By Philip M. Lustre Jr.
Let's be bloody frank about this thing: Filipinos are great eaters. In between their lunches and dinners, Filipinos have time for coffee and snacks. We call them as merienda cena.
But don't be misled since the merienda cena is not a time for coffee and snacks alone. It's a meal in between two meals. It's heavy. It's pursued at between 4:30 to 6:30 pm, that is before a late dinner.
The merienda cena that we all know does not have a cup of coffee or tea, or some pastries or biscuits, which the westerners have in mid-afternoon.
While it may not have the hot meal and courses of a lunch or a dinner, it can have big meals that Filipinos love to indulge to satisfy their palatial cravings.
The bigger the meal, the better for them.
I've been to homes, where the hosts would lead us to a table, where an array of various foods await us for late afternoon eating and bantering.
It includes a huge bilao of pancit palabok or pancit malabon with matching cochinta, palitao, and sweet cookies.
Some homes would have steaming dinuguan, or tidtad in Pampango, and its ubiquitous partner, puto, or pieces of biscocho (bread).
Don't be deceived that these are the only foods served in a merienda cena.
In affluent homes, the hosts offer bowls of steaming lomi complete with condiments that show affluence: shrimps, vegetables, chicken, fish, beef, pork, and seafoods.
It's common to partake lomi with lumpia, either fresh (or "lumpiang sariwa") or dried, okoy, pancit bijon or canton, or buchi.
If one has Ilonggo hosts, expect them to serve you either batchoy, which is noodle with plenty of condiments like pork and beef with their entrails, or pancit molo, which has soft noodles coupled with the Ilonggo meatballs.
But if you have Pampango hosts, the batchoy would be different from the Ilonggos'. Theirs have soft noodle with liver and other innards. It is less oily too.
A Pinoy doesn't have to go to somebody else's home to partake merienda.
If he's not home yet, he can always look for a perfect merienda, as if he is searching for the Holy Grail. Restaurants like Dad's, Cabalen, and Barrio Fiesta have started offering the eat-all-you-can type of merienda.
A customer can choose from the buffet of merienda preparations for 100 pesos, more or less.
I love to hunt for my own merienda. I've gone to the malls and eaten in their food courts and restaurants.
But I prefer to go to downtown Manila and perform my own sleuthing - all for the fun of it.
Quiapo is perfect. I love lumpiang sariwa at those Globe stalls at the corner of Raon and Quezon Blvd. They aren't only cheap and filling, they taste good as well.
In Villalobos near Echague, I eat bread with either Excellente or Oro ham.
Quinta market is a place known for the most delicious palabok.
I was told that some stalls there don't use sodium monoglutamate, but they mix the noodles with condiments only the owners know.
If one craves for Chinese food, a little place in R. Hidalgo serves tasty shanghai rice.
Being old-fashioned myself, my pilgrimage in Quiapo won't be complete without a visit to the traditional Ma Mon Luk, where I eat the best mami and siopao.
I've been there many times and I swear I won't stop going there so long as I live. Ma Mon Luk is the place for all times.
In brief, merienda cena forms part of our culture of food and even affluence.
No comments:
Post a Comment