bucaio: belas (bigas/rice)

Showing posts with label belas (bigas/rice). Show all posts

Friday, April 11, 2014

Hong Kong: Cliftons

The seminar I attended in Hong Kong was held at a Cliftons training venue right smack in the middle of Queen's Road Central. The venue provider also catered the three-day event, providing breakfast, lunch, and mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.

Before the seminar I wasn't at all happy that I will be provided most of my meals for the day. I envisioned lackluster Western dishes designed to please varying palates - in short, safe and oft-repeated standards.

And that is what met me on my first day. Breakfast was sausages, eggs and some breads. I had indulged breakfast at my hotel, so I congratulated myself. I wasn't in Hong Kong to eat sausages.

Lunch, however, was a revelation. There was a total turn-around, and it became hardcore Chinese. There were dishes that even came across as exotic, ones I could never have come across no matter how hard I scoured the restaurant scene across Hong Kong. I would never have ordered them, for one, if they were available, since they were remotely unfamiliar. But here it came free with the tuition that the agency I work for had paid.

And there was confirmation of the food's pedigree - my favorite classmate, the one who pointed me to Tim Ho Wan and who explained how to eat congee and soy milk for breakfast, declared that everything was "surprisingly good."

I didn't find everything that palatable, though. That dish above, for example, was labeled steamed angelo lufta and glass noodle in garlic. I'm sure there was some sort of mistranslation or misspelling there, for no matter how I researched I could not find what lufta or angelo are anywhere. But it's some kind of gourd, very much like sponge gourd or patola (which is spelled luffa), but not as slick, and very, very bitter. It has a different bitterness from, say, ampalaya, or even papait. The large slices further emphasized the bitterness, so needless to say I didn't enjoy it very much.

This one is more familiar, called braised lo hon vegetables with bean curd. "Lo hon" is this revered vegetable mix called "Buddhist delight" because it is eaten by Buddhists, and is traditionally served in Chinese households for the first five days of the lunar or Chinese new year for self-purification practices. At Cliftons the vegetarian dish was mixed with glass noodles.

Another vegetarian noodle dish, egg noodles with mushrooms.

Smoked duck breast and peppered pastrami beef, which were very good eaten together with the vegetarian noodles. A bit irreverent, yes. I would have preferred those heavenly slices of duck with noodles in soup, though.

I always enjoy the variations of Chinese rice, fried or otherwise. I had plenty to enjoy at Cliftons, like steamed rice topped with chicken a la king, or stir-fried yang chow style.

No, liquid is not waste. Or is that, waste is not liquid? Or no liquid waste should be thrown here? This was a notice posted by the water dispenser.

The cream soda is a popular carbonated drink in Hong Kong, said to taste like a mixture of milk and 7-Up. It tasted like shandy to me, and a can was a good way of helping me digest all that I ate as I got ready to end the day and start exploring Hong Kong, fueled and ready eat more.

Tim Ho Wan

Yung Kee

Lin Heung Kui

Sheung Wan Dried Seafood Market

Strolling Around Sheung Wan

Eating Around Sheung Wan

Hotel Breakfast

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Hong Kong: Hotel Breakfast

Because there were a lot of interesting things to eat around the area where my hotel was located, I had been tempted to forego the free breakfast included in my hotel package. But I inspected the spread on my first morning, and found it equally interesting so I had breakfast there. And I got hooked that I ate breakfast there for all the days of my stay in Hong Kong.

It had the usual hotel breakfast features, but it had distinct Chinese accents. I always started with a plate of fresh fruits - there was my favorite Hami melon, and bananas probably from Davao down south in my home country, sweet pineapples, and braised plums redolent of masala.

Then there was congee, the bland Chinese rice porridge that was a perfect canvass for the contrasting textures and flavors of the various toppings on offer - fried salted peanuts, pickled vegetables, meat floss, fried wonton wrappers. The excellent chili paste did wonders in spicing things several levels up.

The congee metal container sat on a warmer side by side with another container filled with warm and sweet soy milk. All around them were bowls and saucers, but no single mug or cup was visible. This perplexed me, for naturally I wanted to drink the soy milk from a cup.

So I again consulted my Chinese classmate, who gave me the heads up on Tim Ho Wan, and it was explained to me that yes, soy milk was drunk from a bowl. But here's another interesting thing - he further explained that congee and soy milk were usually eaten together for breakfast.

