Taking it offline

My cable connection is back. Things are no longer the same, though. The few days I had without it made me realize I could do so much more with my time, so I vowed to myself that I’d spend most of my Saturdays creating memories.

When a friend invited me to join a culinary tour of old kitchens in Pampanga, where we’d get to try traditional Kapampangan cuisine, courtesy of the owners themselves, I had to say yes. The food tour, called Viajeng Cusinang Matua (Old Kitchens Tour), was organized by Tracey Santiago, who organizes trips to different parts of Luzon for university students and curious folk alike with her Alquimista Trails.

Joining the tour also meant one day spent offline — without the Internet and cable TV, something that’s becoming rarer and rarer with the kind of life I live. Plus, let’s just say the thought of an entire day dedicated to food was not bad. Not bad, at all. 

Breakfast was at the ancestral home of Lilian Borromeo, a renowned cook from Pampanga who’s writing a book on her hometown’s traditional cuisine. It was like a visit to a favorite grandmother, because as we ate, she regaled us with stories about food, family, and history. We were served fried rice, dinuguan, home-made tocino (the secret to good Kapampangan tocino, she shared, is pineapple juice), morcon, kutsina and puto. We also had the local hot chocolate. The most fun part of this stop, however, was her demonstration on how to make their family’s San Nicolas cookies, which dates back to the Spanish times. Apparently, San Nicolas cookies were very difficult to make a long time ago, and from back then up to now, some ingredients are hard to come by. Members of our tour group were invited to shape their own cookies on centuries-old cookie molds.

The morning snacks were served at Alviz Farm, where farmers had started planting rice just that early morning. It was like stepping into an Amorsolo scene. Andy Alviz, another gracious host, invited us to get our feet wet in planting rice with the farmers. I would have tried it, but I was wearing a long skirt—too long to slosh around in the mud in—so I just opted to wear a salakot and explore the property instead. While only three of our fifteen-strong group opted to plant some rice, we were all invited to partake of the day’s morning merienda, which was composed of tamales Pampanga (a local rice cake), pandesal, scrambled eggs and a bottomless supply of iced pandan and sugarcane tea. All these were served in an outside hut. Andy, a well-known musician and choreographer, shared his passion for farming and the Kapampangan culture with us. He urged us to try out farming and planting, to better appreciate the work that goes into what we eat and, consequently, the farming life.

Lunch was at Guido’s, where Kong Willie Carpio served us his own flavorful version of sisig, sinigang na bangus sa bayabas topped with squash flowers, and Kapampangan humba, which is eaten with bananas on the side. The only humba I’d previously known was the Visayan version that was my father’s favorite, so this was really curious for me. Along the way to our next stop, we passed by the house that was used in one of my favorite movies, Tanging Yaman.

The food had barely settled in my tummy when it was already snack time. After a quick stop at Betis Crafts, where we checked out affordable but fabulous wood carvings and furniture, we stopped by at Razon’s for an authentic serving of their filling and refreshing halo-halo.

Dinner was the most thrilling event. It was at the Jorolan family’s restaurant Everybody’s Café, which has been serving good Kapampangan food for over fifty years now. All of us were practically stuffed, but we couldn’t possibly say we’d been on a food tour in Pampanga without trying their specialties: stuffed frog and fried crickets. I thought it wouldn’t be bad—after all, they wouldn’t have been serving those dishes this long if they were—but I didn’t expect them to be as good as they actually were. 

I can’t believe how I’d easily forgotten how easy it was to find small adventures in life “unconnected”! Hooked on technology that’s supposed to make connecting more fun and easier, I’d lost the skill of discovering different ways to keep myself entertained.

Here’s to getting it back and more offline adventures.

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