Say ‘chichirya’ in different languages

What happens when you let young people of different nationalities try different Pinoy chichirya?

In my school there are a lot of Americans, Japanese, Singaporeans, British, Australians and Indian students. So I thought maybe it would be a great idea to let them try locally-produced food stuff from Anonymous. I super love this store – especially the snacks! Cool packaging!

I’ve often wondered if Rashid would love my favorite caramel popcorn or if my Japanese friend Kikkomo would go for the wasabe peanuts. I know tamarind is often used by Singaporeans in their soup, but will the honeyed tamarind candies be good enough as snacks?

My father said when he was young he enjoyed eating fried dilis and chicharon, but now that he is a vegetarian, I asked some French Grade 3 boys playing soccer in the field to try it. They thought that dilis was anchovies and the chicharon, a specialty from Fauchon.

Then I saw two Japanese middle schoolers near the gate as they waited for their rides. The sun was tingling hot from where they stood. It was the best time for me to let them taste the wasabe nuts. I wanted to see some steam come out of their ears and noses but instead one girl placed 10 green tiny nuts on her palm and gulped it all. Hai, the Japanese really know their wasabe!

The other day, my PE teacher, Mr. Matthew, almost caught me giving away the shing-a-ling to my classmates – I dared them to put five long sticks in their mouths, chew these for 10 times and if they can say in clear words how it tastes, I would treat them to a slice each of pizza. It was amazing how all of them uttered excelente with an Italian accent.

As for Rashid, I blindfolded him and made him eat two versions of my popcorn. On one plate was Anonymous Caramel popcorn and on another, I poured curry into the same Caramel popcorn. I thought, "Hey, he likes spicy food – I’m sure he would love the curried popcorn." I was wrong! The original Caramel popcorn was a hit and my curried version was a full spit.

Cool! I finally see Zhunghu, a boy who can shout a thousand vile words per minute. So I somehow thought maybe if I let him gulp a loadful of those garlic chips it would not just be good for his heart, it would also shut him up. As he was about to take the garlic chips straight from the zip-locked pack to his huge mouth, I saw from the right side of my eye, his mother rushing to kiss him – Uh! uh! I managed to move my left foot ready to run away.

However, I froze when I saw his mom taking the pack and hugging Zhunghu saying that she just loved this stuff. Whew! That was close!

I tried looking for a monkey in the school zoo to have him try the sweetened banana chips but didn’t see one. I have this theory that monkeys wouldn’t know the difference between a dried banana chip from a fresh banana fruit. Anyway, I tried it with my classmate who often gets a zero in our tests. My theory is valid! He never knew the difference. In fact, he said it was his favorite fruit so he asked for five packs more.

I finally got caught by our headmaster going around the school with a basket full of Anonymous products. He told me that peddling food in the campus is prohibited. I told him I wasn’t selling these and that I was working on a story about it. He didn’t believe me, brought me to his office, ate up all my samples, licked his fingers and paid for it – hmmm, what a cool Brit!