Although there are many Visayan words in Mentrida that evoke the ideas of eating and food (babui, kanding, ca-on, can-on, habhab),  SALO is especially evocative of a congenial social context for eating – as in sharing a meal, or eating a meal with someone – dipping one’s hand into someone else’s served dish.

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In this video Pigafetta’s Picnic, the renowned food writer Felice Prudente Sta. Maria looks at early  written records of Philippine cuisine and eating habits  as recorded in Antonio Pigafetta’s book, “The First Journey Around the World.”  She also touches on the social aspects of eating in the context of food and feasting in the Visayas.

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria is a food writer and Vice President of the Food Writers Association of the Philippines. She is the author most recently of Pigafetta’s Philippine Picnic: Culinary Encounters During the First Circumnavigation, 1519-1522