Filed under: essay, food, personal essay, points of view and perspective, Uncategorized | Tags: adobo, catfish nuggets, Chinatown, food substitutes, tinolang manok, Vancouver
We haven’t taken the hour-long journey to Hen Long in nearby Surrey for quite a while, hence, missing how with a thick body-rope of Filipinos and other Asians, we would furiously navigate the knotty sprawl of bins and baskets that overflow with what seem like gems to our wistful, nay, greedy eyes, as friends had assured us—they who, we’d bump into, with a ‘high five,’ and a high-pitched, “Nandito ka rin!”
Akin to a pilgrimage, as Rose promised, I think it’s how Hen Long felt like—the oh-so-missed palengke we’ve all grown up with, which drew us paradise-like. Indeed, as home recedes farther, longing for food made from Saturday rituals of trudging say, to Sta Mesa’s wet market sharpens, like my sister, who would go straight to her suki for fresh-caught tilapia from Bulacan and just-that-morning gathered tahong from Cavite. And so, with innate primal sensory senses, she had tracked down not substitutes but the real thing before I got here to Vancouver.
I thought I had the upper hand in sourcing what would bring out something like genuine dishes from home, having visited and stayed those years, when I dared to enroll in writing courses at New York University’s Continuing Education programs and apprenticed with an editorial outfit for children’s supplementary reading workbooks. I discovered then, substitutions for say, tinolang manok with zucchini in place of murang papaya and hardy Italian spinach for dahong sili; in the absence of gabi for thickening, I used tofu for sinigang na ulo ng salmon, again with Italian spinach, finding nowhere in the neighborhood produce stores, talbos or pechay.
During Lent, searching for fish other than cod fillet, I had imagined I would find catfish, served as blackened fillet in restaurants, but like most fish here in North America, by the time it gets to the shelves, it’s unrecognizable filleted sans whiskers and skin. Diligent poking though among frozen bags had rewarded me with catfish nuggets, and of the best part—its belly, out of which I used to cook adobo that would last through the fasting season.
None of that for my sister, who, like most Filipinos, would not compromise the taste she remembers. Hence, we would train up to far north Surrey and walk a half-mile from the station to Hen Long market. What joy, indeed, to find fresh saluyot and malunggay leaves for dinengdeng (Ilocano abraw), thin eggplants and small ampalaya for pakbet, sometimes though limp and already brownish in the tips, sayote tops, as well, Manila clams and even paros or unnok among Ilocanos, and cuts for dinuguan with, of course, the essential dugo, pinapaitan, including the greenish papait juice.
But here’s the rub: Such bliss proves costly and why not, as one store manager in the small produce store a block away from home to whom I had complained about the $4 per pound mango from Cebu blurted out, “It was flown on a Boeing 747!” A thin bunch of malunggay leaves, for another, neatly bagged in transparent plastic, still green to the eye—but which when taken out would fall like confetti—costs almost enough to buy a kilo of rice in Manila. Sayote tops because of their limited shelf life would be as pricey as a kilo of beef from a karnehan in Quiapo.
Was it BC Premiere Christy Clark’s visit to Manila, which brought about an inundation of Philippine food in Vancouver, perhaps? We haven’t gone to Hen Long for a while (now housed in its own spanking grand plaza), it’s at T&T, a giant Asian grocery and produce market irresistibly located at our train stop close to home, where we’ve found the same eden; why wouldn’t we drop by almost daily even just to browse shelves with Saranggani bangus and tilapia cheeks, frozen gabi, saba, patani, kinudkod na kamoteng kahoy, laman ng buko, Pampanga tocino, Ilocano longganisa even Magic Melt ensaymada, Selecta and Magnolia ice cream.
Sure, haven’t we, as Filipinos, long adapted to other cuisines, not to mention what’s Hispanic and Chinese in our food, introduced to Italian and even French dining, as well as not too long ago, Japanese and Middle Eastern? I remember the burgers we loved as university students at the corner of Avenida and Claro M. Recto, but soon came McDonald’s. Long before the pizza chain conquest of Manila, D’Mark’s served what seemed closest to what we now bite into. Still, deep in our nests, the yearning for food with which we were brought up continues to rumble through our dreams.
