Two Old Churches in Pampanga

Last August I joined a group of friends on a day tour of Pampanga.  It's north of Manila, about a drive of an hour and a half.  We had a special ten-course lunch scheduled at Bale Dutung, but had the morning free to visit a couple of old  churches and take photos.

The San Guillermo Parish Church of Bacolor dates back to Spanish times.  After the original church (constructed in 1576) was destroyed in an earthquake, it was rebuilt in 1897.  In 1991 half the church was buried in lahar during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.  In one of the photos below you'll see that the arched windows on the sides of the church are now as low as the tops of the pews.

From Bacolor we traveled to Betis, Guagua - an old town famous for hand-carved furniture.  Built in the 18th century, the Parish Church of Santiago Apostol (St. James the Apostle) is known for its splendid retablo art.  Its facade is quite simple and relatively recent, but old carvings decorate the church door and selected pieces of the church's original wooden furniture.  The altar is rich with more carvings, gilt and saints.  But the showstopper is the church's ceiling, painted in the early 20th century.  We were requested by church staff not to use flash photography, to protect the artwork.

The lovely thing about these churches is that they're still working churches, serving loyal parish families throughout their town's history.  If you have a long weekend coming up, a map, a camera, and a sense of adventure, this sort of trip is immensely rewarding.

Dining at Bale Dutung

When our American friend Tom said he'd finally visit the Philippines last August, Carlos immediately organized a trip to the province of Pampanga, complete with a ten-course lunch at Claude and Mary Ann Tayag's restaurant, Bale Dutung.

"Bale Dutung" means "house of wood".  If this house looks somewhat familiar, it's because it was featured in Anthony Bourdain's Philippines episode on No Reservations.  Here's the Pampanga clip on Youtube, showing artist and chef Claude Tayag's restaurant.

Mary Ann Tayag welcomed the seven of us warmly.  We had to call ahead and reserve, so the Tayags could put us together with another small group in order to make the 12-head minimum.  We chose the "Anthony Bourdain menu", which referred to an all-Kapampangan lineup of dishes.  As each dish was served, Mary Ann would annotate, explaining the origins and flavors of each dish.

A salad of wild ferns and tomatoes topped with half a soft-boiled egg.

Grilled chicken buttons (it's the behind, folks!) with brown rice.

Quail stewed in soy sauce, garlic and vinegar (adobo), with egg pan de sal.

Lechon taco.  Each diner is served only one ( in order for them to be able to appreciate the rest of the ten-course meal properly), but the fixings are buffet style.

Beef bone marrow.  You get a wooden popsicle stick to scoop out the delicious marrow, plus a straw to help you get all the juices.

A thick guava-flavored soup called "bulanglang", featuring "ulang" (large river prawns).  There's a small serving of plain rice inside the banana leaf package.

Seafood kare-kare (a stew with peanut sauce).

The courses I didn't photograph were the appetizers (crackers and dip made of homemade herb pesto, "taba ng talangka" or crab fat, and "balao-balao" or fermented rice flavored with shrimps); the coffee and dessert (maja blanca with corn and young coconut).

The meal took us four hours to consume!  It was amazing how we could all still stand up at the end of it all.  Claude visited our table and signed the books we bought.  He and Mary Ann co-authored the book Linamnam, a regional food guide to the Philippines (Anvil Publishing, 2011).  Claude also styled Kulinarya (A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine), by Glenda Rosales Barretto.

Was it worth it?  Foreign visitors and locals who aren't too familiar with Pampanga cuisine (like myself) can definitely check this menu out.  Some of the dishes were known quantities with a distinctly Pampanga/Tayag twist.  Some, like the balao-balao dip and the guava-redolent bulanglang, were exotic. If that doesn't strike your fancy, there are also other menus to choose from.  I truly enjoyed Mary Ann's entertaining and informative spiels, and learned a lot about Pampanga's rich history and culture through its food.

What to do after an afternoon of eating?  We decided we all wanted a richer dessert, and went all the way to Kabigting's a few towns away in Arayat, for white halo-halo (with pastillas milk candy instead of ube jam)!

Thank you, Tom, for visiting the Philippines, because if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have thought of going on this Pampanga food tour!

Anvaya Cove

Occasional thunderstorms reminded us that the summer wouldn't last forever. Going to the beach was my five-year-old niece Lilo's nightly prayer. Thanks to the kind sponsorship of a family friend who was a member, we were able to visit Anvaya Cove in Bataan, some 30 minutes' drive past Subic.

We arrived just before lunch. We were ferried to our rooms via the scenic route in an electric golf cart. Because of the electric transportation, there was little pollution near the living areas. Ayala Land did an outstanding job with the landscaping - shady mango trees, beautiful bamboo stands and variegated bushes lined the paths. There were even several ponds along the route, supporting flocks of geese. My brother-in-law Tristan was also pleased to note that all the public buildings offered free wi-fi. Each bedroom was even equipped with a LAN cable, cable tv, and a dvd player. We went off to lunch in their airconditioned restaurant. Food prices were competitive and food quality was quite good, although we weren't impressed by the buffet selections. Every comfort room was spotless, offering lotion, hand sanitizer, and powder apart from the soap. The level of comfort and customer service was consistently high all throughout.

