Volume 7, Issue No. 46
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . .
Our latest as of Friday, April 24, 2026
~ Filipino Restaurant Month (April) in Canada is winding down and its local media exposure in Toronto appears unspectacular, no thanks to so-called "influencers" and selected friends the Philippine Consulate had invited to help promote the program. "Food," according to author and food scholar Clang Garcia, "gives identity to people and destination." In an interview, she emphasized that "food is an emblem of culture."
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CLANG GARCIA, AUTHOR AND SCHOLAR, SAYS:
Food Gives Identity; It's
An Emblem of Culture
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“Food is a gift and should be treated reverentially -- romanced and ritualized and seasoned with memory.” ―
TORONTO - The excitement of having met a total stranger who happens to have been born and raised in the same community I grew up in years ago in Metro Manila was quite delightful to a point I had overlooked the most salient points of an interview.
Ms. Clang Garcia, a connoisseur of food and drink of international renown, was visiting Toronto in December 2023 when I chanced upon a social media photo of her courtesy call on officials of the Philippine Consulate.
Contacted by email, she agreed to be interviewed at Casa Manila on York Mills Rd., the place recommended by her cousins who drove her there from Brampton for the session at lunch, timed precisely to enable her to see and evaluate the various dishes the restaurant was serving.
(N.B.: As of March 20, 2026, the York Mills location has closed. The resto has moved to 508 Danforth Ave. in GreekTown). (Related video: Casa Manila, Pioneer in 'Kamayan'-Style of Eating, Now in Danforth)
Initially she wondered how I could be there so fast, believing I planed in overnight from New York. No, no, I explained. Right where we are is North York, a former township merged with Toronto.
The slip kind of broke the ice, lightening up the conversation over Filipino dishes Casa Manila is famous for, such as crispy pata, daing na bangus, pinakbet, and rice.
Filipino food was actually the reason for the interview. But as we talked, I learned she's from the same neighbourhood in Pasay City where the family had relocated from Cavite province and planted our roots there.
That information actually distracted me from writing this essay about Filipino cuisine of which Clang is an expert, and instead, I devoted a piece to a recollection of our shared community in the Philippines. (Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/pasay-city-and-memories-of-yesteryears.html).
I should have written about the food two-and-a-half years ago after our meeting, but forgot to do it until now, just a few days remaining of the 2026 Filipino Restaurant Month in Canada (FRMC) launched late last month in eight provinces and participated in by 30 restaurants, including five in Toronto.
FRMC aims to highlight "the diversity and uniqueness of Filipino dishes and ingredients, the expertise of Filipino chefs, and the growing presence of restaurants offering Filipino cuisine nationwide," according to a press statement from the Philippine Embassy. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2026/04/gastrodiplomacy-or-gastrodiscrimination.html).
We sat across each other in a cubicle and waited for the dishes Clang had selected from the menu. And when they came, the aroma alone proved irresistible to be ignored as it instantly whetted our appetite.
"Food is not just a means or a source of sustenance," she began the conversation while crunching the crispy brown skin of the pata, "but it gives identity to people and destination. So it's an emblem of culture."
Having said that was the easy giveaway to her in-depth knowledge of Filipino cuisine, one of the reasons she's the ambassador in the Philippines for the World Food Travel Association, the world's leading authority on food and beverage tourism.
Clang is a culinary anthropologist, food scholar, and author
of the 2023 book Philippine Food Holidays which won the 29th Gourmand Awards for "Best Food Tourism Book in the World." (She gifted this reporter with a copy after the interview).
She refers to herself as "an advocate of culinary heritage tourism" and also as "Philippine culinary heritage explorer" curating gastronomic experiences around the Philippines.
In her travels she's able to document at least 20 "heritage food champions" in far-flung areas, such as the indigenous communities in Mindanao where she found and shared a passion for preserving culinary culture with the natives.
Videos of the interview:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJZ8ymkCGGw - Part 1
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR4lqp80POA - Part 2
Asked what should be the national dish of the Philippines, she remarked: "It's so hard to explain Filipino food until you tap into the history."
"The gift of the Filipino is that we adapt whatever it is that we like and we just let go of something that's not palatable to us," she said. "So I believe we have to celebrate that uniqueness. If I have to define Filipino food . . . it's a mixture of indigenous and international flavors."
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