March 2018 Volume 12 | Issue 06
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CONT ENTS 17 COVER STORY Filmmaker Lav Diaz and the questions punctuating his career
08 NORTHERNER Baguio’s rich culture through the eyes of artist Kidlat Tahimik
Cover photo by Joseph Pascual 24 EATS Another Daza restaurant addresses the future of Filipino food
MARCH 2018 04 FIXTURE
Searching far and wide for sustainability
26 RECIPE An authentic Asian salsa to emphasize any meat
06 HEALTH
28 THE GET
Challenging the mental notions of solo travel
A grab bag of styles and memories
EDITOR’S NOTE Cries and whispers
Forgetting, whether purposeful or unintentional, is the most atrocious and offensive deed man can do, not just to himself but also to past and future generations. As George Orwell wrote, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” In the attempt to seek the motivation behind our actions, we listen to the voices and stories of our past. In this issue, we turn to archaeology, a relatively young field of study in the Philippines, to unravel fragments of our identity as
a nation. We also talk to two significant figures of Philippine cinema to seek answers. For Kidlat Tahimik, our upbringing and culture prompt our thoughts and actions. Lav Diaz, on the other hand, allows viewers to understand the present through a return to the darkest times of our past. “Bakit nauulit ang kasaysayan?” John Lloyd Cruz’s Isagani asks Padre Florentino in Lav Diaz’s Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis. “The issue is ignorance,” Diaz offers. But as we discovered in the making of this issue, there is hope.
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GREEN FOOTNOTES How to practice sustainable traveling TEXT ANTHEA REYES ILLUSTRATION DANIELA GO
Seeing the world comes at a cost, often at the expense of the places we visit, the people we meet, and the cultures we engage in. These expenses come in the form of carbon footprints, community conflicts, and destabilized economies. It’s a good thing there’s an increased collective consciousness of how these negative effects can be reduced through sustainable traveling. But what is it really? The National Geographic describes it as traveling that (1) employs environmentally friendly places where the reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste products are observed; (2) protects cultural and natural heritage; (3) and provides tangible social and economic benefits for local communities. Sustainable traveling may sound intimidating, but it’s really just about making mindful choices about the modes of transportation, chosen accommodations, and purchasing practices when going to a foreign place. Here are some concrete ways of doing it the next time you go on an exploration. Travel slow by land and fast by air The slower your travel time, the better. If you’re traveling by land, using public transportation—ships, buses, trains, or jeepneys—is always better than riding solo in a private car. If you have no choice but
to travel by air, opt for faster, non-stop flights to help lessen your carbon footprint since airplanes produce most of their carbon emissions during takeoff and landing. Make sure you’re buying local legitimately When you’re on the hunt for souvenirs, avoid cheap touristy shops. These stores often sell items that are mass produced in factories located somewhere else and most probably don’t employ locals. Buying from them would be counterintuitive and profits only the suppliers.
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your takeout orders packed in your own non-disposable containers. Use reusable utensils when dining. These little things will help lessen plastic use and save some money, too. Instead, go out of your way and look for artisans. This way, you can be assured that the culture behind your chosen souvenir item is respected and that you’re giving back to the local community directly. A handmade weave, for example, would cost more because it means more. And don’t even think about buying wildlife products.
Take short showers, not baths Aside from the fact that taking a bath means basically stewing in your own filth, it also wastes about 265 liters of water. In comparison, taking a shower uses only about 38 to 95 liters. Go the extra mile and turn off the showerhead when lathering up your soap or shampoo to save even more water.
Don’t use plastic Speaking of shopping, always bring a tote bag when exploring the local market or when dropping by a convenience store for necessities. One less item packed in plastic goes a long way. Instead of buying bottles of water, bring a water jug and refill it at water stations. Have
Channel charity through organizations While giving away clothing, food, or money to locals is well-meaning, it can have negative side effects on the community. Unplanned displays of charity can cause tension and conflict among locals, who might fight over who’d get more or better donations; it can also develop a culture of dependency or mendicancy. If you really want to give back to a community, it’s better to collaborate with trusted organizations that work with them directly.
