food trip

07.26.05


Gastronomical treats can be one of life’s simple pleasures. During these times when the earth seems to swallow up entire populations with nagging problems and a deluge of concerns, most people would find comfort and a sense of “everything-will-be-okay” in the company of the food they love. Perhaps, how gastronomic any meal can get is largely dependent on one’s personal taste. That flavorful isaw on the street corner can very well match the gourmet good eats other people enjoy in posh restaurants someplace else. As they say, kanya-kanyang trip. Besides, food safety is an entirely different story (waha!).

Speaking of story, you’d probably agree that behind every favorite food there is a certain memory evoked, and food trip can really bring you some years of good ol’ reminiscing. So here’s a list of food trip items one couldn’t simply have enough of.

Isaw. Just the smell of the semi-charred pig or chicken entrails sends you to gastronomical heights. For those too pernickety when it comes to street food, you’re probably missing a quarter of your eating existence, but we’re not taking your disinclination towards eating isaw against you.

Probably, you can buy from trusted stalls/stands (Diliman’s isaw is really one of the best) or even try cooking your own. It’s especially tasty when charred and dipped in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and spicy siling labuyo.

Iskrambol. Before the pearl-shakers bandwagon and Ice Monster, there was iskrambol. This is a cool mix of shaven ice and milk. Manongs who sell this outside campus (back in high school) have this small plastic stick (so much like that of Mcdo’s coffee), which goes with the tiny cup of iskrambol. The first time I tried it my stomach went bummer, but liked it anyway.

Corn kernel with butter, sugar, and cheese powder. The ultimate after-school merienda. It’s more convenient to eat than the corn on the cob (though some are really hard-core corn cob aficionados) and it has an extraordinary blend of salty and sweet, good enough to make the trip aboard your school service extra-indulging.

Lala chocolate. You remember this choco-delight? If you grew up frequenting a nearby

sari-sari store, they used to sell Lala chocolate per chunk. It’s this chocolate whose texture is bordering fudge and real chocolate. It looks like wafer (crisscrossing lines giving a picture of an ancient windowpane) but softer and chewy. Again, if your throat is as fussy as your taste, treating yourself with this chocolate is not entirely recommended. It can give you a scratchy throat afterwards and you better wash it down with water.

THE Wafer. It was wrapped in a gold foil and had a picture of a manor house and a butler blowing some kind of trumpet. (bago pa makilala ang loacker) Anyone remembers how we call this wafer?

Coney Island’s Eskimo-roll. You can call it the supreme ice cream experience but this one’s a goner in the ice cream red carpet. Even before Funwhich came and was eventually phased-out, kids of this generation must have had Eskimo-roll as the first on their list of favorites. The ice cream sandwich is one of the best. Imagine sinking your teeth into a chocolate ice cream sandwich with nuts, a fudgy brownie filling having all the chocolaty flavor, the uplifting chill it sends your satiety centers and the morsels of chocolate bread gathering round the sides of your mouth with every bite of your much adored Eskimo-roll. The closest there is to experiencing this food is Selecta’s Chocolate Almond Brownie, sans the sandwich of course.

Writing this can be really stimulating. Why not take a break and satisfy your cravings, the food trip isn’t over…you can always run to your favorite food trip haven, and forget about your diet this time—there goes your fishballs, kwek-kwek, tukneneng, your favorite pizza, Razon’s halo-halo, laing, karakare, taho, grilled tilapia, tuna, steak, fried mozzarella, nachos, tortilla chips, nugget burger with cucumber of course, pinapaitan, dinuguan at puto, special goto, even arrozcaldo… How about that?!