Welcome to meryenda minutes, our monthly audio companion illuminating Filipino chefs, doers, farmers, writers, scholars, artists plus more with insight into their food (and/or beverage) stories. Through this interview series, we aim to better bridge conversations with Filipinos spanning the homeland and the diaspora. We hope this contributes to a flourishing of a much more interconnected community and enrichment of Philippine culture + cuisine.
This month’s kwento session features John Sherwin Felix of @lokalpediaph and @the.bananaleaf.kitchen, who is documenting his journey to create a visual archive of endangered, artisanal, heirloom, and non-mass produced Philippine ingredients and food items.
While audio is only available for paid subscribers, we couldn’t help but make this kwento session with John accessible to all our subscribers via the full-length transcription below.
I can say that if you want to know a place, if you want to learn the culture of a place— go to the public market. You will see what they eat. You will see their language, the people, the products.
Most of these ingredients came from the forest or agricultural lands. Many of them are vanishing— the herbs, the spices, the vegetables, the fruits. By documenting them, I can help with the awareness of lots of people because you cannot protect what you don't know.
Jess: I'm glad to connect with you because I just moved here to Manila three months ago. I came across your page I think maybe when I got here. I feel like we're learning together. But yeah, I just wanted to get things kind of started. Tell us about yourself and what led to what you're doing right now.
John Felix: So, I want to introduce myself first. I'm John Sherwin Felix. I'm 26 years old. They said that I'm quite too young for this stuff. I'm currently a public relations manager. I graduated in communication arts, so it's quite far from culinary, right.
So, on the side during the pandemic, I learned how to cook because I came from a family who knows how to cook. My mom cooks well, my sisters and also my father. So, I got pressured— I mean, not really pressured, but I got inspired because I want to learn how to cook too.
So I just observed, my mom, my kasambahays (house helpers), how they made the dishes. So from there, I learned how to cook and it became a passion of mine to showcase the local cuisine. So it started from there, a very macro promotion. After a while, I went to a more specific part of our food heritage, which is our ingredients.
So that's my niche.
Jess: Just out of curiosity, where is your family from? What kind of dishes do they cook?
John Felix: I'm currently in Manila, but I'm from Mindoro. Mindoro is a very province place, like there are lots of forests, agricultural lands. My family cooks different kinds of dishes, especially because my mom has a small catering business.
In my childhood it's a very normal scene for me to see lots of food because lots of people order from our family. Like ube, ube halaya, if you're familiar. It's very vivid to me— the long hours of preparing ube halaya. The vivid color of it. The effort of, um, grating ube halaya, then you boil it and then you stir it for lots of hours. So that's my memory with my family.
My mom also cooked native jams. For example, she cooks kalumpit jam or sometimes she makes santol jam. So she's very innovative. So I grew up in a household who really knows how to use ingredients.
I think my mom will be proud if I say that I cook better than her now.
Jess: I'm sure she's proud. I think that's their hope is that you cook better than them in the future.
John Felix: Yes (laughs).
Jess: You know, a lot of the ingredients that you post, how do you search for them? Do you just go to the markets or do you read about them and then you travel to different places? How do you go about finding these local ingredients?
John Felix: Okay. Before I just cooked Filipino dishes. I want to promote it at least in my circle because before I don't have enough followers. Then I think, um, I realized what are our ingredients?
I want to make it unique, more local because most of the ingredients in the Philippines you can see in the market or at least in grocery stores are mass produced.
My first exploration, of course, the nearest from me, is our public market. I thought just public markets are just, um, a normal place. Um… boring! I mean not boring, but something like the usual. But when you look closer, when you explore the public market, I realized that we have lots of unique ingredients so I started from there.
I saw, um, different native vegetables, especially some of the vegetables came from the Mangyans or the indigenous people.
So I was so amazed and from there I realized that each public markets has something to offer. So I started exploring. I started exploring from different regions— from north, from Bicol region, and Western Visayas and even in Metro Manila.