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CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE What happens when travelers get lost on purpose? TEXT LESTER BABIERA ILLUSTRATION CHESLEIGH NOFIEL
“Happiness is only real when shared,” my cousin messaged me after learning about Christopher McCandless, the 24-year-old American who challenged himself to travel around the United States carrying only a minimal amount of money and belongings. His goal was to work his way from Atlanta, Georgia to Alaska. The quote is arguably the most popular line written by McCandless, who was a frequent solo traveler. He had managed to complete his Alaska trip but died four months after achieving his goal, allegedly due to starvation.
My cousin, who was then fascinated with traveling solo, followed up her message with the realization that a trip becomes satisfying when done with loved ones. Traveling with someone or a group is fun, for sure—also undeniably cheaper and more convenient in many ways. But with all my preferences considered, traveling alone suits me better. I’ve been going abroad solo since 2013. And even when I travel with friends and family, there are days I wander off alone by choice. I got the idea—and the guts to actually do
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it—after I, along with a college friend, met imagined I’d do: I’ve learned to ditch hotel some backpackers in Ho Chi Minh. Over rooms in favor of dormitories because it bottles of Bia Saigon, they told us how would save me a lot of money. Strangers, the adventure of solo travel challenges and regardless of their skin color, gender, and liberates the soul, and I took mental notes as age, could actually turn into good friends. I became unafraid of getting lost because I envied every bit of their experiences. Their stories clung to me all throughout it sometimes leads me to unexpectedly that Vietnam trip and kept running through beautiful places. Most importantly, I gained my mind even after we had returned. Just confidence and courage because I had no days after arriving in the Philippines, I one but myself to rely on for surviving the decided to book a roundtrip ticket to whole trip. Traveling solo has its fair share of stressful Thailand. “The time to go solo is now,” I moments, too. I once booked the wrong hotel told myself. in Kolkata, India and According to Mary ended up sleeping in a Helen Immordinodirty, damp room with Yang, associate no proper mattress. In professor of education “The ability to get out of Cambodia I and psychology at the your own social comfort zone Kampot, unfortunately stayed University of Southern [helps] you build a strong in a guesthouse packed California, “The ability with bothersome to get out of your own and acculturated sense of stoners. I got stranded social comfort zone your own self.” in the middle of [helps] you build a nowhere in Bagan, strong and acculturated Myanmar after my sense of your own self.” e-bike’s battery died. Numerous studies have also shown that traveling boosts one’s Nevertheless, I consider these mishaps psychological well-being by relieving stress, “good stories to tell.” Some say traveling alone is boring and making a person happier and leaving them more satisfied. Being alone, meanwhile, foolish; I beg to differ. People who choose also improves mental health. Psychologist this kind of journey always have interesting Sherrie Bourg Carter has said that solitude stories to tell. They come back probably a “gives you an opportunity to discover little bruised from the adventure, but what they take home are unique experiences and yourself and find your own voice.” Why do I constantly travel alone? The main life lessons most likely gained from the reason is that I consider my trips as a break freedom to choose their own adventures. from the hectic and stressful life in urban I always encourage people to travel solo. Manila. Once in a while, I engage in long Anyone can do it. It’s not just a journey solo vacations to recharge, challenge myself, hinged on seeing new places or taking reflect, and evaluate my life decisions. beautiful photographs but also a process Solo travel has taught me things I’d never of discovering and improving one’s self.
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Ili-likha started construction in 2014. The space also has its own cinematheque where Kidlat Tahimik shows his films.
