What a break!

Belated Easter greetings to everyone.  I sincerely hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday with the family and before that, a prayerful Holy Week.

Holy Week or Semanta Santa, as the older folks still refer to it, is still a solemn occasion for most Filipino families, one that is still steeped in age-old traditions that we have kept through the years. The Philippines is still a largely Christian nation and many have kept the Catholic faith, notwithstanding the many scandals that have rocked our Church. 

When my wife and I went to our traditional annual Visita Iglesia on Maundy Thursday this year, the churches we visited were full of churchgoers doing the Way of the Cross. What was pleasantly surprising to both of us was that there were many young people quietly praying at the stations of the cross. Some of them were with their own peers, well-behaved and prayerful, others with their families. It is endearing to know that the Catholic practice is alive and well to this day, and parents have instilled the value of the Way of the Cross in their children. 

These days, most churches put up the stations of the cross on their vast grounds – definitely more spacious, less cramped and more airy. Decades back, we used to tag along with my parents for the Way of the Cross and I remember jostling along with many others inside the hot churches that were always teeming with people. Doing the Way of the Cross al fresco is more comfortable and no less solemn for everyone.

Abstinence is, of course, strictly observed in our Catholic household on Good Friday. My wife Babes keeps to this practice and she usually prepares a whole lot of bacalao for the abstinence days every year, but this time we were shocked to learn that dried bacalao was nowhere to be found. Santi’s ran out of it as early as three weeks before Holy Week and other possible sources like S&R and Makati Supermart had no stock to sell. This is the first time this has happened to bacalao-crazy folks like us and we frantically scoured other possible sources, to no avail. The only other option we had was to try the local version, which is dried “labahita,” a fleshy kind of fish. This is readily available in bulk in most wet markets at a very reasonable price.  I know of this because my Mom, who dutifully prepared bacalao every Holy Week, used it because it was so affordable and readily available too.

I grew up eating dried labahita done skilfully the Spanish bacalao way and the whole family loved it.  In fact, my uncles brought their whole brood over to the house for a bacalao feast and it became an annual tradition for the Gamboa family. You wouldn’t believe what we used to do with the left-over dish. We would eat it in pan de sal and enjoyed every morsel of it.

With a little sophistication as we grew older, we have kept the bacalao tradition, but this time using the real Spanish dried cod.  We never encountered a shortage like this recent one and I am still wondering why.  In the past I have shared the dish for so many years with close friends who have come to expect it every Holy Week. This year, we only cooked a small portion because Babes did not quite know what to expect from the dried “labahita.” Thankfully, it did not really disappoint and it came out just fine.

So for the abstinence days, we had bacalao and laing, and I for a change did not miss meat at all.  My doctor will be glad to know.

The Holy Week always brings us some well-deserved rest at home, although our room air conditioners worked non-stop.  I dread the next electricity bill, but this happens every year at about this time when summer is really upon us. We never go out of town during Holy Week like many other families. Many must have skipped town because the roads of the metropolis were thankfully traffic-free.  I thought driving would be so gratifying on these days because it is so rare to find our streets this free.  I decided to bring out my Mustang for a spin and Babes and I drove through SLEX without having to ease up on the gas every now and then. It was a driving experience that I miss terribly. We drove all the way to Pasig until we decided to go to Binondo just to find our favorite hopiang baboy. Binondo, which usually crawls with cars, tricycles, and people was, of course, also deserted. Many establishments were closed, but surprisingly most of the restaurants were open for diners.  I remember a few years back when we decided to drive to Binondo just to eat at the President Restaurant on a Good Friday.  Well, we got our hopia and drove back home with the same ease.  It felt good to let it out on the tollways that was virtually free of cars for a change.  It was good driving for me.

Easter Sunday is always a family day for us.  It starts with our granddaughter Bella joining the Easter Egg Hunt at Palms Country Club, which has also become a yearly event for little Bella. This year, it was a swimming egg hunt party, complete with a giant water slide which all the kids loved.  Lunch during special events like Easter is always a big event in this premier country club in the South and this year, they offered unlimited foie gras which my daughter Tin (DJ Suzy to her radio fans) gorged on until she could take no more. There was plenty of roast beef and lamb chops, and prawns and salmon, and whatever else you fancy to feast on, a pleasing end to the lean days of the Holy Week that just passed.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Mabuhay!!!  Be proud to be a Filipino.