So from then on I had congee and soy milk together, and yes, I had them both from bowls.

There was always pancit, or stir-fried noodles, in one form or another. I noticed mainly Chinese males eating them. I am a noodle-lover, always was, but the noodles didn't appeal to me much - mainly because I was so used to the Philippine version that feature a heap of various toppings from meats to balls to vegetables and even deli meats, that I thought I didn't know how to eat this kind of noodles. For it was just stir-fried noodles, and not much else.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to learn, I ate the pancit, of course. I tried all there was to try, every single morning. There was bihon - thin stick noodles - one day, and there was a thicker glass noodles another day. They came slick with sesame oil and soy sauce, but every single day they came unadorned.

There was always dim sum - which couldn't compare with the ones I had at Tim Ho Wan or Lin Heung Kui - so I mixed them in with the noodles. Sometimes I got fried chicken or fish fillet or deli meats to mix in, too. Maybe this was how noodles was made to be, to be a side for viands, while pancit in the Philippines evolved to become a one-pot dish.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Sagobe Cafe at Tanza Oasis

I had taken a long break from work starting a few days before Christmas until the New Year, and I couldn’t sleep thinking about all the places the family and I could go to for a long vacation. But the husband, who was home only on the eve and on the day of both Christmas and New Year and had to work in-between, forbade us to go out of town. So instead of a tan and the general feeling of well-being that comes from a long, relaxing vacation, what I got was an elongated maw which resulted from all the pouting I did.

I understood, of course, that transportation, hotel accommodations and all other travel logistics would be nightmarish during the holidays. Add to that the fact that I would be exposing the kids to unforeseen risks. I had been on travel the last five weeks prior to Christmas, and I experienced unprecedented difficulties, particularly as the holiday neared.

So as I spent the days pouting, I also tried to look for the silver lining. And found it in the many water parks and resorts that dot the coastal part of Cavite. We neglected these before, preferring those hundreds of kilometers away. But since we were house-chained, and these were just thirty minutes and a ride away, or an hour’s drive at the most, we went on a coastal Cavite resort binge.

One windy day towards New Year we were looking for a Mount Sea Resort other than the one in the municipality of Rosario, but we couldn’t find it and we ended up at Tanza Oasis resort, which sits alongside the murky and malodorous waters of Manila Bay. And I felt haughty, having proven that I was right, after all, in ignoring these resorts.

Fortunately there was a surprise silver lining in the form of the newly-opened restaurant that is the in-house dining option at the hotel. The menu is hodge-podge, but all the dishes we ordered were faultless, and can easily rival what’s offered at good restaurants in Manila in terms of quality and taste.

The beef and seafood balls soup was very tasty with the infused sesame oil and caramelized scallions. The beef was tough and could have benefited from an hour more of boiling – this is soup, after all – but we just discarded it and focused on the excellent lobster and crab balls and firm squid balls and the few pieces of baby bok choy. The soup was served scalding hot – which was perfect as it was cold that evening.

I don’t like eating rice grains that are durog, especially when they are used in fried rice. Broken rice grains emphasize their shortcoming when fried because then they cannot stick together like when they are steamed. This is the fault that I found in the yin-yang fried rice. However, the two sauces that thickly topped the fried rice more than amply covered the deficiency. The spinach sauce had plump fresh shrimps barely cooked, while the sweet-sour facet of the chicken sauce made it enjoyable to eat.

The salmon belly were fried perfectly, and the accompanying spiced vinegar dip served nicely to cut the richness of the fish’ belly fat. All in all we had a very good, rounded meal, and it was impressive for a first time in a new restaurant. Service was also good –there were only two tables occupied the time we dined as it was an odd hour, and there was only one server, but we were given ample service. So I will not be found cavorting in the waters of Tanza Oasis, but I will surely go out of my way to eat here again.

Tanza Oasis Hotel and Resort
Km. 41, A. Soriano HighwayBarangay Capipisa EastTanza, Cavite
Website

Monday, May 06, 2013

Binuburan

Binuburan is fermented rice sold on weekend - and market day - mornings at the public market of my hometown in Pangasinan. The fermented rice is pressed on a banana leaf-lined bigao, or bilao, then again covered with banana leaves. A serving is a cupful, along which goes a plastic bag of water and sugar syrup.

