They’re eating and talking Filipino in Japan Micky Fenix Inquirer
November 08, 2006
MY niece practically wrote this column. Her e-mails detailed how Filipino ingredients were selling in Japan and how Filipino words were being used as brand names.
Now married to a Japanese, she has lived in Kyoto since she received scholarships to pursue her masters then a doctorate. She was already there when nata de coco, marketed as coco gel, became a hit in her adopted country. After the bananas, it was coco gel that created a stir in the business scene.
I do remember attending a food conference in Tokyo four years ago and saw that the menu of Denny’s, an American chain, had nata as dessert.
My niece checked and reported that “fruit nata de coco” was still served. And, at the convenience store chain Mini-Stop, this year’s summer frozen delight was halo-halo with nata de coco.
Nata was not always my favorite halo-halo ingredient. I would always remove it from the mix. But when it began to sell heavily in Japan, my palate was reintroduced to it and I found its chewy texture and mildly sweet flavor such an unexpected delight.
Chemistry project
My early aversion to it must have been because of guilt. I presented nata de coco as my chemistry project in college because I was trying to beat the deadline.
How I concluded that nata de coco was the result of a chemical reaction is still a mystery to me. I must have found the formula in the library.
Today you can get the information through the Internet. Nata de coco is made through a mixture of coconut water, coconut milk mixed with water, acetic acid, sugar and a microorganism that helps in fermentation. The process is supposed to take 8-10 days.
Since I only had two days before the deadline, the final product was bought in the grocery. I put it in a plastic bowl, after washing it to remove the syrup, and hoped my American teacher had no idea what it was.
I had to guess what the reaction was, which I wrote in a fictitious daily report. I explained it was necessary to cut the nata pieces into cubes to make it easier to carry around. (To the students who read this, don’t take this as a lesson in cheating but as one in creative thinking.)
My research on nata de coco today revealed why it became such a hit in Japan. Introduced in 1992 as a healthy diet food, it immediately appealed to young girls. It was bruited to be low in calories and contained no cholesterol and also protected the body against colon cancer because it was high in fiber.
It is the health angle that seems to strike a good chord among Japanese consumers. And that is why our calamansi sells today.
Popular ‘calamansi’
My niece said on a trip to Okinawa last year that she found calamansi, also called shikuwasa. She related how results of a comparison between calamansi and other citrus fruits were featured on a TV show. Calamansi was found to be high in synephrine and hesperidin, supposed to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Soon after, she wrote, calamansi was discussed in several blogs.
Today, a major canned fruit juice company in Hawaii, Aloha Maid, exports calamansi juice to Japan.
Yet carbonated calamansi drink was already a favorite back in 1995. It was made by Shisheido, yes, the cosmetics company. Called Squash Cooler, cardamom was added to spice up the drink.
My niece said she didn’t think the cooler was sold anymore because the Japanese consumer required new products every year in the many beverage vending machines.
Calamansi is also used as a major ingredient in potpourri.
To my niece’s amusement, business and brand names also use Filipino words. She mentioned a dining bar in downtown Kyoto called “Gaya-Gaya.”
Hot brand
“Pagong” is another. It’s the hottest brand name for shirts and tank tops that use a kimono design. Pagong is made by a company founded in 1919 that originally dyed kimonos then diversified into Hawaiian shirts. The company has collaborated with Adidas to produce the shirts for its fall collection.
The Pagong website explains the name: “Pagong is the Tagalog word for sea turtle that thrives only in beautiful waters and is considered a harbinger of joy. Like the sea turtle, Pagong the shop has just started to ‘swim’ in order to convey the beauty of Japanese culture.”
Yet all that can’t compare to the financial success of nata de coco. But we also have to learn from the problems that came with that success. Many small cottage industries went into production with no knowledge of proper disposal of the liquid waste product. When the liquid was poured into the soil, it increased soil acidity rendering the soil unusable. And workers contracted dermatitis when the liquid came in contact with the skin.
At a food show years after the peak of the nata de coco madness, one original exporter told me the “pwede na” attitude of many backyard producers led to the lack of quality control and consequently killed the coco gel success.
Yet he still believed his innovation might revive interest in the product. That time, he introduced nata de coco in different flavors.
And so from the pristine white of my chemistry project, the coco gel emerged as colorful cubes of ube and strawberry red.
E-mail the author at pinoyfood04@yahoo.com
Previous columns: Recuerdos: Memorial dishes (11/02/2006) Culinary competitions have gone provincial (10/26/2006) A personal book on Filipino cooking (10/19/2006) Rice-ing Pinoy cooking (10/12/2006) When everything you need grows around you (10/04/2006) Reinventing ‘piaya’ and other Negros specialties (09/28/2006)
