What is a Boodle?
A boodle is a very large
collection of food that comes on banana leaves. The bottom layer is
usually white rice on top of which can be fish, shrimp, crab, squid,
clams, eggplant, bagoong, salted duck eggs, lato (seaweed), and slices of green mangoes, etc.
In a boodle arrangement, diners eat with their fingers.
Boodle fight?
That’s
because this type of meal has its roots in the Philippine military’s
style of eating in which soldiers, regardless of rank or position, dine
together on food spread out on banana leaves.
It is strictly hands only — no spoons, forks, or knives.
For
soldiers, as well as groups of friends, families and office mates, the
boodle fight symbolizes camaraderie and equality in the enjoyment of
lots and lots of food.
It’s possible that the term is from the
English idiomatic phrase “whole kit and kaboodle” but there is no
definitive proof for that. There are also anecdotal recollections that
the word and concept were in use at the U.S. West Point Academy in the
1950s.
The
Filipino word “boodle” and particularly the associated concept of going
to a restaurant for a boodle are relatively recent in Philippine
society. It’s true that for centuries people on the islands would use
banana leaves as plates for rice and food especially when outdoors, such
as at the beach, and that there are large meals shared, and one uses a
hand (normally the right) for eating when no utensils are available.
Some days, you just want to feel the rice and ulam between the tips of
your fingers and enjoy food that way. But really the concept of
purposely having a “boodle” cannot have gone mainstream until after 20
years ago.
A few Filipino Americans have decided to commodify this
“boodle” trend, though they’ve opted to forego the Philippine term and
refer to it with a more exotic-sounding word to appeal to non-Fil Ams who
like to purchase cultural experiences. They call it kamayan, which is a Tagalog word that’s generic to Filipino ears.
As mentioned earlier, using a hand (kamay)
to informally eat food has gone on for literally ages on the
archipelago. But the fact that practically every other Filipino
household all over the world has large wooden spoons and forks displayed
on their walls points to the pride that we have a distinctive way of
eating — not with fork and knife, but with spoon and fork (kutsara’t tinidor).
It’s really emblematic of Filipino history and culture. The utensils
are Western contributions to our lifestyle, yet we use them in our own
way.
There are two food shops offering boodle fight in Cavite City ...
Cumi Ya Nisos !
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