Philippines Day 7: Villa Escudero

Day 7: December 28, 2014 - Villa Escudero

One of our tourist excusions of the trip was to travel the 2+ hours (each way) to Villa Escudero south of San Pablo in the province of Laguna. Villa Escudero is a working coconut plantation but it's also a tourist spot, complete with a museum of artifacts collected by the Escudero family, beautiful grounds, waterfalls and a lake.

The views were beautiful and we lucked out on a gorgeous day, not too hot or too humid with brilliant blue skies. When we arrived, we checked in at the reception lounge, paid the entrance fee and began the day tour with the AERA Memorial Museum. Posted signs asked guests to refrain from taking pictures inside the museum so I have nothing to show but it was packed with a myriad of religious statues, clay and stone pots, vintage clothing, international currency throughout the decades, and even a shrunken head picked up by the family at some point in their travels. It's the first time I've been in a place that encapsulated a lot of Philippine history although it encompassed more cultures than that and it was interesting to experience.

After the self-guided, self-paced museum tour, we went on a carabao ride to the waterfalls where lunch was served. I have to say, carabaos are tremendously strong "workhorses". A number of us tourists (at least a dozen) boarded a wheeled trolley car, accompanied by the driver, a guitar player and a singer who serenaded us during the brief ride and the carabao pulled us all. I felt sorry for him but he didn't seem unduly burdened and wasn't even that slow for his size.

Fortunately it was a short ride along the path from the museum and reception area to the Labasin Waterfalls Restaurant was located. Lunch was a buffet and literally at the falls. The picnic tables were set in the water so guests removed their shoes and walked barefoot or with tsinelas to seat themselves. You do have to navigate carefully and watch your step but there were only a few slippery spots. And you couldn't beat the view or the ambiance.

Let me tell you the food was pretty good too. For people who enjoy eating outdoors with a beautiful view, this was a great place for lunch. It'll go down in my memory as the place that also served the best potatoes I've ever had. That honor had previously belonged to China for the best caramelized sweet potatoes I've ever had but Villa Escudero just broke that 16-year record. I don't know how they made it but it was covered in a crunchy brown sugar coating, almost like a sweet, crunchy breading but it wasn't a breading but more like a crunchy sweet glaze. It's hard to describe but it was freakin' delicious.

Best Potato Ever

So good I had to take another picture of it

After lunch, we had some time to kill before the show of native dances so we walked around a bit. My niece had fun clowning around with some of the decorative statues sprinkled through the grounds, depicting typical courtship poses in courting young couples back in the day. Ha, there's that Filipino humor again.

There was also a lake where guests/tourists can go paddle boating in old-school style with bamboo rafts.  One of my nieces used to be on the dragon boat team for UCLA so she dragged her twin onto the lake, promising she would "do all the work". Yep, her twin fell for it. But they still had a good time.

All in all, a fun excursion and it was really nice to experience such a beautiful resort in the Philippines. We don't usually venture too far out from our hometown so this made for a nice change and it was great to see another side of the Philippines.

Philippines Day 6: Family party

December 27, 2014 - family party in the garden

The new gazebo in the garden

One of the big events during our trip was our family party. We have a section of land near our family compound that's simply known as "the garden" or, sometimes more formally, as "Nanay's Garden", referring to my grandmother. A neighbor's house stands between our family compound and the garden so it's literally just a few steps away from our house. One section holds my uncle's furniture making shop, another section is a barbecue pit where they roast overflow lechons during peak season. The rest of the garden used to be a large piece of land that was basically where anything could grow, did. Today various tropical trees abound, including banana trees and apple mango hybrids.

Recently, my dad had it cleared and a cement gazebo structure was erected. Open air with a large, high, peaked roof and a cement floor, it’s an ideal place to host parties and other social gatherings. Which is what we did for our family party. It was part family, part family friends, part former high school kids from my dad’s old high school. He does a lot to support his old school, does fundraising for scholarships for the kids, to buy computer equipment, supplies and so on and he keeps in touch with many of the former students, including inviting some of them to the gathering.

Ready to hold the lechon

Flower centerpiece for each table

The party was scheduled to be a luncheon at noon so that morning, we (me, my sister, my nieces, my mom and dad and a few cousins and helpers from the compound) gathered to help set up. We had rented tables, chairs, seat covers and tablecloths from a local business; they dropped them off and we set them up. My mom had brought some Christmas-themed decorations and my nieces showed a flair for the artsy in setting them up. My sister commissioned our temporary maid to seek out flower centerpieces for each of the tables and she came up with great ones that provided a nice splash of color against each white tablecloth.

