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Pigafetta's Philippine Picnic: Culinary Encounters During the First Circumnavigation, 1519-1522
PIGAFETTA'S PHILIPPINE PICNIC: Culinary Encounters During the First Circumnavigation, 1519-1522 is the story of brave explorers coping with unfamiliar foods and strange cultures in uncharted realms. They were on a royal mission to find a western route to the Spiceries for Spain. Antonio Pigafetta's experiences on the voyage serve as the heart of this narrative.
The state of Renaissance food preservation demanded that expeditions hunt, fish and harvest fresh supplies throughout a journey. Each ship of the Armada de Maluco carried enough provisions to last two years. The voyage extended to three during which rotten food and putrid water, shipwreck, mutiny/ ocean vastness, armed natives, and enemy ships triggered scurvy and starvation.
The Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521 when expedition leader Ferdinand Magellan died was a response to the threat of food insecurity confronting both combatants. Magellan demanded a food quota from islanders or their village would be torched.
Pigafetta, reveals that 16th-century Filipinos and other peoples of Island Southeast Asia had developed culinary systems founded on keen understanding of their natural surroundings. Coconut, guava, rice cooked in bamboo culms, rice and millet cakes wrapped in leaves, dainties using Javanese almond, as well as wines of coconut, nipa and rice were flavor memories he carried home as one of only 18 who survived the adventure.
The state of Renaissance food preservation demanded that expeditions hunt, fish and harvest fresh supplies throughout a journey. Each ship of the Armada de Maluco carried enough provisions to last two years. The voyage extended to three during which rotten food and putrid water, shipwreck, mutiny/ ocean vastness, armed natives, and enemy ships triggered scurvy and starvation.
The Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521 when expedition leader Ferdinand Magellan died was a response to the threat of food insecurity confronting both combatants. Magellan demanded a food quota from islanders or their village would be torched.
Pigafetta, reveals that 16th-century Filipinos and other peoples of Island Southeast Asia had developed culinary systems founded on keen understanding of their natural surroundings. Coconut, guava, rice cooked in bamboo culms, rice and millet cakes wrapped in leaves, dainties using Javanese almond, as well as wines of coconut, nipa and rice were flavor memories he carried home as one of only 18 who survived the adventure.
- GenresFoodHistoryNonfiction
158 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
6 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Felice Prudente Sta. Maria
20 books7 followersFelice Prudente Sta. Maria is an internationally awarded cultural heritage advocate, food historian, and non-fiction author known for her pioneering work on the history of Filipino cuisine. For over five decades, she has researched the nation's colonial food history, utilizing sources dating from the Age of Exploration to the early years of the Philippine Republic.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 8, 2022
This is a unique view of history from the perspective of Antonio Pigafetta, one of only 18 survivors of the full global circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan in the form of the culinary practices in the 16th-century islands that would come to be known as the Philippines. This is a scholarly work as well as an entertaining recounting part of a truly amazing voyage. It includes 55 pages of translated words related to markets, food, and the preparation of foods that may be of more interest to a local linguist. Few, if any of them, are part of the modern version of Tagalog that would be a more fruitful study for a foreigner.
The actual tale is relatively short, as it is something of a diary, and not ever intended to be a novel or even a major literary work by the original author. It was amazing to me as an avid sampler of international cuisines to discover how many ‘common’ dishes from some regions are really relatively recent imports from other ones.
The book finishes with a segue into modern history through an intermediate volume by a later explorer. It may be more interesting in revealing how little we know of much of Southeast Asian history before 1000 A.D. (even to “natives) than in the fascinating discussions of what the first European explorers did discover.
The actual tale is relatively short, as it is something of a diary, and not ever intended to be a novel or even a major literary work by the original author. It was amazing to me as an avid sampler of international cuisines to discover how many ‘common’ dishes from some regions are really relatively recent imports from other ones.
The book finishes with a segue into modern history through an intermediate volume by a later explorer. It may be more interesting in revealing how little we know of much of Southeast Asian history before 1000 A.D. (even to “natives) than in the fascinating discussions of what the first European explorers did discover.
November 6, 2025
Informative book about food during the Spanish era, and about culture and their
lives. Not many people know about these, and I hope more
people read more about our history
lives. Not many people know about these, and I hope more
people read more about our history
October 15, 2021
I've been meaning to read Pigafetta's account of his trip to the Philippines from 1519 to 1522. I tried using Google Translate to read another account of Philippine life (Boxer Codex), but it seems Spanish from the 1500's confuses Google at the moment. Pigafetta's initial account was probably in Italian, but all we have that are closest to this are French translations, and Italian iterations made later. An English translation was made in a multi-volume compilation of Philippine history by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robinson from 1903-1907.
So with all these books and iterations of the initial account, I was happy to know that Felice Prudente Sta. Maria compacts it further for us in "Pigafetta's Philippine Picnic." Not only that, it's focus is around the food he and the crew encountered at the time. Pigafetta writes of "Tinapay", and that it is some kind of rice cake. So we also get to see how food and terms might have changed since then.
Obviously, as with all outsider accounts of the past, we take his words with grains of salt. Remember that Columbus mistook kakaw seeds for almonds, and colonial writings (even those from the US such as the compilation by Blair and Robinson mentioned earlier) had propagandist motives.
