJOURN, 1882-1884

Chapter 3

THE FIRST SOJOURN CONCLUDES, 1885-1887

Chapter 4

THE SECOND SOJOURN, 1888-1889

Chapter 5

THE SECOND SOJOURN CONCLUDES, 1890-1892

Chapter 6

RIZAL’S LITERARY WRITINGS

Chapter 7

THE DAPITAN SOJURN, 1892-1896

Conclusion

MABUHAY!

Jose Rizal’s unwavering belief in human rights for everyone empowered diverse advocacies during the late 1800s that demanded equal rights and socio-political reform. The Philippine colony was not represented in the Spanish government. Abuses by powerful friars of the single-religion state intensified. Rizal’s relentless criticism and personal courage inspired a revolutionary movement when reformist efforts appeared futile. His literary talent, spotted in childhood, developed into prolific propaganda that he coupled with pioneering research in the new science of anthropology and a deepening philosophy of spirit.

Born in 1861, Rizal died at the age of thirty-five when in Manila he faced a Spanish firing squad for inciting rebellion. Three months after Filipinos still in the midst of battle proclaimed independence on June 12, 1898, the revolutionary government declared the coming December 30, Rizal’s second death anniversary, the first national day of mourning. It would honor those who had sacrificed their lives on behalf of the nation being born. In the following century he was declared National Hero of the Philippines. An Honor Guard watches over his mausoleum near the very spot where he was felled near Manila Bay.

In 1975, I was allowed by the Eugenio Lopez Memorial Museum and Library to thumb through a fragile treasure: a pocket diary Jose Rizal kept en route to Europe. It had unfinished sketches, words scribbled, and a list of daily expenses including the cost for comida, a meal. Tucked into the pages for November 9, 1891 was a smaller-than-palm-size card printed in English entitled The Manufacture of Champagne. I hand-copied it word for word, fascinated that it was there, and began wondering what else had caught Rizal’s culinary fancy.

Over the years, study copies of Rizal’s writings in my home library have been underlined, colored over, annotated with marginal notes, dog-eared, and otherwise vandalized where mention of food crops up. Mental note was made where to reread accounts about Biñang, Calamba, and Intramuros during the lifetimes of Rizal and his parents, Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso. Committed to memory also are references from 1818 to 1896 about imported ingredients and food fashions. One is for the noodle dishes pansit miki and pansit lanlan as described around the time his parents married. Stories about the foods of Jose Rizal have been cooking, slowly, somewhere in my mind.

When my husband and I made a pilgrimage in the late 1980s to Wilhelmsfeld so we could see the vicarage where Rizal had finished writing his first controversial novel, Noli Me Tangere, we dined at an old-fashioned restaurant in the town. Neither Andy nor I speak German, and I had failed to review German cuisine and bring a phrase book. Andy quickly spotted words that hinted at their kinship with English. Remembrance of Rizal’s account of meals and discourses on religious freedom shared with Pastor Karl Ullmer, his landlord, and the pastor’s friend, Father Hermann Bardorf, a Roman Catholic priest, resurrected. When pork knuckles arrived, it was time to order beer and complete the menu as Rizal had eaten it… or, rather, something like it. After all, time changes the characteristics of ingredients, cooking utensils and fuel, tableware, service, and even taste expectations, all of which affect one’s culinary experience.

Meanwhile the 150th commemoration of Jose Rizal’s birthday is upon us, and at a time when there is so much interest in Philippine cuisine. It seems an appropriate event to share what I have collected so far, even if there still remain gaps and questions. Whenever mention of familiar Filipino food occurs in Rizal’s family correspondence, my taste buds start wondering how those around him who cooked interpreted them. Sadly, friends among his descendants have no heirloom recipes. But I am still hoping there is a handwritten collection just waiting for someone else to discover before its ink fades and its paper pulverizes.

The stories that follow are based on Rizal’s own writings, family anecdotes and interviews by biographers of people who knew Rizal and his contemporaries. They focus on the cuisine that was part of Rizal’s everyday and not his meaningful socio-political impact. This manuscript is a tribute to the National Hero as Everyman. It is my sincerest wish that this book will increase curiosity, enthusiasm, understanding and support for food history, an important component of Philippine culture. After all, cultural action is civic action.

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

July 31, 2011

In memory of

Rizal’s first letter

to Ferdinand Blumentritt

July 31, 1886

Carne Asada

From the instructions of Rosendo Ignacio in Aklat ng Pagluluto, 1919, and others.