Another one of my cousins, Ate Susan (“Ate” – pronounced “ah-teh” - is a term of respect for an older sister or an older female cousin), who’s known as one of the good cooks in the family, did the heavy lifting of doing most of the cooking for the party. We were expecting around 70 people and in Filipino culture, that means you make enough food for at least 100. Remember, be generous with food and food will be generous with you. 

Balut (duck eggs)

Pancit Malabon

Another shot of the Pancit Malabon

My dad bought the biggest lechon available (it helps to have connections in the family business) and Ate Susan made Manok sa Pina (Chicken in Pineapple), lumpiang sariwa (the vegetable filling for fresh veggie lumpia, not to be confused with fried lumpia filled with pork), Beef Mercado (beef stew in a tomato-based sauce), Pancit Malabon (my favorite Filipino noodle dish) and another beef dish. Our family friend, Beckang, made batchoy. Uh, that would be classified as “deep Filipino food”, not quite for my Americanized taste buds even if I wasn’t such a picky eater. But everyone else loved it. We also had balut or duck eggs, something our hometown of Pateros is famous for. Desserts were leche flan, also courtesy of Ate Susan as that’s her specialty and a side business for her and her son (Swannie’s Jars) and Buko Pandan, a traditional Filipino dessert made of young coconut or "buko" and pandan leaves. Plus rice. Must always have rice at a Filipino luncheon.

Manok sa Pina (Chicken in Pineapple)

Batchoy

Vegetable filling normally for Vegetable Lumpia

Leche Flan

Buko Pandan

The family theme was red and white. Per my sister’s instructions for picture-taking purposes, the girls wore red and the males wore white. Or some semblance of it. When you have as many family members as we do, 80-90% compliance is pretty good. At our major family reunions, we always try to take group pictures. It’s something to document and cherish as the years go by, children grow up, other family members pass, and the rest of us just….grow older.

All in all, a fun day with the family. The gazebo proved to be a boon and a great way to christen the launch of a new branch of the family business – providing a location for others to hire for their parties and events.

Just a fraction of our family

Pure Gold (grocery store)

Pure Gold grocery store - visited December 26, 2014, Pasig, Philippines

The walkalator

For those of you who’ve never been to the Philippines, it might seem odd for me to blog about a grocery store but, as someone who likes all things food, I also like to get a picture of what all things food in other countries are like, even something as mundane as the grocery store. 

Perhaps your mental picture of the Philippines only includes roadside fruit stands and crude structures selling street food or small “sari-sari” stores that are like little condensed, limited 7-11s where you can buy rice, canned goods, and soap plus the odd pack of toothpaste and bananas.

If so, then welcome to Pure Gold grocery store. The one we went to was housed in a large, two-story building with a covered parking garage on the first floor and a “lobby” where you enter past the security guard (who gives a cursory glance through your purse like they do at Disneyland) and take the “walkalator” up to the second floor which is the main floor of the grocery store. A walkalator is just like an escalator but without the steps or a people mover such as the ones at an airport except it slants upwards instead of being horizontal. Perfect for anyone in a wheelchair.

Pure Gold is more than a grocery store. It’s probably more like a variety store such as a Woolworth’s in its American heyday. It’s a combination food court, separate pharmacy counter, has a Red Ribbon Bakery stand, and besides groceries, sells appliances and housewares.  

I poked around the different aisles, interested in seeing the wares on offer. As is typical in the Philippines, there are a lot of familiar American products available: Spam, Cheetos, Oreos, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Hershey candy bars and so on. As is also typical, the American-born products are more expensive while the local brands are cheaper. I did some quick comparison pricing and a can of Spam was in the $3-$4 range, not unlike full price in the States, depending on where you buy it and definitely more expensive than when I buy it on sale in bulk at Costco. But that’s actually not a fair comparison because many Filipino jobs don’t pay as much as even the US minimum wage. What a $10 an hour worker would earn at In N Out might be what a worker in the Philippines would make in a day. If they’re lucky. So for them to buy a can of Spam could conceivably eat up a day’s wages. 1 can. Fortunately there are cheaper food options for people in the Philippines but that might give you an idea of why a can of Spam might be considered a luxury or a treat in some families. Everything’s relative. And speaking of Spam, I was actually fascinated to discover it came in different flavors. I’m not a big Spam eater myself but even I was intrigued by Spam Tocino. I love tocino, a marinated Filipino pork dish. I didn’t buy it then but afterwards, I asked my mom to bring back a can so I could try it.

