Aurora's Mananita

Auring Bautista sauteeing the meats and tomatoes

The paella is a staple fare when Rolly, my husband of 36 years, and I have a meal out. We are partial to the paella de marisco of Mario's Baguio and Alba’s Estancia, Capitol Commons.

Ever since I learned how to make Arroz a la Valenciana during the lockdown, I thought I could confidently make my own paella for family consumption. But from whom can I learn how it's properly done? There was no doubt about who should it be--birthday girl Aurora "Auring" Bautista. We've feasted on her table many times in our Baguio lives and her paella always hit the spot.

We arrived at the Bautista family home on Happy Glen Loop past 11 a.m. yesterday and the electric paellera was already steaming with olive oil and Auring cooking the pork and chicken cutlets to a nice brown. In between she annotated how her paella was learned firsthand from Maria Pedrosa, wife of Upsilonian Lito. The recipe has Catalan origins.

I noticed two whole unpeeled garlic bulbs were tucked on a side and remained there while the other ingredients (quartered tomatoes, onions, red bell peppers, eggplants) were mixed in. Then it was time to put in the uncooked jasmine rice (eight cups) followed by nine cups of water, the threads of saffron and a whole pack of seasoning labelled El Unico Paellero (available in better stores and delis like Mother Earth).

Waiting for the paella to boil

"How do you know when it is done?" went my ignorant query.
Auring patiently replied, "Cook it like you're cooking rice." And if you want that delicious burnt rice (tutong), let the rice simmer for a few minutes longer after it's done.

Meanwhile, my grandchild, the curious observer, inhaled the aromas wafting from the paellera and declared she was hungry. Later, she had two servings of the dish.

There's something else I learned from the making of the aioli sauce that we put on top of the paella. For the garlic to achieve a mushy quality so that it blends smoothly with the mayonnaise, mustard and sugar, pound the cloves with a tablespoon of salt. This adds to the sweet-salty flavor.

Garlic and salt being pounded to a fine mush

Portion of the cooked paella

As added viand to the already rich paella, there were fat prawns cooked hilabos style.

Need we say more?

All throughout, Auring smiled as if the effort in passing on her culinary knowledge was as easy as pie. It really was.

BWG recharged by chap chae, bread, carrot cupcakes, veggie sticks, etc.

In 2015, I was sick and spent my 60th birthday in the hospital. It was a lugubrious time in my life, but I think I'm over that so whenever I can, I try to celebrate my birthday with family and friends now that I've made it to my 60s.

To-die-for cupcakes from the kitchen of Toottee Pacis. After the fourth cupcake, I'm ready for a diabetic coma!

The Korean chap chae has increasingly replaced the pancit guisado as birthday noodles.

Healthy feast

Yesterday, though not my birthday yet, I decided to treat the members of the Baguio Writers Group to the traditional noodles (chap chae made by longtime painting companion and baker Toottee Chanco Pacis and her Girl Friday Joy), home-baked bread with cheese pimiento (also from Mamita Toottee's bustling kitchen) and carrot cupcakes with thick butter icing--the last were Toottee's birthday gift to the June borns in the group. The other girl marking another milestone in her life is Padma Perez although she wasn't present. It was actually her birthday yesterday.

Our host, Luchie Maranan, also prepared assorted teas and coffee, vegetable sticks with pesto and garlic dip, slices of orange and an Ad'laine roll brought by Junley Lazaga.

A portion of BWG having their snacks (food comes first but always) before the meeting

Allan Carino and EV Espiritu seated near the altar where candles are lit in memory of Edgardo B. Maranan and his parents

It just took the green tea or coffee to get us going with our supposed general assembly. Junley, our current president, declared a "failure of elections" because we didn't have enough members present for a general election. BWG officers serve a term of three years. Nevertheless, we soldiered on with the agenda put before us. Diego S. Maranan, son of the late writer Ed, whose 40th day of demise we were also observing yesterday, met with us to tell us about how Ed's heirs and BWG can work together to perpetuate his Tatay's memory.

The meeting closed with a poetry reading by treasurer Merci Javier Dulawan and Luchie. The latter's poem struck a chord because it was about the vicissitudes of ageing from forgetting where one placed one's eyeglasses to the chest constriction one feels after climbing a flight of stairs. When one hits 63, it is indeed time to ask, "Where did my youth go? Did I waste enough of it?"

So this early we can announce that the members will hold a how to make a poem workshop facilitated by Allan on July 20 at one of the rooms of the University of the Philippines Baguio that is accessible to weak-kneed senior citizens (I ought to be one of them). Basic requirement before the whole-day workshop proper is to write a poem for critique-ing, followed by shaping a poem based on the prompt/s Allan will give.
To the absent BWG members who are interested in joining the workshop, please indicate your participation to Junley for the head count.

Photos by Luchie Maranan and Junley Lazaga

Three cheers and kisses for the cook

Weeks before today dawned, there was talk around the dining table on where we'll celebrate someone's turning a new leaf or another year older. No consensus was reached despite lobbying on one side for Japanese food, pizza and pasta on the other.

The impasse was broken when I declared, "Let's just stay home and enjoy a home-cooked meal by Tatay." I requested that we have grilled fish and a salad. If there was anymore leftover fish, let it be cooked into a sour paksiw. Kimi volunteered to prepare the long-life pasta dish.

Tatay Rolly was assigned marketing and cooking chores, and he rose to the challenge. At 5 a.m. today, just as my phone pinged to announce the first text of the day, Rolly bent over me to pinch my cheek by way of greeting me. It was still dark and my eyes were reluctant to open, but I could hear him getting dressed to leave for the market. Before he did, I managed to utter a word: "Champorado!"

So he cooked the family's favorite breakfast fare before heading out to catch a fish or two. Sweet!

Not steak, not lechon manok either. It's grilled yellowfin tuna. Comes with a dipping sauce of soy, vinegar and small red chilies.

Salad of pomelo (too much of it, in my opinion) and wansoy

He didn't forget the cake, walking from the Baguio public market to his office to put down the market basket, then another walk to Vizco's on Session Road for its famed strawberry shortcake before heading home.

Our food and family portrait photographer, Kimi, catches us right before we dig in.

Kai made me a rainbow necklace from her blocks, but I found it too heavy to wear so she did. By the way, it's also Pride Month so here's to our LGBT friends and relatives!