Abstract
Literature changes our understandings of ourselves and of others. This essay asserts that it is in that understanding that we build communities that center collectivity - or, kapwa. Indeed, food is story-telling, and the growing field of food studies demonstrates an increased interest in how food and culture impact global and social experiences and interactions. By specifically examining cookbooks and poetry by Filipino authors, this essay demonstrates that culinary authenticity is not purely about the food and its likeness to an imagined original recipe, but that it is also about the community and the connections that are built in the creation of and the eating of those meals. Filipino food literature emphasizes that eating is more than consumption - it is attributed to social and cultural identity. Especially by weaving in the author’s personal experience and analyzing poetry about the boodle fight, balut, and bananas, this essay shows that writing about food is writing about identity, and reading about identity is how we build communities that counter colonial mindsets of individualism.