I also had a moment of nostalgia when I saw the end cap display of Milo. Milo is the local chocolate powder drink mix. My grandmother used to have a cup of Milo every day and my earliest memories were of her drinking it. She loved Milo.

Checking out is similar to any American grocery store. The main difference is they still have baggers who bag your purchases. Freezer items are rung up and placed together in the same bag and box so they can remain chilled together for longer until you can get them into the freezer at home, very important in a tropical country. All purchases are boxed in cardboard boxes, similar to Costco who re-uses the shipping boxes their foodstuffs came in, and tied with strong “straw” twine. When you leave the grocery store, you show your receipt to the guard on your way out, also a la Costco albeit there isn’t a Costco in the country.

It was a fun experience to shop in the local grocery store and actually something I try to do no matter which country I visit. You can always find local foodstuffs to try that you can’t get at home. My nieces got the spicy shrimp chips and I bought Nagaraya cracker peanuts, a favorite from childhood. I’m sure both are available in Asian grocery stores in the US (and probably the Spam Tocino too) but there’s something more special about buying it truly local.

Philippines Day 5 - cemetery visit then Aura Mall

December 26, 2014 - Day 5: A Funeral and a Mall

The most somber note of our trip to the Philippines was the funeral of a childhood friend. She died of cancer a few days before we arrived and lay in state for a week as her 3 kids wanted to “spend one last Christmas" with her. Her funeral was the day after Christmas. Funerals are very expensive and in the Philippines, everyone chips in and gives the family money to help with the funeral expenses. Some also bring flowers but almost everyone gives money. It’s community giving and grieving even if you didn’t know the deceased that well but know someone in his or her family.

The flowers we bought for my grandmother's grave (left)

The funeral was at the same place as where some of my relatives are buried, notably my grandmother who I miss to this day. She was such a forceful presence in our lives and her influences lives on. My sister and I bought some flowers to put at her grave. You might notice the second name on her gravestone and that’s actually one of my cousins, one of her grandchildren. It’s common for two names to be on a gravestone and two burials to be at the same site. Burial plots are very expensive and land is limited so often two people occupy the same plot. When the first person dies, they dig the grave deeper to place the first coffin in. When the second person dies, the ground is dug up again and the second coffin is placed atop the right one and covered.

This one was a bit odd as my grandmother was joined by my cousin who died 5 years after she did. I had expected her to be placed where my paternal grandfather, her husband, was but we couldn’t find his gravestone when we visited. In investigating this later, we learned that when my grandfather died many years ago, this particular cemetery, Garden of Memories, hadn't opened yet and so my grandfather is buried in the old town cemetery. Now we're aiming to have the tombstone re-done to place my grandparents' names together and for my cousin to get his own.

Christmas display inside Aura Mall

After the funeral and after we had paid our respects to the family, we went to the mall with my cousin Abby. It was our first foray into souvenir shopping and Abby took us to Aura Mall and Kultura, a store that specialized in Philippine-made products. You know how big I am about buying local. When I’m in the US, it’s made in the USA. When I’m in the Philippines, it’s made in the Philippines. As with anywhere else, there are plenty of goods made from other Third World countries with cheap labor but as I told Abby, I can buy made in China back in the States and I wanted goods made in the Philippines. Hence our visit to Kultura (or “culture” in the English translation). Kultura ran the gamut from jewelry to Christmas ornaments to placemats, wallets, handbags, t-shirts and kitchy souvenirs. Yes, I paid more than if I bought elsewhere but they were all locally made and that was worth it to me.

Aura is like any other mall in the States with some stores unique to the Philippines like Shoe Mart (the equivalent of Macy’s, Target and a little Kohls thrown in, despite the name, they sell far more than shoes) and other stores just as in the US like Forever 21, Abercrombie and Uniqlo. My nieces, both big Forever 21 shoppers, checked out the one at Aura and discovered the prices were actually better back home, even with the peso to dollar conversion rate. Go figure. We also found "Bay Max" from Big Hero 6. No idea who he is but my nieces knew. Good enough.

Filipino food at the Aura Mall food court

Filipino humor

Tapsilog: Tapa (beef) and itlog (egg) over fried rice

Also like any other mall, there was a food court and we stopped to have "merienda" or an afternoon snack. Merienda in the Philippines isn't a snack like a pretzel or a frozen yogurt. It's more like a meal. The food court held an assortment of various cuisines, mostly Asian. There was dim sum, Filipino food, Japanese food and some more Western cuisines.

