Taste of UMD 2005

YESTERDAY was a blur. A tasty blur nonetheless. I spent the morning preparing garnish for my dish. I made Bringhe (see Sun Star Manila Recipe), a Kapampangan fiesta dish. I had to cook it the night before and leave it in chilly ante-room because there wasn't enough space in the fridge. I have many good memories of having bringe during town fiestas and baptism parties in Pampanga. My first bringe wasn't the best, but it was good enough for a first try. Maybe next time, I should steam the sticky rice rather than boil it. Anyhoo, I hitched a ride with other International Club members to the Hope Methodist Curch on St. Marie Street. Cecilia helped set up the our table, which we shared with Malaysia. She brought some Indonesian decorations and I laid out some books about the Philippines.

Pinoy Corner
The other Filipinos, JR, Marc and two Christians arrived with Adobo, chicken macaroni soup and sweet bananas (which everyone thought was some kind of minced meat). Someone brought a Philippine flag, I forget who. We taped that up the wall with packaging tape. Marc asked me if the tape was from the Philippines (Pino-"po" ba naman ako! Kainis! Kahit I am probably 15 years older than he is, hindi pa rin ako sanay.). I was puzzled at the question. I later realized that I had brought the tape commonly used on the ubiquitous Pinoy Balikbayan box. I did not get to chat much with the other Filipinos I shared a table with. Only had a conversation with the Marc (ang magalang na bata from Arayat, Pampanga) and then a few words with JR as we brought an extra table to our area. The boys seemed a close-knit, tight-lipped bunch, only interacting with each other and their girlfriends and speaking with us if they needed to. It's pretty easy to slip into this kind of comfort zone when one is an international student. One can stick with one's friends for the duration of one's schooling in a strange place. But then what? One misses out on new friendships and new points of view. I have had to be conscious of this, this year. During my previous two terms, I only socialized with my EE cohorts which was nice. But this year I wanted to be among international students too. It doesn't really take much to say hello to someone before she or he does and to make sure everyone is introduced to each other.

Food Blur
All in all, it was a pretty good turn-out. We were serving food from 2:00 to 3:30 which was when the long line ended. We were advised to serve each person a table-spoon of food. It was, after all, a tasting event not a feeding event. Xiaowei passed by our table twice! Having seconds, eh! I kept snatching pastry balls from Hannah's (Malaysia) table. They were really good! C. arrived early so he subbed serving food while I ate with Cecilia. I loved the fried rice from the Chinese table. There were other kinds of food on my plate from other countries but since C. got some food for me, I had no idea which countries these were from. Brazil's dish was in a crockpot shaped like a football. I heard rave reviews of the food from Ukraine. The United States was serving Mac & Cheese and some kind of crunchy brownie. Not very exciting. I would have encouraged my fellow Filipinos to play some of our music, but loud music was already blaring from Africa and India.

Thinking of UP Diliman
This all reminds me of the International Residence Hall in University of the Philippines, Diliman. I wonder if the residents there ever had or have anything like this. Maybe they have getting-to-know-you parties for residents only. But I don't remember any kind of event that is open to the whole UP community. I had never been to any of their Open House parties because I knew no one who lived there. I do know that some residents of the International Center in UP never left the Philippines. Mommy Thai never left. I am not even sure if she is related to anyone who lived in that residence hall. But I know her little but very popular Thai canteen started there before it moved to that hole-in-the-wall spot along Katipunan Avenue. I wonder of that one is still there. And then there is that Middle Eastern canteen near the UP Swimming Pool where I first fell in love with Chicken Biryani and had the mysteriously-named dish "It's not what you think it is".

If I were to do it again
Next Winter, I may or may not be in UMD. That all depends on how my thesis progresses. But if I were to participate in Taste of UMD again, I would make sure I had a Filipino dress to wear. I'm sure purchasing something like that here in the United States would be super-duper expensive. I am hoping to go home for a visit before I graduate and then maybe get myself a nice baro't saya. I would also prepare a dessert instead of a main dish, then I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it warm. It would also already be in bite-size pieces so I wouldn't have to think about portions anymore. I don't know how to make these yet, but sylvanias, yema, pichi-pichi, and leche flan would be a good idea. They might be expensive to make though. Sapin-sapin would be nice to have, but I don't think Northerners are comfortable eating blue food. Oh and if one could find a cheap source of Philippine mango puree, mango juice would be nice to serve...if I were still in Duluth.


Ang Pinoy talaga, kahit saan nakadikit ang tenga sa celphone