Innumerable Filipinos migrate to work abroad for greener pastures where some eventually become permanent residents. Members of this Filipino diaspora, such as ourselves, are called balikbayan, formed by joining balik, meaning return, and bayan, meaning town or country, whenever we go to the Philippines for a visit.
Reunion
My brother and his family decided to go home for a vacation after 3 years. So my daughter and I intended to coincide our time off with theirs so we could all get together. We came home a day earlier, but as soon as they touched down, we immediately went for a family lunch.
I insisted the Buffalo Wild Wings at Conrad Manila, in spite of my brother's refusal N times, for few apparent reasons:
One, it has a gaming station which the kids could wallow in. True enough, as soon as they got in, the boys immediately fiddled with the joystick demanding passwords and such as if they owned the place. Good thing, the staff were so accommodating and tolerant of them;
Two, it has a vast selection of buffalo wings sauces - from mild to blazin‘ spicy, from citrus to flavours I couldn't remember;
And the last but not least, the pretzel is soft, warm and goes well with its caramel and cheese dips!
For a party of 13 tired and sleep-deprived people, we came, we sat and devoured what the servers put on the table. I just turned my head for one second and poof, the food was gone!
The indelible segment of this mEATing (meeting + eating) was when we’re looking for the parking space and the youngest in the family, Gab, baffled everyone with a question“is that a mango tree?” To chronicle this boo-boo, we posed beneath the coconut tree pointing to its drupes. That's what the sand dunes of the UAE could do to a Dubai-born-and-raised kid, which of course was inexcusable.
After lunch, we parted ways as my brother and his family would be going to Mindoro for their much needed retreat in the lush greenery of his wife's family farm, which seemed an opportune time to acquaint his kids with various life forms other than camels and date palms.
Cravings and Food Crawls
The good and bad thing about coming home was the relentless food crawls to satisfy the cravings we'd been having for months or years even.
After a chore necessitated a quick trip to Makati, we stopped by Amber’s, home of the original pancit malabon and delicious pichi-pichi, the tagline claimed, to take out for dinner, which we asked the oldies to model to make those, and I meant my brother's family who were still on the road, salivate. And who wouldn't? There's a distinct aroma of Filipino barbecue that’s mouth-watering and simply irresistible.
We continued our food crawl trying exotic fruits and dishes during our Sojourn in Davao. Cacao Davao was remarkably good; we even travelled far for the ultimate Malagos Chocolate indulgence. And when we got back from our separate trips, the family dining escapaeds resumed .
Our food porn probably worked, because as soon as my sister-in-law, Maris, got back from Mindoro, she asked where we could eat pancit malabon, thick rice noodles with yellow-orange sauce attributable to shrimp broth and achuete/annatto seeds, and so I gladly led the way to a kiosk at the Mall of Asia.
Pancit ng taga Malabon, yup that's the name of the food stall not to be confused with the food itself, paired it with puto calasiao, bite-sized cakes made of fermented semi-glutinous rice. It was previously white but now they opted for the brown sugar, sweeter variation. It satisfied the cravings but I still prefer the white one though.
In between errands, we managed to arrange a simple get-together to pre-celebrate our mom's birthday. Our relatives from the nearby districts braved the heavy rains and flooded streets to meet us up at Cafe Mary Grace for merienda, a light meal to fill the gap between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. Common fare are breads and pastries coupled with either a cold or hot drink.
There's a variety of baked goodies to choose from but what caught my attention was their Grilled Ensaymada. I haven't tried one before so it's about time to have a bite. It's the same soft buttery bread but with the aroma of burnt cheese. Its slight saltiness was a perfect match to the sweetness of Mary Grace Hot Chocolate – in fact dubbed as the Mary Grace tandem.
The hot chocolate was a delightful surprise! It were as if Chocolate Eh (pronounced as tso-ko-la-te eh!), the controversial drink in Jose Rizal’s satirical novel Noli Me Tangere, was brought to life to a nicety. Short for Chocolate Espeso, it was wittingly used to depict power (and the abuse of) and partiality. No matter what the political agenda was, I must admit I would give in to this rich and thick chocolate goodness.