Baguio’s mixed heritage lives in Kidlat Tahimik TEXT LEX CELERA PHOTOGRAPHY GERIC CRUZ
In Baguio, there is an enchanting structure adorned with rainbow mosaic staircases, paintings, and various recycled miscellany. This assemblage of curios lends the space an otherworldly vibe. This is Kidlat Tahimik and his family’s Ili-likha Artist Village. What seems at first glance to be a mere amalgam of artworks and raw materials turns out to be a beautiful, curious, distinct gem in the busy streets of Baguio city proper. It took many years to finish Ili-likha, but it took Tahimik even more time to finish his latest film Balikbayan #1 (Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III). He started the film in 1979, but it was finished—or at least be in a state appropriate for release—35
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“We all have our own way of framing the world,” he remarks. “For the lack of a better term, I call it my dwende. And no two people have the same dwende.”
years later. “I still haven’t completely said goodbye to the film. I’m still tweaking it, although I don’t think the story’s going to change much,” he wrote in an article for Nang, a film magazine, in 2017. The extensive process is not without its fruits. The film about Enrique de Malacca, Magellan’s slave and translator, whom Tahimik surmises to be the first person to travel the world, took him to film festival circuits in Tokyo and Berlin in 2015; the latter was where he received the Caligari Film Prize. Three years later, elements from Balikbayan #1 still resonate in his work. For this year’s Art Fair Philippines, Tahimik looks within his roots and presents his works as a sculptor—something he learned through his films. Here, he exhibits the Ifugao goddess of the wind called Inhabian in contrast with
a depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s iconic pose. The installation also features the work of his son, visual artist Kidlat de Guia, which references de Malacca’s voyage. The installation examines the diverse origins of Filipino culture as well as the remaining superiority of colonial imagination. More than these ideas about culture, the origin of Tahimik’s traditional yet experimental body of work is his dwende. “We all have our own way of framing the world,” he remarks. “For the lack of a better term, I call it my dwende. And no two people have the same dwende.” He explains that our dwendes are informed by our upbringing and culture. Tahimik, who was born and baptized as Eric de Guia, took up speech and drama at the University of the Philippines-Diliman with fellow future filmmakers Behn Cervantes and Lino Brocka. After being elected president of the university student council during his fourth year, he went on to get his MBA at the Wharton School of Business. But six months into his economist job in Paris, his artistic sensibilities got the best of him. It took him to a farm in Norway one summer where he “[flipped] hay half of the day, and [wrote] a play the other half.” He eventually garnered the attention of Werner Herzog, who helped produce his first film Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare), which earned accolades from Susan Sontag and Francis Ford Coppola. Baguio, where Tahimik was born and currently resides in, remains an influence, one way or another, all as part of his own dwende. It stands as an almost-megacity flanked by what he calls a cosmopolitan outlook on one side, and an indigenous mindset on the other. Tahimik’s films, beginning with his first, critique this mélange of divisions pervading the city, and the Philippines as a whole—the rich and the poor, Western values and colonial values—through lens that are screened with humor, daily lives, and an uncanny sense of honest eyes.
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UNEARTHING IDENTITY Local archaeologists use their practice as a tool for heritage literacy TEXT ALYOSHA J. ROBILLOS
PHOTOGRAPHY JILSON TIU
Since it was built by Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s at the mouth of the Pasig River, Fort Santiago has remained a silent testament to Philippine history, its main gateway—all 40 ft. of intricately carved stone—towering over all who enter. While the military fortress in Intramuros is as popular a tourist destination as it is a field trip stop for students, many might not know that Fort Santiago was literally built on the ashes of a much older Maynila, ruled by Rajah Sulayman and razed to the ground by the Spanish in 1570. Undiscovered information like the aforementioned are brought to light by Tuklas Pilipinas Society, a non-government
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FEAT URE Clockwise from right: A replica of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, one of the oldest known document, in the Philippines; the Sandbox Session is a simulation of archaeological excavation; the entryway of Fort Santiago features the image of St. James the Moorslayer (Santiago Matamoros in Spanish).
