Sarah Efron’s Disgusting and Morally Dubious Food

Haha. Igorot/iCordillera food made it to the pages of Canada’s National Post courtesy of Sarah Efron who introduced them as “intriguing, disgusting and morally-dubious foods”. I’ll take disgusting because that’s a personal thing and she’s got a right to be disgusted with any food under the sun– heck a good friend is disgusted with tomatoes — but “morally dubious”? Seriously, Sarah? Morally dubious?

If there’s such a thing as morally dubious food, I think the most morally dubious would be hamburger the main ingredient of which is taken from the carcass of slaughtered cows — an animal very sacred to our brother and sister Hindus — which were butchered (hacked, beheaded, then “chop-chopped”) by professional animal killers.

Anyways, here’s Sarah’s pictures and descriptions — the quotes below are hers — of our food from the boondocks. To be fair to her, except for the “morally dubious” thingie, she didn’t really say anything bad. Read her article here.

“Ube jam: Ube is a purple yam that is used in Philippine pastries and candies. The ube jam was sweet, but the consistency was strangely starchy.”

“Betel nut: Chew this nut and you’re supposed to get a natural buzz. In rural areas of the Philippines, you see people with their teeth permanently stained orange from partaking in the betelnut. I tried chewing it but it was very uncomfortable–like I was getting a dental X-ray–and gave up without feeling any effects.”

“Dog meat: In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, you can find the occasional restaurant that serves dog meat. This dog dish is from the Sagada Lunch restaurant in Baguio City. They serve nothing but dog meat, seen in the photo above served with rice and dog soup. The restaurant also features karaoke and cheap bottles of gin. The dog meat was very tasty–like wild meat–but incredibly tender.”

“Pinikpikan: Animal rights activists wouldn’t enjoy the traditional dish in the Cordillera region, pinikpikan. First, you beat a live chicken to death with a stick. This makes the chicken bruise, changing the texture of the meat. Then you cut the meat up and boil it with salt pork.”

Photo credit: Sarah Efron/National Post

10 thoughts on “Sarah Efron’s Disgusting and Morally Dubious Food”

  1. reading from the article, it appears she did enjoy her culinary experience in the philippines, albeit morally dubious in her perspective which i assume comes from her description of the food to abortion and fetus (vis-a-vis day-old chicks and balut), animal battery (with pinikpikan)…

  2. Maybe morally dubious nga ung way of preparing the food, but as u pointed out, ganun din naman ang ham sa hamburger hehehe…

    Anyway, I miss pinikpikan!!! 🙁

  3. Hi Arcibaldo,
    Yup, I think she’s referring to those things. I just found the phrase “morally dubious” kinda morally inappropriate hehe. Thanks.

    Hi Will,
    I also didn’t notice. I just know its sweet and delicious hehe. But I think it is starchy because its from a starchy rootcrop. Thanks.

    Hi Adb,
    Hehe. I think it is 🙂 Thanks.

    Hi Layad,
    Oo nga. And imagine the billions of dollars that McDonalds, et al are making from morally dubious food. How immoral hehe. Thanks.

    Hi Sexymoi,
    Yup I think she’s referring to the dog thingie. Siguro di lang siya sanay sa ube jam. Thanks.

  4. the ube jam can be very very morally dubious as we lack quality control. commercial suppliers normally cheat with the ingredients dapat nilalagay sa bote how much percent of ube per bottle (akasla kuma adda met first class, second class, third class to suit your budget pero to pass on a third class jam as pure ube jam ay ket morally dubious talaga. ag-unget ni councilor galo ta dakes dayta lying under oath)

    as a rule, i only take ube jam cooked by my own mother or someone i know…(well, pwidi na rin yung from the pacdal sisters…)

  5. The mass produced ube jam probably has shortcomings. That’s all they sell here in the states. The one I buy in Baguio is made by Good Shepherd. That one seems better than other brands. They have an interesting link here. 😀

  6. Another article designed to sensationalize. I have nothing against her opinion of the delicacies she mentioned. Shoot, I’ve tasted most of them 🙂

    I resent the way she presented it to make it sound like this is the typical Filipino cuisine.

    My post about it here.

    Wil, sarap nga ng Ube jam from Good Shepherd 🙂

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