Ukay Republic

A sure sign of the difficult times is the increasing number of ukay-ukay shops sprouting all over the city. Right down along Rizal Avenue, just beside Everwell Drugstore, is a collection of second hand clothes shops that peddles everything from hats down to (would you believe?) underwear!!!

Seriously, there are actually treasures to find such as slightly used branded t-shirts , polos, curtains, bedsheets that look good as new. You just have to be armed with patience, perseverance and, the most important, terrific haggling skills. I, for one, have not mastered the art yet. I do wear my shopping heart on my sleeve and I can't help but show my eagerness when I've had a terrific find (a bargaining no no). One must know how to keep on a poker face and keep the shop owner guessing as to whether or not you have decided on an item. It helps if you walk away at the first price quotation, more often than a reduction thereof would necessarily follow. Of course, they do have to earn their keep, so know when to stop haggling. Remember they are in it for the business and not for charity.

Nonetheless, for the not so fortunate who could only dream of Ralph Lauren, here is the chance to have his clothes at a fraction of the cost, if you don't mind the thought that it has actually touched the skin of someone else and has drowned in his sweat (hehehe). But for the more picky and sensitive bargain hunter, its not only clothes that this shopping haven for the financially conscious has to offer, they also have bags and shoes. If your one resourceful broad (or chap) take the time cause you just might find a Bally in there or even a Gucci with nary a scratch mark and no one's the wiser that it came from ukay republic. A friend, after having sworn me to secrecy on our doggies' grave (hehe), confessed that the long sleeve polos I've always admired her wearing are finds from segunda mano stores. Well, I''l be darned. Who would have thought that my fashion savvy friend sourced her threads this way? As she would say, nasa "carry" yan. I have but to agree, ukay or not, a fashionista will always be a fashionista even in these hardest of times.

Carigara's New Town Kitchenette,Home of the Tasty Humba

Its unassuming signage that has remained unchanged


The entrance

Today I went to Carigara, Leyte to take care of the papers of a client and had the chance to return to a place filled with my fondest memories as a child. While certain smells can bring a sharp tinge of nostalgia, nothing can bring back times past stronger and faster then the place itself.

My father hailed from this town and spent most his life there before going on to Manila to take up college and eventually law. When he married, settled down with Mama in Tacloban City and my sisters and I came one after the other, he sent us all to Carigara to spend our summers there. Days would be filled swimming in the bay that fronted Lola's house followed by rides up and down the poblacion in the "pot-pot" (also known as the pedicab which is a bicycle attached to a side car).

A constant in our itinerary then was the New Town Kitchenette down in Brgy. San Mateo, the place where we always bought our supply of the tasty pastillas. Apart from the carabao's milk candies, it offers a very delicious humba (click here for recipe) that has become the favorite of travelers who ply the Southern route of Leyte. It is owned and run by the Cañamaque sisters who got so busy in their "kitchenette" that marriage plans seems to have been forgotten. They have remained "single and unattached" devoting their time and energies to making the delicious dishes that their homey and rustic restaurant has became famous for. Their place is one of the reasons why Carigara has remained to this day the halfway point for lunch and breakfast of weary travelers

On this particular trip, my father and I had again this nemesis of a dish of all hypertensives (it swims in a plate of fats) and the taste has remained. It was just as I remembered it of summers past and just as tangy and with a "melt in your mouth" consistency. Of course, Papa had to double his dosage of Adalat just to make sure his indulgence would not cost him a day in the hospital (knock on wood).

Leyte and Samar's Delicacies

They say, "a way to a man's heart is through his stomach". Well, let me put a new twist to that and say: "the key to a people's soul is their food" (no literary ryhmes shnimes there, but it will do). Indeed, much can be said about a place through a sampling of their dinner table's fare. You have the very precise cuts and shapes of Japanese cuisine which says much of how meticulos the peole from the land of the rising sun are. And how can we forget the native land of sexy Marimar, Mexico with its hot and spicy tacos and nachos?

As promised, here is a post of delicacies and delectable offerings from the islands of Leyte and Samar. Just like Waraynons who are happy and joy-loving people, you will find that most of their food complement a favorite pastime, drinking sessions with the ever-present tuba (native drink taken from the juice of the still uopened coconut bud).

But first, a word of thanks to Mr. Bimbo Tan, OTOP Coordinator from DTI-Region VIII. I borrowed his collection of photographs taken by by Mr. Joe Barrera, likewise of the OTOP Program, documenting the different OTOP products in a 10 day road trip around the region. What follows is a veritable "movable" feast for the eyes. For the information of the many, OTOP stands for One-Town-One-Product, a program of the Department of Trade and Industry wherein a product of each town is picked, showcased and given technical assistance.


