Monday, November 26, 2007

What Am I Bringing Home From Manila?

Yep, I consider HK my home now, after 4 long years. Manila is the place where I grew up, studied, met my lifelong friends, did crazy things, met hubby, had little boy, got married; it's where my loved ones live, and where some of the most spectacular beaches and sunset views are to be found; it's a place of fantastic food, wonderful company, cherished memories.

But I am home, and at home in HK. I am familiar with its sights and sounds, with its idiosyncrasies. I breathe its polluted air every day, I walk through its colorful streets. I know this may be temporary, no one stays long in HK, after all, and while hubby's heart beats for HK now, it will yearn for Manila when we are much, much older.

And while HK is my home for the time being, my heart beats for both this cosmopolitan city and the city I left behind, corrupt government, silly bus and jeepney drivers, bureaucratic red tape, traffic, heat and all. My family and dearest friends live there, and they are the ties that bind me to Manila, Manila.

However, whenever I go on vacation, I consider it a vacation, and think of flying back to HK as going home.

So what am I bringing home from Manila?

- A new hairstyle, hopefully :)
- Fat and Thin brand longganisa, pork and chicken (the garlic, sugar and salt all balance out, plus there's not much fat! It's made by a fellow ICAn who supplies to the company Fat and Thin)
- Vigan longganisa
- Longganisa from a semi-blind old woman vendor in Kamuning Market (this is her only source of livelihood, and I've loved her fat, sweetish longganisa with the caramelized skin since childhood!)
- Foodstuff from The Blue Kitchen and La Cucina de Tita Moning
- LZM boneless bangus from Cavite
- Table napkins, placemats, candles, coasters from Tiendesitas and Kultura
- Yummy, Preview, Mega and Food magazines
- Tons of cookbooks from Fully Booked
- Tablea from Nana Meng's Tsokolate
- Lemon Squares from this stall in the Glorietta foodcourt selling Sylvanas (one of the yummiest I've had)
- Calamansi (for all my marinating needs) and the dalandan concentrate from The Blue Kitchen is great for juice!
- Connie's Kitchen tawilis and gourmet tuyo
- Salad dressings and a packet of multicolored peppercorns from Chelsea Market Cafe in Serendra
- Montano brand spicy sardines (litte boy's fave)
- Aligue, aligue, aligue! (I'll try several brands)
- Anything by Claude Tayag
- Machang (sticky rice cooked with chicken, pork, black mushroom and sometimes beans, wrapped like an imperfect pyramid in lotus leaves and steamed) from Wei Wang Chinese store in Wilson street, Greenhills
- Memories from my trip to Baguio, and hopefully walking trips with either Ivan Man Dy or Carlos Celdran.
- Memories of Avenue Q the Manila production
- Memories of all my foodtrips

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

am on the hunt for seriously yummy lemon squares....really maasim/sour and just a little sweet, with a good tasting crust and overall chewiness... Are the ones in Glorietta like this? Is the sylvana store House of Sylvanas? More details please...... Thanks

ragamuffin girl said...

I haven't had it in a while so I can't vouch for it now, which is why it's on my to-do list. :)
It's a bit on the sweet side since I used to have a really sweet tooth. My taste has mellowed down now so I'm also on the hunt for a more "lemony" version. In HK Vanilla Bakery near the Mid-Levels Escalators in Central has really good ones. Try searching www.dessertcomesfirst.com (Lori Baltazar's blog site) for other lemon square suppliers. I was at the Salcedo market last Saturday but didn't find any. Funny but I ate 2 cakes the past few days: the Concorde of Sugarhouse and the Joaquin and Fleur De Lys (a Bailey's and milk chocolate mousse) from Fleur De Lys in T. Morato, and I found the Concorde much better tasting: really moist and yummy and not too sweet! The FDL one was a bit old. :(

Anonymous said...

Howdy?!;-) Would you know the Head office of Fat & Thin Logganisa??