Try to picture yourself in a kitchen in the days of our ancestors…about a few hundred years back. You see native clay pots instead of non-stick pans, you see chopped wood and fire instead of ranges and ovens…you see fresh herbs and spices and not bottled, preserved or powdered seasonings.
Some people still use these greens, but most don’t. The reasons being: first, unavailability since backyard gardening has long been foregone, and not all nearby stores have them. Not all groceries have them, or if they do, just a few of it. As for the wet market, only the big one does, and just the common ones (like leeks and celery). And the most often source of many Filipino’s, small markets we call “talipapa”, from “sari-sari stores” and “tindahan”, they definitely do not have them, since shelf life of these fresh herbs are way too short as compared to the artificial seasonings. These are MSG (monosodium glutamate) containing preserves that people knows to put you on high risk to cancer, but still includes in their cooking.
Second reason for not using herbs is because it is more costly to use the fresh ones than a sachet or a pack of the millennium flavorings.
Third, not everybody knows how and when to use them. This change of heart didn’t just happen overnight. That every generation of our ancestors, they each brought a little of that knowledge to their graves…until it were almost all gone and forgotten.
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