Your obligatory blog on Recipes of the Old Homeland

Any cursory reading of blogs authored by compatriots, whether still domiciled in the old homeland or abroad, will either provide snippets of time-worn recipes longingly remembered from a storied past where food played such a focal role in either growing up or simply in living and interacting with other people, or for others who are more knowledgeable, passionate and thorough, allocate a formal venue for detailing varied recipes, complete with pictures of the finished creative products. No doubt, food and its partaking play a central theme in any social life, or simply as a means of breaking the ice in social settings, not much different with the subject of the weather as a safe intro to any initial conversation with any new acquaintance.

Maybe as a result of the islands very diverse peoples and local cultures, isolated from each other by wide expanse of water or rough terrain, the corresponding local cuisine are just as varied, exotic, and reflective of the local cultures.

I am of the mind that sites that do either regularly or sporadically feature such recipes usually fail to attribute the geographical origins of such specific recipes. While the dish itself maybe universally known as such, specific recipes are indigenous to the specific localities that they originate. Thus, a dish in Luzon may be prepared with specified ingredients in a specific way, while the same dish may be prepared differently in different areas in Mindanao, with their own specific ingredients not necessarily the same as the one in Luzon. Needless to state, the dish will be known in the distinct dialects of the unique areas. To illustrate, Dinugo-an is known as Sampayna in Mindanao.

This then is an attempt to provide proper attribution to the recipes. Full credit and origination are given to the Food and Nutrition Institute of the National Science Development Board, whose main concern is food and nutrition. And the attribution of such recipes was then based on studies made by the above body.

And to start off, and the choice was easy, recipes from our beloved Northern Mindanao Region X. Later blogs will detail other recipes distinct to the other regions of the archipelago.

TANGKONG - LINAMBONAN
3 cups of tangkong stems and leaves, cut into 2" lengths
1/2 cup sliced tomatoes
1 tablespoon sliced onion
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 cup fresh alamang
3/4 cup coconut milk (1st extraction)
2 tablespoons kalamansi juice
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
6 pieces banana leaves, wilted

Wash and cut tangkong stems and leaves into 2-inch lengths.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Wrap mixture in 2 layers of banana leaves, securing all edges with string of banana stalk.
Cook over live charcoal for 10 minutes. 5 minutes on each side.
Serve hot. Six servings.

BAS-UY
1/2 cup sliced pork liver
1/2 cup sliced pork, medium fat
3 cups water
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic
1 cup sliced upo
1 cup sliced patola
2 tablespoons sliced onion
1/4 cup sliced tomatoes
1 teaspoon sliced ginger
1 small ginger leaf
1 stalk tanglad leaves`

Place liver and pork in a saucepan.
Add water, salt, and garlic and bring to a boil.
When meat is tender, add upo, patola, onion, tomatoes and ginger.
Cook for 5 minutes.
Add ginger leaf and tanglad and cook for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot. Six servings.


LINAT-AN
6 slices pork chops
6 cups rice washings
2 medium gabi tubers, quartered
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup sliced tomatoes
3 cups cut sitaw (2" lengths)
1 tablespoon sliced sweet pepper
1 tanglad leaf
1 sprig yerba buena
1/4 cup green onions

Boil meat in rice washing for 40 minutes.
Add gabi tubers and salt.
Cook 5 minutes.
Add sitaw and pepper.
Cook 3 minutes.
Add herbs, tomatoes, and green onions.
Cook 3 minutes longer.
Serve hot. Six servings.


HUMBA NA NANGKA
10 tanglad leaves
2-1/2 cups cut young nangka, (2" x 1" wedges)
2 cups coconut milk, 2nd extraction
3 tablespoons sliced onion
1 tablespoon crushed ginger
1 tablespoon crushed tumeric
2 tablespoons bagoong-sauce
3 teaspoon ona (whole fermented fish)
1 cup coconut milk, 1st extraction
1/2 cup sliced tomatoes
1 small tumeric leaf
1 leaf oregano
1 sprig yerba buena

Line bottom of a pan with tanglad leaves.
Arrange nangka in pan and add 2nd extraction of coconut milk, onion, ginger and tumeric.
Cook 20 minutes.
Season with fish sauce and whole fish of fermented bagoong.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Cook 2 minutes longer.
Serve hot. Six servings.