Also, similar to back home, I found a cupcake shop. I know, I must have a magnet on me somewhere. This one was called A Royal Touch and like many cupcakeries, sold individual cupcakes that were decorated and had fancy flavors. The only odd thing is they only sold the cupcakes in packs of 3 or 6. I needed 3 so I didn’t question it that closely. I bought each of Abby’s 2 sons a cupcake based on their flavor preferences (vanilla for the younger one and caramel for the older one) plus chocolate for me to share with my nieces. The decorations were quite cute, especially the snowman with the penguin eyes on mine. The cupcake itself was just okay though. The chocolate flavor of the cupcake could’ve been more pronounced; it wasn’t dry but it wasn’t as moist as I would’ve liked. The frosting was quite good though, rich and creamy. Since I normally don’t like a lot of frosting, you know when I say it’s good, it’s good. The prices for the cupcakes ranged from 80 to 95 pesos, depending on the flavor and decoration, I suppose. So it’s somewhat on par with the $3-$4 range in the States; by Philippine standards, it’s more pricey than other baked goods so it would definitely be considered a luxury. Remember that Puto Bungbong was only 35 pesos and that was for a greater quantity than a single cupcake.

Puto Bungbong

Puto Bungbong - recipe from Filipino Foods Recipes

There are many varieties of "puto" or steamed rice cake. I've already touched on the Puto Binan of my mom's hometown, I've posted a recipe for puto on my blog and today's post is about Puto Bungbong. Many Filipinos associate Christmas time with Puto Bungbong (or Bumbong), similar to how fruitcake and eggnog make an appearance in an American Christmas.

On our first day in the Philippines, as we walked the streets of my original hometown with my cousin Abby, we saw Puto Bungbong being made by a street vendor.

She had a steamer and an inverted funnel to her left and to her right was a basin full of purple dough nestled in purple flour. At the top of the funnel was a cylinder into which she would place a portion of dough, insert it over the top of the funnel and within seconds, pound out the purple cylinder shape of Puto Bungbong. Supposedly it got its name by the sound the cylinder,  typically a bamboo tube, makes when the puto is pounded out of the tube "bunggg! bonggg!" like a tap-tap. Or so they say.

The hot, fresh Puto Bumbong is wrapped in banana leaves and sold along with grated fresh coconut and brown sugar. This vendor was selling several pieces for 35 pesos or the equivalent of $.67 USD.

Genuine/traditional Puto Bumbong is made with a special kind of glutinous rice that has a distinct purple color, as evidenced by the final product. That's not food coloring that makes that beautiful purple color, at least not in authentic Puto Bungbong.

I don't know if that purple rice flour is available in the States so I've included a recipe below that calls for the food coloring as it uses a more readily available rice that can be found in Asian grocery stores. Please note that I haven't tried this recipe myself as I'm actually not a big consumer of puto bungbong. I don't mind the chewy texture and the flavor is okay but I prefer other types of puto. You can also view youtube videos of how to make puto bumbong.

Nevertheless, I'm including this as part of my travelogue as it's very traditional Filipino Christmas time fare. And I like the color. My parents bought some for my nieces to try and they enjoyed it. They have a much more adventurous palate than I do and the (fortunate) ability to enjoy a wide variety of foods.

1 kg Malagkit/galapong (glutinous) rice, mixed with 125 grams ordinary rice
1/5 tsp. Lilac or violet food coloring
Pandan leaves
Salt
1 pc shredded mature coconut
Butter
Banana leaves
Water
Sugar

1. Soak pre-ground malagkit/galapong or glutinous rice and ordinary rice mixture in salted water with lilac/violet food coloring for 1-4 hours. Let dry overnight by putting inside a flour sack.
2. Put something heavy on top to squeeze out water. Mixture is ready for cooking the following morning.
3. Or to manually grind rice mix – Slowly grind using a stone grinder or manual grinder. Do not put too much water in while grinding. It will delay drying of milled ingredients. Too much water on the other hand will cause the mixture to be sticky. Put milled ingredients onto cotton cloth and tie corners of the cloth. Let drip. When the mixture is almost dried, press by using a heavy object to remove excess water. Let stand overnight.
4. Place pandan leaves in water to be steamed. Heat steamer (lansungan) with enough water.
5. Put a small amount of rice mixture inside bamboo tubes (bumbong) about 3/4 full. Steam for a few minutes. Serve warm with coconut and sugar.