Binagol



To begin our food trip, let me start with a personal favorite the binagol, pride of Dagami. The fruit of the "tree of life" is one of its main ingredients. This is not surprising, as said in my earlier posts, the coconut is abundant in this parts of the country. My childhood is rife with the memories of this sticky concoction ensconced in a coconut shell which my paternal lola (she has since passed away) meticulously wrapped in boxes meant for my uncle in Manila.. She would always leave two for me and my sisters to chomp on during our summers by her place in Carigara. You may find these in sidewalks just below Gaisano at the Shopping Center but it is always wiser to buy from a suki or straight from the source in Dagami. Another just as tasty alternative are by-the-roadside-stalls in Calbiga, Samar where its version might just take the word Dagami from binagol and replace it with its own.

Chocolate moron

Bearing no resemblance to its English namesake, another Waray delicacy is the moron – sourced mostly from the town of Abuyog, Leyte. It is a also a dessert of coconut strips and as well as pilit, Philippine fancy rice. Just like most of its sweeter cousins, the moron is prepared using the giniling (milled) method. Not to sweet for it to be banned from the diabetic's table, it retains the flavor of coconut meat and the stickiness of its glutinous rice.

Sapsap

Going into the coast of Carigara Bay, you come along its favored method of preserving fish, drying their catch in the sun with a generous sprinkling of table salt. The market of this town is lined with stall selling all kinds of bulad. There is the sapsap and the dilis, to name a few. It is quite salty and not recommended for hypertensives. Nevertheless, compared to what's sold in the rest of the province, the dried fish of Carigara is still the least in salt content. It is to be expected as most of the people living here derive their livelihood from the bountiful harvests of the sea. Many balikbayans would love to bring this back home with them but it seems foreigners finds its smell offensive. Some even mistook the fumes of frying of bulad as that of a dead rat. But that’s another story. Really, perhaps its an acquired taste, but I do love the smell of bulad in the morning.




Pastillas

Apart from its bulad, Carigara is also known for its tasty pastillas made from pure carabao's milk. I am always reminded by my cousins in Cebu to bring along a pack when I come to visit them. I would end up buying two as I was tempted to finish one whole pack all by my lonesome. There are imitations, ones made from condensed milk and the city shops are littered with them. Its the carabao's milk that makes all the difference so if its not made from it, the taste is really different, it becomes too sweet. So you are sure of getting the real deal, a trip to Carigara would be worth it to buy your stock. My regular suki is Mana Lumen, you cannot be wrong with her pastillas as it is really made of carabao's milk. She lives and cooks her stuff at the Poblacion in Carigara. Just ask for her house from the pedicab driver.

As if the salty fried fish was not enough, I also have an addiction to sisi. This product of shells that sticks to rocks, which also goes by the handle "rock oysters", is one of my usual request when my friend goes home to Catbalogan. It is very cheap, Php50.00 a bottle. But you have to wash it very well as it is very salty. It serves as a very good appetizer and goes well with a dash of calamansi.

The taste of the islands is one unique experience, the different flavors a reflection of the town's unique culture and heritage. For inquiries on where to order, e-mail me at waray_ako_2008@yahoo.com so I can give you recommended stores and sources. (photos courtesy of Mr. Tan)

A Loooooooong Christmas Season...

From the tolling of the church bells in the wee hour of 3:30 in the morning of December 16 which signals the start of the Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo to the "Day of Three Kings" which falls on the first Sunday of January of the following year, it is one long Christmas season in the only pre-dominantly Roman Catholic country in Asia. You might say this long Yuletide season is retailers' heaven but in the Philippines it is much, much more than just endless shopping for gifts on every one's favored Christmas lists. It is a time for much-awaited family gatherings and reunions. Relatives from abroad look forward to coming home to savor the unique Filipino Christmas experience which everyone who has left attest is like no other. (For those who can't be here, I hope am not adding to your homesickness.)

Where else could you find the fervent devotion and celebratory mood of our countrymen in the "Simbang Gabi" wherein you wake up even before the roosters signal the crack of dawn to hear the novena mass at 4:30 in the morning? You then come home to a breakfast of puto, bibingka and other native delicacies. You do this for nine days straight until the morning of the day before Christmas. Onli in da Philippines.

Come Christmas Eve, families hear Mass and then gather for a Noche Buena feast. On Christmas day, children then go around houses with Christmas greetings in exchange for candies and other goodies. Not quite unlike the Western "trick or treating" on Halloween.

Yes, nowhere is the birth of Christ more celebrated than here in Pinoy country.

Will Still Be Posting in Everything Waray

Guys, I will continue to post in my everything waray blog, so do visit it still just as you do here.

Just came from Samar and inspiration struck as I saw one of those people carrying what is known as an alat, a native basket made of uway, a kind of grass that grows in Samar. Why not a post about them? Tried to interview one of these alat-carrying folks but failed to catch them as I woke up late on Sunday, the town's tabo. They are there only from 5 to 6 in the morning and left by the time I arrived there. I will do my best to wake up early next time on my return trip to Samar so you can get a glimpse of the life "behind an alat".