Why do we love corned beef?
We like Delimondo corned beef. Good meat, no fuss, plain packaging.
Last week while many parts of the city were underwater we tramped to the neighborhood supermarket for supplies and found that everyone had had the same idea. Every shopping cart and basket was in use and there were long queues at the cashiers. The shoppers were stocking up on toilet paper, instant noodles, canned sardines. There was a panic-buying run on corned beef.
How did corned beef become a staple of the Filipino diet? We think it started in World War II, when American soldiers handed out cans of corned beef from their rations. (During the Napoleonic Wars the British soldiers lived on corned beef.) Maybe earlier, during the American Occupation and Commonwealth periods.
In the Philippines corned beef is served as breakfast, merienda, lunch, merienda, dinner, and midnight snack. If you prick us, corned beef comes out. The number of local and imported corned beef brands on the market boggles the mind. We still remember our childhood shock at discovering that not all corned beef came out of a can.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 17th, 2012 at 08:38
As much as I love honest-to-goodness “real” corned beef brisket (boiled with cabbage and potatoes, to justify the “healthiness”) I still think that there’s nothing like the canned stuff, sauteed with tomatoes, garlic, onion, and the occasional hit of hot sauce until it’s crispy around the edges. I also like to make my own corned beef hash, because the canned versions are just plain nasty. And corned tuna is an abomination, period.
I just saw Delimondo at Landmark Trinoma yesterday, and got curious about it ever since. Before that I used to love Libby’s (the Brazilian version in the square can) but it doesn’t taste the same to me now, for some reason. Maybe it’s the tallow content?
August 17th, 2012 at 09:03
I was told that corned beef a.k.a. carne norte, despite its Spanish name, became big in the Philippines in the American colonial period.
Among its contemporaries was queso de bola, again despite its Spanish name is Dutch Edam cheese specially imported for the Philippine market since the American colonial period.
Another alleged American-period (a.k.a. “peace time”) artifact: Filipino-style fruit salad, with fruit cocktail and condensed milk. Not found anywhere else.
August 17th, 2012 at 10:22
I remember when I was little, kung corned beef ang ulam feeling mayaman na. :P
August 17th, 2012 at 13:07
Delimondo! The best corned beef in the world!
August 17th, 2012 at 14:59
i bruised a knee once. ma ling came out.
August 17th, 2012 at 18:42
I’ve seen the various Delimondo canned things, but never thought to try them. I don’t think I’ll be trying the chili one though. I can’t handle spicy food.
And yes, I love corned beef omelettes.
August 17th, 2012 at 21:48
It’s fatty, salty, and umami. Tastes that signal salts(electrolytes), protein(nucleotides) and fats. An almost perfect trifecta of stimuli our hunter-gatherer accustomed brains could not ignore. After all, corned-beef is not a seasonal fare and doesn’t exist in naturally in nature. The brain thinks that this nutritional opportunity may never come again. Hence eat it when presented.
The same goes with sweetness — sugars&carbs. seasonal fruits.
While a natural aversion to sour and bitter tastes. Which denotes acids/spoilage and toxins respectively.
The perfect combination that would get the brain all excited would be something, umami/fatty, salty and sweet. E.g. Burger, fries and Coke.
And yeah, $@n M@r!n0 durog na Tuna is $H!T.
August 18th, 2012 at 01:34
Ooh, I love chili Delimondo with lots of onions and rice. It’s nice on sandwiches and pizzas too. I wasn’t too crazy about corned beef as a kid, but now I appreciate how easy it is to prepare and serve.
August 18th, 2012 at 01:37
I got my college roommate hooked on eating corned beef straight out of the can with steamed rice and sliced tomatoes in patis. She would trade me her delicious, home-cooked Chinese food that her mom made for my cans of corned beef. Score!!
August 18th, 2012 at 12:55
My family’s a fan of corned beef that every month when we went to the grocery to buy our supply, the cashier or the bagger would almost always ask us if we own a grocery store… =)
btw, ms. jessica, this made my day yesterday:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=511104155571685&set=a.168318109850293.48639.100000163140353&type=1&theater
August 18th, 2012 at 16:14
@stellalehua: I agree, re: canned corned beef hash. I’ve never tasted any that was good.
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I haven’t tried or seen this Delimondo. I will hunt it down. In the meantime, that still definitely places Palm Corned Beef at the top of my list because it’s just… mmm!
August 26th, 2012 at 11:23
@Akyat-Bahay Gangster – “Carne Norte” is actually “Carne Norte Armericano” thus indicating its true origins – North America.
You forget “pan americano” now generally known as “tasty,” which was introduced locally by the Americans.
@allancarreon – yes, Palm Corned beef for me, too. However, it is too greasy. I recall watching a documentary that Australians/New Zealanders sell corned beef overseas with excessive fat, while items for local consumption have controlled fat content (I think 5% max, compared to minimum 20% for export to the Pacific islands, including the Philippines).