The Mama Sita Foundation (MSF) recently sponsored “Peacetime Quiapo (1920 – 1940): Home Recipes from the Art Deco Era,” a non-profit dinner held at the Lore Manila in Bonifacio Global City. The event was curated by food writer Ige Ramos and organized by Fernando Nakpil Zialcita, PhD and his class at the Cultural Heritage Studies Program of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University.
Erik Akpedonu, Ige Ramos, Gemma Cruz-Araneta, Clara Reyes-Lapus, Jing Brucelas, and Dr. Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu
The four-course meal, interpreted by Chef Tatung Sarthou, featured recipes from the illustrious families of Old Quiapo, then a cosmopolitan enclave that linked Asia, Europe, North and South America in the couple of decades leading up to WWII. Mama Sita’s Balatinaw Heirloom Rice Champorado topped with Balatinaw Pinipig and Danggit bits was served for dessert. Clara Reyes-Lapus, MSF President talked about the Foundation’s Heirloom Grains Project, which was established to support the Kankanaey tribe whose ancestors hand-carved the rice terraces out of the Cordilleras 2,000 years ago.
Chef Tatung Sarthou delivers his talk
Keynoted by Dr. Zialcita, the program articulated the vision of converting the Quiapo district into a living heritage and pilgrimage zone with talks from Claire Vitug of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation, Architect Roz Li of Bakas Pilipinas, Dr. Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu of the Loyola School of Social Sciences of the Ateneo de Manila University, and Congressman Joel Chua, chief proponent of the Quiapo Heritage Zone Act, which awaits deliberation at the House of Representatives.
Dr. Ferando Zialcita, Yuan Gabriel Reyes, Earl Joy Lopina, Ria Tenido, Simone Andrea Yatco, and Joshua Imperio.
Miss Gemma Cruz-Araneta, writer, director, and former Tourism Secretary was among the event’s notable guests. Paintings of Quiapo-native Brian Villareal were exhibited in the restaurant.