DISCLAIMER: I am a vegetarian and this column is in no shape or form promoting or advocating the eating of products from sentient beings, fast food or otherwise. It is purely a commentary on changing cultural traditions particularly on what people eat.
I’M SURE many of you will gasp in disbelief when I say that Pinoy culture is slowly but surely dominating the civilized world.
No, I don’t mean the culture associated with that souvenir shop Kultura which is part and parcel of all SM malls and lately the Molo Mansion.
The culture moi is talking about is Pinoy pop culture. And what is Pinoy pop culture without Pinoy fast food? And what best epitomizes Pinoy fast food than the ubiquitous Jollibee?
Yes folks, that Third World happy bee is taking over and changing the taste buds of the natives of the First World in what can only be properly described as reverse colonialism.
This time the colonies are taking over and changing the eating habits and taste of the colonial masters.
Excerpts from a recent article in Reader’s Digest by Juliana LaBianca:
The ‘McDonald’s of the Philippines’ is slowly taking over America
We Americans love our McDonald’s. In fact, in the second it took you to read that sentence, the fast-food chain sold more than 75 hamburgers. So when a newcomer hits the block and claims to be the next Mickey D’s, you know we’re all ears.
That newcomer is Jollibee, a fast-food chain some people are calling the McDonald’s of the Philippines. The restaurant sells everything from fried chicken to Filipino desserts, although its signature dish is the “Chickenjoy,” a piece of fried chicken with a side of spaghetti, smothered in tomato sauce and topped with hotdog slices and ground beef. If you’re thinking that’s something you’d like to dig your fork into, you’re in luck. The chain is planning an “aggressive” expansion in America over the coming years, Jollibee Food Corporation North America’s vice president Maribeth Dela Cruz told Business Insider.
If the name Jollibee sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. The restaurant already has 38 stores in the United States. It’s most recent location opened Oct. 27, 2018, in Manhattan. Jollibee also has 1,289 locations globally and has become a cult favorite in many countries.
When Jollibee opened its first store in the UK, some fans camped out for as many as 18 hours to get a taste of its unique dishes. More than 1,000 others waited for hours on a line that zigged and zagged around the block.
And since Americans are some of the world’s biggest consumers of fast food, we have no doubt the chain will get the rest of the country on board in no time.
Yes, the “white man” is lining up to eat what is probably the most Pinoy of all Pinoy food and it’s not just a novelty, in fact they love it.
I find it particularly ironic that in the land of “steak and kidney pudding”, “fish and chips” and that particularly very English desserts “spotted Dick” would line up for hours just to get a taste of “Chickenjoy.”.
There’s a classic Jollibee dish that most Pinoys and their kids love that it’s always associated with someone having a birthday. I’m talking about the Jollibee “spaghetti.”
Almost all Pinoys take for granted that Jollibee “spaghetti” is “spaghetti” as “spaghetti” should be. They probably assume that how it’s prepared, including the ingredients, is the proper way.
Really sorry to disappoint you, it’s not, rather far from it. The nearest resemblance is probably the noodles or type of pasta used.
Like our national football team aptly called the “Azkals”, meaning mixed breed street dog in reference to the fact that 90 percent of the current team members are all mixed breeds or “mestizos”, the Jollibee “spaghetti” is an askal a bastardization of the classic “spaghetti.”
Take a look: “Jollibee spaghetti” is spaghetti noodles smothered in tomato sauce and topped with hotdog slices and ground beef.
In the classic spaghetti, the noodles are usually cooked al dente, sautéed in olive oil with garlic, onions, fresh peeled or sundried tomatoes, basil and sprinkled with lots of grated Parmesan cheese.
Spot the huge difference: your clue there is the hotdog but moi finds it quite amusing in a “Monty Python” way that somehow the Pinoys have managed to completely re-invent the “spaghetti”, giving it a distinctly Pinoy taste and at the same time changing how our former colonizers view and eat “spaghetti.”
And that is in subtle way Pinoy world domination. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