It is meant to be taken and eaten home, where it is put in a bowl and mixed with the water - preferably cold - and sugar syrup.

Binuburan is different from the other fermented, odoriferous rice - buro - in that the latter is very savory, an appetizing side, while the former is sweet, and can be had as a meal, like some kind of porridge. Binuburan is called binubudan in the Ilocano language.

Binuburan is actually the first stage in the process of making tapuy, the Northern Luzon wine made from rice. It is in the phase when the rice has just been inoculated with the fermenting culture and has yet to turn alcoholic. But it has been allowed to ferment for a few days, up to a week, so it tastes slightly caustic, like an over-ripe pineapple or grapes.

It is also the culture introduced to sugarcane juice when making basi, the wine of the Ilocos and Central Luzon regions that is based on sugarcane.

The culture comes in the form of hardened rice dough flattened into discs, looking a bit like free-form puto seko, but more like play-doh piso. These are called, unsurprisingly, bubur, and are available most days at the section of the market where local rice delicacies are sold. The bubur is crumbled and sprinkled on cooled boiled rice for it to start the fermentation process. Thus the name bubur, a permutation of bubud or budbud, describing the way it is used.

The bubur is made by mixing ground rice and pounded ginger with a small amount of a pre-made culture - the previous bubur - then fermented, molded, then dried under the sun.

Binuburan was actually exotic to me. That is saying a lot, because my life growing up in Pangasinan was full of what many citified folks would consider verging on the fear factor - consider snails, or frogs, or wild dwarf crabs. Fear factors extreme, actually.

But it was as exotic as coffee, which was forbidden to us children. So it was an exotic adult fare. Though it wasn't exactly forbidden - I never saw it in our house, and I never saw it eaten by any family member.

The first time I came across it was when I came upon a parish priest having it for breakfast. I thought then it must be holy. Over time I thought it was a male thing, like alcohol, or cigarettes. But when I got married I learned that binuburan is occasionally made at my husband's house, and eaten by the elders, who are all females.

So I got the courage to buy some at the market. When I lugged home my purchase I was scolded for taking the water, as it must have been fetched from the public CR. I didn't know it was just piped water, for diluting the binuburan. So I got cold, distilled and mineralized water and mixed it into the binuburan, along with some brown sugar for a caramel finish.

Binuburan takes some getting used to, and is an acquired taste, but so does buro. It has the same tangy sourness, but not as pronounced. It was refreshing, though, and perfect for the weather. But my cup was fininshed by my husband, who grew up eating the stuff, albeit home-made. The elders pronounced the market kind to be okay, but said next time we'll make some ourselves, and instructed me to buy bubur instead.

Buro

Daet Binatog

Latik

Masikoy

Unda-Unday

Arroz Tres Leches

Champurado

Intemtem

Inkaldit

Kineler

Southern Tagalog Tamales

Monday, April 01, 2013

Bisita Iglesia - Coastal Cavite: Cavite City

San Roque Church

(Nuestra Senora Soledad de Porta Vaga Shrine)

Burgos Avenue, Cavite City

The San Roque church is a work in progress. The outer walls' stained glass windows have just recently been unveiled. The church was established more than three hundred years ago and has undergone numerous renovations and refurbishings since then. Its facade and bell tower can be seen from many points along the way on the road to the city, from as far as Coastal Road.

The San Roque church hosts the more than four-hundred-year old painting of the Nuestra Senora Soledad de Porta Vaga, known to be to the oldest Marian painting in the country today. It used to send off galleons going to Mexico during the Manila-Acapulco trade.

The devotion to the Marian image became encompassing that it was recognized not only as the patroness of Cavite City but also of the entire province of Cavite. Long lines of local residents paying their respect to the image form after masses, and buses of pilgrims crowd the avenue fronting the church on feast days and during Lent.

Historical Significance - Cavite City
The city was founded more than four hundred years ago. It had been a significant ship port since the Spanish colonial times. Two galleons used for the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade were built at the Cavite City shipyard in the early 1600s. Two forts were also built, one of which now serves as a Philippine Navy base (Fort San Felipe). The city functioned as the provincial capital during the first half of the 20th century. The Americans established the Naval Station Sangley Point after World War II, which was heavily used as a take-off point during the Vietnam War. Sangley Base was turned over to the Philippines in the early 1970s, and is now operated by the Philippine Navy (Naval Base Heracleo Alano) and Philippine Air Force (Danilo Atienza Air Base).