SAMPAYNA
1 cup cut pork's small intestines (cleaned, boiled and cut crosswise, 1cm lengths)
1 cup cut pork's lung (cleaned, boiled and cut into small cubes)
2 tablespoons cooking fat
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
2 teaspoons sliced onions
1 teaspoon sliced ginger
2 tablespoons sliced tomatoes
1/2 cup cut pork liver (cubes)
3 cups sliced banana heart
1 cup vinegar mixed with 2 cups pork's blood
2-1/2teaspoons salt
1/2 cup olasiman stems and leaves

Boil intestines and lungs until tender or for about 30 minutes.
Sauté garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes
Add intestines, lungs, liver and banana heart.
Add well-mixed vinegar-blood mixture and bring to a boil without stirring for about 15 minutes.
Add salt, stir and add olasiman.
Cook 5 minutes longer.
Serve hot. Six servings.

BINAKI
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ears young corn, grated and ground
- enough water to cover for boiling

Combine sugar, powdered milk and baking powder.
Add corn and mix thoroughly.
Pile 2 cornhusks and put in 2 tablespoons of the mixture.
Wrap and tie.
Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the mixture.
Arrange in a saucepan and add just enough water for boiling.
Cook for 35 minutes
Six servings, 2 pieces per serving.

A Major Makeover When Visiting the Old Homeland: The Philippines

Any visit to the old homeland regardless of its frequency or reason is not the same as actually living in the old homeland. Really living life in the exact same way as when that expat experienced life before his/her departure. While it may be easy for one to be lulled or even deluded into thinking that both are one and the same, in reality they are two distinct experiences quite apart from and unlike each other.

For one, the now inhospitable humid climate serves to incessantly remind one that being in the old homeland is not the same as before. The physical body now needs some time to re-acclimatize to the once bearable humidity. Time usually not expendable to the harried visitor trying to squeeze into a tight and limited visit schedule.

Additionally, a collective luggage of new prejudices and expectations neatly culled from living in a new land will undoubtedly also remind one that one is now immersed in a very different social and political environment, which at times can be at odds with one's current conditions.

The unwary traveler/returnee appears wont, though not necessarily with malice or condescension, or even afterthought, to be quite vocal in his/her criticisms about most any local conditions that do not meet his new and revised expectations, defined and made pronounced by the extended stay abroad. For their part, the locals are understandably quite unforgiving about those stray unkind comments coming from the lips of those suddenly impatient and critical returnees.

The weather is too hot! The traffic is atrocious; I could never live here again! Squatters are everywhere! The cities are dirty! The air appears stale and noxious the minute one alights from the air transport! Defiance of the law, whether petty or grand larceny is ubiquitous! Politicians are all too crooked and clueless, so unmindful of their very constituents! The Filipinos are quite preoccupied and too focused on outside events around the globe, and yet too stingy in marshalling time and effort addressing local problems. And even, why are those TV/Radio persons in a constant aggravated state of yelling or shouting at their audiences, as if everybody is deaf and dumb? It is all too irritating and quite an assault on the ears! These and more are the typical fare of observations and commentaries emanating from the once compliant members of the same pack.

At the risk of being labeled an uncouth hypocrite, or worse a treacherous turncoat, one in such a situation has to exercise great thoughtful restraint and exhibit a liberal dose of patience and understanding.

As a visitor, for that is now how most of your former compatriots would regard us, it is incumbent upon us to exercise great restraint especially when pointing out the negative and seedy aspects of life in the islands. While before, any such comments from you may have be taken lightly and simply made to pass from one ear to another, this time the times and the circumstances have changed. From one of our own to once our own. From one of us to foreigner.

Thus, the unmitigated pride of even the hapless Pinoy will instantly recoil at such criticisms, whether justified or not. It is best then to simply stay on the safe and benign topics, unless expressly asked or invited to render an honest and unvarnished opinion on such matters.

The country collectively has gone through many and prolonged vicissitudes from the time most of us long-time expats had left. It is not much of a stretch to surmise that individually, the typical Filipino over time has been asked to give much of himself to keep his/her equanimity and sanity intact. Aside from physical and mental deprivations, much of hope, confidence, and even unbridled optimism, have also been excruciating demanded from him. While despair and frustrations may stare at him daily, as gleaned from media, from both his patent and latent protests, and from his general outlook on life, again it may not be much of a stretch to surmise that at the opposite spectrum of those same emotions, such traits as perseverance, long suffering, love for country or fealty to anything Filipino may have been just as equally sharpened and elevated. And in such heightened states, gratuitous criticisms may not be taken that tolerantly .

