“For many who did not have the good fortune to meet her [Doreen G. Fernandez] in person, the joy of her research can be found in this book. Her appeal has not paled nearing a quarter of a century after she passed, her work as pioneering food critic and food historian of the Philippines continues to inspire through her elegant prose that teaches us to taste, contextualize, and appreciate the world around us.”
—Ambeth R. Ocampo, public historian
“What shall we praise first: her gleaming prose, her wicked wit, her uncompromising intellect? Doreen G. Fernandez’s subject was food in the most expansive sense, as a means of interrogating—and illuminating—society and self. Her greatest subversion was simply to observe, with patience, curiosity and compassion, the high and the low; the celebrated and the scorned; what brings us pride and what we hide in shame. That is, to testify to the world in all its particulars, as it truly is.”
—Ligaya Mishan, writer, The New York Times
Doreen’s prose is not only learned but refined and unceasingly warm, even when she had something critical to say—just as she was as a beloved professor when I was her student in the 1980s. Reading her popular newspaper food column led me to meals that were both appetizing and thought-provoking. But it was in her literature class that I came to understand the full breadth of her interests and the depth of reading that sharpened her insights into Philippine culture, especially its culinary arts.
—Howie Severino, journalist
