How to behave in Filipino Barriotic Celebrations
Every barrio throws at least one fiesta a year for its patron saint. Add to that the fiesta of the town, the fiesta of the city, weddings, birthdays and baptisms, and there is every excuse to party 366 days a year. Tim Tayag tells us how.
DRINK
In the barrio, drinking goes hand-in-hand with eating so you can forget about your liver. Filipinos believe alcohol helps with digestion, indigestion and mending a broken heart. In fact, Filipino men measure your masculinity by how many shots they can down in the drinking tradition tagay, where a shot glass is passed around the table until someone forgets to wear pants.
Do:
- Take a sip of whatever is offered. You can refuse alcoholic drinks if you have the following valid excuses: your religion prohibits it, you´re nine months pregnant, or you have no kidneys.
Don´t:
- Get drunk and sing karaoke even if they´re clapping you on (Filipinos are polite to the point of lying). Remember, if you´re not sure, just mimic what the locals do - paint yourself blac, march, and shout "Hala Bira!"
ENTERING HOMES
When entering a Filipino home, you must observe traditional rules (especially since you’re also being observed by the Jesus Christ statue in the corner). Rural houses are elevated and have flooring with gaps. Dogs, chickens, cats and children play underneath.
Do:
- Take off your shoes, sandals, or flip-flops even if the hosts insist you can leave them on.
Don´t:
- Take off your socks, especially if you have parmesan-smelling feet.
- Wear skirts as the children underneath the house might get a free peep show.
FOOD
Any Filipino celebration has three important ingredients – food, food and more food. If you go to a Filipino gathering and there’s no food, slowly walk away because you have entered the twilight zone. Food is as important as the celebration itself, so naturally, Pinoys take great pride in their cuisine, and get offended when you decline to partake.
DO:
- Eat whatever is offered, even if it’s just a taste. It is considered rude to say no.
- Eat with your bare hands, it’s the Pinoy thing to do. Just wash before and after with water and calamansi, the Filipino mini-lemon.
- Try the shrimp paste, fish sauce and any other weird-smelling sauces. They will enhance the taste of the food.
- Take the wrapped food to go from the hosts. You will get hungry in an hour.
DON’T:
- Say you’re full or on a diet. Dieters stay home.
- Point and say “Eew! What’s that?” Food is revered like saints in the Philippines and showing distaste is tantamount to excommunication. Each grain of rice left on one’s plate is 10 years in purgatory depending on what province you’re in.
WEDDINGS AND BAPTISMS
If you’re invited to be a godparent at a wedding or baptism, you will be expected to give a gift, some cash and a big smile for the photographers who will also charge you for copies. The reception is usually held in the yard of the celebrant’s home under a makeshift tent of empty cement bags.
DO:
- Put a couple of hundred bucks inside an envelope to give with your gift to the newlywed or newly baptized. This is a donation called pakimkim.
- Take a seat and eat at the table at the reception. When done, get up to make room for the other guests to eat since there will probably be just one table.
DON’T:
- Pay full price for the photo in church, especially if your eyes are closed.
Welcome Home!
1 A FILIPINO DINING INSTITUTION
Dating back to 1932, The Aristocrat Restaurant is located conveniently close to the airport, and is one of the few Filipino restaurants open 24/seven, so even in the wee-hours of the night, you can enjoy all-time favorites such as Aristocrat chicken and pork barbecue. The nutty, sweet flavors of the marinade, generous serving of bright orange Java rice and the papaya atchara (pickles) all bring back fond childhood memories. During daylight hours, you can pop into historic Malate church just a few steps away, ride a calesa (horse carriage), or soak up the Manila Bay sunset.
For many balikbayans, The Aristocrat brings back memories of the long lines they endured obtaining their much-desired US Visa from the nearby US Embassy along Roxas Boulevard. Almost anything a Filipino craves can be found here from fresh lumpiang ubod (spring roll made with pith of the coconut trunk), to green mango shakes. After all that feasting, head to the bakeshop to take away their breads and sweets.
Prices: Aristocrat chicken BBQ PHP166/ USD3.69, pork BBQ PHP135/USD3, pancit canton PHP262.50/USD5.83.
The Aristocrat Restaurant
423 San Andres Street corner Roxas
Boulevard, Malate, Manila
Opening hours: 24 hours
2 BIBINGKA AT PUTO BUMBONG, THE PINOY PASKO DUO
While the scent of chestnuts roasting signifies Christmas for Westerners, for Filipinos it is the delicious aroma of bibingka cooking over coal outside churches during the nine days of Misa de Gallo.
Bibingka is traditionally made of galapong – rice soaked overnight and ground laboriously by hand in a stone mortar. The galapong is mixed with coconut milk and sugar and poured into clay pots lined with banana leaves in between glowing coals. It’s served garnished with slices of kesong puti (white cheese made from carabao’s milk) and wedges of salted eggs and eaten guiltlessly slathered with butter, sprinkled with sugar and lots of grated coconut, and washed down with salabat (ginger tea). For the best bibingka, head to the make-shift bibingka stands outside the churches. It is best eaten hot.
