The Quarantined Life: Missing Silay City's Kakanin!

(Yummy delicacies galore!😍)

One morning, a month before this awful pandemic, I got up early just as the sun was peeping through the eastern horizon of Negros Island here in the Philippines.

And my reason for waking up early?

(Purple-colored puto lanson and 

kalamay-hati wrapped in banana leaves)

To visit Silay City, the home of my favorite delicacies ever since my palate learned how to savor and enjoy dulce gatas, salab, fresh lumpia, puto lanson, bitso-bitso and other yummy snacks that Tia Bodók carried on her wide winnowing basket! 

Silay is a charming city in Negros Occidental in the Philippines that proudly celebrates its own gastronomic heritage!

When I was still in grade school, Tia Bodók was the vendor from Silay City who roamed my neighborhood in Victorias and singlehandedly introduced the flavors of Silay when she came to town during weekdays. 

(Colored puttu, or puto)

Schools and offices were open during the week and it was during these days that her delicacies sold out before lunch time and she could go back home to Silay to probably nap the whole afternoon.😄 

It was a long time ago; dear Tia Bodók must have passed since. It's sad I never knew her real name. I guess, as a kid, my attention was always on her yummy snacks all the time.😭

 (Combô or banana slices fried in batter, leftmost,

 turon in the middle and bitso-bitso on the right)

(Turon is golden banana slices, wrapped and then bathed in caramelized brown sugar!)

On that day when I made the trip, I thought of Tia Bodók and the daily bus rides she made to get to Victorias along with the delicacies that were prepared by Silaynons for the enjoyment of their neighbors, the Victoriahanons. 

 (White and purple puttu!)

(Bitso-bitso!)

And during this quarantine period, I have been deprived of those delicacies as vendors could not source kakanin from the Silay City Public Market as people from other towns could not get into the market. There was no public transport available, too.

           (A tourist eyeing his favorite delicacies)

(Out-of-towners visiting the kakanin stalls 
inside Silay City Public Market)

But hopefully, when the restrictions are lifted and I am able to travel to Silay City with my face mask, hand sanitizers and excitement, I could get inside the Silay City Public Market again and get myself those yummy Silaynon delicacies to enjoy! 😀

Let the countdown begin!😎

The Green Miles

I have been wandering around a lot lately, walking for miles as I trailed the parish team as they distributed food packs to the families living in the outskirts of the city. And since it's the dry season in the Philippines, we enjoyed lots of sunshine and blue skies with the bonus of the inspiring color of the countryside: green!🍏

Yes, everywhere my camera and I turned, we were treated to the hues of lime, seaweed, mint, olive and those that remind you of the richness of the soil and the productive hands that grow, nurture and harvest the fruits of the sun, land and water.🌞

A few times, I stumbled upon plantations of fruit-bearing trees which reminded me of the santol and mango orchard of Lola Tinay at her Hacienda Malogo as well as the rambutan trees of Tita Lud at Hacienda Dapdap, where branches of the fruit tree dangled next to her balcony so she could just pick a few whenever she wanted. No need to climb. 😊

Lola Tinay's santol trees were probably of a different variety as the fruits were reachable by adults and huge! I remember we brought home lots of them in crates and took us days to finish! 🍊

When I was still in grade school, our teacher made us understand that we, in the Philippines, are lucky because our land is very fertile. We could just throw seeds anywhere and plants would grow, he said. Desert countries, compared to us, were not as lucky.

He was right but it seems we take it for granted. We instead abuse, neglect, exploit and ruin our environment like we wouldn't someday suffer the consequence of our poor decisions.

But as I continue to roam and enjoy the breezes and colors of the countryside, I hope generations after me will be able to do the same: to walk and appreciate the green miles. 🍀 

Ensaimadas, Flies, And The Eleventh Plague

Four mornings ago, I bought these mongo-ensaimadas from a local bakery where I specifically asked the tindera (saleslady) to get me the ones buried under the bulk believing that the flies swarming inside their crystal estante (yes, the flies were inside already having breakfast ahead of the customers!) have not licked them yet. Before packing them, she bathed the ensaimadas with margarine and sugar.

