Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Capillas: Filipino Christmas and exotic foods By Stephen Capillas Galley Proof
WITH all the Christmas goodies being sold outside the St. Augustine Cathedral by the vendors, it's tough to believe that two women collapsed while attending the annual "Simbang Gabi" or early dawn mass in the lead up to Christmas eve here in Cagayan de Oro sometime last Monday.
That was the case with the two women being treated at the hospital due to the crowded conditions at the Cathedral. Whether there was any air-conditioning at the Saint Augustine Cathedral I don't know since I'm a Protestant and had only set foot at the Cathedral to witness the assumption of Fr. Antonio Ledesma as archbishop of the Cagayan Archdiocese.
Anyway, the annual "Simbang Gabi" had become popular in the country owing to the presence of vendors who sell delectable Filipino snacks like salabat (ginger tea), puto bumbong (colored rice cakes) and bibingka (smoked colored rice cakes) as well as the movie "Nine Mornings" in which a guy prayed to God that he would land the girl of his dreams if he completes attendance of the annual Christmas dawn masses.
So that even with all the Christmas parties thrown around by appreciative sponsors, the Christmas season isn't complete without some sort of communion with God.
That for all the commercialism of the season is something Filipinos should be very thankful about.
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Speaking of Filipino food, I watched an episode of Andrew Zimmerman's "Bizarre Foods" at Discovery Channel's Travel and Living where he did a tour of Filipino food and what do you know, it featured a little bit about the balut, that special egg that grossed out participants to the "Amazing Race: Philippines" edition sponsored last year.
Zimmerman, who tasted foods as exotic as cow's balls and genitals and crab's guts, found balut to be quite salty but flavorful. However, while he didn't take kindly to the Pampanga dish of salted caterpillars, he did fancy the spicy barbecued frogs and the raw worms found in tree barks and then dipped in egg.
It's still amusing to find foreigners fascinated by food Filipinos consider to be ordinary, like fish balls and ice cream spread in two pieces of bread as well as "Adidas" (chicken feet), barbecued chicken gizzards and the like. Which only goes to show that Filipino food is as richly diverse as the country's culture.
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