Despite this, it is still an "Instagram" from the past. Pigafetta "posted" about betel nuts which were chewed by many of our ancestors, possibly as a soporific or to induce sleep. He wrote about the Tabon scrubfowl, which to this day will bury its eggs in the sand. Coincidentally I'd see some during a trip to Danjugan island, kicking up sand either looking for prime areas for their eggs, or to uncover food. Back then, those eggs were also enjoyed by our ancestors. Mam Felice adds that the eggs are practically half or even 70% yolk, making them delicious. Tabon means "to cover" in Bisaya. Pigafetta introduced his "words of those heathen people", like "Zlucha", which is actually "Suka" or vinegar. Felice shares this is the first published evidence of Philippine vinegar, as well as palm wine and rice wine from Palawan.
At the end of the book she gives the first English translation of culinary words from "Diccionario Bisaya-Espanol" by Juan Felix de la Encarnacion published in 1851. Words like "Daya" which meant wide plate, and it also meant wide outrigger boat. Earlier in the book she shares that Pigafetta notes "Dulan" meaning platter of wood. She adds that "Dulang" means tray in Indonesia, and in Tagalog it means low rectangular tables of fine woods like Kamagong (Diospyros discolor) and Narra (Pterocarpus indicus).
Much of these references are made in the 2nd half of the 158 page book. The first half is a lot about Pigafetta's account of their journey from Spain, to South America where Magellan referred to people at the southern tip as "Pataoni", or people with big feet. And then finally through the wide Pacific, which was unknown to Europeans, but well-traveled and understood by Pacific islanders at that time. She also shares how Magellan is killed, and how the initial fleet of 200+ crew whittled down to 18 people by the time Pigafetta returned to Spain.
All-in-all, it's a fun ride, especially for food lovers and Filipino food lovers. Again, take it all with a grain of salt, or asin, and digest how you see fit.
So with all these books and iterations of the initial account, I was happy to know that Felice Prudente Sta. Maria compacts it further for us in "Pigafetta's Philippine Picnic." Not only that, it's focus is around the food he and the crew encountered at the time. Pigafetta writes of "Tinapay", and that it is some kind of rice cake. So we also get to see how food and terms might have changed since then.
Obviously, as with all outsider accounts of the past, we take his words with grains of salt. Remember that Columbus mistook kakaw seeds for almonds, and colonial writings (even those from the US such as the compilation by Blair and Robinson mentioned earlier) had propagandist motives.
Despite this, it is still an "Instagram" from the past. Pigafetta "posted" about betel nuts which were chewed by many of our ancestors, possibly as a soporific or to induce sleep. He wrote about the Tabon scrubfowl, which to this day will bury its eggs in the sand. Coincidentally I'd see some during a trip to Danjugan island, kicking up sand either looking for prime areas for their eggs, or to uncover food. Back then, those eggs were also enjoyed by our ancestors. Mam Felice adds that the eggs are practically half or even 70% yolk, making them delicious. Tabon means "to cover" in Bisaya. Pigafetta introduced his "words of those heathen people", like "Zlucha", which is actually "Suka" or vinegar. Felice shares this is the first published evidence of Philippine vinegar, as well as palm wine and rice wine from Palawan.
At the end of the book she gives the first English translation of culinary words from "Diccionario Bisaya-Espanol" by Juan Felix de la Encarnacion published in 1851. Words like "Daya" which meant wide plate, and it also meant wide outrigger boat. Earlier in the book she shares that Pigafetta notes "Dulan" meaning platter of wood. She adds that "Dulang" means tray in Indonesia, and in Tagalog it means low rectangular tables of fine woods like Kamagong (Diospyros discolor) and Narra (Pterocarpus indicus).
Much of these references are made in the 2nd half of the 158 page book. The first half is a lot about Pigafetta's account of their journey from Spain, to South America where Magellan referred to people at the southern tip as "Pataoni", or people with big feet. And then finally through the wide Pacific, which was unknown to Europeans, but well-traveled and understood by Pacific islanders at that time. She also shares how Magellan is killed, and how the initial fleet of 200+ crew whittled down to 18 people by the time Pigafetta returned to Spain.
All-in-all, it's a fun ride, especially for food lovers and Filipino food lovers. Again, take it all with a grain of salt, or asin, and digest how you see fit.
November 5, 2024
Such an informative book about Filipino food especially during precolonial times.
I've never really thought about what society was like before the Spanish colonization and I shouldn't be surprised that the Philippines traded with both South Asia (especially Indonesia) and the Chinese but I am still surprised!
I've never really thought about what society was like before the Spanish colonization and I shouldn't be surprised that the Philippines traded with both South Asia (especially Indonesia) and the Chinese but I am still surprised!
January 18, 2024
I can’t believe Pigafetta was still sucking up to Magellan even after he’d been killed. Get wrekt, Magellan.
April 27, 2023
SO GOOD. An important personal library piece, if you ask me. I learned so much and it made my recent trip to Cebu much more fascinating. Forever hoping to live up to the standards that great food historians like Felice Prudente Sta. Maria set. I bought this at Mt. Cloud Bookshop in Baguio and I can't wait to go back for more finds.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews