The Philippine Online Chronicles

I grew up in Tondo, at the back of Rizal Elementary School on Tayuman, where three eskinitas intersected with the main road, Arqueros Street, which is where we lived. When I was a child, there was an old woman who lived in one of those eskinitas, who was well known in the neighborhood because she put up a table at the eskinita corner and sold native kakanin, puto and sapin sapin and ginatang alpahol to the school children who came out the back gates at recess and going home times. She was known as Aling Goring and I don’t remember much about her now, except that on very hot days, she sold halo halo. I used to go and watch her make kaskas hielo with an old fashioned iron ice shaver, and if I had 20 cents with me, I would buy a glass of halo-halo. There was gulaman in it, and mongo and beans and stuff, sometimes even a piece of langka or saging na saba and Alaska evaporated milk or something and it was good. I don’t try to remember anymore where the glasses were washed or if they were washed at all; that was a long time ago.

Last year I came home for my high school alumni Golden Jubilee. I attended a lot of socials, went out to dinner several times, and twice had lunch at Saisaki, strolling over to the Kamayan area for dessert, passing over the leche flan and other native sweets, going direct to the matamis na saging with cracked ice, which you don’t see at all in Melbourne or Sydney. And as always, I looked in wonder at the halo-halo counter with the big sign advertising 17 different halo – more bang for your buck – a far cry from Aling Goring’s halo-halo in the dodgy glasses.

I also spent a lot of time nostalgizing with old classmates, so many of whom, like me, now live in other countries. It was then I realized that our food tastes, like our music, like even the way we pick clothes combinations, really date us. It dawned on us all that we of our generation are stuck with hopelessly politically incorrect food fantasies.

We talked of the food we ingested in the old days, in the time before Via Mare and new age Pinoy cuisine. Much of it has been banished from today’s food stalls and restaurants but we recalled them with pleasure and wistfulness – stuff we used to wolf down without second thoughts, stuff now regretfully foregone in the cold light of diabetes and cholesterol and gout, not to mention the universal Pinoy ailment -- highblood na alta presyon.

How much sodium did we actually ingest ? Never mind – it tastes better in retelling - like manggang hilaw with bagoong, sliced papaya with heko, chicharong bulaklak, adobong balun-balunan, deep-fried day-old chicks, penoy/balut, chicharong baboy, burong talangka, bulalo, longganizang Baguio (puro taba), tocinong Kapampangan (puro salitre), La Paz batchoy (which includes chunks of lechon de leche and crispy chicharon), lechon macao (lechon kawali), bitukang asado, aligi ng alimango, chicharong balat ng manok, kinilaw na tuna, Chinese ham for Christmas, real Anchor butter, marca Pato queso de bola and lately, adobong balut, sisig and crispy crablet with ice cold San Mig.

One of my classmates, a lady journalist, mused about traditional food combinations – she referred to “food in binary pairs.” Oh yes - I couldn’t possibly explain the rationale to my foreign friends but there they were - mami & siopao, champurado & tuyo, pandesal & karne norte, hot chocolate & churros, mangga at suman, sinangag & paksiw na isda, kari kari & kilawin, sinigang & adobo, pancit & fried lumpia, tokwa at baboy, gulaman at sago, macapuno over halayang ube and of course that famous Pinoy breakfast trifecta: tapsilog. That last one has apparently been affected by the economic downturn and food shortages; returning Pinoy vacacionistas assure me that tapsilog is long gone, there's only, ahem, pakaplog. That's pandesal, kape at itlog, the poor man's breakfast. You go to the restaurant and ask the waitress: Miss, pakaplog nga. Har de har har!

Our generation is also hopelessly Americanized, thus: bread & butter, bagel & cream cheese, burger & fries, fish & chips, bacon & eggs, hotcakes & maple syrup, pork & beans, roast beef & gravy ---- even the diet food: soup & salad, fruit & cheese platter, etc. Elvis Presley's favorite food remains the stuff of legend: fried peanut butter & sliced banana sandwich.

Here is my own list of where to find the best food in Manila of our time:

Mami / siopao - Ma Mon Luk, Quezon Blvd., Quiapo

Siopao asado - Maxim's restaurant, C. M. Recto Ave.

Turon saging with langka - the sidewalk vendors outside UE on C. M. Recto Ave.

Bibingka - Ferino's, Juan Luna St., Pritil, Tondo

Halo-halo - the food section, Central Market, Quiapo,

Hopia - Chinese bakery on Echague St., Quiapo

Native merienda - Little Quiapo restaurant, C. M. Recto Ave., near U.E.

Fried chicken - Max's - Dewey Blvd., Baclaran

Fried lumpia - Max's - Greenbelt, Makati

Barbecue - Kundangan Café, corner Juan Luna and C.M. Recto in Divisoria

Barbecue (2) - Jack’s Place, Grace Park near Monumento

Chicken barbecue w/ Java rice - The Aristocrat, Dewey Blvd.

Chicharon - Asia Chicharon in front of FEU

Foot long hot dog - Brown Derby, Quezon City

Ho to tay soup - Hen Wah Restaurant, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz

Shrimp sandwich - La Perla Restaurant, Bustillos St., Sta. Cruz

Comida China - Panciteria Moderna, Sta. Cruz

Chinese take-out - Panciteria Wa Nam, Binondo

Chinese lauriat - Panciteria San Jacinto, Binondo

Cheeseburger - Tropical Hut, San Juan

Ice cream sundae - Milky Way, A. Mabini, Malate

Sweet spaghetti - Makati Supermarket coffee shop, Makati

Beef longganiza with rice - Ambos Mundos Restaurant, Sta. Cruz

Longganiza in pan de sal - UP Basement Cafeteria, Diliman

Macaroni salad with ham - UE Student Canteen,

Fried egg and giniling sandwich - sidewalk vendors outside Jai Alai, Taft Avenue

Food fashions come and go and sometimes they never come back.  I think we've seen the last of the arroz ala cubana (fried egg and giniling) rolls sold outside Jai Alai on Taft Avenue, simply because Jai Alai itself is gone. There was also a time when the best afternoon snack in Quiapo was the small compact Chinese lumpia rolls with grated peanuts available at hole-in-the-wall stalls near the corner of Raon and Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo.  They're gone now.

And yet, and yet ... Visiting my old home community at BF Homes in Las Pinas, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the jingling of the bell heralding the sorbetero.  Hooray for good old fashioned dirty ice cream! Wasn't it Celeste Legaspi who sang that famous jingle song to her 'Mamang Sorbetero, tayo'y sumabay?'  And if the sorbetero comes, can the taho vendor be far behind? Some things never change -- isn't that great?

Flying back to Melbourne, I amused myself wondering how to educate my vegetarian Indian and Sri Lankan friends about my generation's eating habits in the Philippines. Jumbo hot dog on a stick.  Deep fried breaded pork chops.  How their eyeballs would roll!

And in the old country, we all have to uphold the dietary traditions.  Baby boomers and old timers, teach your children well! Buy a kilo of duhat, spread salt, put in a box and shake well.  (Abroad, we do the same with cherries.) Do children nowadays know the taste of pandesal with matamis na bao? Do people still spread condensed milk on a piece of toast?  It would be reassuring if that was still on. Munggo and yellow beans and red and green gulaman -- the poor man's halo-halo.  Still around?  Then all is well in the Philippines; the rest is just politics.

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