Four Witches in Search of Dimsum

Four ravenous witches weren't about to be denied their dimsum - not even by a horrendous traffic gridlock at the approach of Jones Bridge occasioned by a road closed for paving and an absentee traffic cop (maybe he wanted his dimsum too). For about a week now the road beside the Pasig River that goes under Jones Bridge and behind the Bureau of Immigration building had been closed to traffic because of repairs. To provide temporary access from the Post Office side of Jones to Magallanes Drive (and vice versa) the cement pylons that closed off that intersection were removed and, since there is no traffic light there, a cop was stationed to keep order amongst the vehicles going in six different directions. That, unfortunately, was more the exception than the rule, the rule having become survival of the bravest, brashest and most walang hiya : sorry na lang if, by forcing your car across one lane while the other lanes are blocked, you caused a gridlock that backed up traffic in all directions.

This was the situation that confronted the Witches of Port Area heading for Binondo Friday before last. Traffic going towards Jones was backed up past City Hall, almost to the National Museum. Undaunted, we decided to take the Del Pan Bridge and find our way back to Rosario and Carvajal, our favorite haunts.

It turned out to be a most pleasant and enlightening experience.That section of Binondo between Del Pan and Juan Luna is full of old houses and buildings - some of them historic, as we saw a plaque outside one house proclaiming that the revolutionary paper Ang Kalayaan was printed there - the little shops. Although mostly in despair, the houses were from a different era, with details and features highlighted in cofee table books and architectural journals. We wanted to stop at a stall that sold all sorts of brooms; I remember my mother ordering special hopia from one of these houses in Sto. Cristo. And where was the old Chinese herbalist's house?

We got quite lost, but we didn't mind, so engrossed were we in discovering this part of the city so close to us yet so unfamiliar. It was easy to ask for directions: the barangay traffic guy on the job outside a school and the volunteer at the intersection were most friendly in pointing us through the maze to Juan Luan, from where we knew our way to dimsum, pata tim and seafood noodles.