Farm to table. The phrase is used to indicate the freshness of ingredients used to cook a dish, how those ingredients didn't have to stay long in storage or weren't transported through a series of middlemen. But can it be used as well for the fish before me, a layalay (needlefish) held by its tail by Pipo who was bringing it in from the fisherman who caught it just that morning and then for the cook to do something about it for lunch?. We were enjoying "doing nothing," looking out to the sea at Currimao in Ilocos Norte, seated on the butaka (plantation) chairs fo Sitio Remedios, wishing the cool sea breeze which fanned us could be exported to steaming hoy Manila.

Fenix, M. (2014, May 15). Fresh fish tales from the north. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. C2.