Magkaisa

this is one of those inspirational videos about the EDSA Revolution.  if I remember right, I think the song was composed for People Power, and was immediately put to use to to serve as one of the motivational songs (the other was the more popular "Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo.") during the revolution.  the video itself was produced post-EDSA Revolution already but gained instant popularity.

this is the original video recording... 

Ganito kami non...paano tayo ngay-on?

BULING-BULING SA PANDAKAN: Sayaw ng Papuri at Pasasalamat

For the longest time, I had wanted to grace once again the Sinulog Fiesta in Cebu. However, work schedule always get in the way.  This year , I found myself again in the same situation.  Not wanting to miss out on the chance to celebrate the Feast of Sto Nino, I sought out the next best option, which was to find out how this is celebrated in Metro Manila.  There are places in the metropolis that have their own celebration of the Sto Nino Feast day.  In the district of Pandacan in Manila, the Feast of Sto Nino is celebrated every 3rd sunday of January and activities start a week before.  

On the Saturday before the Feast day of the Sto Nino, Pandacan residents don colourful Filipino attire and take to the streets in a dance celebration.  This is the Buling-buling.  And so, on 15 January , a Saturday, I took a short break from my paper chase to experience a different kind of celebration.

the Pandacan Church, the center of the Buling-buling celebration

The Buling-buling organised jointly by the Roman Catholic Parish and the Iglesia Filipina Independente (Aglipayan Church) of Pandacan.  That is wonderful to note.  It is also the local community, working together for the successful staging of the festival.

Just before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Aglipayan Parish Priest together with the Hermano & Hermana Mayor and their congregation, walk 2 blocks over to the  Pandacan Roman Catholic Parish to meet the other congregation.

the Aglipayan Congregation headed by their Parish Priest (center) and the
Hermana & Hermano Mayor (at the back)

the Roman Catholic Parish Priest (center) meets his Aglipayan
counterpart. 

Witnessing the meeting of the 2 congregations gives one goose bumps.  It was a poignant moment which symbolises ecumenism for 2 rival Catholic faiths.  The first time I experienced such an event.

the 2 heads of congregations prepare for the march

At exactly 3 o'clock in the afternoon the bells of the Pandacan Church started to peal, signaling the commencement of the march to Liwasang Balagtas.

the march to Liwasang Balagas begins

The congregation reached Liwasang Balagtas, while a choir of children welcomed them with a rendition of 'Alleluia'.  An ecumenical prayer service lasting around 30 minutes was held.  The service was presided over by the Roman Catholic Parish Priest together with his Aglipayan counterpart.

the ecumenical prayer service

The prayer service started with opening prayers, followed by the singing of 'Papuri sa Diyos', the Liturgy of the Word, the Gospel, the singing of the Lord's Prayer and the final blessings.

the 2 congregations sing the Lord's prayer together

It was wonderful for 2 Catholic congregations to pray together. What a memorable moment it was when the 2 congregations sang together the 'Papuri' and later on the 'Ama Namin'. It gave a lot of meaning to these prayer songs. The prayer service showed us that 2 rival Catholic groups can come and pray together. At the end of the prayer service, the final blessings were given after which the 2 images of the Sto Nino de Pandacan were brought by both Parish Priests to the carosa.

the 2 images of the Sto Nino de Pandacan are brought to the carosa

The Buling-buling then finally started with the 2 Parish Priests blessing the crowds along the way of the parade route.

the acolytes at the head of the Bulng-buling march

the Aglipay and Roman Catholic Parish Priests bless the congregations

During the street parade, the participants danced the traditional buling-buling to the jumpy sound of a marching band.  What differentiates this street dancing from those of other fiestas is that it is based on a centuries old tradition.  It doesn't have noisy drummers with dancers who 'dance' their patron's image after which they shout "viva!" for their patron. In contrast, the Buling-buling participants do a dance of praise and thanksgiving for the Sto Nino.  They have marching bands and dancers follow the classic dance movement doing steps left and right with arms swinging in tempo.

the Buling-buling dance

The street dancing passes through the banderitas-strewn streets of Pandacan.  

Buling-buling passes through decorated streets like this

Upon reaching the Aglipayan Church, the bells of the church peal and the Aglipayan Parish Priest shakes the hand of his Roman Catholic counterpart in a fond farewell.

the Aglipayan Church

The Roman Catholic party then continues on to the Pandacan Parish Church. At the end of the procession, the image of the Sto Nino is met again with pealing bells. The Parish Priest then blesses the image of the Sto Nino before it is enthroned in the main altar.

The Roman Catholic Parish Priest blesses the St Nino image

The Buling-buling is a wonderful showcase of ecumenism, community spirit and thanksgiving. Though this may last only for around 3 hours and may not be as grand as the Sinulog, Dinagyan or Ati-atihan, what it lacks in duration it makes up for good-natured gaiety. It is also not commercialised as I didn't notice any big banners and banderitas advertising telecom companies. Neither did I notice trucks of comercial sponsors which usually accompany the tail end of any commercialised fiesta parade. There were no mobile fastfood outlets which sadly is a fixture in most fiestas in the country where the traditional spirit has started to erode.

The festivities having ended, I went home feeling good to have graced the Buling-buling. It was a a wonderful experience and because of it, you get a kind of 'high' that lingers on through the whole week. What I am happy about is knowing that a tradition is still alive and preserved in this day and age. We do hope that this tradition will continue to go on and will not be commercialised. Buling-buling is a slice of the traditional rural experience in a thoroughly urban setting. If you are looking for a pocket-sized fiesta that is accessible, this one fits the bill and it is right in your doorstep.