Pit Stops
- Aling Ika's Carinderia, at the public market, for an incomparable bibingkoy.
- Dizon's Bakery, along Burgos Avenue near Jollibee for distinctly southern Tagalog tamales, pre-war cookies kenkoy, and the Cavite fresh cheese kasilyo.
- Asiong's Carinderia, on Paterno Street at the back of BPI on Burgos for pancit choko en su tinta, tamarind jam, buko-pandan salad and seafood adobo cooked Cavite style.
- Samala, on Padre Pio Street, for bibingkang Cavite, sapin-sapin, and pichi-pichi.
- Asao, along Burgos Avenue near McDonald's, for pancit puso.
- Fresh tahong and oysters lining the road just outside the Naval Base Heracleo Alano in Sangley Point.

Directions

From the last Bisita Iglesia church - Noveleta

About 7 kilometers north-northeast

By Private Vehicle

- Go back to the junction and go straight onto the Manila-Cavite Road. At McDonald's Cavite City turn right onto Burgos Avenue. The San Roque church is about 1 1/2 kms. away.

By Public Transportation

- Walk back to the junction and board a baby bus with the signboard Cavite City. Get off in front of Mercury Drugstore, before the bus turns right to the Cavite City public market,and walk along Burgos Avenue. The church is about 200 meters on.

From Manila

By Private Vehicle

- Cavite City is about 33 kms. out of Manila, traversing Coastal Road (Pasay City & Las Pinas), Cavitex (Manila Cavite Expressway), and the Tirona and Magdiwang Highways. At the junction just out of Cavitex turn right onto Tirona Highway, skirting the Aguinaldo House, right then left then right again onto Magdiwang Highway and on to Noveleta. After the Noveleta town hall turn right onto the Manila-Cavite Road. Stay on this road entering the Cavite City arch and passing the Julian Felipe marker to the left. At McDonald's turn right onto Burgos Avenue. The church is about 1 1/2 kms. on.

By Public Transportation

- Air-conditioned buses with the signboard Cavite City get passengers starting from Plaza Lawton (Liwasang Bonifacio) in Manila, traversing Taft Avenue, turning to Quirino Avenue, then left onto Roxas Boulevard and then on to the Coastal Road, Cavitex, and the Tirona and Magdiwang Highways. Get off at McDonald's Cavite City and board a jeep going either to PN or San Antonio. Both passes by the San Roque church.

The Other Churches in the Coastal Cavite Bisita Iglesia

St. Michael the Archangel Church, Bacoor
St. Mary Magdalene Church, Kawit
Holy Cross Church, Noveleta
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Rosario
Santa Cruz Church, Tanza

Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Church, Naic

Bisita Iglesia - Coastal Cavite - Tanza

Holy Cross Church

Calle Sta. Cruz, Tanza, Cavite

The church in Tanza sits at the end of Santa Cruz Street, fronting the small town plaza, away from the bustle of the highway where many commercial establishments and restaurants have sprouted. It is an imposing edifice in the Baroque style, the facade, like most of the churches in this Bisita Iglesia, is nondescript.

Historical Significance

Emilio Aguinaldo and Mariano Trias took their oaths as the president and vice president, respectively, of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines on March 23, 1897, in the convent of the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) church.

Seafood paella, individual portion at Calle Real Puregold

Pit Stop

A hundred meters back along Calle Sta. Cruz is the Calle Real Restaurant, which serves homey Filipino dishes and several variants of paella, including a squid ink version. Above the restaurant is a finely preserved ancestral house called Casa Tahimic, which is worth checking out.

Directions

From the last Bisita Iglesia church - Rosario
About 5 kilometers south-southwest.
By Private Vehicle
- From Rosario church turn onto Gen. Trias Drive by the municipal hall going to SM Rosario. Go straight until the Centennial Road, then turn right onto the Antero Soriano Highway. A few hundred meters on will be the Tejero bridge, after which is the Tanza public cemetery. Turn right by the yellow-walled side of the cemetery onto Calle Sta. Cruz, and go straight. The church is at the dead-end of the street.
By Public Transportation
- Walk to the front of the Rosario town plaza and board a baby bus going to Tanza. The bus goes right at the gate of the Tanza church.

