The Tale of Pinoy Spaghetti and How Gen. MacArthur Revolutionized Kiddie Parties
Filipino-style Spaghetti or Pinoy Spaghetti, like most things awesome, have a rather sketchy origin story. Because there were no written recipes on how a kilo of sugar ended up in a pot Bolognese sauce, I scoured the internet, and some of my old cookbooks, to look for the most incredible theories, tied those up and created my own story on how the hell Filipinos came up with the such a glorious dish.
World War II had just ended and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, together with his unnamed Filipino military assistant (who was probably a culinary prodigy), was in Yokohama overseeing the American forces in the newly occupied Japan. He was at the New Grand Hotel and was served with Spaghetti Napolitan, a Japanese style pasta dish made with tomato ketchup-based sauce seasoned with soy sauce, dashi and mirin with stir-fried chopped bell peppers and bacon.
Months later, MacArthur was back in Manila, just coming from meetings with the Philippine Commonwealth leaders and was looking forward to lunch. MacArthur's unnamed Filipino military assistant decided to cook his version of spaghetti Napolitan that he tasted in Yokohama. But there was a problem, the commissary was out of tomato ketchup, chopped bell peppers, and bacon. The genius that he was, used ground beef and diagonally sliced hotdogs as substitute ingredients. He also ordered his junior officer to grab hold of the hottest product in the market after the war, Mafran banana ketchup. The banana ketchup imparted sweet notes to the dish, essentially making it exponentially more awesome than the sour Napolitan. He then added grated military-grade 'cheddar cheese' on top, "Voila!" the glorious Pinoy spaghetti.
According to some questionable accounts, MacArthur even said, "This sauce, it's sweet, it hardly seems like spaghetti, but it is good. Impressive. Beefy-saucy linamnam spaghetti". MacArthur even suggested that kids would surely love it if it was as sweet as cotton candy or panutsa.
Taking his boss' advice to heart, MacArthur's unnamed Filipino military assistant added a bit of sugar into the dish and started offering it on his 14 kids’ birthday parties. It was an instant hit, thus the tradition of having it on kiddie parties.
But whether there is truth to that story, one thing is undeniable, Pinoy spaghetti is a product of Filipino ingenuity, innovation, and genuine love for anything American. Hahaha!
World War II had just ended and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, together with his unnamed Filipino military assistant (who was probably a culinary prodigy), was in Yokohama overseeing the American forces in the newly occupied Japan. He was at the New Grand Hotel and was served with Spaghetti Napolitan, a Japanese style pasta dish made with tomato ketchup-based sauce seasoned with soy sauce, dashi and mirin with stir-fried chopped bell peppers and bacon.
Months later, MacArthur was back in Manila, just coming from meetings with the Philippine Commonwealth leaders and was looking forward to lunch. MacArthur's unnamed Filipino military assistant decided to cook his version of spaghetti Napolitan that he tasted in Yokohama. But there was a problem, the commissary was out of tomato ketchup, chopped bell peppers, and bacon. The genius that he was, used ground beef and diagonally sliced hotdogs as substitute ingredients. He also ordered his junior officer to grab hold of the hottest product in the market after the war, Mafran banana ketchup. The banana ketchup imparted sweet notes to the dish, essentially making it exponentially more awesome than the sour Napolitan. He then added grated military-grade 'cheddar cheese' on top, "Voila!" the glorious Pinoy spaghetti.
According to some questionable accounts, MacArthur even said, "This sauce, it's sweet, it hardly seems like spaghetti, but it is good. Impressive. Beefy-saucy linamnam spaghetti". MacArthur even suggested that kids would surely love it if it was as sweet as cotton candy or panutsa.
Taking his boss' advice to heart, MacArthur's unnamed Filipino military assistant added a bit of sugar into the dish and started offering it on his 14 kids’ birthday parties. It was an instant hit, thus the tradition of having it on kiddie parties.
But whether there is truth to that story, one thing is undeniable, Pinoy spaghetti is a product of Filipino ingenuity, innovation, and genuine love for anything American. Hahaha!
It was also told that Pinoy spaghetti was first sold commercially during the '60s at a shopping mall in Makati. I don't know how it got bigger than the disco or Zagu, all I know is that it is as big as breaded fried chicken, you can ask the biggest fast food chains in the country.
Leave a Comment