#tikim

Happy Birthday to the late Doreen G. Fernandez. She would have been 91 today!

She is reknowned for her contributions to the writing, study, and appreciation of the different cuisines of the Philippines. In the preface to her book, “Tikim: Essays on Philippine Food and Culture” whose cover inspires this art, she wrote:

“My teachers are all those who give me information about food: market vendors, street sellers, cooks, chefs, waiters, restaurant and carinderia owners, farmers, tricycle drivers, gardeners, fishermen, aficionados, nutritionists, readers of my columns, friends, food critics, and historians, fellow researchers, authors of books (and cook books), writers of columns, food anthropologists - everyone who eats and cares.”

Let us continue to eat… and care!

Free printable art: https://filipinofoodart.gumroad.com/l/doreen-fernandez-tikim-cover-baybayin

Oooh I’m always weak for patrochilles fics. Sounds interesting!

Philtatos by tikim (E)

Crowley presses his lips to the head of long golden curls lying against his shoulder. He knows that his hour is fast approaching. He’s grateful for this night they’ve spent together, for these last few moments of contentment, their bodies tangled together in the peace of the bed they’ve shared all their lives.

Let this show you how I love you, he thinks, that I would lay down my own life at the feet of the gods.

Whoa, last 3 copies of "Tikim" by Doreen Fernandez.

The late Doreen G. Fernandez would have turned 91 years old today. For her birthday I am depicting her on the cover of a book she published in 1994 called "Tikim," with her name in Baybayin.

After finishing the book I realized that had I not moved to the Philippines, reading it would not have hit me so “close to home”. She talks about restaurants in Manila when she was in college, streets where I’ve tried a few spots myself. She talks about growing up in Negros, where I love having sweet napoleones or savory inasal. If only she were still alive, I would have loved to sit down with her for dinner, lunch, breakfast, or even for just bibingka or puto maya with a side of 3-in-1 in any small town municipality. It made me appreciate who was still around today, and had me wondering why we don’t invite people to help prepare food with us more often these days. That cooking with people makes it less of a chore and more of a shared memory-making that just tastes better and better over time.

Doreen Fernandez first published her book Tikim in 1994.

Probably years after it went out of print, and soon after she passed in 2002, food bloggers, foodies, and even food events and symposia rose as Yelp, Foursquare, and other food review applications came up in the early to mid-2000’s.

I wonder what Doreen would have wrote on these apps, the photos she would have taken on Instagram.

Have a taste of her writing in Tikim, a compilation of her essays over 10 years of Filipino food writing.