Question

Excerpt 1
            Morga:
                        Their regular daily food is rice...together with boiled fish of which there is an abundance, and pork or venison, likewise meat or buffalo or carabao. They prefer meat and fish, saltfish which begin to decompose and smell.
            Rizal’s annotation:
                        This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like ay other nation, in the matter of food, loathe that to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them. The English, for example, is horrified on seeing a Spaniards eating snails; to the Spaniard eating beefsteak is repugnant and he can’t understand how raw beefsteak can be eaten; the Chinese who eat tahuri and shark cannot stand Roquefort cheese, etc., etc. The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary; it is bagoong and all those who have eaten it and tasted it know that it is not or ought not to be rotten.

Questions:
1.      In Excerpt 1, what impression of the Filipinos do you get from reading Morga’s description of the type of food the natives eat? Which phrase gives you this impression?
2.      What is Rizal’s purpose in writing an annotation about the food preferences of the English, Spaniards and Chinese?

Answer 1

1) In Excerpt 1, what impression of the Filipinos do you get from reading Morga’s description of the type of food the natives eat? Which phrase gives you this impression?

After reading Morga's description of the type of food eaten by native Filipinos the reader is bound to get the impression that the Filipinos are really accustomed to enjoying all types of meat be it venison, fish, beef, pork, buffalo or carabao.

One also gets the impression that the readers get is that the Filipinos' palate is used to the taste of decomposed and smelly foods like saltfish on the verge of decay which shows that they don't focus on hygiene or their health.

The phrase which gives this impression is, "They prefer meat and fish, saltfish which begin to decompose and smell. ".

2) What is Rizal’s purpose in writing an annotation about the food preferences of the English, Spaniards and Chinese?

Rizal's purpose in writing an annotation about the food preferences of the English, Spaniards, and Chinese is to show a comparison in the eating habits and preferences of the three. This comparison will show the versatile and diversified culture of the three and will enable the readers to understand each culture and the cause of different misconceptions and wrong notions that they have towards one another's eating habits and food preferences.

Morga here might be a Spaniard as Rizal tries to correct the writer of the first excerpt when they call bagoong, a Phillipino condiment made out of fermented fish, a saltfish beginning to decompose and smell. As he claims that Spaniards do not understand the food choices of other nationalities who have different cultures from theirs.

Rizal tries to explain how every nationality has a different cultural food environment. The Spaniards eat snails, the English prefer beefsteak, the Chinese prefer tahari and shark while the Filipinos consume bagoong. Each one of them feels comfortable consuming their cuisines and finds the other one's cuisine rather strange.

Rizal simply states that the food preferences of an individual coming from a different cultural background than the other person might seem different but must not be misunderstood and ridiculed in any manner.