Fiesta. Rooted in Christianity, dating back to the Spanish colonial period. Communities of the predominantly Catholic Philippines have a patron saint assigned to each of them. Filipinos treat these days as a communal party. Rain or shine, good times or bad. Fiesta must go on! Friends and families and strangers exchange fun banters: Basketball, boxing, beauty pageants, adobo recipes, and stuff. No Trump, Biden or Imelda drama, please! Thanksgiving is Fiesta Day. 🎪🇵🇭🎪
My childhood snacks. Merienda: 10 AM and 4 PM on no-school days. On school days, “recess” snacks were eaten in those time/s as well. Then, there were no McDonald’s or Jollibee, the Filipino version. So no burgers, fries, pizza, Coke in cups and the likes. There was ice cream but the “dirty ice cream” that is peddled via a homemade cart in the streets. Usual snacks were “turon” or fried plantains, “halo-halo,” fresh fruits, “puto” or rice cake, and coconut juice. 🍎🥯🥥
Canning and/or pickling are methods of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans. I am sure, canning is still a huge home-based activity these days but not how it was then. I used to watch my grandmother “canned” or pickled cucumbers, onions, peppers, and other vegetables. A favorite was “burong talangka” or fermented crab roe. Basically fresh river crabs stored and covered in salt. 🫙🦀🫙
The Soap Box Derby is a youth-oriented (7 to 20 years old) soap box car racing program held in Akron, Ohio each year. “Cars” race downhill, propelled by gravity alone. The race has been running in the United States since 1934. But are your kids aware of this popular family-oriented activity? Community winners travel from across the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan to compete. This year’s event was held in July at Derby Downs Drive in Akron. (Photo: The Detroit News.) 🚘👦🚘
Jukebox, a machine that automatically plays a selected musical recording when a coin is inserted. Many are still around, especially in small town bars, pool halls, and diners. But the young may seem unacquainted with these “strange” thingies. But, oh my, I remember those high school days. I’d take my date to a restaurant and would insert 10 centavos to play Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love” for her. These days, a jukebox would cost from $800 to $12,000! 🎼🎧🎼
Kitchens such as this in Asia, photo credit to Marcus Lacey (grabbed via Google). Wood, charcoal smear, smell of smoke. Basically, outdoors or doors and windows are kept wide open. Scent of food wafted through the next few neighbors’ houses. No prob. Summer rain would fall nonstop and the earth floor sometimes got flooded. The “inconvenience” was primal existence or day-to-day life so we were used to it. Somehow, I miss those “natural” kitchens, no e-gadgets. 🥥🔥🥣
I was born into and grew old(er) in a culture where laughter is life’s staple. Laughing is breathing. Each time people gather or hang out, jokes are tossed. In between workplace meetings or editorial deliberations, jokes are shared. These days, a joke doesn’t seem funny if it’s not “political humor,” which of course ridicules the other side of the spectrum. Or you gotta be careful with that joke. You might lose your job. Or massively insulted (shamed) online. A joke must be correct? 😁😅🤣
Chess in the “sari-sari” store front. In between moves, people would banter about stuff. Neighborhood gossip, last night’s basketball game on TV, coming elections, Tour of Luzon bicycle race, new popular movie, stuff. Fun. Sublime staple of community. The convenience store was “convenient” in the real sense of the word. Village folk could take out loans in goodies, payable on payday. People were talkin’. Humans, not AI. 📺☎️📸
Backyard vegetables. Apart from the ordinary “ampalaya” (bitter gourd) and “talong” (eggplant) that we usually planted at the backyard or “bakuran,” other leafy vegetables simply grew. Examples are “kangkong” or water spinach, “saluyot” or jute leaves, “alugbati” or malabar spinach, sayote, and “talbos ng kamote” or leaves of sweet potato, which are very nutritious and medicinal. Meat (pork, chicken, beef) and fish/seashells are mixed with these veggies. Swarap! 😋🍽😋
Leftover food. My mom used to call leftover rice, “kilabban,” and insisted that those were healthier than freshly-cooked rice. Leftover foods were dinner staples of my childhood years. These days, I notice that few younger people eat food that is a day old. They prefer “new” chows or “fastfood” offerings. When I was a boy, I didn’t trust food eaten beyond the house or those in restaurants, especially meat or fish. For me, it was all about food cooked by mom and dad or grandma. 🍲🍜🍛
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