How canned food came to the Philippines
Canned foods from the U.S. reached the Philippines during the Second World War. Homes in the U.S. were wary of having to rely on meat that didn’t need to be refrigerated, but the military found it useful in feeding their troops overseas.
Over time, Americans learned to associate canned meat with the hardships of the war. However, in the Philippines, canned goods were given some prestige because it was an imported product.
Spam remains popular in areas where soldiers were stationed, like in Hawaii, Guam, Korea, Japan and the Philippines.
In an article from Taste, Elaine Castillo explains how Filipinos transform American products and make it their own.
“The way Filipinos took on canned food ended up appropriating, embellishing, and then ultimately normalizing — indeed, nativizing — an unloved, utilitarian piece of colonial kit, not unlike the leftover World War II military jeeps in the Philippines that have since been transformed into ornate jeepneys,” Castillo says.
With Spam and corned beef, Filipinos elevated the plain canned meats by pairing it with sinangag (fried garlic rice) and itlog (fried egg), making Spamsilog and Cornsilog breakfast staples.
Spam and corned beef have been going through more developments and reinvention in recent years. According to the Culture Trip, Spam fries are becoming increasingly popular where the meat is sliced into strips, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. The Spam website has recipes to make Spam Lumpia, Spam Sisig, Spamcit and Spam Menudo. On the Yummy.ph website, they have recipes for Tortang Corned Beef, Caldereta-flavored Corned Beef and they even top off Lugaw with the canned good.
References
- “Colonialism in a Can” by Elaine Castillo for Taste.
- “Why Spam and Rice is a Filipino Food Classic” by Katrina Escalona for the Culture Trip.
