Monday, July 21, 2008 Jaltan Food legacy lives on By Marianne L. Saberon-Abalayan
THE Jaltan Food Centrum, whose roots began over four decades ago, has indeed kept the legacy started by the late matriarch Mrs. Jovita Fuertes Tan.
Ma. Jovita "Jojo" Tan, the eldest child of Jovita and Dr. Alfredo Abrille Tan Jr., shared that Jaltan Food Centrum used to be a small canteen located beside the family pharmacy then called Farmacia Jaltan (enunciated with a soft j sound and not with the h sound as mistaken by most people).
Jojo was just two and a half years old when their family migrated to Davao City in 1959. This was after her mom Jovita, who hails from Malabon, and her dad Dr. Tan had already been married for six years.
Having settled in their new home, Jovita, a pharmacist by profession, opened her own pharmacy also in 1959 in front of the old Brokenshire Hospital where Dr. Tan was a resident physician. The location of the hospital is where the Grand Men Seng Hotel now stands.
"It was my mom who coined Farmacia Jaltan from both their names of my dad. My dad wanted to call it Davao Pharmacy but my mom didn't like it," Jojo recalled in an interview with this writer at a local restaurant in NCCC Mall last week. Jaltan came from Jovita and Alfredo Tan.
Jojo said, "With the pharmacy named after my parents, four of us children were also named after them. My brothers were named Alfredo II or Dodo, now a doctor, Alfredo III or Dodie and Alfredo IV or Dodgie."
Being the businesswoman who also had an interest in culinary, Jojo's mom added a small canteen to her botica in 1964 where she served "maruya" and spaghetti to her husband's colleagues at the hospital. She added the all-time favorite specialty Pancit Malabon to her menu and then cooked up native delicacies.
"My mom loved to cook. She decided to cook the kakanin I usually asked her to buy at the market," Jovita's one and only daughter recalled.
Tan, however, closed the drugstore in 1985 when her husband got sick. The doctor died six years after.
When the old nipa-type Jaltan proved to be small for their growing clientele, it developed into a fastfood luncheonette and a catering services outlet.
Jojo, who got a degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce at the then Immaculate Conception College (now University of Immaculate Conception), said: "I think it was in 1994 that we bought the building where the Jaltan Food Centrum on Magallanes is located. I worked in the US for 12 years and when I came back, I got into the family business and so did my youngest brother. My mom gave me a salary of P30,000 so I would be inspired to go to work early."
She was quick to add though that she doesn't have the kind of culinary expertise as her mom. But she got her business sense from her mom.
"My mom was very hands-on with the business until she died in 2002. I was assigned to manage the Magallanes branch while Dodjie was in charge of the Claro M. Recto branch. Dodo, meanwhile, put up Jaltan Delicacies in the malls while Dodi has his own Jaltan at the Market Basket, Gaisano Mall, and DCLA. Dodjie is also set to open a branch in Tagum in August," she added.
At the Magallanes branch, Jojo said they still continue to serve the recipes of her mom from kakanin to cakes and native Filipino dishes Dabawenyos have learned to love.
She said, "We have the fresh lumpiang ubod, sapin-sapin, puto, cassava cake, palitaw, binignit, pilipit, biko, kutsinta, maja blanca, pitse-pitse, suman sa lihiya, suman malagkit, suman balanghoy, pancit luglug and pancit Malabon, among others. We order the bilaos for our pancit Malabon from Manila while the noodles are from a local supplier. We used to order the noodles in Manila, too."
She cited the Ayala and Europa families as among their loyal patrons along with the Stella Maris Academy of Davao, Ateneo de Davao University High School, Development Bank of the Philippines, City Employees of Davao Cooperative, Government Service and Insurance System, CHDC, Gaisano, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Davao Light and Power Company, among others. City Hall and City Council employees are also regulars in the restaurant.
Jaltan has not only kept a long list of patrons but it also boasts of loyal staff like Mariz who served the Tans for 20 long years.
"Napamahal na kasi sa akin ang Jaltan. Dito ako nakapagtapos ng pag-aaral at dito narin ako nakapag-asawa," said Mariz, who rose from the ranks to become Jojo's chief assistant and secretary.
With the increasing prices of basic commodities now, Jojo said they also increased the costs of their products, especially kakanin, to a peso or two.
She said, "We don't want to lose the quality of what we serve. We increased the prices minimally but the servings are still the same."
She added that she is confident Jaltan's legacy of serving native Filipino dishes and delicacies will continue even if fastfood restaurants have mushroomed in the city.