I can say that if you want to know a place, if you want to learn the culture of a place, go to public market. You will see what they eat. You will see their language, the people, the products.
Sometimes most of the ingredients are accidental in the forest. I search about it first. I tally, where is the best place to find them or the season or the locality? So it's a process actually.
That's the first step, to know, um, that ingredient first. And when I go to a place, sometimes, I don't see it, but sometimes accidentally I saw some ingredients not on my list.
So for example, I went to a forest in Rizal and then I saw the tree called alibangbang, which, which has sour fruits. Alibangbang means butterfly. The leaves are edible so it's quite rare. The tree is native and quite rare and I'm so happy that I saw it accidentally in the forest. So that's just one of the many accidental discovery, especially if you explore forests or agricultural lands.
Some ingredients are from my friends, especially far away places. They send it from their province because they know I like, um, these ingredients.
Jess: Wow, that's amazing to hear that. That's a lot of work. Especially because like you mentioned earlier, there's not a lot of information about our ingredients. I don't know if you find it online, but how much time do you dedicate to maybe one specific ingredient or do you just go to the markets and, and, go from there?
John Felix: I spend a lot of time in just a single ingredient actually. For example, um, I read about a lot of it online or through books, but the most crucial part of searching or exploring with these ingredients is to ask the locals, ask the natives.
So if I go to a place, I will ask them, oh, how to use this? So always ask the locals, the natives, the fishermen, the vendors— they are the vessels of information.
People said they learn a lot from me, but in the reality, I learn a lot from people— the farmers, fisher folk, I learn from them. They really love talking about the ingredients, especially when you show interest. They are happy and they really want to share their knowledge and their crafts.
Jess: Is there one specific interaction that you had with one of the vendors or fishermen that really stuck with you when you asked, um, asked them about the ingredient in particular?
John Felix: Okay, so actually there's a lot of very memorable interactions, but I will just share the, um, the latest. So I went to Camarines Sur to find the smallest edible fish in the world called sinarapan. It's different, the smallest edible fish is different from smallest fish because the smallest fish is, um, not edible, actually. But, so I went to Camarines Sur. It's a very little fish, like almost less than a sentabo.
So I went there, then I just rode the, what we call habal-habal. It's like a motorcycle for rent. Then I asked: sinarapan, where is the location of it? Then that guy brought me to a fisherman. I asked him, when's the season of this and then the next is, ah okay, I know about this, but I want to taste this sinarapan. I want to know, what are the dishes.
So the habal-habal driver said, oh, my mom knows how to cook. I'll bring you in our home. So, I met a local. They welcomed me to their place and then from there we went to the market. We got the sinarapan from the fisherman and then her mother demonstrated how to use the sinarapan.
So that's a very meaningful interaction to me. I learned from a local and I very appreciated the, conversation with them.
Another thing is, I went to the sanctuary of the fish. Then I met the caretaker of the lakelet because there's a lakelet there— um, lakelet is a small lake. It's a sanctuary for sinarapan because sinarapan is an endangered species so you need to conserve it and preserve this species. So, I asked the caretaker. Actually, I looked for him. I asked the locals, oh, do you know this guy?
And then eventually I met him and then he was able to tour me around the lake. And then after the conversation, I tried to give him some money. I mean, for just, you know, in the Filipino culture, I'll give you money because you helped me- no, he did not receive the money. Imagine, um, the burden for him to tour me around and to get the fishing materials and to spend hours of interaction - just for free because he just want to share his knowledge to a visitor like me. So that's it.
Jess: Yeah, that's great. That's I think what's so different here compared to back home, at least. You know, everything is so convenient where you just go to the stores and buy what you need and then you cook, but you don't really get the chance to interact with whoever's growing your food.
That's like one of the main reasons why I wanted to come here was to be able to do that. Still trying to find ways to do that, but I think here you can really take the time. And from, from hearing you, it seems like people really appreciate that you appreciate the work that they're doing.