From Manila
By Private Vehicle
- Tanza is about 34 kms. out of Manila, traversing Coastal Road (Pasay City & Las Pinas), Cavitex (Manila Cavite Expressway), Centennial Road (EPZA Diversion Road), and the Antero Soriano Highway. The Centennial Road ends at General Trias where it is crossed by the Gen. Trias Drive and continues as the Antero Soriano Highway. A few hundred meters after the junction is the Tejero bridge, right after which is the Tanza public cemetery. Turn right at the first corner by the side of the cemetery, which should be Calle Sta. Cruz. The Tanza church is at the dead end.
By Public Transportation
- Air-conditioned buses with signboards Naic/Ternate/Maragondon get passengers starting from Plaza Lawton (Liwasang Bonifacio) in Manila, traversing Taft Avenue, turning to Quirino Avenue, then left onto Roxas Boulevard and then on to the Coastal Road, Cavitex, Centennial Road and the Antero Soriano Highway. Get off at Calle Sta. Cruz, right at the foot of the Tejero bridge and by the Tanza public cemetery. Flag a jeep or baby bus going into Calle Sta. Cruz, which go right at the gate of the Tanza church.

The Other Churches in the Coastal Cavite Bisita Iglesia
St. Michael the Archangel Church, Bacoor
St. Mary Magdalene Church, Kawit
Holy Cross Church, Noveleta
San Roque Church (Nuestra Senora Soledad de Porta Vaga Shrine), Cavite City
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church, Rosario

Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Church, Naic

Bisita Iglesia - Coastal Cavite: Naic

Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

P. Poblete Street, Naic, Cavite

The parish church in the municipality of Naic is the largest church in the province of Cavite, and the only one built in the Neo-Gothic style. It was one of the jubilee churches in Cavite during the last Jubilee Year (2000).

It was unfortunate that when we got there the facade was undergoing a facelift, covered in a spiderweb tangle of scaffoldings. But the convent, to the church's right side, and its maginificent courtyard more than made up for our disappointment.

The convent, or at least the dining and receiving areas, had large capiz windows that were opened to let in the brisk breeze. Looking inside and seeing the waxed hardwood floors and the heavy narra furniture I felt transported to the time of panuelos and karitelas drawn over cobblestone streets.

In this convent was written the morally instructive book Urbana at Felisa (p. 1864) by the former parish priest Modesto De Castro. The book was celebrated in its time, and affords present readers with a look into nineteenth century societal structures.

The colossal stone blocks making up the outer walls belie the church's age, having been built by the Dominicans in 1796. A patio is lined with meditation benches, and surrounded by bas reliefs of all the mysteries of the holy rosary. All around flowering ornamentals explode in a riot of vibrant colors, growing lush in an arbor shading a walkway. Mayas dive and lunge from the roof, unmindful and unafraid, their ceaseless chattering joining the pigeons and hens with their broods in a rupture of joyful clamor.

Inside the church beautiful stained glass windows adorning the walls all around let in light, highlighting the elegantly carved wooden altars in the sanctuary and both sides of the transept. The reason why this is a piligrimage church need not be explained to me - I would make the journey to experience again the serenity I felt inside the church and in the convent patio.

*With a clean public CR at the convent patio.

Historical Significance

Casa Hacienda de Naic (beside the church)
- where Andres Bonifacio was tried and imprisoned
- where Emilio Aguinaldo designed his flag "Sun of Liberty," and when he became the first president this is where he established the four departments of his cabinet.

Pit Stop

Across the covered court are refreshment carts selling Naic's muche, neon orange-hued thick discs of fried rice dough filled with sweetened mashed mung beans (monggo). Nice afternoon crispy treat newly fried, but the dough tends to harden after a few hours.

Directions

From the last Bisita Iglesia church - Tanza

About 13 kilometers south-southwest.

By Private Vehicle

- From the gate of the Tanza church turn right onto San Agustin Street to go back to Antero Soriano Highway, passing by Felipe Calderon Elementary School and the Tanza National Comprehensive High School, and an Iglesia ni Cristo church.Turn right at the junction where Mc Donalds is across the street, then go straight along the highway, and onto the Naic-Ternate Road. The church is beside a covered auditorium/basketball court.

