nostaljik
photos by Atinna, copyright 2/14
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may nagregalo saken nitong sapatos; ang problema ko, saan ko naman isusuot? wala bang may balak na magpa-party jan na 1960s ang theme?
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My dad would always prepare this for me everytime I go back home to the Philippines. Everyone in our house can whip it up; I guess even my 12 year old niece because it’s awfully simple. It’s one of my favorite vegetarian dishes and to me it tastes different if it is my dad who cooked it, extra ordinarily delicious is what I mean by ‘different’.
Take a bunch of mustasa (mustard) leaves and wash thoroughly, pat dry and chop into bite size. Mince a medium-sized tomato, onion, and a clove of garlic. Saute the said ingredients in 1 tbsp olive oil while whisking 2 (or 3) eggs in a bowl. When the leaves are turning dark green and glimmery, pour in the eggs and season it with salt or soy sauce and pepper, and a dash of Tabasco if you like it a little spicy. It’s good too if eaten with tinapang galunggong on the side.
My paternal grandfather was an araro maker and the biggest supplier of araros and farmer’s tools in Region ** for almost 3 decades - from the early 60s until the mid 80s . He employed about 20 people who cut, molded, and shaped woods and steels that were used to make them. And most of the men were hard-up folks from the neighboring towns and barrios who were paid daily for the work done each day. Grandpa provided lunch for them everyday because most of the men lived far away, and going home for lunch would eat away a big chunk of their working time. And besides, because many of them were so poor, even their own families and children hardly had enough to sustain themselves. My grandmother would cook ginisang mustasa , ginisang pechay, ginisang patola, ginisang ‘anything’ for the workers. The eggs were a substitute for meat in those dishes. Occassionally, though, they would have grilled tilapia or hito, harvested from the man-made pond on my grandpa’s farm. And if they were lucky, they got to have roasted baboy ramo or wild deer brought every once in a while by the wood cutters who supplied them the woods.
His customers were mostly poor farmers too, who often couldn’t afford to pay my grandpa on time, or sometimes never paid him at all. This was the reason why his business never thrived but only survived. Despite not getting payment on time or not getting some at all, he continued making the araros because he knew that farmers needed them and if he had ceased doing the business there would have been no one for the farmers to go to buy their tools.
itlog at dahon ng mustasa
babaeng apoy