But I wanted to ask, uh, like with the fish- you said it's endangered- but, um, a lot of the ingredients that you've been coming across, what are you finding in terms of how people are continuing to preserve the ingredient that they're using ?
John Felix: So many of these ingredients are what we call, um, artisinal. They undergo a very additional method of, production. Like there's no machinery, which means harder to make.
So, harder to make equals lower production. So that's one of it.
Many of the ingredients, featured in my page, actually, lots of ingredients first featured, in my personal FB (Facebook) account. My personal FB account is the seat bed of lokalpedia. So it's just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the, um, posts you can find it on my, on my personal FB.
Since, um, lots of the ingredients are plant based, lots of them are actually, um, rare nowadays. Some people, are not, um, aware of their existence. Some people, um, they buy the, the most common ones.
But the most crucial factor why there are many, um, endangered foods, especially those from plants because it's the diminishing Philippine forest. We lost a lot of forest cover in the Philippines and lots of these ingredients, especially those from plants came from the wild.
So the lesser, the Philippine forest, the lesser these ingredients are. I also, um, covered endangered animals, endangered edible food, but I don't want to promote that you need to consume it because, um, one, uh, one of my goal is I want them to realize that these species are in danger, so let's, maybe let's find ways to have less consumption of these animals.
For the plants, I want to, um, promote that we need to plant it. So I want them to appreciate these ingredients.
Jess: I wanted to ask since you've kind of gone your way, around the Philippines, is there a specific region or province that's really, um, that wasn't really on your radar before you started doing this work?
John Felix: There's a lot to explore, regions to explore, but based from a past trip, I was so amazed with the, Ilocos region. They have lots of, um, uncommon vegetables. They almost eat everything. I mean, like from the flowers, from the leaves. They have very good food biodiversity there. They have a very wide selection of vegetables and fruits, but particularly vegetables.
I think, another interesting, region to me, which I wasn't able to, um, to go there, of course is Mindanao. I read a lot of amazing things about the region. I think we need to give more focus in the Southern part of the Philippines. The only exposure I have in their cuisine is, a district called Muslim district or Muslim town.
So there, I saw lots of interesting ingredients. They have sakurab or native scallions. They have paria or like, it's like an eggplant, but that looks like tomato, but at the same time taste like bitter guard or ampalaya. So it's a very unique vegetable or fruit— I don't know what it is. Like the Muslim town or the Muslim district in Quiapo is just a glimpse of their produce of Mindanao. So I want to go there someday.
Jess: That's so interesting that you mentioned, uh, with the Ilocos region, um, the different, uh, vegetables and the use of leaves in their cuisine.
That's something that I was always curious about is Philippine herbs and like leaves, edible flowers. Because, from what I've read, prior to colonization, we didn't really eat a lot of meats. So I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the diversity of our local herbs and vegetables.
John Felix: Okay, maybe I'll include also spices first. Um, do you know that most of people think that the Philippines has few spices or herbs? So there's a notion and there's actually a misconception, but in the reality we have lots spices and herbs. We use a lot of it, or at least in the, provinces.
So for example, um, there's alagaw. Alagaw is a edible leaf that tastes minty. And also do you know that there's cinammon the Philippines? We are an archipelago. We are one of the most biodiverse countries in the world! I mean, I think there are around 16 or 17 mega diverse country in the world and Philippines is one of it. We have around 20 species of Philippines cinammons.
Do you know that the colonizers, the, um, Spanish, the Portugese colonizers— one of the exports here in the Philippines, or one of the assets is cinnamon. Philippine cinnamon. They called it caiu mana before or sweet wood. They found it in Mindanao.
Most of the people think that cinammon is a Western or Oriental or Chinese, because China has cinammon too, like, but it's been here long time ago. The indigenous community used that as a flavoring on their alcoholic drinks. So amazing, right? From twenty cinammon species, three of those has culinary use.
