El plato dulce (The Sweet course): Culinary travel narratives about postres Filipina, or Spanish-influenced Filipino desserts

• Main Author: Pickrell, Jae de Veyra
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Cookery; Philippine; Spanish; Desserts; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2532
• Institution: De La Salle University

A creative non-fiction project, El Plato Dulce (The Sweet Course): Culinary Travel Narratives About Postres Filipina, or Spanish-Influenced Filipino Desserts is a collection of four food travel essays that locate specific Filipino desserts that stem from the Spanish culinary tradition both in the authors remembrances of familial experiences and personal gustatory travels both recent and past, as well as in the Spanish and Filipino geographical and temporal settings in which the sweet dishes originated and developed. The desserts are taken as signs and symbols of the Filipino, and through the authors recollections of personal experiences and culinary travels, they are presented as tropes that represent specific facets of the Filipino cultural identity. The culinary travel essays are preceded by an extended essay that discusses certain aspects of the Spanish and Filipino culinary traditions in order to delineate the similarities and differences between the two cuisines before historical circumstances melded their distinct flavors.