Memories of Malabon

Growing up in a village in Caloocan and what is now CAMANAVA – Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela – we always looked to Malabon for food. It was to that city we would drive on Sunday to get the freshest seafood or even go to the Concepcion Market for other food finds.

Last June 28, Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) Manila invited us to what was really a family reunion of sorts of Malabon’s Pascual and Oreta families, the Governor Pascual lineage and the Tessie Aquino-Oreta line. Together with chefs Melissa Sison-Oreta and Reggie Aspiras, CCA brought back memories of my childhood. The chefs brought artisan recipes of Rosy’s pancit Malabon, Milflores’ mechado, Dolor’s bangus tocho, Jay-R’s okoy and Judy Ann’s crispy pata that they had to just pick up as she preferred not to go to Makati, where the lunch entitled “Once Upon a Time in Malabon” was held.

The event was a trip down memory lane as I saw Betsy’s kitchen among the desserts of broas and different kinds of puto (rice cakes) from Hazel’s, as well as an Ellet’s halo-halo station. When we went to market with my folks in the 60s, we kids hung out in Betsy’s air-conditioned bakeshop across the wet market. That is after buying my favorite dessert of biko and sapin-sapin from my favorite vendor.

My Dad would get the freshest shrimps, crabs and even oysters when they were in season (during the ‘ber’ months). We would also get fresh fish for paksiw or inihaw from the Malabon market. And when Dad was feeling extra special, he would bring our own casserole to be filled with bouillabaisse from Fish Fun restaurant along the highway. In the 60s, there were no take-out boxes or plastic containers for take-out food; you had to bring your own caldero. When we picked up lechon on order, we brought two calderos – one for the liver sauce and one for dinuguan (a free treat with every order from Leonardo’s Lechon).

At the lunch celebrating food, community and culture of this coastal city, chef Melissa introduced a few young people who have decided to carry on these traditions – one of them a fourth-generation descendant from the Rosy’s Pancit Malabon line. Another is Regine of Malabon Food Cravings and you may really crave for these delicacies if you had them regularly while growing up, like tapang kabayo (horse meat), another exotic dish my Dad used to get from a small hole in the wall and now still available from Regine.

When the buffet was finally opened, we went wild going from one station to another – I had my fill of tinapa or smoked fish done with bean curd, made into pasta and a very tasty tinapa fried rice by Melissa.

At another table were Pascual family traditions – asado, menudo and chicken galantina you could slip into a pandesal. Still another food station was freshly made okoy of JR, the Judy Ann crispy pata, the Malabon omelet (tortang Malabon) filled with seafood and stuffed crabs of Ate Baby, usually available only from the market.

There were two big jars on our table with other Malabon-born snacks: the famous fish crackers (best eaten with vinegar), beer nuts or peanuts lightly fried with garlic and another childhood fave: Chocnut, a peanut ‘chocolate’ bar that I think only we Filipinos understand. Of course, we did not mind snacking on these Malabon sari-sari store specialties while waiting for lunch to be served.

Part of the tablescape were photos of yesteryears (one of a friend, Rea Matute, when she was 12) and a fish basket lamp which added to the Malabon feel. Family traditions, specialties only found in private homes, goodies from the market such as fried lumpia and puto and family recipes that are still alive to this day were the topics that kept going around the tables. We were fortunate to hear the news from Cravings/CCA founder Annie Pascual-Guerrero and current Cravings/CCA CEO Badjie Guerrero-Trinidad that events like this form part of their initiative called Philippine Heritage Kitchen, a collaboration with Reggie Aspiras.

If you cannot visit Malabon, events like these are definitely a more convenient way of looking back and reminiscing about the food you used to enjoy – from the market, from a friend’s home and, for me, memories of my childhood. Our table had the company of a couple of regional directors from Department of Tourism who, despite it being a Sunday, came to feast with us. Now, one of them will go with us to Malabon to discover different products like our ubiquitous patis or fish sauce. We have to get to the bottom of it as many sauces sold these days are just marked “patis flavor” and not the original patis anymore. Otherwise, some of you may not know it but you are actually buying Thai or Vietnam patis.

I heard a Malabon market secret called Zenaida’s patis with a “Z” on its label (usually handwritten!) – that will be the object of our next food hunt. We used to get the “first drop” or “first press” of a famous patis brand so I am very choosy about my fish sauce. Growing up near Malabon gave us all these treats and our palates got used to the purity of sauces like patis and bagoong.

Every town’s secrets are hidden in its markets and family kitchens. And that is exactly what Melissa and CCA did – they transported the Malabon finds to a hotel in Makati and invited the families to reminisce and help preserve their food culture. Everyone was happy and contented and went home knowing more about Malabon and its cuisine, seen through the eyes of its people. What’s next on CCA’s plate? We heard it will be a plant-based celebration in July, this time with Sagada bringing mushrooms and maybe some coffee, too.