I've been to Negros and I went to a mountain there called Don Salvador Benedicto. In just a small area, we encountered around eight cinammon species. That's a very high number, right? But most people don't know it. Same goes to our herbs, edible leaves and flowers.
For the flowers— we have bagbagkong or sabidukong. It's a wild vine flower. People eat that in Ilocos, but a lot of people, especially in metros or cities are unaware of it. We just don't know it and that's the goal of lokalpedia. Because I want to showcase and give, highlight to those ingredients that the Filipinos don't know... yet.
And most of these ingredients, again, just like I said, came from the forest or agricultural lands. Many of them are vanishing— the herbs, the spices, the vegetables, the fruits, and by documenting them I can help with the awareness of lots of people because you cannot protect what you don't know.
So this is the starting point for them. So it helped the cooks, some researchers, media men, communities, industries. So I'm quite happy that at least with the small contribution from me helped our food heritage.
Jess: Thank you for your work. I could tell that you're really passionate about this. You know, this is something that you do on your spare time, but you put in so much effort, into it. I totally agree with you that you can't— I mean, it's not really our, fault, that, we don't know, um, a lot of our foods. Even back home, you know, you only know one type of cinnamon, because that's all we see in the grocery store, but, it’s kind of, sort of like… that's what the major corporations want.
They just want to mass produce certain things. It's starting to change where people are more curious about what's being grown and you know, for your project to, to shed light on that, will help a lot of people.
Anyway, so I also wanted to ask if you could actually go more into how you categorized these different ingredients. I know you have it on your page, but can you go just a little bit more into that and how you started to like categorize and differentiate the ingredients that you've been coming across?
John Felix: Okay. So, um, heirloom means, um, passed from generation to another generation and one example, is our heirloom rice from the rice terraces. So that's one category: heirloom.
Another thing is, um, indigenous products. So this indigenous products are from the localities, for example: kesong puti, asin tibuok.
Another category is native plants, native fruits, vegetables. Native means naturally occurring in one place. So meaning original inhabitants of our archipelago. But I also document introduced species in lokalpedia. So there are lots of ingredients that are not really native to the Philippines, but they already found its way to our cuisine and very important of our food heritage.
For example, another one example of introduced species is kamias. Kamias is used in Batangas, um, heavily used in Batangas. So they use it in their, um, dishes as a souring agent, especially in, um, sinaing na tulingan.
So we have artisanal, we have heirloom varieties. We also have native and introduced food items.
And another one, of course, there's a special, um, food items called endemic food items. Um, endemic means only found in one area. So, can only be found in the Philippines. One example is katmon. Katmon is a fruit. It's sour. It's very, um, odd looking fruit. If you, you can find it on my page.
So that's how I categorize it. But I also have, um, a private file in my laptop. It's more in depth categorization. I divided it to, um, fungi. I divided it to fruits, edible fruits, rhizomes, fruit crops. There's also raw category. Means, um, not processed, but there's also a raw processed category.
For example, traditional vinegars. So the lokalpedia is just the tip of the iceberg, actually. It's a more condensed and more digestible, um, material for the public You know, the goal is to popularize these ingredients. So you need to get their attention with, you know, photos.
Jess: Wow. I'm excited for the future work that, um, you'll be releasing.
John Felix: Yes.
Jess: Hearing that you have like a graph going on, that's pretty exciting. Then, you know, you talked a bit about—kind of rewind a little bit— you know, biodiversity and saving the forests. Was that something in your head as you were documenting these ingredients, or it's just something that you started to think about more since this project started? Like what other things have changed for you since doing this, this documentation?
John Felix: I started as a foodie, just, you know, love for food. The idea of being, an environmentalist is not present during the initial part of the project or the initial part of my interest. But I realized as I go through with the documentation and when I always encounter people, they say that, oh, this ingredients was abundant before, but now it's, um scarce or rare. It is because of the loss of Philippine forest. And as we lose our Philippine forest, we lose food biodiversity. For me, if you love food, you need to love our forest and environment in general. It's all connected, not just forest, but also if you love food, you need to love the rice of the fishermen, of the farmers and also indigenous peoples. It's all interconnected.
