An Indian restaurant recently opened near my house, making us quite excited because decent Indian food is pretty hard to find here, especially in a city like Silay, where international food choices that doesn’t involve the usual American-style back ribs or semi-Italian pasta is still pretty rare.
My family doesn’t mind having a good biryani or curry every now and then, and for such cravings, we would have to go all the way to Bacolod in the past. Now that we discovered have a legitimate Indian restaurant within walking distance from home, we are pretty determined to patronize those guys so they don’t close shop prematurely but have a chance to become part of the local food scene that is slowly but surely becoming more and more vibrant.
The discovery of this particular Indian restaurant came as a surprise because we live near a public school and most of the establishments in the area cater to students, which means mostly non-creative budget meals. Then this Indian place pops up, run by 2 foreign nationals, and we try it out and find out that their food is decent. So now we have an Indian restaurant in the area where nobody expected one.
It hasn’t been 3 months since they opened and a carinderia has already taken up a portion of their rented space, probably during lunch service. We don’t eat Indian food every day, so we can’t really singlehandedly keep them in business, but from what we see, they seem to have enough customers for what is a niche product in my town. However, compared to the sizzler place right beside them that is always packed, they are practically empty. We may have become more open to international dining options, but biryani, curry, chapatti are still no match for tapsilog and sisig.
Anyway, I’m hoping they survive and thrive, because we need diversity when it comes to food. I know Filipinos can’t have enough silog places and carinderias, chicken inasal, baby backribs, salpicao, pasta, and even samgyupsal. But we also need other options to take root and become part of our food landscape. Chinese, Japanese and Korean food is already well accepted, but aside from shawarmas, access to good middle eastern cuisine is still quite difficult.
In places like Silay, anyone can see that the food scene is slowly expanding. Just before the Indian place popped up, a Japanese place also recently opened, adding to the international flavor of the cuisine. Almost all the fast food chains are already there, although that’s nothing to really get excited about. All sorts of cafes and restaurants are also opening here and there, and as usual, there will always be hits and misses.
If you come to think of it, just around 2 decades ago, there were probably only 2-3 proper dining options in that city, mostly serving Filipino food. I had to take my Metro Manila born and raised wife all the way to Bacolod if we wanted to eat something different. There has been a massive improvement in terms of choice and convenience over the years, and I hope our choices and palates continue to expand and diversify. I’m pretty sure the same is also true for other towns and cities of the island. We just have to be on the lookout for new stuff and then support those that we think are worth supporting, so we don’t have to go far from home whenever a craving strikes.
Maybe I’m just rooting for the Indian restaurant in my area to survive and thrive because it’s the only one of its kind, and if it somehow makes it, then other non-mainstream dining concepts can also explore our area, which can give us more choices. This means we won’t need to go all the way to the big city every time we want to try something different. This was probably the same way I felt when I saw a similar restaurant in Bacolod a few years back, after only getting to eat Indian when we are in Manila. At least now, even the Silay food scene is expanding, and I’m all for that.
The point I’m trying to make is that food helps us welcome diversity, and when change is introduced, it is always up to the community to accept it and make it work out. In my Indian food story, I reckon that the only way my community can get better Indian food is if this current one survives, because if it does, it sends a signal to those who have been considering the same thing that there is a chance because minds and palates are expanding. And the moment more of them do start coming in, the quality and variety is upgraded further, which is something that ultimately makes any community better, unless you are xenophobic.
In the end, it is all about allowing the good stuff to come in while at the same time keeping our standards high enough so we see constant improvement and expansion, which is good for our communities, minds, and tummies.*
