A lesson in tastes

I wish I could say that we were at Café Ysabel (see the posts of the past two days) for a romantic Valentine dinner for two, but I took those photos back in January. Dr. Fernando Zialcita, a professor at the Ateneo de Manila University's Sociology and Anthropology Department, teaches a course titled "Culture and the Senses," which is an exploration and study of the history of Filipino culture as evidenced not only by what we can see (art, architecture, and the like) but also by what we can experience through the other senses (smell, taste, hearing). For the lesson about taste, Dr. Zialcita partnered with Chef Gene Gonzalez who came up with a seven-course comparative degustation menu titled "Exploring Filipino Taste in Seven Courses" which they made available to others not enrolled in the class. The three-hour dinner and lecture traces the history and influences of dishes from different regions of the Philippines, and compares and contrasts them with similar dishes from Spain, China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, India and the U.S. I found the lecture and tasting absolutely fascinating! And even with tiny servings, we were full to bursting by the end of the night—it was still 14 dishes, after all, and that's not counting the Queso de Bola–Edam Cheese comparison that he added. Now I'm curious about the other lessons in Dr. Zialcita's Culture and the Senses course…