Outside churches
Opening hours: 4.30am until the
dawn mass is over
3 STAR GAZING AT JT’S
JT’s Manukan sits in the midst of a festive lights display. Owned by award-winning actor Joel Torre, this alfresco restaurant is famous both for its bacolod chicken inasal and as a hangout of his celebrity friends. Every part of the chicken is grilled and it wouldn’t be complete without a generous serving of garlic rice. Here they pour some of the orange oil used to marinate the chicken over the rice – delicious!
Filipinos love the laid-back ambiance, where they can come comfortably in shorts and shirts and get their fingers dirty eating their chicken and dipping it into the toyo-calamansi and sili sauce (spicy soy lemon sauce). And of course, there’s an abundance of ice-cold San Miguel for hours of catching up on stories with the entire barkada (gang of friends), if you’re lucky in the company of soap opera actors, Big Brother celebrities and ’80s action stars.
Prices: One stick of pecho (breast with wing) PHP80/USD1.78, One of stick paa (chicken leg and thigh) PHP80/USD1.78, garlic rice PHP20/ USD0.45.
JT’s Manukan
4 Granada Street, corner Valencia Street,
Ortigas Avenue Extension, QC
Opening hours: 11am to 2am
4 FEAST ON A FILIPINO FIESTA
Tiendesitas seems to have been built with balikbayans in mind. In September 2005, the same management behind the Greenhills Malls added this concept mall to busy Ortigas. Located along the C5 highway, the 30,000-square-meter area has 12 Maranao-style pavilions (thatched roof nipa huts inspired by those in Mindanao) and showcases the best of Filipino culture with charming touches such as decorative vintas (colorful sailboats from Mindanao), capiz shell lanterns, duyans (hammocks) to sit and linger and calesa rides for kids.
With 450 traders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao selling specialty merchandise, there is much to choose from, but the food pavilions are the busiest. Bonnie’s BBQ, “the Pride of Tarlac,” always has a long line of customers. Bonnie Soliman is a young entrepreneur who started her barbecue business at the Tarlac Public Market in 1997. She makes tender, salty-sweet marinated pork BBQ (PHP32/ USD0.71 stick), delicious sisig (PHP110/ USD2.44) and liempo (PHP120/USD2.67). All are freshly grilled on the spot, but worth the 15-minute wait. For afternoon merienda, Tita Lynn’s suman comes in a variety of flavors and goes well with old-fashioned tsokolate-eh (traditional thick chocolate drink). For the health-conscious Pinoy, red benguet is made with red rice and sweetener not sugar (original: PHP25/USD0.56, sugar-free PHP30/USD0.67).
“Mag-kape muna tayo” (relax and have coffee) at the Philippine Mountain Coffee Collection, where they sell coffee from all around the archipelago. They have five varieties (200g PHP150/ USD3.33) and their staff is happy to grind it to suit your perculator, French press, or drip-style brewer.
Tiendesitas
Frontera Verde, Ortigas cor C-5 Pasig City
Opening hours: 10 am to 12 midnight
5 SNACK ATTACK AT RAZON’S
Merienda (snack) is a way of life in the Philippines. And any time is a good time for a merienda. Many families and office workers flock to Razon’s for a filling snack of pancit luglug (PHP68/USD1.51) and halo-halo (PHP68, USD1.51). Pancit is a simple noodle dish with thick, chunky orange sauce and Razon’s winning taste is the distinctly bold seafood flavor, livened by the crunchy chicharon (pork crackling), baby shrimps and egg slice toppings.
Instead of a dozen halo-halo ingredients, Razon’s has only three: saging na saba (plantain), leche flan (crème caramel) made with dayap (citrus) rind, and macapuno (sweetened coconut meat): simple and refreshing. Credit goes to Apung Sersia Juan who created these recipes in 1908 in her home in Pampanga. And as customers continue streaming into the stores from afternoon to late at night, it looks like this almost 90-year tradition is definitely here to stay.
Razon’s of Guagua
Fifteen locations around Metro Manila
Opening hours: depending on mall hours
6 GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
There’s only one kind of bread we crave and that’s our beloved pan de sal. Despite the plethora of breads available in supermarkets abroad, there are still many Filipinos who hand-carry bags of pan de sal back to their foreign homes.
Everyone has a favorite neighborhood panaderia (bakery). But a recent welcome addition to Manila’s urban landscape is a chain of traditional shops, Pan de Manila. Their authentic wood-fired brick oven imparts the bread with a subtle oaky flavor. Those watching their carbintake should try the wholewheat pan de sal, which uses healthier flour without sacrificing the taste. It’s delicious fresh, or try it with the favorite Filipino palaman (sandwich fillings) such as herby cream cheese, garlic butter, coco (sweet coconut) jams and sardines.
Come here at any time – it’s even acceptable to arrive in your house clothes.
Prices: Regular PHP2.75 (US$0.06), big PHP5.00 (US$0.11). Wheat pan de sal, big PHP5.50 (US$0.12).
Pan de Manila
Located all around Metro Manila
Opening hours: 24 hours
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