The Taste of Cavan took place on the 10th and 11th August 2018 at The Cavan Equestrian Centre. The event showcased extraordinary and diverse local food producers, chefs and restaurants in County Cavan and gives visitors an opportunity to sample and purchase the finest of Cavan fare, from award winning cheeses, hand made chocolate, ice cream and organic sausages to boxty, breads, muffins, mushrooms, liqueurs, honey, meats and local jams. Filipino Delicacies of the Filipino Association of Cavan featured Philippine native desserts which include purple yam or ube halaya, buko pandan cupcakes, cassava cake, sapin-sapin, suman, puto, kutsinta, and turon. It also was supported by the Philippine Department of Tourism in London by sending tourism brochures and photos of tours spots for the roll up banners. Apart from people asking and knowing what the desserts are made of, they genuinely found them delicious, unique, and very colourful. It was a mixture of people talking about the food, their Filipino friends, their Filipino colleagues, employees, and their visits to the Philippines. And to top it all off, Celebrity Chef Neven Maguire dropped by. Ethnic communities showcased their food and The Anglo Celt tried some of the Philippine desserts.
The ethnic communities in Cavan all have stalls at this years Taste of Cavan. @The Anglo-Celt spoke with members of the local Filipino community and tried some of their native foods #TasteOfCavan
Posted by The Anglo-Celt on Friday, August 10, 2018
Philippine Cuisine (from the Article “Culinary History”)
Filipino cuisine reflects its centuries of colonization and foreign influences. Traditional Filipino cooking originally just involved boiling, grilling, roasting and steaming. It has since evolved to a cuisine predominantly Spanish-based but fused with Asian influences. The Chinese brought us soy sauce, noodles, frying and stir frying; while, the Spaniards brought us cattle, grains, tomatoes, potatoes and other staples. Spain, which ruled the Philippines for over 300 years, is its strongest culinary influence.
Filipino cuisine is so diverse it is hard to describe with just one dish or with just one word. Ask almost any Filipino to describe Filipino food and they will usually have a hard time. Common dishes are meat stews and vegetables, grilled fishes, and a wide variety of soups and noodles. Vinegar is common among many Filipino dishes as both a marinade and a condiment. And the Philippines has no shortage of vinegars: coconut vinegar, rice vinegar, cane vinegar, palm vinegar — basically, if we found something that had natural sugars in it, we fermented a vinegar out of it. Whereas, bagoong and patis, fermented shrimp paste and fish sauce are very common salting agents used to flavor foods.
Unlike their Southeast Asian neighbors, most Filipinos do not eat chili-hot dishes. Yet, many dishes from the southern region, which is predominantly Muslim, are distinguished by their use of chili and coconut milk, similar to Indonesian, Malay and Thai foods. Thus, Filipino food can be defined by its combination of sour, sweet, salty and spicy…sometimes all in the same dish. Filipino culture and traditions revolve around food, it brings people and communities together, so much that it is common to greet someone with ‘have you eaten yet?’ instead of ‘how are you?’ Filipino food is typically eaten with rice, using a fork and spoon. And traditionally, by kamayan (with your hands).