It is best and the better part of discretion to exercise extra caution then when delving on the buffeting stresses that characterize Philippine national and individual life.

And one last seemingly ironic observation about current Philippine society is the popularity and proliferation of over-sized malls around most urbanized areas, but most especially in the Metro Manila areas. Most of these malls and similar places are almost always crowded with patrons giving the false impression that hardships are quite afar from ordinary Philippine life. Restaurants of varying sizes and clientele, are sites of endless crowds seemingly oblivious to anything partaking of hardships. Movie houses are similarly patronized. Faces in the crowd show no traces of any present or impending financial difficulties. Make no mistake about it there are lots of rich affluent families in the country with disposable income to equal any first world country.

Unfortunately, their numbers (or percentage) are quite miniscule compared to the national figures, giving the illusion that there are very many of them since most of them congregate around urbanized areas, especially areas around Metro Manila. But this picture is markedly contrasted as one leaves the comfy confines of the malls, the modern business centers, the gated communities, etc., and as on communes with the majority and sees the harsh realities of poverty and deprivation - in both the urban areas and in the provinces, most especially those lying farther away from Metro Manila.

One final note to this paradox, for truly it is (extreme love of country, optimism, etc. have not translated to meaningful reforms and amelioration of the country's myriad of economic and political woes), is why collectively the country cannot lift itself up with its bootstraps and gear resolutely toward progress on the many fronts.

To the detached observer, there appears to be no abatement in sight. Not much diminution of some of the emaciating miseries. No meaningful curtailment of the pernicious corruption in its political affairs. No significant dent to the wantonly undisciplined manner both the people and the authorities have shown whether on issues of traffic or respect for the law both petty and grand. Jaywalking. Running red lights. Absent road courtesy. Incessant and irritating blowing of horns. Illegally full-tinted car windows. And so on.

Making this trite and old cliché quite relevant: Big crooks never ever see jail time.

Do You Have An Accent?

Last night, while my wearied mind was struggling between wakefulness and sleep, a few straggling thoughts stubbornly resisted in taking their rightful place, which was oblivion, during such a difficult but important phase of the daily routine. A few nasty thoughts refused to be shaken off and continued floating carelessly across my consciousness. Part of the problem was because one thought was particularly both amusing and mind-gnawing given the circumstances surrounding it.

It came from a regular reading of the dozen or two email groups that I am a member of, though inactive in most of them. I would be your typical lurker, or fly on the wall, or cyberspace voyeur, casually fishing for any thing interesting from these different sources. And given that these groups are quite a motley combination of members coming from varied ethnicities and delving on different subject matters, they do at times provide a lot of interesting insights on the intellectual workings-on, including idiosyncrasies, of the diverse membership. Some funny, some amusing, at times ludicrous or shallow, or at times just plain petty and therefore a plain waste of time and effort on both reader and writer.

The thought was triggered by a reading of a short barrage of contentious exchanges between several members on the issue of one very high government official being criticized as having a bad accent. The incendiary exchanges would have been not unusual for this considerably large group which has had a few similar attractions in the not too distant past. But it was the subject matter that got my mind whirling.

It was the issue of accent in the speaking of English. The snappy criticism was just as rapidly responded with an equally tart retort, coming from the party who had initially heaped some mighty praises on the same individual.

From the outset, one got the feeling that the response to the short critique was fired off simply to fight fire with fire, rather than go the tactful route of a dispassionate and serious excavation and dissertation into the issue of accent. What is accent and who speaks an accent?

I would go about it this way. And mind you, it would essentially be my personal assessment and nothing more. Thus, no need to flog me if one disagrees.

If one is in the United States, one is said to be speaking with an accent if one’s speech betrays its not being similar or the same as the many native speakers of the place. Native speakers can both be foreign born or those who grew up in the place as a young kid, or simply one who acquired or adapted the same speech patterns as most of the population. In this case, even a Brit, possessor of the King’s English and coming from a country where the language originated, would be considered as having an accent, and we say, a British accent. Of course, in England, his home country, everybody else except him and those who speak like him, would be considered as having an accent. In that milieu, the native American speaker would be said to have an American accent.

