Mathoms, etc.

I've been reading Rafe Bartholomew's book, Pacific Rims, and it made me reminisce about Crispa vs. Toyota, Billy Ray Bates vs. Norman Black, Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa, Benji Paras, Atoy Co, Arnaiz, Jaworski, Mon Fernandez, Philip Cezar. But more importantly, seeing the PBA team names like Purefoods, Alaska, brought back memories about something unexpected, but more important: the Filipino breakfast.

I'm nostalgic for Mommy's garlic fried rice, sizzling bacon, tuyo or tinapa, tocino, corned beef, longganisa, tapa, vienna sausage, and of course, those ridiculously red tender-juicy-tasty hot dogs "just right to the bite". I remember Mother making pancakes, which we called hot cakes. They tasted so good and nothing like the pancakes here, that to this day, I don't even like eating any other kind of pancake. Wash it all down with Magnolia Chocolait, or some Ovaltine (my sister Lourdes was the Milo girl).

The Filipino hot chocolate deserves special mention. During my last year in PT school, we had to stay in Montalban, Rizal to do our 2 month Community Based Rehabilitation affiliation. Every Monday, my fellow interns and I would meet at a jeepney stop by a mall. Across the street, there was a Jollibee. I'd give in to the urge to buy hot chocolate and inevitably burn the roof of my mouth. So I'd have a whole week to recuperate from my first degree burn because we'd go back home on Thursdays. Come Monday, I'd do it all over again.

When I was young, I didn't like garlic so much, so Mom would make a special batch of not garlicky fried rice for me. I can still taste it now. Thanks Mom! We also had Spam that came in a round can. We'd have it fried so it was crispy. And the eggs, what can I say about the delicious eggs? I told Lynn that organic eggs taste like the eggs we used to eat back home.

I miss the Philippines.