Sarap: Essays on Philippine Food

From the Foreword:

Almost from the very first issue of Mr. & Ms. magazine in 1976, food has been a regular, and major, feature. Mr. & Ms. has pioneered the coverage of food in local magazine journalism with weekly and yearly menu guides, annual food supplements, special issues on the best of Metro Manila's test kitchens, as well as features on couples who cook. In 1980 we published The Coconut Cookbook to show the many and varied ways of cooking with that very basic and versatile fruit, the coconut.

In our efforts to "cover" food, we have always had an enthusiastic partner in Doreen G. Fernandez who, with her husband Will, has been a regular food columnist of Mr. & Ms. since 1963. The food review column is a field of journalism in which they excel, an amazing feat considering that their professional lives have nothing to do with food (Doreen is an academician and Wili an interior designer). Talk about food reviewers and the first names that inevitably come to mind are Doreen and Wili Fernandez.

For this collection of essays, however, Doreen was joined not by her husband, but by her good friend and colleague at the Ateneo, Edilberto N. Alegre, a fellow explorer in the realm of food. They share an interest in Philippine history, a boundless enjoyment of eating as adventure and a curiosity that has led them to the out-of-the-way, the ethnic, the odd, as well as to history books and their own childhood memories of food in the small town.

Doreen Fernandez and Ed Alegre make an interesting combination of Mr. and Ms., two academicians with complementary interests, delving into the nuances of food and eating, and writing about these with a zest that should make Samp delicious reading. One point we must emphasize, too: food and the enjoyment of it know no gender, and the togetherness it promotes is very much part of the publishing philosophy of Mr. & Ms.

With this book, we renew our commitment of excellence in publishing to our readers. Not for them, nor for us, a coffee table book on a subject as essential as food, but a handy edition touched up with the folksy art of Manuel D. Baldemor. We hasten to publish Sarap before much more of what defines our cuisine is engulfed by the fast-food culture or altered by foreign tastebuds.