Now in my estimation, the problem lies, especially with a good many of my Filipino compatriots, in that we tend to lump everything that separates our speech from the native speakers as simply a question of accent, when in many or most instances they are something else. For example, we tend to consider the mispronunciation of words as simply a matter of accent and not a problem of proper enunciation of the words of the language. When we pronounce all the f sounds as p sounds, that is mispronunciation, not accent.

When we miss the th sounds that is not accent, that is enunciating the words improperly. When our speech cannot sufficiently differentiate between the short vowel sounds and the long vowel sounds that would not be because of accent, but again because we are not enunciating the words properly.

Furthermore, if we cannot be discriminate enough to know where the proper stress/accent of a multi-syllabic word lies, or in our speech intonation, we do not put emphasis on the action word of a sentence which is the verb but rather on either the subject or object, then we simply are not speaking English the way it is taught.

So these and more of the nuanced exceptions that English is littered with, if they are missed, tripped over, or omitted, are not attributable to accent, but simply a failure to speak English properly.

Our present immigrant California governor may be a so-so analogy. We may find a bit of humor in his accent when he pronounces his state of governance, California, with his short ah sound and his rolling or slurring of the r sound, but in my judgment, his pronunciation is passable. It would really be bad, if he misses the f sound and instead allows a p sound to come out in the same word.

While still in the old country, I had often wondered at the way the colegialas and the favored few who were able to go to those high-priced exclusive private schools in Metro Manila, pronounce the word student, as “stoodent". The native American speaker could normally pronounce the word with the u sound or maybe the short o sound, but never as stoodent.

The only way to avoid scrutiny about accent is to simply write everything down instead of speaking. Writing provides the level playing field, where accent plays absolutely no role. Yours will read like one coming from any good Brit or American.

So, who has the accent? Or, who has the bad accent?

Your call.

Genealogy: The Johns Family of Baroda, Michigan

*******Updates Below******

In this last of a genealogy trilogy, we lend words and space to try and retrace the times and travels of the family of my wife, Evelyn Johns Domingo.

It should be noted that most of the data gathered and collated here came from cemetery records made available on the web. For indeed, not only will the paper documents recording births and deaths in a place point to peoples’ identities and whereabouts, but the very gravesites with their gravestones, lapidas, markers, etc., will through the harsh tests of time survive to tell their own unique stories.

This is one such story.

In the 1830s, a certain John Johns came to these shores in the East Coast from Prussia bringing with him the following distinguishing details: Born January 1, 1836 and married to Mary Schuler. His parents were said to be Christian Johns and Mary Weckler, who probably continued to live and to die in Prussia. John is recorded as having died in November 24, 1910.

And of special mention could be the fact that upon landing on these shores they had changed, or anglicized, their names for they were known to be Jewish.

John sired three children. A William Johns, married to Arilla A. Hyland, born on March 23, 1868 and died on March 25, 1941. A Peter H. Johns, married to Cora Washburn (who died on July 10, 1989 but had remarried to Charles Paden), born September 16, 1865 and died April 16, 1903. And the last one, a Jacob Johns who was married to Emma Warsko, who was born on February 25, 1874 and died June 9, 1928.

My wife’s maternal grandfather was Ernest J. Johns, a son of Peter H. Johns. He had seven other siblings, both full and half (because Cora Washburn had remarried after Peter).

Ernest J. was born in October of 1898 and was married to Braulia Duran, who came from a remote area in Sorgoson.

The obvious question may be asked how it was possible for a gentleman from temperate Michigan to meet and marry barrio lass from hot and humid Sorsogon, located in the southern tip of the island of Luzon in the Philippines?

The story unravels very much similar to stories of people with the wanderlust borne out of the insatiable human spirit that seeks out new things, new frontiers, anything new and daring, exciting adventures, etc..

At the close of WWI, sometime in 1917, Ernest J. took the then pioneering decision to uproot himself from his familiar and cozy surroundings in the East to try his luck on a faraway archipelago of 7,100 islands dotting the wide expanse of the vast Pacific. The Philippine Islands, American territory, land of promise and coconut trees as far as the eye can see.