I noticed that the whole bakery and the commercial spaces selling food stuff in the area were all swarmed with flies, which momentarily led me to think I was in Egypt and experiencing first-hand the Fourth Plague sent as punishment by God.

But I immediately realized there were no pyramids around me and the tindera never had the semblance of Cleopatra, although I felt like the Pharaoh who had to go out of my palace in order to buy bread after having lost all my slaves to Moses. 😂 

So, after paying 25 pesos for two mongo-ensaimadas, I walked towards the direction of the Nile River to visit another bakery which, I found out, was also swarmed with local flies. From there, I got me another kind of bread - pan de sal, or bread of salt, at five pesos each and whose sizes I liked better than those costing two pesos because they were bigger and you could spread your butter on a wider surface. This bakery had smaller, pocket estantes where flies had difficulty squeezing in and I observed their tinderas were diligently shooing flies away from the food, unlike the first bakery where flies seemed to be treated as part of the family. 😝

After getting home on foot (I had no chariot since I lost all my slaves and don't know how to drive one), I microwaved the two ensaimadas. But after inspecting a small black spot that I initially thought to be mongo (mung bean), I realized the bean had wings!

Ang ensaimada may pa-aman nga langaw!😡

A fly went home with me!😱

I put the warmed ensaimadas back to the white plastic bag, got on with breakfast and enjoyed the pan de sal instead. And in between bites of the bread with butter and sips of hot coffee, I put myself in the sandals of the Pharaoh and devised a plan on how to tackle this plague.

By mid-morning, I was making calls to the Office of the Mayor to ask which department was in charge of the dirty city's sanitation and of establishments selling flies as foodstuff.

On my first call to the City Health Department using the number I was given, my conversation with a lady, whom I presumed to be a nurse, went nowhere because she told me I was calling 'Maternity'. So, I then thought she was a midwife or she was a pregnant woman who happened to pick up the phone. Maybe she was waiting for her water to break and was just bored, so she made herself useful by answering the phone intended as a Covid-19 hotline.

In the end, when she realized she couldn't help me, she suggested that I visit the City Health Department and speak in person with the doctor in charge. And that was when I had to scold her: 

"Ayta. Pakudtu-on mo pa ko dirâ kag e-expose sa mga kagaw niyo? Ano pulos sang telepono?"

"Geez. You want me to go there and expose myself to all your viruses? What's the use of phones?" 

The midwife or the pregnant woman, or whoever she was, gave me the phone number of the doctor in charge. Unfortunately, again, 'the doctor is out' - the same words you'd read at his clinic door. His staff told me that he was at a bloodletting event at Barangay 1 in search of blood and probably a nice, free lunch as well.

I then gave the staff the details she needed to know: bakery with flies, ensaimada with a fly, and swarming flies all over the commercial area. And the most important details: my name and my cellphone number.

Yes, I expected the city government to call me back to tell me how they acted on the health concerns I just brought to their attention. (As of this writing, 72 hours since my call, I never received a word from the head of the City Health Department).

That afternoon at around 5, chariot-less but still disappointed, I went back to the bakery and told the owner and his tindera that one of their flies went home with my ensaimadas. I was expecting a profuse apology but instead, he just offered me to refund my 25 pesos or have another bread with the exact value in return.

They almost fed me with a fly, I had to make a trip back to their bakery just to return the dirtied bread, and yet this is the best they could do? 😡

If I were the Pharaoh, other than losing a customer for life, he'd lose his head on the spot and his tindera would be buried alive next to him. I figured he'd need someone to bake him ensaimadas in the afterlife.😹 

And since I didn't want to receive a paper bill or coins, which might have been coated with germs, sugar grains and margarine, I chose to receive masa podrida instead.

At five pesos each, I was handed a pack of five masa podrida that also had been licked by flies. I could see there were still flies inside their crystal estante enjoying all the bread on display. There were no more mongo-ensaimada; they all must have been sold already to customers along with a few flies. 