Three weeks ago on a deep bin at T&T, along with Mexican papayas and Chinese pomelos, there gleamed big guayabano packs, to my slight dismay from Thailand; anyhow, though priced like two sushi dinners, my sister bought one for me, and frozen saba for her. On reaching home, we chewed on our memories, wordless in thought. And then, somehow reality sneaked in unbidden with a string of reklamo: The guayabano tasted too bread-y, and the saba not maligat. We stopped there and fell into what felt obvious—how is it ever possible to implant home in another hemisphere, anyway?
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Filed under: essay, history, Uncategorized | Tags: American regime, Filipinos, land bridges, Madjapahit empire, martial law, migrations, people's revolution, Spnaish colonization
Filipinos trace their beginnings to waves of migration that happened in the Indo-Pacific, the last of which were Indo-Malay influx into the northern coastlines. Earlier though, geological events that resulted in the changes of land masses, as well as the appearance and disappearance of land bridges also form part of their origins. Anthropological studies show that small mountain-dwelling tribes akin to the aborigines of Australia called aetas in the Philippines
Colonization
Magellan landed in 1521 in one of the islands mid-south, called Limasawa where he planted the Cross and celebrated the first holy mass. Colonization and conversion hardly advanced with him as a battle of resistance led by a chieftain, Lapu-lapu, felled him on the seashore while trying to get back to his boat. It took another fifty years for the conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi to re-establish Spanish rule and to confirm the naming of the islands after Felipe II (King Philip), then the reigning monarchy. This, he did in Manila on the ashes of a vanquished native fort Datu Sulayman ruled by the banks of the Pasig River
Intramuros, Walled City of Manila
On a piece of land that jutted on the mouth of the river, the Spaniards built Intramuros, a medieval walled city, declaring Manila the capital of the islands in 1571. In here arose the seat of the colonial government, of religion and learning. Inside what is barely 7 kilometers of walls, there were 16 churches including a cathedral, several gothic shrines, and some small chapels inside of convents and schools. Secular orders founded schools and seminaries, building them in Intramuros. The oldest university in Asia
Colonial Rule
Spain ruled the islands through Mexico
While agricultural economy hardly advanced in Spanish times, farming developed to a certain extent with some kind of boost which came by way of new decrees on land ownership in the mid-18th century—an attempt by the colonial regime to increase production and hasten the conversion of the Chinese immigrants. This gave rise to a landed middle class. From this class would emerge an intelligentsia schooled in Europe and who brought back home ideas of freedom that swept France in the late 18th century. Jose Rizal, the Philippines
Spanish colonial towns and lifestyle
The missionaries also converted native rituals of harvesting, fishing, and honoring the dead into religious feasts. Depending on the livelihood of the towns, the Spaniards chose a patron saint to be honored during these feasts. The natives were then encouraged to offer their produce to God through the intercession of such a saint. The feasts, called fiesta, were spectacles of religious processions, and community dancing and singing. Families gathered with especial dishes; their homes were decked with their produce made into craft objects. Such feasts are celebrated to this day.
The Philippine Revolution
American colonization happened with hardly any resistance. The Philippines had just gained independence from Spain in the 1898 Revolution. It turned out that Emilio Aguinaldo, one of the insurrectionists who won among the other revolutionary leaders had secretly sought American assistance in Hongkong; the US was engaged in the Spanish-American War then being waged in Cuba. Two years later, the Americans took over the islands after the Battle of Manila Bay described by historians as nothing more than a mock fight. A revolution broke out shortly after the establishment of the regime but it was short lived. In Mindanao
American Rule
America ruled the islands as a colony from 1900 until 1934, when it granted the Philippines a self-governing status as a Commonwealth. Where public health and education almost came to a standstill during the Spanish times, the US
Among the most significant reforms in government rule the Americans initiated was the separation of the church and state. A number of religious landholdings were taken over and distributed to tenants. It was also during this regime when a schism led by nationalists in the clergy happened in the Catholic Church; they founded and established the Philippine Independent Church or Aglipayan church named after their leader. With the coming of the Americans, Protestant churches started to abound.
Philippine Independence
Four years later than promised by the law that granted it commonwealth status, the Philippines gained its independence on July 4, 1946
Martial Law and onward
The world-renown Marcos regime gave the country a semblance of political stability. Under martial law that lasted from 1972 to 1981, the Philippines emerged as a leader in Southeast Asia
Miracles: Only Hope for Filipinos
Copyright 2007 by Alegria Imperial, unpublished essay, 2007