His forte was in mining, throwing him to the remote mountainous areas of the archipelago where gold and silver were prospected. And that was how Braulia was to meet her future life’s partner, from Sorsogon, to Masbate, to the mountains of Toledo, Cebu.

Both Ernest J. and Braulia are now dead. One dying over 35 years ago and the other 20 years later. But an irony continues to cling and to haunt that then unusual partnership that started many years ago and produced six offspring, one being my mother-in-law, Fay Domingo.

Michigan-raised Ernest is buried in a cemetery in Cebu, while Sorsogon-descended Braulia is buried in a Colma Cemetery here in California.

And thus, the twain shall have to meet again ...sometime.



UPDATE: February 24, 2008

A crude chart of the Johns family is attached below.


Click on image to enlarge.

Genealogy: The Osmeña Family of Cebu

UPDATE - August 15, 2021

Some Data on my Maternal Grandfather who we never had the chance to meet and learn about.

VELEZ y FLORES, PORFIRIO (1880-1937, 57 YEARS), from Palompon, Leyte.

1893-96 - studied at the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos, Cebu (Libros de Matriculos, Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos (at 13 years of age)

1904 -selected Board Member of Cebu City's Catholic Comite de Caballeros (Ang Camatuoran, 11/19/1904) (at 24 years of age)

1907 - married Fernanda Osmena (Ang Camatuoran, 6/15/1907) (at 27 years of age)

1907 - named Municpal Councilor of  Cebu City to replace one of the councilors recently suspended by the Provincial Boad (The Cebu Courier, 11/30/1907)

1937 - died, buried at San Agustin Church (Basilica Minore del Santo Nino, Cebu

(Through the research and courtesy of Genesis Velez)

 

Pictured above is a clearer graph of the Osmena family tree, only as far as I am able to provide with names from reliable sources.  One can look at the names and maybe relate them to known ancestors.  Updated this 4th day of March 2013.


*******UPDATES BELOW*******

The Old Parian, a still extant district though now largely in the minds of the old folks of Cebu was home to many of Cebu’s old families. Present descendants of these families have now scattered to different cities and provinces of the archipelago, and even locally, have dispersed across the now burgeoning metropolitan areas of Cebu province.

But many can trace their lineage to that history-rich, very well defined as to be exclusive, and very patriarchal district that once dominated the economic activities of the old city. Its ethnic composition then was as varied and diverse as societies go when many ethnic groups start living together. Mestizos of different mixtures – from Spanish and Chinese, To Spanish and Filipino, to even peninsular Spanish with insular Spanish, and what have you.

Out of that sizzling melting pot came the family of my mother, the Osmeña family, carrying the unique ethnic label of Mestizo-Sangley. That would be Chinese and Spanish mixture.

For this one particular Old Parian family, its present recorded history begins in the 1800s, with one Severino Osmeña, who had married twice in his lifetime. The first wife was Vicenta Rita, who must have died before Severino took on second wife, Paula Suico.

My maternal grandmother, Fernanda Osmeña, came from Severino’s first marriage, one generation later. And she had six other siblings in her family.

On the other hand, the most famous of the Osmeñas, Sergio Osmeña, Sr., second President of the Philippine Commonwealth, owed his origins to Severino’s second union, again one generation later. Similarly, Sergio, Sr., also had two wives during his lifetime.

Sergio, Sr. now graces the fifty-peso bill of the present Republic of the Philippines, with a countenance that clearly shows his Chinese origins.

Sergio, Jr., a son of Sergio, Sr., was no less noted, becoming a Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines and figuring prominently during the chaotic regime of the virtual dictator Marcos.

At present, Sergio III, a son of Sergio, Jr., proudly continues the much heralded political tradition of the family, sitting as a revered Senator in the Philippine Senate. Another son, Tomas, is the mayor of the city.

UPDATES: February 24, 2008

Book cover of Life in Old Parian, written by Concepcion G. Briones, whose own family once lived in Parian.

Below is a crude graph showing the Osmena genealogy starting with Severino Osmena, who was married twice - first to Vicenta Rita then to Paula Sunico.

From the inside leaf covers of the Old Parian book are two maps, one a street map and another in 3D relief.


Click on Graphics for larger views.

Here's a rare picture of my grandmother, Fernanda Osmena Velez, with one of her three daughters, my mother.