I'll give you an example. If, for example, indigenous people, if you displace these communities—because they're the ones who protect the forest—so, if you exploit their land, especially big corporations— um, this ancestral lands is a very big issue in the Philippines… So if you remove their rights, you also remove a lot of species or living beings in the area. It's like a web, spider web. So you just can't love food. You need to love environment too. You need to fight the rights for the people. The artisans, the local industries. It'll have a domino effect. I learned that as I go deeper in the documentation.
Jess: Yeah. That's um, that's the thing where it's the more you know, the more you realize you don't know and it just keeps going.
John Felix: Yes.
Jess: That's how sort of my journey in food has been also. It started as me appreciating food, but then you realize all these systems that are attached to what you eat and then once you see it, you can't really unsee it anymore. And then you kind of just go deeper into what else is connected within that.
Yeah. So I wanted to now kind of focus a little bit more on, a specific topic. Most people just think of sugar as brown sugar, white sugar, even refined or unrefined.
But I've been trying to learn more about our sugars here in the Philippines. I know you've already done a lot of documentation on that. Can you tell us more about some of the local sugars you've documented?
John Felix: Okay. In the Philippines, we love sugar. There are lots of, um, kakanins. Even in non-savory dishes, we add a little bit of sugar, but most people only know about refined sugar, the white one. But in reality, we have lots of traditional sugars.
So what are they? Balikutsa. I'm pretty sure you're aware of it. It's from the Ilocos region, it's like a palmier shape candy, but it can be used as a sweetener to your coffee. But it can also be used as a sweetener to dishes.
Pakaskas is from Isla Verde, Batangas. So pakaskas is from palm sugar. Pakaskas means to scrape off. People scrape it in a big cauldron, and then they put it in a biodegradable container made from leaves until they harden. My friend uses it as a topping to suman.
We also have, muscovado. Actually, muscovado also exists in other parts of the world, but in the Philippines actually is a traditional sugar too. And , we are major exporter of muscovado before, but I think the sugar industry fell and then now we just produce it in small batches and because most of the people, consume white sugar.
We have balikutsa, pakaskas. We have muscovado. We also have panutsa de bao. Some people call it sangkaka. Panutsa de bao is like, uh, it's shaped like a bao or coconut husk because people mold it in a coconut husk.
In the Philippines. Um, I just want to add that we get our sugars from sugar cane and also palm species. So we get our sugar from coconut. We get our sugar from buri palm. So actually, anything that can produce vinegar can produce sugar. A plant that can produce vinegar can produce, produce also wine. So that's it!
Jess: So, have you seen these native sugars, like outside of where they're made or, is it really just localized in those areas where they're being made?
John Felix: Well, it depends on the sugar, but generally, um, these sugars are very scarce in the general public. Most of the time, you can only see it in the locality. For example, balikutsa is available in Vigan, in Ilocos region.
It's hard to get pakaskas in Metro Manilla unless you know, someone from Batangas that can send it to you.
Panutsa de bao is quite common. I can see it in several markets in Metro Manila, because panutsa de bao is a popular ingredient for native rice cakes. So most of the time you can see it. And it's very abundant too in Bicol region. Muscovado is abundant too in Western Visayas, especially in Negros, the sugar capital of the country. Like In Western Visayas you can just see it in public markets.
They display it in their stalls, but in Luzon or at least in Metro Manila, you have to ask. Muscovado is also common in regions that produce sugar cane. One example is Ilocos region. Iloilo, Negros, there's also Sultan Kudarat.
Jess: I know you're doing all this, this documentation to preserve and let more people know, but now that you have more of an audience, like what, what do you want people to take away from the project that you're doing?