There was a bath house with lockers near the multi-level swimming pools and the beach, where you could rent your towel and change into your swimsuit. As we walked to the beach we noticed there were little "bird houses" around which were actually disguised cold-water dispensers! In the heat, this was a major plus.

The sand was light grey, and we were very happy to see that the water was very clean and clear. There were lots of small fish and shells, and a few harmless jellyfish. High tide was in the mornings. We all had a grand time beachcombing.

When we arrived there were lots of people at the swimming pools (many were day trippers), but few at the beach itself. It was like we had the whole cove to ourselves. The following morning a number of young families joined us. There was a section of cove reserved for a team-building group, where the noise of the activities couldn't disturb the other guests. We swam all day. We had to check out of our rooms at 12 noon in deference to other guests, but we didn't have to settle our bill until 330pm!

On our way home we were greeted by another thunderstorm on NLEX. We wished we could have stayed at Anvaya Cove longer, but then we were actively making plans to plan for another sponsored visit again one day.

Road Trip with Lilo

ROAD TRIP WITH LILO
6 January 2010

It's Lilo's third trip to Baguio, the second one that she can remember. It's her first trip without her Ate Belinda, who would follow a day later with Lilo's grandparents. On this road trip I'm the babysitter.

We left the house at 8am, making good time on the SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway). A few weeks earlier there had been a multi-car pileup on this fast stretch of road, caused by the smoke of a brush fire obscuring driver visibility. We took it easy, not exceeding 100kph. It was a bright, sunny day with clear skies. We were congratulating ourselves that Lilo had gone to the toilet at the rest stop at the Shell gas station and was unlikely to want to pee for the next few hours.

"Where's Baguio, is it near?" Lilo said. "Are we near now?" she'd ask, every five minutes. "It's far, honey," Joy would say. We'll get there after lunch." "But why after lunch?" Lilo would say, "Why not in a few minutes?" "Because we're still in the car, sweetie. We're still riding to get there. Riding in the car on the way to Baguio will take us about five or six hours. So that means we'll get there after lunch." Tristan very patiently explained. At four years old, Lilo doesn't really have a concrete concept of time and its measurement yet. The easiest way to explain travel time would be in terms of meal times.

"But why?" Yes, she is at that age where every question has a "why" in it. At times the conversation would get circular, but that's how road trip conversations with young children go. When Tristan ran out of answers, he'd say, "Auntie! Help!" That's what aunties are for, it seems, to distract the little ones and keep them in a good humor. I try to take my role seriously.

"You know what, Lilo? When mommy and I were little girls going up to Baguio, we used to have this game. We'd count cars! Mommy would count red cars and I would count blue cars the moment we passed the first toll gate. The toll gate is that place where we get the road ticket, remember? Anyway, the first person with the most number of cars counted by the time we reached Baguio would be the winner." Lilo looked suitably impressed, but then she can't count up to a hundred yet without losing her place several times. You'd have to count with her. Before she got in another "why" in the conversation, I quickly added, "If we got tired of counting cars, we counted churches instead, because there's a church in every town and city along the highway." These were Iglesia ni Cristo churches, with their gothic spires, very easy to pick out in a bucolic landscape. "And - oh, look! White birds in the ricefield! They're called herons."

Occasionally Tristan would say, "Champion auntie!" Joy was coughing and had a sore throat since the New Year and wanted to conserve her voice, so she let me do most of the storytelling. At the Tarlac City exit Joy and I switched seats, so she could navigate while Tristan drove. We also removed Lilo from her car seat, which she was about to outgrow. She was ready for a regular seatbelt. On either side of her was Uling ("charcoal") the toy cat, and Browster (we don't know where she got that name) the fat yellow pillow cat.

We were driving by ricefields, which, several months earlier, had totally been drowned by typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma). That was an entire harvest lost. "Where's the rice? Isn't that grass?" Lilo asked. She knew rice was a soft white grain, but had no idea what plant it came from. "Rice is a kind of grass, Lilo. The plants those men and women are planting is a young rice plant. When it grows bigger it will bear seeds. When the seeds are dry and brown ready to be harvested, the farmers cut the seeds from the plant. See the black nets on the side of the road? That's where the farmers put the brown seeds to dry. Then they take the seeds and pound them and polish them to remove the brown skin and that's how you get the white rice." Auntie's note to self: When we get home, try looking for "palay" so Lilo can recognize the rice with the brown husks on.

I took her little hand and put it between my hands, and said, "The white rice is inside the brown husk. Your hand is the rice, and my hands are the husk. When the farmer pounds the rice, the husk comes off," I said, removing my hands and raising up her little hand, "then what is left is the rice grain!" She loved that part. She made me do it over and over, until she saw haystacks for the first time, and some white cows, and THEN she wanted to sleep.

