Víspera del cumpleaños

I really don't know if I'm correct in my elementary translation, or transliteration, of the phrase "eve of birthday." When you are turning 57, it's best to let the persons closest to and younger than you to make certain decisions like should we have cake or not? Of course, we should--kailangan pa ba pag-usapan 'yan?

Having tasted Jayjay's chocolate cake at his 42nd birthday party at Mother's Garden, there was no doubt where we would source the cake. I asked Chiqui Torres, Ph.D., one of the party organizers and good friend of Jayjay's mom, Therese Jison, where the cake came from. She directed me to Marie whose bakery/cafe, Cottage Gi, is near the Caltex gas station on Legarda road and City Camp with telephone number 442-4864.

My resourceful daughter did the calls and requested for extra flowers. Those flowers are not shaped icing that taste like sugar cubes. These particular cake flowers taste like genuine pastillas de leche. I kid you not.

When the cake was ready for pick-up, my daughter was surprised at how colorful the whole thing was. We were supposed to wake up at midnight to finally try it, but we just let the cake cool in the fridge for less than hour, then unanimously decided, "Okay, let's have it!" which is Lolarga code for "Let's eat." 

Even Butones, from whose "trust funds" the money for the cake came from, couldn't resist touching and tasting and having spoonful after another until she was sticky all over. I call her by the flavor "ChocoKai."

What truly sold me to this cake with no preservatives is the receipt handwritten by the baker itself. After she had written out the amount paid to her, she scribbled in "Thanks!" Now, will you ever read that in other pastry shops? I doubt it, but it made the eve of my 57th spin extra special.  To Chiqui, Therese and, indirectly, Jayjay, thank you for leading us chocoholics to Marie.

Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Chiqui’s Park

Chiqui Torres has been part of the Lolarga family’s inner circle that I’ve come to think of her as blood kin. She is my cousin Telly L. Valdellon’s best friend, their friendship dating back to their high school days at the former Holy Family Academy.

Chiqui ran for Baguio City councilor once but lost—another loss for the city. I thought that she could’ve injected some of her irreverent humor into the council’s staid proceedings and her honest-to-goodness compassion in child and youth programs.
Nobody quite knows the city’s streets better than her (maybe second to another curiosity seeker, Frank Cimatu) so when she told me yesterday to stand between the Rizal Monument and the new Clean Comfort Rooms at Rizal Park at exactly 5:10 p.m, my own curiosity was aroused.

But I had my answer as I sat on the edge of a flower border earlier than the appointed time. An owner-type jeepney parked on Otek Street. Out came a huge kaldero and containers of assorted sidings that went with street side-prepared lugaw (rice
porridge). The kaldero went into a pushcart attached to an LPG.

While Chiqui descended from the top of the park’s stairs, I counted 15 heads already beginning to take spoonfuls of the piping hot lugaw from individual disposable bowls. The number of customers would double as the hour went by.

For P10 a bowl, you get a fair-sized amount of the porridge Top it with as much toasted garlic and chopped spring onions as you like. Add five pesos and pick from any of the assorted toppings like fried tofu cubes, chicken livers, chicken adobo, boiled egg.

If after you clean up your bowl, you still don’t feel satiated, tell the lady vendor, “Hirit pa!” and she’ll give you another serving of lugaw. Just add another five pesos.

This spot on Fernando Bautista Drive and Otek Street has become Chiqui’s after-five office (her day job is teaching at the National University Baguio). Her grandniece already calls it Lola Chiqui’s Park.

Chiqui is impressed by the success of this “unbranded” lugaw kariton which she discovered three months ago. It couldn’t have picked a better location (and isn’t location the key to the success of an eating place?). I get her point as she waves at the willows, pansies and the rest of Baguio’s soothing flora: Food for body and soul.