John Felix: So there are lots of plans actually for, lokalpedia. I want to discover more food items - lost cultivars, heirloom vegetables. I know there are lots of them. Actually in my list, there are around 200 to 300 more. Imagine, and people are not aware of it.
I wish someday, through this project we will achieve a more nationalistic food system. I hope people will realize that our country's country is blessed with lots of natural resources.
I hope they realize that our food heritage is colorful. It's not just, you know, it's just suka, toyo or vinegar. We have lots of unique food items. There are lots of vanishing food items and we need to save it. We need to use it. We need to plant it. We need to support the producers. So we are all in this together. If we lose our ingredient, we will lose it forever. We can't get it back. So let's save what we can save. So I really want to promote it as, long as I can. It's a lifelong commitment, , until people realize that Philippines is a culinary powerhouse. We just need to know our heritage more. We need to connect to our roots.
Jess: Right. I love that. I wanted to end on that, but something else came to mind when you were talking about all of that.
I got super inspired. when you were saying all of that, but what do you think of the conversations surrounding, Filipino food, trying to enter like the global stage? Do you think that's, the right way to approach Filipino food.
I feel like because maybe we don't know too much yet about our own heritage, but we're still, we're already trying to make it to like a global audience. I feel like there's always that debate but I feel like it's so hard to try to make it big when there's so little that we know about our own food heritage. I don't know if it's really a question, but do you have any thoughts on, on that?
John Felix: It's very question actually… the globalization of Philippine food or globalization of our food heritage. I mean, before you promote it outside of the country, try to immerse. Especially as you said, there's a growing interest in our food culture, especially in the diaspora, right? It's quite complex for me.
Jess: Yeah, no. Yeah. All good. That's why I wanted to like ask. It's not really a question. I just wanted to like converse and hear your thoughts because I'm so used to conversations that are happening back in the US. What the priorities are there. And it seems like the priority is really try to, you know, get Filipino food on the world stage. You know, neither one is right or wrong, but the perspective is different, the conversations are different. And so I just wanted to hear what your thoughts were on that.
John Felix: I think— I just want to add for those people want to promote our cuisine, especially in global stage, I just hope that they also participate in the local issues in the Philippines.
So I think that's one of the things they need to do because there are lots happening here. Land grabbing. Pollution. Environment. So they need to participate. Even if they're outside of our country, you don't have to be here to be proactive. Just like I said, loving our food culture, we should love our country too.
Jess: Yeah. That's a great way to end it. And, that's some food for thought for me as well. So I appreciate you saying that. Um, any last minute thoughts that you wanted to share before I end the recording?
John Felix: Hm, have you heard the asin tibuok? Do you know how it became popular?
Jess: I saw it was the viral video from FEATR.
John Felix: Do you know what made me more passionate— it’s because of asin tibuok. Actually it's all started from a viral post from my personal FB page, actually. Last, last year, I think around 2020 or 2021. People don't know a lot about asin tibuok and then I posted about it. It went viral. After it, there's a several publication who reached out.
But for, you know, for just a simple post, from just a simple post of someone like me, it revived an industry. It helped a, a community. It helped farmers. So I just want to add that for people don't be afraid to share. Tell your story. Explore. Go outside. This is our culture, we own it. So I just want to say to everyone, every time you see an amazing ingredient: share it! Maybe someday, there will be, you know, there will be a ripple effect. I'm pretty sure all our efforts will pay off someday. So just, you know, share and share. Own your voice. Don't be afraid to tell your story. Because this is our culture.
I don't have any recognition from it, but the idea that, you know, when I sleep, that I helped an industry. So that's one of the reasons why I continue this lokalpedia, because I believe each ingredient deserves to be showcased, deserves to be promoted.
Jess: You're so low key! You know, you're just really passionate about it. For you, it's more about being able to preserve rather than the recognition and that's admirable. So I applaud you.
A big salamat to one of our readers, Steven, for offering his time to clean this episode’s audio quality.
meryenda with John Sherwin Felix of @lokalpediaph