The TINY KITCHEN

Little gems can come in small packages and can be found in unexpected places.  Everytime I am on-the-road for business travel, vacation or travel & adventure, I am always on the look out for good local food and food outlets that serve very good food but won’t cost you an arm and a leg.  We want to have that dining experience that we can include in our bucket memory of the places we visited.

When we were in Davao City, a friend of mine took us to The Tiny Kitchen.  The place is a small coffee shop that serves pastries, merienda and dinner.  It lives up to its name since it is an eatery that can accommodate only around 16 dinners at a time.  It is always full on dinnertime for which you have to wait for your table if you are not yet hungry or in a hurry.  The Tiny Kitchen serves good tasting Spanish food like callos, tapas, paella, etc.  On my first visit, we went there have dessert and coffee.  Dulce RODRIGUEZ, of Dulce Vida creations and owner of The Tiny Kitchen recommended concord cake, lemon walnut torte and vanilla overload.  All of these were very tasteful desserts and we went home satisfied.  We at the same time took home one of their signature products, bottled tuyo in olive oil.

The next time I was in Davao, I invited my friend to have dinner with me in The Tiny Kitchen.  We had a good dinner of paella, salpicao and caldereta.  It was a good and we ordered their acclaimed dessert, frozen chocolate brazo de mercedez to finish off a wonderful dining event.  We were disappointed when we were told that the smallest size available was half of the cake, which we know we couldn’t consume ourselves.    Since we told them that we came specifically for that, we just decided to order the last half of the cake available, as we do not know when we can come back.   Vincent RODRIGUEZ, the other half of the husband & wife owner-team, was too kind to entertain us and talked to us about their famous desserts and their business.  He got curious when we told him that we go around looking for good dining outlets in places we visit, and that we specifically came in to have a taste of their acclaimed frozen choco dessert. He tried to convince us to try Sweet Indulgence the reason why he threw in a bonus slice of this dessert over and above our order of frozen choco.  He said this was a newer creation, which is as good as the frozen choco itself.

Frozen chocolate brazo de mercedez

It is a 2 layer soft cake which when you see it and have a taste of it, you would say it is chocolate cake meets brazo de mercedes.  The first layer at the bottom is a soft choco cake topped with ice cream layer that tastes not too rich but blends well with the brazo.  The brazo on top of it is wonderful in its softness.  It doesn’t have the overwhelming taste of yema or merengue but rather a good compliment of the soft choco cake.  This dessert tastes well when served fresh as chilled from the ref.  It has been rated as one of the '25 Best Desserts in the Philippines for 2010'.

Vincent RODRIGUEZ said that they were surprised that this particular dessert was chosen this year as one of the best.  He said that this is a 2-year-old recipe and at that time they were trying to recommend to the culinary expert and food critic who visited them their latest creation, Sweet Indulgence.

Sweet Indulgence

Sweet Indulgence is another wonderful dessert coming out from this gem of a bistro.  It is a layered chocolate creation with very rich chocolate icing topping.  It has a unique taste but I can understand where the reviewers were coming when they selected the frozen chocolate brazo de mercedes.  Although Sweet Indulgence is a wonderful dessert, it is almost like other chocolate indulgent or decadent desserts.

The Tiny Kitchen is a place we highly recommend to visit if ever you come to Davao City.  It is a simple, no frills eating place that serves excellent food.  What works well with them is that both husband & wife as owners take time out to entertain and touch base with their customers.  This is something that you rarely see in other food establishments—simple, personalised customer service.

• The Tiny Kitchen, F. Torres and Mabini Streets, Davao City; telephone numbers (082) 3059232, (082) 2346095; e-mail:  tinykitchencreations@yahoo.com

START-UP

For sometime now, I have been thinking of coming out with my own personal blog.  Not for anything, the idea is to record in words and pictures the adventures I experience and share it with those who care to follow.   Yes, there have been those who got interested in what I am doing especially when am on-the-road or on vacation, interested to know about my new experiences.

Some people have been asking me to share information about my experiences everytime I post a picture in facebook or a notice in my fb status.  I realize that yes, there are things that I go through that not all people have experienced it and it would be nice to document and share it with them.

I have been egged on this by some friends, but cold feet and time constraint prevented me from doing it so.  This, until one day, I sat down and told myself ‘let’s do it’.

This is a blog where we talk about life’s adventures and feastings and just about anything including reflections of recent events. I do not aspire for anything in doing this.  We just want to have is a station where we reaveal life’s experiences to others in order that we may have something to talk about and enrich each other.  We also would want to talk about the feasting that we do when I break bread with my friends.  Some of my friends do want to know where to get the best food when they go to places I have visited.  This is the reason why I call this blog Mannyfeastation, playing on my name and the words manifestation (i.e., reveal), feast and station. 

When we talk about feasting, we do not aspire to be a food critic.  We are just fascinated by that constant search for the ultimate cheap dining experience even if it happens in a hole-in-the-wall resto or a food stand.  This is something we would want to share with everyone when we have some 'food finds'.

We hope that at the end of the day, we will have something good to talk about, something that interests us to keep us connected and exchange ideas as well as interests.

Please feel free to visit and comment with each posting hoping that I won’t bore you.