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FEAT URE The Sandbox Session’s lithic and tool-making module involves making stone tools by striking one stone surface against another.
organization established by local archaeologists from the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program who’ve been advocating heritage literacy among Filipinos since 2015. “We want Filipinos to be literate in their own heritage in the hopes that they’d use that literacy to be more culturally sensitive. To be more responsible of our pamana,” says Kate Lim, president of Tuklas and a member of the Katipunan Arkeologist ng Pilipinas, Inc., the professional guild of Filipino archaeologists. Learning from the field Instead of the usual classroom-lecture format, Tuklas employs more progressive techniques in teaching history, heritage, and the basics of archaeology to anyone willing to learn. They do so through alternative learning methods like mobile lectures called Archeotrails, simulation workshops called Sandbox Sessions, and community linkage through which they readily render assistance,
enable partnerships, and conduct public presentations to the local government, private institutions, and other interested groups. Through the Archeotrails, Tuklas facilitators bring audiences right where history happened. At chosen sites, they share stories not found in history books so that all five senses are engaged. Archeotrails follow a tour format, but each activity is hinged on a historical or cultural narrative, which participants flesh out with the help of a module developed by Tuklas members. “The goal is to make people see what we can no longer see now. Mobile lectures have narratives, but the audience plays a role in the storytelling in the form of interpretation and imagination, [which is] always [done] through an archaeological and heritage lens or approach,” explains Taj Vitales, Tuklas program associate for Archaeotrails. The current Manila Archeotrails itinerary starts at Fort Santiago and explores other nearby areas to unravel our ancestors’ way of life before the Spaniards arrived. Aside from Intramuros, which highlights the Archeology and the City module, other Archeotrails locations are Nayong Pilipino in Pampanga (Paniniwala, Tradisyon, at Paraan module) and Taal, Batangas (Bayan at Bulkan module). Still in the works are Archeotrails dedicated to culinary tradition and Philippine maritime heritage, and an expansion of the Manila Archeotrails to Pasig City. Sandbox Sessions, on the other hand, give participants a peek into the technical aspect of the science. Here, audiences are introduced to archaeology as a specialization by making them carry out tasks that archaeologists regularly perform during fieldwork, like excavating, which has proven to be a hit with preschoolers and grade school students.
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The group believes in instilling the value of heritage at a young age, when children can still be taught that there is much to explore and dig up, and “that there is also importance in broken things,” as Anna Pineda, Tuklas program coordinator, explains. But all Sandbox Sessions cater to all ages, and there are many modules to choose from: excavation, field methods, sorting and recording, lithics and tool-making, bone identification, and pottery assembly. The many applications of archaeology Slowly but surely, Tuklas continues to raise awareness about archaeology and its many applications in the Philippines. The study of artifacts and other material remains of past life and culture is relatively young in the country, but the existence of organizations like Tuklas brings the promise of more active participation in the field, which, in turn, may lead to more collaboration and discipline. “We are often connected to tourism but that’s not our only application. We can also help in planning, in management,” Lim stresses, explaining that other regions have national policies that provide more opportunities for archaeologists and heritage workers. In some countries, for example, one can’t build on land that has not undergone archaeological assessment. Here, though, majority are still in the process of figuring out the importance and relevance of such methods and practices. So for Lim and the rest of Tuklas, the work has barely begun, but they definitely see why they should soldier on. “Hopefully, [our efforts] also ingrain a sense of nationalism in people, and push them to develop their ‘Filipino-ness,’” Bea Ferreras, zooarchaeologist and Tuklas finance director, adds. Although, Intramuros, being a protected heritage site in its own right, limits
Participants of lithics and toolmaking module also learn how to make weapons and traditional hunting implements using natural materials to give them an idea of how people lived in the early stone age.
The group believes in instilling the value of heritage at a young age, when children can still be taught that there is much to explore and dig up...