- By Public Transportation

Walk to the town plaza in front of the Tanza church and flag a jeep with the signboard Bacao-Binakayan, or a baby bus with the signboard SM Rosario/Cavite City, or tell a tricycle driver to take you to where you can catch a ride to Naic. Get off at Antero Soriano Highway (on the same side as Jollibee/Lots'a Pizza/Puregold, across the road from McDonalds), and flag a bus with the signboard Naic/Ternate/Maragondon. Towards Naic buses turn left at the junction by a Petron gas station. Get off at Petron, then board a tricycle for Naic church.

From Manila

By Private Vehicle

- Naic is 47 kms. out of Manila, traversing Coastal Road (Pasay City & Las Pinas), Cavitex (Manila Cavite Expressway), Centennial Road (EPZA Diversion Road), and the Antero Soriano Highway.

By Public Transportation

- Air-conditioned buses with signboards Naic/Ternate/Maragondon get passengers starting from Plaza Lawton (Liwasang Bonifacio), traversing Taft Avenue, turning to Quirino Avenue, then left onto Roxas Boulevard and then on to the Coastal Road, Cavitex and the Antero Soriano Highway. Get off at the fork to the Naic poblacion by a Petron gas station, then board a tricycle for the church.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Lugaw at the Office

It's been frosty at the office, not because of intrigues, but because the cold Siberian winds have weakened the sun's power at this time of the year, greatly enhancing the cooling intensity of our building's air-conditioners. There have been thick, grey clouds, too, blanketing skies for as far as we could see, that proceeded to drizzle last night.

That put us right in the mood for lugaw, delivered right to our offices smoking hot. Lugaw in the common language is the local equivalent of congee - soupy rice that is a canvas ready for swaths and slashes of contrasting and complementary flavors. There is fried minced garlic for the savory, finely sliced spring onion for spice, and sliced kalamansi for a citrusy dimension.

In our suki's vocabulary lugaw has two definitions - goto (tripe) or isaw (intestines and various offals). Both versions possessing bite, adding chewy texture to the softness of the rice porridge, but the isaw proving to be the more flavorful. Chicken arroz caldo is by special order, and requires advanced booking.

It is quite difficult eating chicken arroz caldo at the office, with small containers and plastic spoons and forks that are bound to break at the slightest try of slicing meaty chicken parts. But we order chicken lugaw more often since the average age is high, and uric acid and hypertension are big concerns. We order the chicken meat shredded, and it comes topped on the lugaw.

To ramp things up a bit for us young ones, we order a bilao of tokwa't baboy - fried squares of tofu and pork belly. This comes with a 1-liter bottle of dipping sauce - a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and minced onions. They are traditionally eaten together, but I make my lugaw lumpy and more substantial by mixing in the tokwa't baboy into my bowl. I then pour some dipping sauce over, and this produces a vinegary, sweet-salty porridge with chewy morsels.

Also delivers ginataang bilo-bilo!

Aling Baby's Lugawan

632-5700868

But I have a new favorite. It offers a choice of chicken wings or adobong atay at balun-balunan as topping to the lugaw, besides the default goto. Chicken wings are more skin and bones, but adobo on lugaw was an eye-popping revelation. But then it shouldn't have come as a surprise, since it is quite difficult to eat adobo without rice, and this is is just a soupy version.

As it goes, all lugaw orders from any lugawan comes with garlic, spring onions and kalamansi. This lugaw goes further in the congee route by providing chili oil. Which heats up things a bit more. Tokwa't baboy can also be ordered separately, plus boiled eggs are available, priced per piece.

Since Lent is fast approaching, I'll be okay with eating lugaw at the office regularly, even if the cold disappears. But then it won't be penitence with these.

JEJ Lugawan

63-917-7337637

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Thursday, February 07, 2013

Hometown Fiesta 2013

After many, many long years, I was back in my hometown in time to witness this year’s fiesta celebrations. I haven’t experienced the town fiesta ever since I went to college, mainly because it was on fixed dates and was never moved to weekends. This year it fell on a Tuesday, but I was home because I had to accompany a balikbayan relative who attended her high school class’ 50^th year reunion.

