Food tripping in celebrity homes

(First of two parts)

One of the joys of summer vacation when I was a student many (as in many, many) years ago was visiting classmates (who had nothing better to do either) in their homes. The social climber that I’ve always been, I frequented those who stayed in exclusive subdivisions, particularly the one who lived in old rich Wack-Wack because he always brought the gang to the clubhouse where we swam in the pool while feasting on endless French fries.

I loved visiting classmates at home to see how they live and what food they eat. Of course, like in every Filipino home, they always fed me — morning merienda, usually. But if I got lucky, I also stayed on for lunch.

When I joined the world of local showbusiness, one of the fringe benefits that came with the job was the opportunity to visit celebrities at home during VTR interviews and I always looked forward to the merienda they served after the on-cam conversation. The food doesn’t have to be fancy because I eat anything. Basically, I’m just curious to see how they eat and what they eat. Below are the memorable foods that I’ve tasted in the homes of local celebrities.

Rudy Fernandez and Lorna Tolentino’s sardines — Long before LT joined Startalk, I’ve been a frequent visitor to her and husband Rudy Fernandez’s White Plains home. LT is the type who likes to receive little food presents from visitors (it’s really just lambing). There was a time I’d bring her dried mangoes and squid flakes. But now, she is forever craving for my eggplant lasagna, which is so laborious to prepare because you broil each piece of eggplant and take off its skin. For such wonderful people like Rudy and Lorna, however, I’m willing to do that — or at least, supervise its preparation because I can never, never cook something as elaborate as that.

In turn, you can always count on Rudy and LT to serve you the most delicious dishes from their kitchen. But the most memorable food they served me was something that came from a bottle. If I’m not mistaken, those were Montaño sardines and these tasted heavenly when eaten with those huge pieces of pan de sal that they toasted to perfection. To be honest about it, those Montaño sardines weren’t really a novelty to me because my Dad used to bring these bottled treats home by the boxes.

But it was different eating those same sardines in another house. Maybe it was the experience of relishing it after a long rigorous shoot under hot lights (you have to turn off the air-con because the whirring sound is easily picked up the microphone) and there was nothing more comforting than repairing to a room with a cooler temperature and enjoying a snack thoughtfully prepared by your hosts. And Rudy and Lorna can be such great hosts. I’ll never forget how warmly I’ve been received so many times in that lovely home of such loving people.

Sen. Bong Revilla’s Digman halo-halo — Sen. Bong Revilla had always been accommodating to Startalk and says yes to all our requests for interviews. All of my interviews with him were conducted in their Bacoor, Cavite home (I think they’ve since moved to Alabang), but every trip there was worth our time because he and wife Lani Mercado always saw to it that we were fed well.

I remember that a laing dish they once served us for lunch was a knockout. I know laing because I buy it by the bundle in Camalig, Albay every time I fly to Bicol. I’m not sure though if that laing was prepared in their kitchen (most likely it was because the servings were endless) or just a pasalubong to the family. All I recall was that it tasted divine — not too spicy and, in fact, had a sweetish taste to it.

Even more memorable, however, was the Digman halo-halo they served us once. Prior to that, I had long wanted to drive to that small barrio called Digman in Cavite for a taste of that famous halo-halo (I wanted to see how different it was from the one they served in the malls), except that I kept putting it off — discouraged by the notorious traffic in Coastal Road. When the household staff started bringing out plastic cups with halo-halo in it (from Digman they told me), I felt my heart leap with joy. It was a dream come true for me as I dug into the plastic cup that had shaved ice with milk and underneath were sweetened beans, kaong, nata da coco, bananas and strips of ripe langka.

As I savored the delicious cold refreshment, my attention was caught by the sight of Bong Revilla sharing his halo-halo with his then still young daughter Inah (now in her teens). With every spoonful he‘d put into her mouth, the young girl would squeal with delight: "Lamig!"

They didn’t notice me watching, but I thought to myself then that nothing could have been sweeter than this father-daughter bonding over a cup of halo-halo from Digman.

(To be continued)