Native chic

WITH tight budgets and long "to give" lists for the holidays, it's tempting to just go to 168 or Divisoria for the cheap Chinese stuff. For wealthier Filipinos, there's always an impulse to go for all the other stuff flooding the country because of import liberalization, from junk foods to brand-name clothing, which, ironically, are now often cheaper than locally made goods.

We'll eventually have to pay for all this, as local industries collapse, and we lose even more jobs. For a change, let's look at how we can use the spirit of the holidays to help promote local industries and show how native can be chic.

One-stop shopping

For starters, let's replace those imported Christmas food baskets with local stuff. It's not hard to do. What I did was to concentrate on Farmers' Market and the Lung Center Sunday "tiangge" [flea market], but you can do something similar by patronizing your local wet market and tiangge.

I have to say the new Farmers' Market is quite impressive, part of the facelift the Araneta Center's been getting. It's clean, spacious and safe, although all this has meant higher rents for the vendors. You have to pay more now for their produce, but generally Farmers is still cheaper than the supermarkets.

Let's get on now with the holiday baskets. First stop was a stall, which still doesn't have a sign up. They're in the vegetables section, in between stalls owned by Lante and Susan. You can't miss it because of all the woven stuff they have, from baskets to brooms and "bayong" [native shopping bag].

You just might end up getting some gifts here. What caught my eye were straw hats and brooms for kids, clay stoves, "sinamay" fiber table mats and "gugo," the original herbal shampoo, which goes for P10 a strip, same price as in Quiapo.

The baskets come in all sizes and shapes, but what I ended up getting were the bayong made of sturdy "pandan" leaves. I figured that after the holidays the bayong could still be used for going to market, which is what I do. The vendors are always curious about my bayong and after I explain, I know they're thinking, "What a strange man, but he does make some sense."

Veggies

After you get your baskets or bayong, you need to figure out what to put in. No canned goods, please. Aim for fresh stuff. Since I don't eat meat, I figured I should be consistent and exclude meat products from my gifts. Vegetables for Christmas gifts? You'd be surprised how some of the vegetables keep without refrigeration. But yes, you do need to plan carefully for the ones that wilt easily.

The bayong shop is right in the vegetables section anyway so move on for the greens. Look for Zeny's stall. The first time I bought stuff from her, Zeny watched as I was picking out vegetables. I knew she wanted to say, "You sure don't know what's fresh, huh?" but, like many of our mothers, she just quietly began picking the good stuff and throwing out some of the ones I had picked. That's how I became her suki.

Zeny stocks some of the stuff you need for finer dining, including all kinds of mushrooms, "galangal" (the kind of ginger you use for tom yum), "dilaw" (still another kind of ginger), mint leaves (which will keep for a long time, and make a great tea), different kinds of lettuce, "arugula," "kutsay" tips, "wansoy" (or if you want to be snobbish about it, cilantro) and beets. If she doesn't have something, she'll dash off and get it from another vendor for you.
Don't think Zeny only stocks the "sosyal" stuff. I go to her mainly for the more pedestrian stuff my Yna loves (why do you think I bother about marketing?): potatoes and camote (purple and yellow ones) and carrots and cucumbers, as well as the condiments you need for cooking: garlic and spring onions and leeks (OK, so I got sosyal again).

Three other items for your native-chic, or should I say exotic veggies basket: "pako" [ferns], squash flowers ("bulaklak ng kalabasa") and white corn. If you're into food fads, squash flowers are "in" now, usually fried as tempura, or folded into omelets, but it was a nice fellow shopper who gave me the best recipe yet, which is to boil the white corn in soup stock, and then add on the squash flowers. Beats the MSG-ridden packaged corn and egg soup you get in supermarkets.

Imported from Guimaras

At the back of the vegetables section, you'll find the "kakanin," or native cakes: all kinds of "puto" and "cuchinta," and cassava cakes and "pinipig." Some of the vendors also have "kesong puti" [cottage cheese] and carabao's milk, but I'd be careful about dairy products, especially for children, and for those with weak stomachs.

Next to the vegetables section are the fruits. I go to Fely, who stocks the sweetest mangoes from Guimaras and lanzones from Camiguin. Near the entrance (facing the flower shops), you have the Sangco fruit empire. Aling Melinda has a whole block of stalls with all kinds of fruits, but I go to her mainly for oranges from Nueva Vizcaya. The oranges vary in sweetness, but they are always bursting with juice.

Move around and check out the other fruits. Avocados are coming back into season, as are chicos. My point is to go for as many local fruits as possible. They're often more expensive than imported fruits, but at least we're patronizing local agriculture.

While you're at it, do make a pitch with the vendors to get more "local imported" (as in imported from Guimaras) stuff, and to source organic produce -- you have to explain, meaning no pesticides and fertilizers.

If you need more stuff, go to Shoppesville on Katipunan Avenue for organic vegetables and the Lung Center tiangge on Sunday mornings, where you will have some stalls with fresh produce and foodstuff direct from the provinces. Parking is becoming a problem at the Lung Center tiangge, so go as early as you can.

There's other stuff you can put in your basket or bayong, like upland rice, but I haven't found a distributor in Manila. Local chocolate is a good choice, coming now in all versions, from the "tablea" [big tablet] to powdered forms. WomenLead also has good barako coffee, packaged in mini-bayong, part of its Save Barako Coffee campaign. Call them (+632 4366738) or drop by 45 Mapagkumbaba Street in UP Village.

Mix and match your food baskets. Include a book of local recipes. Or print out your own, explaining what to do with the squash flowers. Share new ideas and innovations related to the basket's contents. I've found the ferns go well with "lato" (seaweeds, which you can also get at Farmers) for a salad. And don't forget a little note explaining why you've gone native, why local's not just good but the best.

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