By Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Prof. Mandy Hisuan was one of the presentors in the prestigious Food Travel Research Summit.

Prof. Armando Hisuan Jr., a faculty of the CPU College of Hospitality Management, was invited to present at the prestigious international Food Travel Research Summit – FoodTrex last October 13, 2022. His presentation was entitled “The Wonders of Tinuom.”

The World Food Travel Association (WFTA) was founded in 2003 as a non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO). Today it is regarded as the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism. Every year, the Association serves a community of nearly 200,000 people from 150 countries. The World Food Travel Association conducts a yearly FoodTreX – Food Travel Research Summit 2022. This year it was held in London via online. Most of participants were from Europe and America.

According to Sir Mandy, “Fortunately, I was the only one to qualify and participate from Asia by sharing our research experience as we assist the Provincial Tourism office during a Cultural Mapping Activity of Intangible Cultural Heritage Property in one of its municipal event. That intangible Cultural Heritage Property is a dish called Tinuom of Cabatuan, as we conduct the narrative inquiry and interview, most of the participants claim that Tinuom is a Healing dish.”

The Tinuom prepared by Prof. Mandy Hisuan.

Furthermore, Prof. Hisuan said, “This ignite a phenomenon of interest which later I was able to do a cross-checking of references, did a systematic literatures review by Pittway (2008), Grant & Booth (2009) and thematic analysis by Braun (2006) to explain that phenomena. Findings revealed that there are actual 8 healing ingredients aside from 7 healing ingredients claimed by most of the participants. By knowing this, I made a simple research report with a theme “CULINARY TOURISM: TINUOM, A HEALING DISH OF CABATUAN, ILOILO, PHILIPPINES.”

Prof. Hisuan submitted the report with the hope of qualifying in the Research Summit. He said that by God’s grace, the WFTA approved his research and he was able to qualify. He then informed the Provincial and Municipal Tourism of the status and wholeheartedly supported it.

One of the highlights of the presentation was shared by Prof. Hisuan. He said that the committee members were intrigued by one of the things that transpired during the interview of the participants. Upon smelling and savoring the Tinuom, one of the researchers suddenly cried while giving a testimony about the dish.

During the presentation, Mr. Hisuan encountered a lot of questions. One of the difficult questions was, “Your claim of healing is just only based on the literatures. There is no medical study to support your claims that after the dish is cooked and served there is healing. How can you say that is a healing dish? Mr. Hisuan confidently answered, “Yes, it is just only based on the systematic literature review and the claims of the participants, but take note that these participants who testified have survived up to the ages of 70 to 90 years old. These persons prepared Tinuom when they feel sick or have ailments like flu/colds. They are living in a remote area where it is far from pharmacy or where synthetic medicine is scarce or not available when they need it.” The answers of Mr. Hisuan got the nod of the panelist. This also encouraged the panelists to visit Iloilo and try the Tinuom.

Learning from this experience gives me the opportunity to promote, participate and study more of our cultural heritage especially in food, drinks and hoping that there would interest to collaborate in exploring the medical side of the dish after it is cook.