Lard a thick cut of beef, preferably from the nape. Make a marinade of olive oil seasoned with dayap juice and a sprig of parsley. Add the beef, turning it around over several hours. Fifty minutes before serving, roast the beef over a charcoal fire bursting with flame. Brush the meat with marinade from time to time as it cooks.

If sauce is desired, make extra marinade. Add water and enough rice flour to thicken the marinade. Simmer till cooked.

Before serving, sprinkle the meat with a little fine salt. Serve on a platter with fried potatoes. Serve sauce in a gravy boat.

Jose Rizal was well fed. There is no record that he experienced hunger as a child. His father, Francisco Mercado, was a successful farmer of lands leased from the Dominican Order in the town of Calamba, in Laguna Province. His mother, Teodora Alonso, was an entrepreneur who sold at the weekly town market and maintained a general store on the ground floor of the family domicile.

Jose, who was called Moy at home, learned to appreciate the flavors of his country that included native foods, a number of them with Spanish and Chinese flavors.

MOY’S HOUSE AND GARDEN

Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born on June 19, 1861. He grew up in a two-story house with a first floor built of stone that was typical for homes of leading families at the time. On ground level was his mother’s general store that had its separate access to the street. The family resided on the second floor which was built of wood with a living room, dining room, bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities. Off the kitchen was an azotea, a roofless stone extension the functions of which changed according to the season.

On the azotea were many large clay jars to collect and store rainwater. Nearby was a well. During good weather, the azotea was used for outdoor dining and drying rice in husk. There was a camarin, a large storehouse where rice and sugar were kept safely on the property. The family’s Batangas horses were lodged in a stable off to one side near where the carriage was parked.

Jose Rizal’s birthplace was a typical bahay na bato on a street where Calamba’s leading families lived. It is a National Shrine curated by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. (Lopez Memorial Museum Collection)

The dining room, with a carved heavy wooden table and high back chairs popular during the time, likely would have accommodated everyone in the family, and many guests during special affairs. By 1870, there were ten children: Saturnina, the eldest (born 1850), Paciano (1851), Narcisa (1852), Olympia (1855), Lucia (1857), Maria (1859), Jose (1861), Josefa (1865), Trinidad (1868) and Soledad, the youngest (1870). Concepcion, who was born in 1862, lived only three years, passing on in 1865. Twenty years separated the eldest sibling from the youngest.

The males were clearly outnumbered. Moy was used to running errands for his sisters, especially the older ones. He was taught always to address his older sisters by their first name, politely prefixed by Señora, and his only brother as Señor Paciano. The nicknames of his older sisters, from the eldest to the youngest were Neneng, Sisang, Ypia, Lucia, Biang, Panggoy, Trining, and Choleng. Concepcion, who died as a toddler, was called Concha. Sometimes the older girls called Moy, Ute.

According to Rizal’s recollections of childhood written in Spanish and dated September 11, 1878 when he was seventeen years old, there were many fruit trees in the family garden. He described them as delicious sugar apple (atis), sweet santol, fragrant and pleasantly honey-like tampoy, pinkish macopa, ascerbic and flavorful plum (likely duhat) and beautiful sampaloc that delighted the palate. Papaya trees extended their wide leaves and invited birds to their large fruits. Jackfruit (nanca), coffee and orange perfumed the garden with the roaming aroma of its flowers. Iba (also called kamias), star fruit and pomegranate with its abundant leaves, had lovely flowers that sang their sentiments. Elegant palms carrying enormous coconuts and sporting large, majestic leaves were, to him, queens of the forest.

Moy grew to appreciate the trees not solely as a source of food, but as part of what made his home environment beautiful. Which was more beautiful, he would ask his sisters, the redbell macopa or the yellow-bell cashew? He and his sisters rushed to get the fruits that fell to the ground. Even as a toddler, he loved to pluck fruits from low-slung branches. He laughed when the iba fell because they resembled small marbles. The trees provided memories he would treasure forever.

Moy spent a lot of time in a small hut with a nipa roof that stood in the garden. It was his playhouse amidst the cooling shadow of banana plants and other trees. The garden attracted many birds that, even as a 3-year-old, Moy took such delight in. As twilight approached, he would go to the window and watch the birds seeking their roosts for the night. There were the mango-yellow breasted culiauan, sparrows (maya) of many varieties, hornbills (culae or kalaw), maria-capra, starlings (martin or martinez) and different species of finch (pipit) that intoned a hymn and created a concert as the sun disappeared behind the mountains of his town.

