Breakfast at Jerry’s

Arriving an hour early for breakfast with the Araos family, I find myself being driven to Amorsolo country right within the campus of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Jerry parked his Mercedes Benz Gelande Wagen on the parking lot of Hardin ng Rosas, the building housing faculty and their families. He brought out and set up his spotter’s scope, a Leica Televid, an equipment so powerful it can bring into close view on full-moon nights the spot where the space capsule of the first man on the moon landed.

Although he has made his name as a sculptor and furniture-maker, Jerry has been a bird-watcher since the mid-sixties. Even without his eyeglasses on, he could see where a bird was resting among the rice fields. He’d summon me to peer into the scope, and there I saw my first yellow and cinnamon bitterns and moor hen (ulok in Filipino). The last had a bright red crest on its head. The scope enabled me to see blades of glass in macro size.

The campus is where over a hundred bird species fly over, roost or take a breather on the way to somewhere else. American and European bird-watchers who visit the Philippines go to the American cemetery at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City and shell out $20 each to catch sight of a little more than 20 kinds of birds. One reason there are less birds there is the caretakers of the cemetery religiously trim the bushes whereas at the UP campus, like I said, there's a wild farm out there.

Back at his home, his wife Melen and daughter Liwa laid out a breakfast fit for a datu. We had sinaing na tulingan cooked in an earthen pot (Batangas style), ginataang puso ng saging, tomato omelette, puto from Calasiao, Pangasinan, whole wheat bread and Jerry’s own strawberry jam made from Baguio berries, butter and coconut sugar, fresh coconut juice and brewed coffee.

I was sorry to leave them because they had a sumptuous Sunday lunch being readied, but I had a date with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

A typical family meal at the Araos house looks like this with Jerry at the head of the table. Photo from LIWA ARAOS’S FACEBOOK