Quezon's temper tantrums, fave foods, and political lessons from a dinner
Can we understand our leaders through their appetites? It’s an intriguing question, and one raised during the Presidential Speaker series at Samira, Chele Gonzalez’s restaurant at Tagaytay’s Anya Resort, where, for the first edition held on Aug. 19, President Manuel Quezon’s birthday, his grandson, writer Manolo Quezon III, spoke about the former president’s appetites and favorite dishes.
As it turns out, Quezon loved adobo and pochero. “But because he had tuberculosis and it weakened him,” Manolo observes, “he lived on eggs, milk and coffee.” (As for coffee: it was a habit Quezon picked up in the US as Filipino ambassador; it soon became a staple of their Letran residence back home.)
Then there’s the story that when Quezon was having an operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US, “They asked what he wanted before his operation, and because he didn’t know if he’d survive, it was good old adobo.” His doctors wouldn’t allow it because of the vinegar, so he switched to pochero, but it ended up tasting like “a New England boiled dinner,” writes American journalist John Gunther. “So he had a temper tantrum and sent his aides to the nearest Spanish restaurant to find the right ingredients for his pochero, and then he could face his maker with a full stomach,” recounts Manolo.
But for our dinner at Samira, it was the Spanish dish cocido — a hearty, meat-marinated stew with garbanzos — taking center stage in a special menu prepared for some 30 guests, much of it steeped in Spanish influence under the direction of Samira chef Chris Leaning. The menu included creamy compango croquetas and ropa vieja pintxos as appetizers; a garbanzo soup that was really the cocido — a bean soup with local chicken, chorizo, blood sausage and imported beef put in a stock for roughly four to five hours, later accompanied by the separate stewed meats in a broth, served on a large plate.
On top of that, keeping with chef Gonzalez’s Spanish roots, there was a huge paella (made with the cocido stock) and two cochinillos (from downstairs restaurant Anila) carried through the dining room on a large platter for carving. Dessert was a special Tocino de Cielo, similar to leche flan but denser, made with egg yolks, sugar and water (no cream or milk).
One way we know about Quezon’s love of cocido was through Manuel Quezon II, who told Nick Joaquin it was his father’s favorite dish. “He would call up and say ‘Are you making cocido? I’ll be there,’” Joaquin reports, while adding another dish to the list: tapa usa, or tapa made with deer and eaten with champorado. “Of course, he liked the chocolate ‘thick enough to cut,’ and I myself experienced this in Letran every year on my grandfather’s birthday. Every year, as the Spaniards died out, the chocolate got more watery,” Manolo says.
Researching diplomatic reports by the Japanese in the 1930s, Manolo finds his grandfather was going back and forth to try to prevent the Philippines from being caught up in coming world war. “The Japanese spies we’re writing, ‘You know this man is crazy about sukiyaki,’ and according to the reports he was eating it at least once a day, which must have done wonders for everyone’s cholesterol.”
It’s been observed that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but President Quezon evidently knew that whisky worked as well. As the Philippine Resident Commissioner sitting in the US Congress in 1909, he networked diligently, finding out which politicians cared about the Philippines. “Quezon first made friends with the most affordable group, the Irish-American politicians, because you didn’t have to give them wine, which was expensive, just Scotch, which was cheaper,” notes Manolo of his mestizo-looking ancestor. “He even got an American nickname: all his Irish-American friends called him ‘Casey,’ because they thought that he was somehow an Irishman who had been transplanted to the other side.”
What does all of this tell us about Manuel Quezon, according to his grandson? “He liked the food that his hosts liked, like any good politician.”
Dinner went deeper into political lessons. When STAR cofounder Max Soliven interviewed Manuel Quezon II in the 1980s, he cited four things he learned from his dad: to never tell a lie (“but it is possible that you can get away with not telling the truth; you just have to know when”); don’t be vindictive (“a very important lesson for any Filipino because we take things so personally”); be grateful (“not to forget what your friends have done for you, but to have a limit about what you do for your friends”); and finally, “never flinch at being a Filipino.”
Proceeds from the dinner event were for Fundación Santiago, the brainchild of Filipino entrepreneur-philanthropist Pedro Roxas. One current project is renovating the Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit; they’re also funding a livelihood project for Bohol farmers whose land was taken over by the government for tarsier reserves, and who now operate Abatan River tours; and in Cavite they train out-of-school youths to get into character as tour guides, playing the mother and househelpers of Emilio Aguinaldo — a way of making history come alive through acting and narrative. As Fundación executive director Chaco Molina explained, “It’s not conventional tours. Instead, it’s livelihood for those who have less in life, but based on the natural heritage, with a social development approach.”
Fundación Santiago — which counts Roxaco Land CEO Santi Elizalde, who also put up Anya Resort, as a board member — hopes to continue this Presidential Speaker series “all the way up to number 17.” That would be BBM, the current resident of Malacañang.
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Contact Anya Resort Tagaytay at anyaresorts.com, resv.tagaytay@anyaresorts.com, or call 0998-9553630.
Contact Samira by Chele Gonzalez at 0998-955-3630 or Facebook/Instagram accounts.
Contact Fundación Santiago at +63-6435371 or fundacionsantiago@eyp.ph.