excavation in the area. But with the creativity and knowledge shared by professionals and advocates like those behind Tuklas, we may just arrive at groundbreaking inferences that’ll shape our own ‘Filipino-ness,’ so that we, too, may help piece together the puzzle of national identity. Tuklas Pilipinas Society. tuklas.ph@gmail.com. 0921-6695969. Facebook.com/TuklasPH
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Lav Diaz makes films on his own terms TEXT OLIVER EMOCLING
PHOTOGRAPHY JOSEPH PASCUAL
The doorbell does not work, filmmaker Lav Diaz tells us as we enter his humble abode in Marikina. The space is small. On one side is a pile of books. Across them, cases of film equipment are in order. In one corner is a good-looking chair, though we’re cautioned that, like the doorbell, it’s also broken. In the middle of this neat jumble is Diaz himself, pensive as he sips coffee from his Batang West Side mug. Diaz is a simple man. As usual, he wears a black T-shirt, his hair tied in a ponytail. “Fixation lang ito. Hindi nila alam na marumi na pala ito,” he quips. His proclivity for wearing black T-shirts came before he even became an acclaimed filmmaker; he developed this affinity back when he worked for the newspaper Journal in New York. As for his affair with cinema, Diaz says it springs from his childhood. On weekends, his father would bring him to the cinema to watch films like Fernando Poe, Jr.’s Matimbang ang Dugo sa Tubig. However, it was Lino Brocka’s Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag that changed his perception of cinema’s role. “Binigyan niya ako ng opening na pwede kong i-engage ang buhay through this medium,” he says. That was the beginning. Now, Diaz has carved an identity that continues to bewilder the world. Lav is patient Diaz makes long films. His 2004 film Ebolusyon ng Pamilyang Pilipino is considered one of the longest films in history, with a nearly 11-hour running time. Ang Panahon ng Halimaw, his entry for this year’s Berlin Film Festival, clocks in at almost four hours. The saga-like dimension of his works entices viewers, but
their unconventional length has also dissuaded some people. At some point, people define Diaz’s cinema by its time element alone, placing it under the slow cinema movement. Diaz admits that his cinema’s development is indeed slow, but he also refuses to be restrained by that label. “Cinema has been used to not go beyond two or one-and-a-half hours. It’s very conventional. Kapag lumagpas ka doon, mahaba na ‘yun.” Instead of subscribing to labels, he believes that cinema should be free. “Sino ba ang may-ari ng cinema? There’s no slow cinema, there’s no long cinema. Ang isang maliit na watercolor ni Monet at ang “Guernica” ni Picasso, maliit man o malaki, [parehong] painting; ganoon din sa cinema. A short film and a long film are both cinema.” Diaz’s cinema takes time to grow. He sets the pace of his films with raw and static long takes, resonating with how the Lumière Brothers shot the very first films in history. “The dominant, all-powerful factor of the film image is rhythm, expressing the course of time within the frame,” the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote in his cinema book Sculpting in Time—this is exactly what Diaz does in his films. A shot in Diaz’s cinema often begins with an empty frame decorated with the inherent opulence of nature, a constant character in his films. Diaz allows leaves to sway, clouds to move, and water to ripple. “I’m trying to unify space and time,” he says. “I’m trying to capture ‘yung pinakamaliit na semblance ng buhay na walang manipulation.” This allows the viewers to wallow in the natural progression of time and life. Diaz even records mundane moments of his characters walking, but these scenes prompt the realization that
