Adobo chicken, lumpia, balut, sinigang, sisig, kare-kare, kinilaw, pancit — even just naming these popular Filipino dishes makes the mouth water. As part of their cultural heritage month dinners, UTD’s Intercultural Programs office collaborated with UTD Dining to provide students a chance to celebrate Filipino culture with a Filipino dinner. Unfortunately, the experience of trying a new cuisine fell short of expectations.
The ICP hosts several events throughout the year so students can engage in different cultures and communities present on campus. These events include iWeek, an entire week dedicated to cultural programs showcasing international cultures through art, music, shows and food, and more recently, their cultural heritage month dinners, which included a dinner showcasing Filipino cuisine. As part of Filipino American History Month, students could have a taste of Filipino food for $9 plus tax or a meal swipe at Dining Hall West from 4-9 p.m. Oct 29.
Upon entering the dining hall on Oct. 29, there was no signage of where the Filipino dinner was being served. There were the typical self-serve stands of salad bars, cereal dispensers and dessert stands, but no mention of Filipino food. After asking around, staff at Dining Hall West said it was somewhere inconspicuous at the very back of the hall.
The dinner was composed of Adobo chicken, white rice, green beans, red onions, collard greens and zucchini. The Adobo chicken was covered in the typical sweet sauce consisting of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, tomato and pepper flakes. The collard greens were crunchy with pepper flakes on them, adding another level of spice to the dish. The white rice was of an okay consistency — not too soggy nor too dry, and the green beans, red onions and zucchini were soft and mushy.
By themselves, the elements of the Filipino dinner were nothing to rave about. The sweet and savory aroma of the Adobo chicken could not hide the fact that the chicken had not been marinated in the sauce, resulting in a dry first bite. The plain white rice was passable, but not that perfect tender and fluffy consistency that so many Asian cuisines pride themselves on. The best part of this dinner was the vegetables, as they added a softness to the dish and balanced out the dryness of the chicken and rice.
Combining all elements of the Filipino dinner — the rice, Adobo chicken, collard greens, zucchini, red onions and green beans — could one begin to savor the dish. When combined, there was a rounded flavor through all the items complimenting one another. The spice from the chicken and collard greens was subdued by the red onions, zucchini and green beans. The collard greens added a nice crunch to the softness of the boiled vegetables.
Filipino cuisine is a blend of influences from indigenous, Spanish, Chinese and Malay cultures, offering a variety of bold flavors which, unfortunately, the dinner fell short of. UTD Dining could have experimented with these influences and flavors to enhance the quality of the food, giving students’ taste buds a new and exciting food experience. The dinner could have benefitted from having a set menu of a variety of different foods to try instead of having a buffet consisting of one overall dish. A set menu could have offered students two to three popular Filipino dishes and finished off the dinner with halo-halo — a cold, refreshing dessert made of evaporated or coconut milk with various tropical fruits and topped with ube ice cream. This could have elevated the experience of trying out a new cuisine and allowed more time and care to be put into creating these dishes for students to enjoy.
Overall, the Filipino dinner hosted by ICP and UTD Dining was decent. Ingredients used in typical Filipino dishes were used for this dinner, but it did not fulfill the excitement students feel when trying a cuisine unfamiliar to them. A heartfelt attempt was made, and it is commendable for ICP and UTD Dining to try to emulate a cuisine to introduce to students for Filipino American History Month.
As ICP continues to host cultural heritage dinners, it is important for the dinners to closely emulate the deliciousness of a culture’s cuisine, as food is how we all build community and generate conversations surrounding our differences and similarities. And critically, these heritage dinners need to be better advertised. Students are starved to try new foods.