And so for the first time I experienced Balikbayan Night, which has been celebrated annually for as long as I can remember, but of course it had always been an inaccessible event. Not that I coveted to participate – there were at least three nights of baile during the fiesta, and they were attended by people generations removed from mine. And music was provided by live orchestras whose entire repertoires came from the eras of my grandparents and beyond.

Much to my surprise, food was served for all the returning natives and their company. I don’t know if this had been a long-time practice, and I wonder where the funds came from, since the balikbayans, for once, weren’t charged a registration fee.

The food was simple, and just enough to refresh after the exhibition of antics on the dance floor. While the drums and the trombones of the live orchestra boomed and echoed throughout the town auditorium, uniformed servers circled tables with plates of fried, salted peanuts, flavored Calasiao puto which I found thoughtful, and sliced suman. The big news was, there was lechon.

But the even bigger news was, the lechon was amazingly, gorgingly good. A chopping table was staged at the back, from where issued plates heaped with squares of lean and tender meat topped with thin, crispy skin. Each piece was garlicky and succulent. The baile started at 8PM, so we had dinner at home and were still full by the time the refreshments were served. But we couldn't help but eat, and eat, the lechon, and eyed regretfully what we couldn’t finally take in, left coagulating in fat in the cool evening air.

Suddenly I found I harbored respect for the organizers of the event, overlooking the fact that they campaigned for the upcoming elections right then and there even though the campaign period was still months away. And I smirked at my relative who was called, along with all the balikbayans, to march all around the auditorium and come up to the stage to shake hands with the local officials.

At dawn the following day a mute procession of santos from the town’s barangay chapels wound its way around the streets of the poblacion. Flickering amber rays from a multitude of candles barely pierced that thick black darkness just before sunrise, flinging shadows like ebony puppets.

Just three hours later, in the full brightness of sunshine, came the town parade, tracing the same route. It was a long one, with all the government officials and public school teachers, though all the ones I knew weren’t there anymore. To my amusement, innumerable elementary and high school drum and lyre bands, marching on every two minutes or so along the parade, provided lively cacophony. They came in colorful satin costumes, dragging along drums and xylophones bigger than they were.

There were bigger ates and kuyas from the invited (hired, most probably) drum and bugle corps of several colleges in the province. After the parade I dragged my relative back to the auditorium to watch the exhibition pieces of these DBCs. I wanted to see particularly the exhibition by the band from the Virgen Milagrosa University in San Carlos City, which had won, in my teens, national championships for years in a row.

We could hear the music from the house, but I wanted to see, because the DBCs do not just play music - they perform to it, too. Unlike the live orchestra of the night before which had a gaggle of slinky-dressed girls barely into their teens cavorting in front of the musicians, the DBCs had the musicians themselves cavorting around the now covered auditorium.

VMU was as good as ever, playing “in” tunes, including the inescapable Gangnam, as well as melodies my mother had sung to. The fast numbers were choreographed, with quite a few changes in formation.

Like my balikbayan, I’m glad I went. And now, having lived in several places, I realize the way we celebrate fiesta is quite distinct. I noted before that I was perplexed that in Cavite several fiestas were observed in a year, because in my hometown there is that one single, but over-the-top, observance. It was a discovery for me to know that my hometown fiesta – a commemoration of the town’s patron saint in thanksgiving and supplication, so is mainly a religious event – has been embraced by the local government and has made it also its own, staging around it secular events.

So the several nights of baile – socialization for the 73 barangay kapitans and their sanggunian, the balikbayan night, climaxing towards the town parade and the main baile that ends with a pageant of the town’s fairests. A fair with games and rides is set up on government land two months before the fiesta, and stays there for a month more afterwards. Without these the fiesta would be a very sedate affair, with only the silent dawn procession and a mass officiated by the archbishop of Lingayen, who then confirms the baptisms of the past year.

We are religious to some degree, but I don’t think we would have come home to pay homage to our patron saint, who is not that very well known. So it’s a good thing there is no separation of God and state in my hometown’s case. It has always been, and remains a good excuse to meet with long-seen relatives and friends and schoolmates, be entertained, and together eat long-missed food.

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Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Chewy Balls

Happy New Year 2013!

Chewy Junior Minis

*Small chewy balls of rice and flour dough, filled and topped with a variety of flavors and choice ingredients. Satistifies the requirements for sticky and round.