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what unfolds onscreen is simply life as it is. After all, as Diaz says, “cinema is an engagement with life.” This respect for the natural flow of time reflects Tarkovsky’s words: “[Time] becomes tangible when you sense something significant, truthful, going on beyond the events on the screen; when you realize, quite consciously, that what you see in the frame is not limited to its visual depiction, but is a pointer to something stretching out beyond the frame and to infinity; a pointer to life.” In the realm of Diaz’s cinema, punctuations merely exist. “Wala namang ending. Iisang film lang ang ginagawa ko,” he says. And just like that infinite element we all are bound to, Diaz’s cinema leads us to an incessant flow of memories, dreams, and thoughts. His cinema is perhaps not meant to be watched. Instead, it should be recalled like memories. It is meant to be observed and lived through because cinema is life. Eventually, it ushers us back to our conscience. And there lies the only punctuation Diaz’s cinema offers: a question mark. Lav is kind “Fear is hovering [over] the land. Tahimik ang mga tao. Ang daming nag-di-disappear,” Diaz explains the atmosphere of his musical Ang Panahon ng Halimaw. The film was conceived during his eight-month residency at Harvard in 2016. At the time, he was writing a gangster film and a book on Philippine cinema. “Habang sinusulat ko ‘yun, bumili ako ng mumurahing kalsada sa Harvard and I started writing songs.” The political turmoil at the time led to a growing urgency within him to work on an entirely different film. “Mukhang doon ako hinila. You know that kind of feeling na hinihila ka? You have to open it, you have to follow it.” Eventually, the songs and the narrative came to Diaz like a deluge. Dubbed the “anti-musical musical” and a
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“Walang coming to terms kung tinatalikuran lang natin [ang nakaraan]. Ang lakas ng denial, ang lakas ng paglimot. Minsan, parang deliberate ang paglimot.�
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COV ER STORY “rock opera,” Ang Panahon ng Halimaw is his observation of his hometown in Maguindanao during the darkest years of martial law. “Pinakanakakatakot na part ng martial law ‘yung late ’70s dahil na-terrorize talaga ng militia ang buong bansa,” he says. “[The film] is about an activist professor poet who investigated the disappearance of his wife. She is an activist doctor who went to the barrios to serve.” This is not Diaz’s first time to tackle the
misery of the nation during those iniquitous years. He has also examined that era in Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon and Ebolusyon ng Pamilyang Pilipino. For him, an evaluation of the past is a significant discourse in his cinema. “You have to examine the past to see why these things are happening now, kasi doon galing ang present. Hindi tayo nakarating sa ganitong situation dahil binigay lang. The past will tell you why. Nandoon ang sagot kung bakit ganito tayo kamangmang ngayon.
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COV ER STORY Lav Diaz’s first encounter with filmmaking was through a screenwriting manual by Clodualdo Del Mundo, Jr. Then, he studied screenwriting under Ricky Lee before going into the Mowelfund Film Institute.
“You can only come to terms [with the past] if you confront it. Walang coming to terms kung tinatalikuran lang natin [ang nakaraan]. Ang lakas ng denial, ang lakas ng paglimot. Minsan, parang deliberate ang paglimot,” he observes. “Look at us now: walang understanding ng nakaraan. Wala man lang dialectical approach sa buhay.” Diaz believes that the only cure for our nation’s maladies is through re-education. “Bakit na-pe-preso tayo lagi sa isang sistema? The issue is ignorance,” he says. For him, it is his responsibility to nurture the soul with good aesthetics and to educate the audience through his cinema. “I keep the faith, I keep living because of cinema,” Diaz says. “If I can help a young man or woman na nanood ng cinema ko at nagkaroon siya ng transcendence at ng bagong faith sa buhay, then my work is done.
Sa akin, importanteng natulungan ko silang magka-responsibility sa bayan at sa mundo.” End notes Diaz walks us around the neighborhood. He leads us to a vacant lot where wild kangkong proliferates. He kneels to inspect the vegetable. Diaz says it tastes good even when boiled. This affection and appreciation for nature is innate to his cinema and to himself. “Kung hindi na ako ma-e-engage ng cinema, then I’ll stop doing it. Magtatanim na lang ako,” he says. There is a time for everything. With a slew of projects lined up for him, there is no way Diaz is ending his cinema soon. For now, Diaz keeps his faith in the medium—one that reviews the past, informs the present, and brings hope for the future.
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EATS Casa Daza’s bangus sisig is the guilt-free alternative to its sinful pork counterpart.