Mongo-ensaimadas with a fly exchanged with masa podrida licked by flies. How considerate of them. 😠

I didn't bring home the podridas, by the way. I gave them to a neighbor who didn't know about the story, or about the flies that licked the bread.😂

I waited three days - the period when total darkness covered Egypt because of the Ninth Plague - for me to write about this blog. If Egypt had ten plagues, mine's the eleventh: poor government service and even poorer customer service.😡

It's about the local government that doesn't care about sanitation and health of the locals, and the businesspeople who don't care about the cleanliness of the food they sell as long as they make money out of it.

Now, where can I get mongo-ensaimadas with no flies? 😄

Oh, Venus!

When you look to the west at sunset, she's the brightest in the sky.

She claims her place in the universe like a goddess that she is.

In the order of things in God's infinite creation, she's only matched by our home planet and a few beautiful comets that visit us once in our short lifetimes.

That is Venus.

The brightest white dot in the western skies at sunset.

When we all pass, she'll still be there, claiming that corner of the sky and reminding us that, from being dusts from the stars, we all became her audience.

PS. 'Venus', that white dot in the photograph, allowed me to capture her presence and beauty at the night sky one evening in May 2020 using my old, reliable Canon.

Like the goddess of beauty, she fascinated me with her charm from 56 million kilometers away. 😀

Sancta Maria, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus: Procession of Our Lady of Victory

That is the line in the prayer Ave Maria or Hail Mary that speaks of absolute desperation, begging the Mother of God for an intercession. 

Ave Maria, gratia plena

The Latin words "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis peccatoribus" translate to "Holy Mary, pray for us sinners...", and these are the words that hold the main intention of the prayer - the same words recited throughout one solemn procession held on April 26, 2020.

On that day, the Our Lady of Victory Parish  celebrated the Feast of the Nuestra Señora de Las Victorias in Victorias City, Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, with a somber procession throughout the small city.

 Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus

At the break of the dawn of her Feast that fittingly fell on a Sunday, the image of the Virgin was carried on a carroza pulled by the parish lay ministers and accompanied only by Rev. Fr. Rafael Baja, parish priest, and Rev. Fr. Vince Camarines, parochial vicar, in compliance with the government's policies on enhanced community quarantine and social distancing.

Throughout the procession, the 'Ave Maria', appropriately sung by a woman, was played as a prayer for Our Lady's intercession in this very difficult time of the corona virus pandemic.

     Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus

Days before the procession, the parishioners were advised that no one was allowed to join the procession. Instead, they were asked to light candles by their windows, doorsteps, and gates where the procession would pass.

And on that cloudy morning, early in the procession, sprinkles of rain came down from the heavens as if to mirror the tears that fell from the eyes of those who witnessed the procession and realized that the the Mother of God has always been there for them, not only in times of prosperity and joy, but especially in their hour of pain and suffering.

             Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, 
ora pro nobis peccatoribus

My mother, who watched the procession from a balcony and accompanied by a lighted, red candle, could not hold back tears at the sight of the Virgin passing, ushered with Ave Maria, a song she knew very well.

The procession followed the traditional path of the 14 Stations of the Cross for the Good Friday passage, and when it reached the highly residential side of the town, the atmosphere became more somber as more sad faces greeted the Virgin's image with tears. Even the elderly, who were supposed to be on quarantine, were on the streets, defying manmade commands just to see and seek the divine.

             Nunc, et in hora mortis nostrea

As the procession passed the gates of the prison compound, it paused for a while to enable the inmates, who could be seen from behind the locked gates craning their necks and grasping the cold steel bars that held them back, to get a glimpse of the Virgin and to be able to hear a few words of the Ave Maria from where they were. 

They, too, needed to see and feel Her presence because, no matter what misdeeds they have done and no matter how low society has judged them, they are also God's children and are the ones who needed Her help the most.

And even though the solemn procession has ended and Her feast day has passed, praying for our Mother's intercession should continue..."now and at the hour of death". 

                                   Amen.🙏

                                    * * *