“What are these called again?” ask my dorm mates as I offer them a homemade Christmas tin filled with aluminum foil-wrapped goodies. Inside the foil are bar-like baked goods of butter and dates and walnuts combined in one deliciously unhealthy taste of home, a dessert my family and other Filipinos refer to as “Food for the Gods”.
For as many years as I can remember, Christmastime not only meant holiday shopping and singing “Silver Bells” on repeat; it also meant that our kitchen counter would be invaded by pans and pans of these sweet treats baking, waiting to be divided into little pieces, wrapped up into tin containers, and tied nicely with red ribbon to be given out as gifts for the holidays. A Filipino tradition, Food for the Gods are like what fruitcakes are to Americans, only yummier and much more welcomed.
“Food for the Gods” has always, for me, seemed such a curious name for a traditional Filipino sweet. While we Filipinos have our fair share of odd foods and monikers, most traditional desserts at least have Tagalog or Filipino names with a pretty obvious connection to the food itself. However, throughout the Philippines, “Food for the Gods” is called simply that, no translation required, even among those whose English mastery is mediocre at best. The name presents even more of a quandary when trying to find out who “the Gods” actually refer to, considering the fact that most Filipinos pray only to one god, not the multiple “gods” indicated in the treat’s moniker.
When trying to determine the etymology for the name, I discovered that Filipinos are not alone in describing their food as delicacies of the divine. In ancient Greek mythology ambrosia was supposedly the food, or in some cases drink, of the gods, fortified with special immortality-granting powers, according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary. In modern times, however, the term ambrosia has become associated with a special kind of fruit salad, made with ingredients like cream, oranges, and marshmallows.
Furthermore, it turns out that the scientific name for chocolate, Theobroma cacao, literally means “food of the gods”, according to Cornell University’s Albert R. Mann online Chocolate exhibit. The Aztecs and the Mayans of Central America once believed that cocoa was truly a gift of the gods, using chocolate in currency and to concoct a strong, bitter drink from the cocoa plant. Chocolate was later introduced to the Europeans and eventually the rest of the world once the Spanish came and conquered the indigenous populations of Mexico.
But while I can attest that chocolate is a kind of “food for the gods” in its own right, it doesn’t really appear to bear any relation to the Filipinos’ own divine dessert. Hoping to maybe find an explanation for its origin, I decided to explore the history of the dessert itself. Unfortunately, not much information is readily available about the history of most Filipino dishes. However some have postulated about the origins of the food, and as Marelie of “Cookie Droplets Etc.” suggests, the bars may actually be a descendant of the Spanish “pan de datil”, walnut and date cakes that the may have been brought to the Philippines during the Spanish colonization of the islands. This is supported by the fact that Food for the Gods’ main ingredients, walnuts and dates, don’t even grow in the Philippines. They are imported from other countries. Thus the traditionally Filipino Food for the Gods may not be so traditionally Filipino after all.
If Food for the Gods did originate from the Spaniards, who were generally at the top of the social hierarchy, maybe the “gods” referred to are actually the Spaniards themselves and other first class citizens who could afford the fairly expensive imported ingredients. It’s possible that the term is actually a reflection of social class disparities during the period of colonization.
However, it still doesn’t explain why the treat has an English name. Looking back at the history of the islands, it’s possible that the actual English term was adopted sometime during the American era of colonization in the early twentieth century and the name simply stuck.
In the end, I’m still not entirely sure where Food for the Gods comes from, but if anything I’m even more amused by the treats—traditional Filipino desserts that don’t have a Filipino name or Filipino ingredients. However in a sense Food for the Gods are still inherently Filipino, reflecting the rich history of the islands as a crossroads of cultural interaction and exchange and a place where good food is appreciated, no matter where it comes from.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia#cite_note-OCD-0
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