SECOND COURSE
Chef Sandy Daza is yet on another mission to highlight Filipino food TEXT YAZHMIN MALAJITO PHOTOGRAPHY SAMANTHA ONG AND CASA DAZA
An adage wouldn’t survive time if it didn’t hold at least a little truth. That’s why the saying “When one door closes, another opens,” remains a popular platitude, and it’s one that celebrity chef Sandy Daza relates to. Daza, who’s also a TV show host and food columnist, has opened a new restaurant. Don’t get us wrong: Wooden Spoon hasn’t closed down. In fact, its last branch standing in Rockwell still bustles and overflows with diners. However, conflict between Daza and his then-business partner had robbed the chef of the opportunity to expand his first sit-down restaurant, which means as far as Daza is concerned, there won’t be any new Wooden Spoon branch opening
anymore. “What used to be my dream for Wooden Spoon is now for Casa Daza,” he says. This means that once his team has perfected the first branch’s dynamics, he’ll be on a mission to establish more Casa Dazas in different spots in the metro. Giving up has no place in the chef’s mind, anyway. He’s had his fair share of failed businesses in the past, which he calls “humbling experiences.” And if these missteps did anything, it was to fuel him to reach his goal of making people say, “Ang sarap pala ng pagkain ng Pilipinas.” The menu for Casa Daza isn’t too different
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EATS from Wooden Spoon’s, which is basically the accumulation of the chef’s culinary experiences. He still holds true to his “familiar flavors, unusual dishes” concept with the likes of the good old adobong kangkong topped with crunchy lechon kawali bites. There’s more pork to be indulged in with Daza’s hybrid of two Filipino classics: the dinuguang bagnet, a dish the chef had discovered at Dawang’s Place in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte. For dessert, try his own take on maja blanca called reyna blanca, a melt-in-your-mouth coconut flan drizzled with sweet sauce and topped with crispy pinipig. It’s also a classic sweet treat from Galing Galing, the Ermita restaurant that his mother, the late Nora Daza, opened and ran in the ’70s. While Wooden Spoon will cease opening new branches, the arrival of Casa Daza and everything it promises is a great trade-off— especially when it means that we still get to eat true Filipino comfort food whipped up by a seasoned chef’s hands.
The menu for Casa Daza isn’t too different from Wooden Spoon’s, which is basically the accumulation of the chef ’s culinary experiences.
Clockwise from above: Dinuguang bagnet combines two Pinoy classics; sago cake is their own version of bibingkang malagkit; Casa Daza's interiors
Casa Daza. 2F U.P. Town Center, Diliman, Quezon City. 0917-6561219. Facebook.com/CasaDazaByChefSandy
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RECIPE
FRESH BITE
Let this raw Asian salsa invigorate your palate TEXT AND STYLING GRAI ALVARÂ PHOTOGRAPHY PATRICK SEGOVIA
SAMBAL MATAH INGREDIENTS
5 garlic cloves, minced 15 pcs. shallots, thinly sliced 12 pcs. dried or 5 pcs. fresh kaffir leaves, chiffonade 2 pcs. siling labuyo 20 cm. lemongrass (white part only), thinly sliced 1/2 tbsp. calamansi juice 2 tbsps. light fish sauce 1 tbsp. coconut oil Pepper
PROCEDURE
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Serve fresh along with grilled or fried protein.
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T HE GET
DOWN TO EARTH
These lightweight handmade clutches wield the beauty of abalones TEXT YAZHMIN MALAJITO PHOTOGRAPHY PATRICK SEGOVIA
We produce work according to what we believe is true, good, and valuable, and the results are often reflections of fragments from our lives. This is especially true for Mele + Marie. “If Hermès has the Birkin, Mele + Marie has the Hannah,” says the brand’s founder Rosemarie Oamil. Her husband Melecio Oamil Jr. had designed 24 Hannah models, all inspired by distinct moments from his life. The honeyand-rust-colored Hannah 1 or Brown Pin is a nod to mud—the aftermath of a flood in Melecio’s hometown in Nueva Ecija, where he grew up as a kid, oblivious to the calamity’s effects. The bag is his own
emblem of bliss and hope. Meanwhile, the Hannah 9 or Brownlip Plain, done in ecru and with touches of gold, reflects the story of his family’s move to the big city; the pale brown is symbolic of the view of the concrete jungle from their 11th floor condominium. They may look heavy, but the bones of these eight-inch minaudières, embellished with abalone shells, are acrylic, making it light. The intimate images of the past, paired with Oamil’s refined artistry, have been the brand’s ticket to the Paris and New York Fashion Weeks. Established in 2012, Mele + Marie will finally reach the shores of its roots in May, when it makes its debut at Manila Fashion Week.
Mele + Marie. 0917-3247668. www.meleandmarie.com
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