THE KITCHEN

The Dominican Order owned the lot where the Mercado home stood as well as the farmlands that brought in their income. In 1890, the Mercados were forced to vacate their beloved home within twelve hours and any neighbor who helped them move suffered the torching of their home. Three years before, when Moy was 26 years old and finishing his medicine studies in Europe, he authored the novel, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), which criticized and ridiculed the Spanish friars who abused their religious, social, economic and political power. The friars would not allow Rizal’s family to go unpunished.

The Mercado house was unroofed and allowed to deteriorate. Eventually, the property’s ownership changed hands, the house was torn down, and an accesoria (apartment) was built on the land. During the American colonial era, the Philippine government purchased the lot. Petitions were sent to Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon and, after World War II when the Philippine Republic was restored in 1946, to Presidents Manuel A. Roxas and Elpidio Quirino, to rebuild Rizal’s birthplace. Quirino’s Executive Order 145 finally put things in motion. School children donated their allowance and other sources of funds were found. On November 30, 1948, a new cornerstone was laid.

Only one photograph of the house had been located so people who remembered what it looked like were asked to help architect Juan Nakpil reconstruct it from memory. Nakpil found what seemed to have been part of the foundation. The reconstruction is the product of Nakpil’s best effort based on building traditions and interviews. Some furniture from the original house had been dispersed among descendants who cherished them, so similar pieces typical of the late 1800s were acquired for the historical shrine. President Quirino presided over the inauguration of the rebuilt house on June 19, 1950. Present were Rizal’s sole living sibling, Trining, and the family cook, Valentina Sanchez, who had worked in the original kitchen. It was sixty years since they had been in the old house.

Aling Vale (right) with Trinidad Rizal and President Quirino. (Author’s Collection)

The cook was known to the family as Aling Vale. Her husband Kalpo (the nickname for Policarpio), worked as cochero, a horse-drawn carriage driver, for the Mercados. Aling Vale’s remembrances are recorded in Childhood and Boyhood Stories of Rizal authored by Diosdado G. Capino and published in 1957 where she recalled that the family fare included relleno, adobo, estopado, puchero, tinola and fried chicken. She said the children asked her to cook pansit, which they liked. Capino wrote, "She remembered very well that Jose’s favorite food was carneng asada, or beefsteak with sauce."

The kitchen, with its clay stoves, cooking pots, unadorned wooden worktable and benches was not solely Aling Vale’s territory. Rizal’s mother and sisters worked there too. Family correspondence written during Rizal’s lifetime refer to sweets and jellies of guava, santol and orange that were made at home.

LAY OF THE LAND

Moy was born into a leading family that valued education, mastery of proper etiquette and other indicators of their social status. His paternal grandfather, Juan Mercado y Bernacha, and his maternal great grandfather, Cipriano Alonso, like their fathers, had been Capitán or Town Mayor of Biñang, a neighboring town of Calamba. Capitán Juan had served in the position three times.

Moy’s father, Francisco Engracio Mercado y Alejandro, born on May 11, 1818, was the youngest of thirteen children. Educated at a school in his hometown and Colegio San José in Manila’s Intramuros, he sought to make his fortune in Calamba. The town offered much promise. In 1800, the Augustinian friar and volcanology specialist, Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga observed as he rode on horseback from Santo Tomas, Batangas to Laguna, that abundant guava trees growing wild marked the entrance to Calamba. There were 300 family heads scattered across and a small bamboo church that was dirty and managed by a native cleric. The dam in Tanauan River built by the Jesuits, the estate’s previous owners, had ceased to function. Rice fields remained uncultivated. Zuñiga believed the land could also be planted to wheat, corn, all sorts of beans, black pepper, cacao and all the fruit trees that flourished in Batangas. The hills had proven excellent pasturage where he noticed a thriving herd of cows. In 1833, the Dominican Order purchased the Calamba estate from the government that had earlier seized it from the Jesuits. Surely, they hoped Zuñiga’s predictions about the land were correct.

Francisco moved to Calamba accompanied by his elder

Reviews for The Foods of Jose Rizal

[Isi Laureano · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book if you like to discover Rizal's favorites! Learned alot from this!:)