This makes us hungry just looking at it.
Twitter user Trina Pagtakhan (@ichickooo) posted on Sunday an illustration of her take on what it would look like to have Filipino food in video games.
The pixel art shows a number of Filipino favorites: pork barbecue on a skewer; kwek–kwek, which are quail eggs covered in orange batter; lechon kawali, deep-fried pork belly; and pork sisig, a popular Kapampangan pork dish.
Just to keep my social media alive, here’s an old pixel guide to Filipino food which I did for a class last year…because i’m hungry 24/7 pic.twitter.com/XnpYTiE9zg
— Ichicko (@ichickooo) August 26, 2018
The pixel art included popular desserts as well such as halo-halo, a shaved ice dessert; bibingka, a sweet type of rice cake; and sapin-sapin, a layered rice and coconut dessert, among others.
Pagtakhan told Coconuts Manila through a Twitter message today that she’s currently a De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Interactive Entertainment and Multimedia Computing, majoring in game development.
She said that her professor had her class do a game-inspired project for their finals in July last year, and during the time, her college had a month-long festival focusing on Filipino cuisine.
She stated: “After some thinking, I decided to just make pixel art because I felt that it’d be the best way to say, ‘Hey, this is what Filipino food would look like in games!'”
When asked what her favorite Filipino food is, she said lechon kawali is definitely on top of the list.
The tweet has gone viral with over 33,000 likes and 12,000 retweets as of this article’s posting. Pagtakhan said that she was surprised her tweet blew up.
“I think around half the people [in my notifications] were asking me where the sinigang (sour and savory stew with pork liempo) was,” she said. “I’m also glad that a lot of people wanted to try Filipino cuisine because of my work.”
She mentioned that she noticed how Filipinos wanted to see more of these in popular games: “I think Filipinos are hungry for representation in media we’re familiar with. I’ve been seeing comments saying how they wanted local versions of popular games like Cooking Mama and Harvest Moon. I do hope we make games in the future that will showcase more of our culture!”
Netizens were amused by the illustration and shared their own thoughts on the artwork.
Twitter user @ninjovee wrote: “These are awesome! Hope to see more of your art. [A]lso keen on asking if you still do commissions?”
These are awesome! Hope to see more of your art 💖 also keen on asking if you still do commissions 😮
— Jovee (@ninjovee) August 27, 2018
Pagtakhan also said she just used Microsoft Paint to make the illustrations, which makes them even more amazing.
hello! i’m not a good teacher, but there are a ton of tutorials you can find online on how to pixel art! I just used MS Paint to make these, so you don’t really need fancy programs to get started 🙂 good luck!
— Ichicko (@ichickooo) August 27, 2018
Another user by the handle @kattcalixc0 wrote that she wanted to “eat everything in this picture.”
i wanna eat everything in this picture.
mY GOD pic.twitter.com/oQvxbSXBTJ— KC (@kattcalixc0) August 27, 2018
It also got some netizens who’ve never tried Filipino food to crave for some:
“I have never gotten the chance to try Filipino food but even in pixel form it looks so delicious!” wrote @dannysexbean.
I have never gotten the chance to try Filipino food but even in pixel form it looks so delicious!
— Im the nonbinary sent by cyberlife ⭕️☀️🐄 (@dannysexbean) August 28, 2018
“Cooking Mama better have a Filipino version called LUTO NI MAMSHIE (‘Mom’s cooking’),” said @beneDICTIONARY.
cooking mama better have a filipino version called LUTO NI MAMSHIE
— Benny T 🍵 (@beneDICTIONARY) August 28, 2018
BRB, ordering one of these dishes now.
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