On Sunday, we went to the church in Imus to attend the morning service and travelled 2 hours or so to attend the evening service in Sta. Ana. As crazy as it sounded, we also needed to get our laundry done, which we managed to put in the washer in between the 2 services. To beat the laundry shop's closing time, my daughter and I went off in the middle to cut the service, like students cutting classes.
Knowing that it would take them a while at church, we decided to have our dinner by ourselves. The Coffee Library, which we haven't tried before, was empty yet inviting. My daughter had always been craving for adobo, the unofficial national dish of the country. In her own words, it’s the best tasting adobo she has had in restaurants.
I opted for kare-kare amidst having it for lunch, which was watery by the way so I was hoping to get rid of the aftertaste with a good, if not a better recipe. My plate came with fried pork belly topped with a chunky peanut sauce. It's their way of taking it up a notch, but sadly my palate didn't agree.
Pasalubong & Pabili
The day in the life of a balikbayan does not only include overeating; there's shopping spree too!
It was raining cats and dogs in Metro Manila, but whenever the sky stopped pouring hard, we ran to the nearest mall to buy stuff we needed to bring back - pasalubong, pabili and whatnot.
Pasalubong are gifts to friends back at the base, which could be as simple as a snack or nibbles you have tried and liked during your short break to accessories and blings you picked from souvenir shops during your trip. Pabili are items friends asked you to buy for them not necessarily free of charge which could eventually be gifts as well. More than little errands that a balikbayan squeezed into his or her tight schedule and limited baggage allowance to accommodate requests from and for friends.
Family Wanderlust
Whenever there’s a balikbayan in a family, outings are expected as means of spending time together, forcing other members to unwind and sightseeing, all at once.
In time for our mom’s birthday, we went for a road trip to Bataan, passing by the historical Mount Samat, the site of the most vicious battle of Filipino and American soldiers against the Japanese in 1942, to the heritage resort in Bagac, where we had a glimpse of the old Filipinas in Our Las Casas Story.
We continued to our hometown in Zambales to breathe in the tranquility of nature, to reiterate what's a mango tree and what's what, and to meet our other relatives & friends for an hour or two, after driving 5x more than the time spent with them.
That’s the inevitable life of an OFW - travelling far and wide to pay our relatives a visit, check-in and personally tell them we're alive and kicking and not to worry about us being miles away, which I‘d take occasion to introduce my kid to the clan and vice versa, as an equally significant affair.
At the dining table, my nephew, Hans, asked a question gesturing to every person in the room, "how are we related?" It was rather difficult to answer because family size in the olden generations had an average sibship of 8. A family portrait at my grandmother's house was helpful to outline the branches of the genealogy. But having extended families in that house required a longer explanation on how one is related to the other.
In the beginning of the journey, Gab curiously asked my mom who her grandfather was. If he had raised the question to me, I wouldn't be able to answer myself, let alone a 75-year old trying to recall her grandparents names. Imagine the displease when she finally remembered while taking a shower and she shouted the names but no one was able to jot them down.
This deferred inquisition would probably torment her but definitely bought her time to take a trip down memory lane and find clues before the kid’s next visit. Either that or resort to telling the Alamat ni Malakas at ni Maganda, a folklore or a legend where a guy and a girl sprouted from bamboo.
Back to Base
Every balikbayan had been dreading the day to leave. Or it's probably the worry of when the next balik is going to be. For some, it's a very distant future.
We happened to fly out in the same day but with a 3-hour gap.They went to the airport first, as we wouldn't be able to fit in the car with their gazillions of suitcases. They were anxious about not being able to get their boxful of goodies, which Cristy would kindly be bringing to the airport from Mindoro. We, on the other hand, were perturbed by the cancellation of flights a few days earlier.
Our flight departed as the crew had hoped and intended, luckily I'd say with fruits that should had gone to Dubai. It was pretty normal inside the HKIA premises but as soon as stepped out of the arrival hall, we were greeted by protesters chanting "Stand with Hong Kong!"
Vacation is over. Back to base. Back to reality.
