Food stories from a childhood past
THE rain came as a surprise but signaled a welcome break after the dust and heat of summer in March. Our small group gathered inside a small restaurant somewhere in Quezon City, awaiting a provincial bus to take us to Pampanga. Then it arrived, big and beckoning us to come aboard.
To Alvin Lim, grandson of Teresita “Mama Sita” Reyes, the matriarch and namesake of the Mama Sita’s holding company, its presence is reminiscent of the out-of-town trips his family would bring him to as a kid. “Mama Sita has 11 children, and I have more than 30 first cousins. We can fill a bus very much like this one,” he said.
Lim serves as communications officer for the Mama Sita Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Philippine culinary heritage and agricultural sustainability.
The foundation’s work, through its Mga Kuwentong Pagkain initiative, fosters awareness of where Filipino food dishes and traditions come from, as well as stories from the families who cook them and the memories conjured.
“It encourages the practice and preservation of food writing and continues the advocacy that lola started. In all the places that she went to, she talked to the people who were there,” Lim said.
Celebrating its 10th year, the culinary excursion took place in San Roque in Mexico. Like many areas in Central Luzon, Pampanga harvests an abundance of carabao mangoes, which are sold to exporters and local markets.
Harvest season is usually from late May to early July. There are also 14 different strains, which include the Talaban and Fresco of Guimaras, MMSU Gold of the Ilocos Region, and Lamao and Sweet Elena of Zambales.
The Mexican Ataulfo and Manilita mango cultivars descended from the Philippine mango through the Manila galleon trade between 1600 and 1800. Both of these cultivars are sometimes referred to as “Manila mangoes” in trade.
Over lunch of Kapampangan cuisine, Peach Reyes, which belongs to the third generation of the Reyes clan and would often refer to herself as “the only granddaughter with a Reyes last name,” shared that their family would go on mango-picking picnics where stories were told as they passed plates of dishes around.
“Like Alvin said, lola would also rent a bus and bring us to places. One of the most memorable ones was in Iloilo. We have relatives there who had a barge because they distributed beer. We would go islandhopping every day. There were picnics on each island. We were able to go to Gigantes, and then there was a private beach in Sicogon. We weren’t able to dock there but we were able to swim,” she said.
With a family tracing its roots to Engracia “Aling Asiang” Reyes of Aristocrat fame, the question had to be asked: “Who cooks?”
“Initially, it was lola, but she was helped by the sons and the daughters. She would bring her pans, along with three kitchen helpers. Sometimes there were would be 40 of us, and the restaurants would get overwhelmed because everyone was there and everyone was hungry,” Reyes said.
When the weather was nice outside, food was stored in floral casseroles. For special occasions, it’s served in precious china and silverware.
This tradition continued every Sunday in Manila, where they would gather at the ancestral home in Mandaluyong.
“It’s a big compound. We’ll harvest duhat [java plum] and aratilis [cotton candy berry] fruits and climb through the neighbor’s roof. Mandaluyong was not yet developed at the time, and so there were plenty of small hills planted with sweet potatoes and we would go hiking there,” Reyes continued.
Often, recipes are passed down from one generation to the next when family members would meet.
“The most memorable food for me was adobo, because it doesn’t spoil easily and so lola cooked it everywhere. But in the house, she liked to serve lumpiang hubad [vegetable spring rolls].” For dessert, there’s leche flan [caramel flan]. Under her bed were cans after cans of evaporated and condensed. For Reyes, it’s just the way they remember holidays and big life events—with good food on the table.