It has 50 question marks originally but it doesn't look good so I just trimmed it down to 10. I love reading these "articles of lists" at www.cnngo.com for it serve as my window to the places, things, food, etc. I never got the chance to visit, have and taste. And when the article entitled 50 Foods that define the Philippines showed itself today, I got excited on how it will portray/define/present the ones on the list especially those food close to the Ilonggos hearts.
But it turned out there wasn't any. Zero! Nada! Zilch!
So I ran through the list again maybe it escaped my sight. There's ofcourse adobo, lechon, sisig, crispy pata, chicken inasal, taba ng talangka, pancit palabok, bulao, arroz caldo and fish tinola rounding off the first 10 on the list. But the deeper into the list, the glimmer of hope dims and finally, its confirmed - there's REALLY none.
But there were two dishes that had frogs - a stuffed one and one made tinola. Then there's two tilapia dishes and both had coconut milk in the recipe. Also, there was ensaymada and tsokolate and also there's tablea tsokolate. I wouldn't be surprised if it also included tsokolate E and tsokolate A in their top 100.
Though I agree with most on the list, I can't seem to understand (bordering into bitterness) the non inclusion of Ilonggo dishes like Lapaz Batchoy or Pancit Molo. Are these two not popular enough? (As if everybody's heard of sinugno and sinanglay.) Are these two not good enough in taste? (We'll taste is subjective, 20% of the Philippine population is a safe estimate as to those who like batchoy and pancit molo - that's 18,802,640 based on the 2010 statistics). Are the two too much of an outside influenced (i.e Chinese) that are not native? (almost half of what's on the list are.) Are these two, too regionalistic dishes? (No comment).
I have really no idea about the two writers who came up with this list - it's the first time I've heard/read of them though. Googling, I find their credentials quite okay - but I have it with "great credentials but flop delivery" (NOT with these two, just somewhere out there-hahaha).
Anyway, I have to end this ranting reminding MYSELF, that if I write something that would represent a particular place, let's say - Iloilo, I would see to it that everything's represented. From the high end, the street food and everything in between. My own personal taste would probably take a back seat to accommodate the majority, after all taste is subjective.
And food is not only about the taste, it is an experience.