(Luc.) Island Feast of the Philippines V2
The first time that I truly saw a Boodle Fight was in 2019. I was living in the Philippines fresh from America and I was culture shocked. These fellows gathered merrily on a street to layout the largest banana leaf I've ever seen on plastic folding table. They then artfully constructed a feast, piece by piece, arranged like a tropical Asian charcuterie. I asked my friend what they were doing and he said, "It's a Boodle Fight!" I was alarmed at first and I then asked, "Oh no! Who are they fighting and why are they fighting?!". He explained the name came from the military. Soldiers would lay out these feasts on banana leaves, to which they would share together intimately, to increase their camaraderie. Well OK, I told myself, that's weird but my mind will try to process that.
I spent a brief time of my childhood in the Philippines where the only memory I have of a Boodle Fight was at a restaurant called 'Kamayan'. In Tagalog (or Filipino) it means to eat with your hands the traditional way. The food or the spread was not quite as elaborate as it was from what I saw in 2019 but I do remember these large stone sink basins that were shaped like giant seashells where people lined up to wash their hands. It's also customary in most restaurants in the Philippines, even fast food joints like McDonalds and KFC to have sinks out in the open so you may wash your hands before you eat. There's even a famous question asked to a Filipina Miss Universe contestant where the host asked, "Is its true that Filipinos eat with their hands?", and she replied without missing a beat, "Of course. Do you eat with your feet?"
In the 90's we called these feasts "Kamayan" but "Boodle Fight" is the more popular term I found in the Philippines today. The feast could be as elaborate or as simple as you wished, but traditionally it was always served spread out beautifully on banana leaves. I can even remember one time this young man asked a neighbor in the Philippines if he may have a banana leaf from a tree growing on their property. The owner said, "Sure, sure!" and young man took his time choosing the best looking leaf from the lot before carefully cutting it and carrying it over his head. I just love how it was culturally understood that he was preparing for a feast.
This post is as late because I literally spent two solid weeks working on this project. I was only able to finish animating the Kamayan rice-eating, hoping it would be universally understood that the rice should have bits of what Filipinos call 'ulam' or 'viland', which is to mean anything that's NOT rice that you can eat with rice. Specifically is a meat or a vegetable etc. However I ran out of time and energy so the 'ulam' bento holds or animation will have to come at a later date and the set is mostly decoration right now.
I created this set with a 'Make Your Own Feast' in mind. Everything is in small parts so you can customize how you'd like your feast or meal to look like, whether grand or intimate.
The Island Feast features: shrimp with the skin on (since Filipinos like to suck the juice from the head), grilled squid, grilled catfish, barbecue pork skewers, fried tilapia, salted eggs and tomatoes, okras, longanisa sausages, Filipino sauce, boiled crabs, steamed mussels, sliced mangoes, pineapples and watermelon; and finally a pork lechon. I wanted to engrave cultural symbols on the lechon wood and remembered ancient Filipino Baybayin. It says 'Kaya Mo Yan' which loosely translates to something like 'You can do it!' or 'You got this!'. Intended to be motivational and comedic since it can be applied to encourage you in life but also when you're about to devour a large Island Feast.
Find the Island Feast of the Philippines at the Asian Pacific Heritage Festival of Second Life hosted by Panache Events
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Evermore/172/128/1448
Shout out to Mister Dylan Dethly (trouble.dethly) of ECLIPSE Magazine & Panache Events for inviting me to this wonderful festival and giving me the honor of participating. It's small, it's intimate and I worked really hard to bring something authentically Filipino to the Metaverse of Second Life.
Enjoy & See you soon!
~Lucas Lameth
(Luc.) Island Feast of the Philippines V2
The first time that I truly saw a Boodle Fight was in 2019. I was living in the Philippines fresh from America and I was culture shocked. These fellows gathered merrily on a street to layout the largest banana leaf I've ever seen on plastic folding table. They then artfully constructed a feast, piece by piece, arranged like a tropical Asian charcuterie. I asked my friend what they were doing and he said, "It's a Boodle Fight!" I was alarmed at first and I then asked, "Oh no! Who are they fighting and why are they fighting?!". He explained the name came from the military. Soldiers would lay out these feasts on banana leaves, to which they would share together intimately, to increase their camaraderie. Well OK, I told myself, that's weird but my mind will try to process that.
I spent a brief time of my childhood in the Philippines where the only memory I have of a Boodle Fight was at a restaurant called 'Kamayan'. In Tagalog (or Filipino) it means to eat with your hands the traditional way. The food or the spread was not quite as elaborate as it was from what I saw in 2019 but I do remember these large stone sink basins that were shaped like giant seashells where people lined up to wash their hands. It's also customary in most restaurants in the Philippines, even fast food joints like McDonalds and KFC to have sinks out in the open so you may wash your hands before you eat. There's even a famous question asked to a Filipina Miss Universe contestant where the host asked, "Is its true that Filipinos eat with their hands?", and she replied without missing a beat, "Of course. Do you eat with your feet?"
In the 90's we called these feasts "Kamayan" but "Boodle Fight" is the more popular term I found in the Philippines today. The feast could be as elaborate or as simple as you wished, but traditionally it was always served spread out beautifully on banana leaves. I can even remember one time this young man asked a neighbor in the Philippines if he may have a banana leaf from a tree growing on their property. The owner said, "Sure, sure!" and young man took his time choosing the best looking leaf from the lot before carefully cutting it and carrying it over his head. I just love how it was culturally understood that he was preparing for a feast.
This post is as late because I literally spent two solid weeks working on this project. I was only able to finish animating the Kamayan rice-eating, hoping it would be universally understood that the rice should have bits of what Filipinos call 'ulam' or 'viland', which is to mean anything that's NOT rice that you can eat with rice. Specifically is a meat or a vegetable etc. However I ran out of time and energy so the 'ulam' bento holds or animation will have to come at a later date and the set is mostly decoration right now.
I created this set with a 'Make Your Own Feast' in mind. Everything is in small parts so you can customize how you'd like your feast or meal to look like, whether grand or intimate.
The Island Feast features: shrimp with the skin on (since Filipinos like to suck the juice from the head), grilled squid, grilled catfish, barbecue pork skewers, fried tilapia, salted eggs and tomatoes, okras, longanisa sausages, Filipino sauce, boiled crabs, steamed mussels, sliced mangoes, pineapples and watermelon; and finally a pork lechon. I wanted to engrave cultural symbols on the lechon wood and remembered ancient Filipino Baybayin. It says 'Kaya Mo Yan' which loosely translates to something like 'You can do it!' or 'You got this!'. Intended to be motivational and comedic since it can be applied to encourage you in life but also when you're about to devour a large Island Feast.
Find the Island Feast of the Philippines at the Asian Pacific Heritage Festival of Second Life hosted by Panache Events
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Evermore/172/128/1448
Shout out to Mister Dylan Dethly (trouble.dethly) of ECLIPSE Magazine & Panache Events for inviting me to this wonderful festival and giving me the honor of participating. It's small, it's intimate and I worked really hard to bring something authentically Filipino to the Metaverse of Second Life.
Enjoy & See you soon!
~Lucas Lameth