Open Collections

Abstract

As a space in which Pilipino people from various ethnolinguistic regions commune, diverse Philippine food knowledges intersect in Metro Vancouver through social networks. Thus, transcending geographic and sociocultural barriers to the intermingling of interregional food knowledges in the Philippines. This thesis challenges discourses on food which contend that it is only significant to migrants, immigrants, and newcomers because it allows them to “return home” through their senses. I argue that Pilipino-Canadians not only endeavour to return to the homelands, but also embrace the unique socio-gastronomic geography they autonomously create in Metro Vancouver through social relations and expertise of Canadian foodscapes. Through preparing and sharing meals with Pilipino-Canadian community members, I learned that they choose to revisit and be haunted by their ancestors and loved ones by preparing traditional and cultural food according to food knowledge they passed down. Even in moments and places diasporic memory seems to be lost, it lingers through the creation and sharing of food which not only reminds Pilipino-Canadians of home, but also allows them to create home(s) anew. Thus, rendering a palimpsest of diasporic food knowledge, encompassing layers of time, memory, and space which are shared amongst diasporic community members from different regions in the Philippines, and other global diasporas. Through collective meditation on dispersion from homelands, and shared joy in the making of familiar meals, Pilipino-Canadians in Vancouver thrive and connect.