(2018) ‘Bawal ang karne’
Long Story Short for Manila Standard
published March 4, 2018
IT’S the Lenten season. The usual thinking is that this is a time for sacrifices, like denying ourselves meat and eating vegetables by way of atonement for our sins.
That Filipinos are enthusiastic carnivores is supported by empirical data. A Social Weather Stations survey commissioned by Greenpeace revealed that 71 percent of Filipinos eat meat—beef, pork or chicken—at least weekly. Of this number, 5 percent eat meat daily, 46 percent a few times a week, and 20 percent weekly.
The survey was conducted among 1,200 respondents nationwide in June last year.
Broken down per age group, it is the middle-aged respondents (aged 25 to 44) who eat meat at least weekly: 75 percent. Meanwhile, the 55-and-up age group doesn’t consume meat as frequently.
College graduates eat meat the most, with 82 percent having it at least once a week, compared with 74 percent of high school graduates, 66 percent of elementary graduates, and 53 percent of those who had some elementary schooling.
Catholics are also big on meat, with 72 percent eating beef, pork or chicken at least weekly. Iglesia ni Cristo members and Muslims, quite expectedly, not as much, with 46 percent and 45 percent, respectively,
But why is meat just so popular? The respondents gave a myriad of reasons, the most popular of which was that it was good for the health (32 percent) and that it tastes good and boosts one’s appetite (30 percent). Other reasons given were that it’s an alternative to fish and vegetables (13 percent) and that the kids/family prefer it (10 percent).
Specifically, Metro Manilans eat meat because family members like it (23 percent). Age-wise, the 55-and-up age group mostly gave the good-for-the-health reason (37 percent), while most of the millennial respondents (18-24-year-olds) said it was because it tasted good.
Among respondents across the country, a staggering 69 percent said they would only stop eating meat if they develop health problems or if a doctor tells them to stop. Cost is the next factor that would make them stop eating meat—13 percent would stop if they did not have the budget for meat, and another 10 percent if it became too expensive.
Some 9 percent of respondents can’t imagine being able to stop eating meat altogether, and more than half either strongly or somewhat disbelieve that doing so damages the environment.
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Alessandra Lanot, part-owner of vegetarian restaurant Pipino along Malingap Street, Quezon City, made the decision to eat more consciously when she was in high school. It was both easy and not easy to be a vegetarian at that time—easy, because her grandmother always made sure there were vegetables on the table, alongside meat and seafood, but also difficult because she was a basketball-playing adolescent who needed a lot of energy. It was also difficult to find vegetarian food outside of her home. Dining out offered fewer options.
But while she has maintained this choice, swearing by its effects on her skin, her digestion, and the quality of her sleep, she is the first to acknowledge it is not for everybody.
When Alessandra and her boyfriend, now her husband, opened Pino, in 2008, she explored the idea of introducing Filipino vegetables to their diners and wondered if there could be a demand for it. They had a line of vegetarian dishes—vegetable curry, tofu lemongrass skewers, pipino shake, among others—in the menu. After a while it became apparent they could in fact make a go of a vegetarian restaurant just upstairs from where Pino was.
One hundred percent of the offerings at Pipino are plant-based, but not all who dine there are vegans or vegetarians. Some are what she calls “flexitarians”—people who have other preferences but who at that particular meal would want vegetables on their plate. Diners are a mixed group—families, couples, groups of friends, colleagues, and yes, kids.
Just recently, a six-year-old boy literally danced when his order of sizzling tofu was served. “You don’t get that reaction from a kid often, at least not when vegetables are concerned,” she said.
The restaurant’s menu highlights not just vegetables, but Filipino vegetables. There is also a certain upfront attitude about the service. “We showcase ‘gulay’ as it is and do not hide behind fake meat,” Lanot says. Indeed the dishes are variations of the home-cooked dishes we grew up with: pochero, torta, embutido, pinakbet, monggo, with all the meat components substituted with something just as tasty.
It’s also a great way to introduce our own vegetables to people from other cultures.
Lanot, who is a graphic artist when she is not tending to Pipino and other restaurants, says the idea is not at all to preach what people should eat, or shouldn’t. “We don’t impose anything; we are just here to provide people with options.”
“You could be looking out for your health, or eating veggies because you have an advocacy for animals, or you want to lessen your carbon footprint.”
Or, you can also just be in the mood for really good food you don’t find anywhere else.
Inclusiveness is a big word for Lanot. She recognizes that every person has a choice about how to eat and how to live.
She also believes we must banish the thought that vegetables are for days when you want to deny yourself pleasure, or punish yourself for your transgressions.
Filipinos’ mindsets have a long way to go, and it will perhaps be decades before people stop thinking of vegetables as inferior to meat. For now, it’s just good to know there are options that are at least as good and as satisfying, whatever time of the day, whatever day of the year.
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