THE following comes from a reading of Felice Prudente Sta. Maria’s new book on Philippine food history, Pigafetta’s Picnic, just published by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

Around 500 years ago (this month and late last month, April and March), Westerners led by Ferdinand Magellan were “discovering” the Philippines. I am saying Westerners to mean mostly Europeans as most of Magellan’s crew were a motley group of Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, French, etc. including Enrique, the Malay slave of Magellan, and many other surprising nationalities from obscure places in what was an official Spanish voyage under the auspices of the King of Spain.