Thursday, October 12, 2006 Magsaysay: Why Buddha jumped over the wall By Jo Magsaysay Whatever
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall but Buddha jumped over the wall!
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Arousing curiosity, the invitation beckoned to Tea of Spring in Shangri-la Mactan to find out why Buddha jumped over the wall.
Our host, Eddie Hong, slender, light weight, young, a very young 23 year-old is a heavy weight in a top caliber position as Cebu manager of Cathay Pacific. Animated and effusive, he narrated the age-old legend with breathless interjections from Lesley Tan couched by our table and mixed with embellishments of my own.
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Here’s how and here’s why: a monk meditating in his cell smelled a delicious aroma wafting across the monastery wall.
Following the tantalizing smell, he came upon a peasant cooking stew for his supper and joined him at the table for a taste of the soup. The monk sipped, slurped and demolished the stew. Reluctantly he returned to the monastery but the memory of the stew kept haunting him so he jumped over the wall to join the peasant and slurp the stew happily ever after…"Monks are vegetarians, you know", Hong told us with a winning smile…."and the meat in the soup did him in! And so, the ascetic monk became a roly poly Buddha forever more!"
The Tea of Spring version of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, was concocted by guest chefs Tacky Zhang and Fason Liu flown in all the way from Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou China by Cathay Pacific. Fujian cuisine is prominently seafood due to the coastal location of the province of "Min". The most popular dish of course is Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a complex soup of more than 20 ingredients. What we had, served in ceramic bowls had a fat slab of abalone, spongy sea cucumber, a large shitake mushroom, one quail egg, sharks fins, Shaoxing wine and a tender lump of pig’s knuckles.
Absolutely delicious! Small wonder Buddha jumped over the wall! For dessert, we were served steaming bowls of boiled pears, pared huge, round with gelatin. Double-boiled pears may be a perfect dessert to ward off the bitter cold in China but I prefer my pears chilled in crushed ice. I told Connie Sta. Ana Cimafranca, Gerry’s delightful daughter, who gave me a non-committal smile, befitting her role as CX supervisor. Pictures for posterity, the guest chefs posed with pretty young women dressed as Fujian peasants, and our pet, Sharon Samarista all lit up like Christmas from an inner glow rekindled by an old flame into a new love. Right, Sha?
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A Christmas Village by Paul Schroth…a story book?...a greeting card?...a magazine illustration?...dreamland?...All of the above and then some…A miniature village populated by little people, parks and playgrounds with children running, pine trees, firs, evergreens dusted with snow, a carousel, ferris wheel, a church with a steeple, snow drifts and frost. A winter wonderland. Picture pretty, perfect or so Delia Jurado thought, for the Christmas edition of Zee Quarterly. Tagging along Jing Ramos and Jon Unson for the photo shoot, Delia with Sue Grey and me motored off to Minglanilla chauffered by a good-looking young man, Mike Lim, who had taken time out from his job…(‘I work for m y sister anyway’ – sister being Vivacion Bebot Abella I remembered from way back when she was a sales rep of Northwest Orient now a bustling-bee entrepreneur minding her own business in two towns).
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A stunning collection of miniatures had been sent piece by piece in boxes and cartons all the way from Houston, Rexas by Bebot’s sister-in-law Edith Abella who loves these itty-bitty things she spent a small fortune on them. She had accumulated all "this stuff" for several years. Bebot knew exactly what to do. Calling in Paul Schroth, little known by many, but a big name among local socialites who commission him to deck their homes at Christmastime, set to work on the Christmas village and Bebot’s house in Minglanilla. Every corner, every little nook and cranny soon glittered with tinsel baubles and ribbons, cheek by jowl with flowering bromeliads, a few good antiques, repros and as well as frankly faux lamps and furniture. The house sparkled and Schroth himself looking like a Christmas elf hovered around while Jon Unson took pictures.
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The matriarch of the house, Estefania Reroma Abella, was 82 years old that day and although she owes her hearty good health to her diet of rice and boiled greens, she conceded to a bit of lechon and a thick slice of kalamay to celebrate her birthday. Buwad sautéed with lots of tomatoes and onions and sisi drowned in lemoncito set Jing Ramos to thinking about collaborating with Delia Jurado on a Cebuano recipe book. Jing and Delia go a long way back when Delia used to doll up this cute little grandson of the late President Carlos P. Garcia and dress him up in hair ribbons and party dresses (‘Look what you did to me’, snorted Jing.) Whatever. Utan bisaya, agos-os, landang, budbud kabug, tagaktak and other bisdak kayo delicacies soon took over the table talk. I can hardly wait for that book to come off the press, knowing Jing’s writing style is never run-of-the-mill, cut-and-dried journalese but creative and literary, tagaktak might come out like raindrops falling on my head!!!
