Felix Laureano’s photo “Calenderia” captures a poignant slice of Filipino history.
Calenderia is a store or booth thats sells food, drinks and all necessities of life. It is a makeshift pavilion or kiosk made of bamboo with roofing and walls of nipa.
Calenderia is adjacent to a beautifully constructed house of bamboo and nipa and beside a neighborhood road some distance fron a poblacion.
The wall of the house is made of small pieces of bamboo dexterously woven together, the windows, with points of bamboo interlaced, present an elegant view.
The Calenderia, even if poor in its exterior, has everything inside. There, food and drink are served for travelers.
It has everything from light tobacco, cigarettes, tobacco in leaf, for chewing ‘buyo’, ‘bonga’, ‘mascada’, ‘apug’, to eat white ‘morisqueta’, ‘puso’ , ‘sinig-ang’ ‘lina-ga’, ‘pakcio’, ‘guinamos’, ‘uga’, ‘inihao nga manuc’, to drink the frothy tuba all you want, nipa liqour, vino sa lubi, beer and soda water.
Aside from the dishes mentioned, there are ‘tapa sang usa’, ‘sang vaca’, ‘isda nga minanticaan’, adobo and escabeche done in the style and taste of the country.
Tinola are pieces of chicken cooked in fat with water, ginger, and garnished with pieces of white gourd. It is an obligatory course at Filipino dinners.
For deserts and delicacies, there are saguing, piña, atis, chicos, limincillos, alfajor, ticoy, poto, cuacoy, calamay-hati (a variety of jelly made with rice flour called ‘pilit’ or sticky rice) and others.
These neighborhood calenderias are, in the end, a refuge for homeless beggars.
Source:
Recuerdos de Filipinas
Falvey Memorial Library
Villanova University
Pennsylvania, United States
Scribd.com/recuerdos-de-filipinas
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