Deli makers lament 'dying tradition' (Sun.Star, Sunday, December 23, 2007)

Deli makers lament 'dying tradition'

By Ian Ocampo Flora

GUAGUA-While many people build up on commercialized food stuffs, deli merchants here are lamenting the gradual "falling out of love" of the locals in the traditional food delicacies.

"People are no longer craving for the food that we serve long ago, they would rather buy those food stuffs filled with preservatives than cook the food that we traditionally prepare during Christmas," Nimfa Manalo, proprietor of Nimfa's Deli here, remarked in the vernacular.

She said most people now have been more interested with easy to prepare food.

"In the past, we were asked to cook and prepare suman and kalame for even affluent families, but now it seems that most people would rather do their food preparation the easier way," she said.

She added that the high price of the ingredients and the painstaking time to prepare home-cooked delicacies like Tsokolateng Batirul, Kalame, Suman and Mamon Tustado. Deli merchants here point out that the process of making such delicacies for a whole family would take around four to five hours, depending on the volume to be produced.

"Families seem to have stopped in passing out to the next generation the food tradition, those who cannot cook the delicacies could not resort to deli merchants to cook for them since the price alone is very discouraging," Manalo said.

Despite this, deli merchants here are hoping that the attention given by local government units in the province would reawaken the interest in Kapampangan native cooking. They added that the youth should not be deprived of such interest.

The town of Guagua and its neighboring towns of Sasmuan and Sta. Rita are home to native delicacies and traditional Christmas cooking. Recently, the cultural arts group Arti. Sta Rita have celebrated their 6th Duman Festival highlighting the native Kapampangan cooking and delicacies, especially the Christmas cereal Duman. The Save Pampanga Movement has incorporated the "Pamangan Kapampangan" in their yearly celebration of the Sinukwan Festival in which different town delicacies and native Kapampangan cooking were exhibited.