I made sure her seatbelt was secure, and she fell asleep on Browster the pillow cat shortly. In fact, she fell asleep somewhere in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija and woke up when we were in Binalonan, Pangasinan. Peace and quiet! Fortunately we were near a town plaza when she announced she wanted to pee. Joy and I quickly dressed her in pull-up diapers, cleaned her up and dressed her again with military precision. Tristan disposed of the diaper in a trash can at a nearby store. In the back of my mind I remembered when we were little, and had to stop on the side of the highway by a ricefield to pee behind a malong (printed cotton tube skirt) our mother used as a privacy screen. On all other road trips after that we learned not to drink too much water and to tell our dad we wanted to pee at the next gas station. In those days gas stations were not as conveniently located as they are now. We learned how to be roadworthy pretty quickly.

Around 1pm we arrived in Rosario, La Union. Lilo was hungry, and wanted noodles. Fortunately, there was a Chow King near the Shell gas station, where she wolfed down her bowl of beef noodle soup. Then she started her "why" questions again. Tristan said, "Let's play a game! The first one who says the word why will have to give up a scoop of her ice cream to all the other members of the family! So you're not supposed to say the word why, ok?" She nodded, challenged. Fifteen minutes later, she forgot she was still playing the game and said, "Why aren't we in Baguio yet?" We all laughed, and she got mad and said, "I don't want you to eat all of my ice cream!" Then she started to cry, so we had to cancel THAT game. Well, she lasted all of 15 minutes without asking "why". It was a record on this drive.

Then she asked where Baguio was. "It's a city in the mountains where your grandpa grew up, sweetheart. You remember the first time you rode a horse? That's where Baguio is. We went there last year with your cousins." That, she remembered. Tristan thought he'd try a game again. "Ok! Let's play another game! The person who says the word Baguio will lose!" This time Lilo kept asking me where we were going. I realized she was trying to get me to say the word "Baguio"! Sneaky little thing. This time she lasted for 30 minutes, before blurting out, "When are we getting to Baguio?" But this time she realized we really didn't want to get all her ice cream, we just wanted to see if she could keep her mind on the game. So she covered her mouth in surprise and started laughing.

We got to our hotel around 230pm. Everyone was tired from the long drive. She saw all the cars and jeeps and traffic. I suddenly saw Baguio through her eyes. If it weren't for the pine trees and the cold weather, it would be just like any crowded city in Metro Manila. When we were growing up, going to Baguio was a special, magical trip. So many things to do, to eat, to see, while bundled up in a thick jacket! It was almost like travelling to a different country!

She looked at us and said, "Ok, that was fun. Now let's go back home!"

Luna, La Union - Food Trip

A third of the family opted to sleep near the bonfire, under the stars. They awoke to a rosy dawn on the cool stones.

My dad decided to work up a good appetite, heading to the beach. After breakfast, he and his cousins went off to see some vendors about some yellowfin tuna for lunch. This handsome specimen weighed 22kg. The ladies obliged by preparing and weighing the fish. We bought about 10kg, for sinigang, kilawen and grilling.

We were also able to enjoy a summer's bounty of various fruits, as the balikbayans had not tasted some of the more exotic ones for years. There were Indian mangoes, bananas, oranges, chicos, guayabanos (soursops), and passionfruit. The colors of the fruit, against the warm wood of the table, against the grey stones, made each shot a still life.

Many were quite pleased to see a salad seaweed, "ar-arosep" or "lato" on the table. Its grape-like clusters had some crunch and left a pleasing, mild, briny flavor on the tongue.

Here's some delicious grilled eggplant, mixed with some sliced mild shallots, tomatoes and the local vinegar, for a salad. The region's bagoong, a sauce of fermented, salted fish, was also served as an optional seasoning.

Some horned "cowfish" were also grilled in between damp flat bamboo slats tied together with wire. Their firm white flesh was sweet.

We used our hands, foregoing the spoons and forks, and somehow the food tasted better. There was something about the salt air, and being with the people we loved that made it a feast to remember.

Luna, La Union - Noble House

This is the third leg of the Caccam-Perez international family reunion. It follows the 2 videos posted from Cavite and Baguio City.

Luna in La Union (near Bacnotan) is famous for its beaches of wave-polished, rounded stones. Not sand, stones. Stones of every color, washed up daily onto the beach. We were guests at the house of the Noble family.

Relatives spent some time on the beach to collect stones of different shapes and sizes.

The rustic house had a natural, organic feel, dominated by warm wooden furniture and a stone floor that brought the beach inside. Wide picture windows at each angle kept the house well-ventilated and gave guests beautiful views.

The property is so secluded that guests enjoyed utter privacy. We slept with the windows open.

That night the uncles gathered by the fire, shared beers, and counted shooting stars.