Simple Joys & Everyday Graces

They are what we have to be thankful for, especially when the grand and the spectacular fail us so miserably. When the worldwide conglomerate and the multi-billion hedge fund crack and collapse, we realize that the age-old, time-tested, familiar things endure, remain with us through generations, through crises, through changes in fortune and favor.

Forever curious and always energetic Marilen Nolasco-Espiritu admits that her latest project, the book “Wrap Them, Store Them, Peddle Them The Filipino Way” is the result of a personal quest and mission. She writes: “Some of the old ways of doing things no longer exist except in a few forgotten places. It is my intent to document this fast-vanishing art of yesteryears and in so doing inform future generations about Filipino culture’s artistry. By preserving them in pictures, I could have then, in one way or another, honored these craftsmen and designers of times gone by.”

Espiritu takes readers then on a unique and delightful tour of Filipino delicacies and intricacies, and she is an excellent guide. Her son Johann, a lawyer by profession, did a good job with the photographs as well.

The first of three parts of this charming book – wrap them – introduces – or rather, re-introduces or reminds – us to everyday food items that are quite extraordinary in the way they are packaged. I smile just thinking about sundot kulangot, and the childhood memories associated with this rather strange sweetbit. (It is so unique the sundot kulangot is the cover of the book.) Fortunately, she explains it all for me – from what the kulangot actually is, to why and how it is packaged the way it is.

A couple pages on she gives instructions on how to weave the sheath of coconut fronds for the patupat, which takes a whole day to make, a truly anti-fast food rice cake. Other delicacies like pakaskas and suman and other kakanins take pride of place, as do kesong puti and pastillas de leche. And I finally know where the exquisite and delicious – and rare – carved fruit (specifically dayap or native lemon) cooked in syrup is made: San Miguel, Bulacan.

Before refrigeration and blast freezing, Filipinos found ways of storing food as needed. “Seasonal fruits are bottled in syrup to preserve them – the better for everyone to enjoy them all year round. Duck eggs are stored in brine for two weeks to make salted eggs – a staple food for farmers and their families. Salted dilis (anchovies) is kept in a burnay (clay jar) for one year for fermentation to become bagoong to be used for cooking and as a dipping sauce,” Espiritu writes.

She goes on: “Fertilized duck eggs need to be kept in warm baskets for 18 days and are sold as balut, popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and a good source of energy. And sugarcane juice stored for at least six months in clay jars are transformed into basi wine – the pride of the Ilocanos.

“These methods of preserving and storing food have been passed on from generation to generation so that we may still have the pleasure of enjoying food that is uniquely Filipino.”

We all have fond memories of ambulant vendors. As a kid I looked forward every afternoon to the taho man, and when I heard his “Ta-hooo” in the distance I’d get my little bowl ready and wait for him at the gate. Years later, my nephew would wake up from his afternoon nap when Mang Quirino the “toot” man came calling.

The kling-kling-kling of the sorbetero was literally music to the ears of all Pinoy kids, and the treat of dirty ice cream was enough incentive to behave and not hide the tsinelas (slippers) of manang. The balut vendor, though, was a different matter altogether. He came around only at night, and so there was something frightening about his plaintive nocturnal call, “Ba-looooooot!”

Such are the “discoveries” that Espiritu shares with readers, and she must be congratulated for embarking on this quest to find out and put on record for us these treasures of our culture.  

As you unwrap this wonderful book, page after page, please don’t store it; rather, share it and spread the joy of discovering our simple joys and everyday graces.

Wrap Them, Store Them, Peddle Them The Filipino Way will be launched on Saturday and will then be available at selected bookstores and museum shops.