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By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine AS far as I am concerned, the pinipig crunch is the height of ice cream engineering. It is an amazing balance of the solid chocolate shell, creamy vanilla interior and, the piece de resistance, the crisp rice embedded in the shell. It was all the different sensations you can possibly get, all in one confection. It was a delicate task, eating the pinipig crunch, because you had to keep just enough of the shell intact so the vanilla doesn’t just plop on the floor, and yet it was also a race against time because wait too long and even the chocolate shell would start to melt. Every grade school field trip to the Magnolia factory along Aurora Boulevard was laced with the promise of ice cream at the very end, usually in those huge gallon plastic containers. I wanted pinipig crunch, of course, which is interesting considering that I don’t usually enjoy ice cream: the cold of the treat tends to give people like me a sore throat. Early on, my pediatrician gave me a choice, ice cream or my tonsils. I chose to keep my tonsils. But ice cream still kept a bit of a lure. I still occasionally enjoy a scoop of chocolate and mint ice cream. But the glorious creation of “dirty ice cream” continues to capture the imagination. When I see a sorbetero pushing his cart by the road, ringing a handheld bell, I think of the uniquely grainy consistency of sorbets, and its wonderfully original and distinct flavors, like chocolate (not the chocolate you know), mango (what better flavor for us) and perhaps the greatest sorbetes flavor of all, quezo (the bigger the chunks the better). Perhaps the height of ice cream goodness (on par with the pinipig crunch) is the small local sugar cone topped by three scoops of dirty ice cream—chocolate, mango and quezo, of course. Everyone loves some kind of ice cream, be it ube espesyal or the more recent Chocnut vintage. My wife swears by the lady fingers ice cream from the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution Toscanini’s. My brother-in-law, who is based abroad, still speaks fondly of Magnolia Twin Popsies—Orange flavor, of course. There are many different aspects of ice cream here. The ice drop, best exemplified by buko, is one such creation. There are the dueling digital tones of the ambulant ice cream vendors on pedicabs. Have you ever been caught in traffic with one of those ice cream pedicabs next to you, music going? Maddening. But ice cream is a mix of different textures and tastes, a creation of cold and creamy, sweet and tart. It is a masterpiece of food imagination made real. What’s your favorite flavor? Read about all kinds of sweet indulgences in the April 26, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine YEAH, yeah we Filipinos eat pretty much anything, it’s true. It’s a matter of taste in more than one way. The food that other people find objectionable, I usually don’t have a problem with. Balut? The soup is awesome and salt makes it perfect. The one food stuff I cannot in any way understand is azucena. Dogs are your friend not our food. Seriously. But the one food which I like that other people really seem to have a problem with is chicken feet, also known by that witty footwear pseudonym Adidas. From childhood, chicken feet was a dish I got served pretty regularly. I never thought of it as anything else except normal. You can usually get a lot of it for almost nothing because most chicken vendors consider it remainders. Which is a good thing, because it takes quite a lot of chicken feet to feed a group of growing children as so little meat can actually be found on the bone. There are two important things to remember about chicken feet. The first is that it needs to be marinated very heavily. The chicken feet themselves would be bland on their own, though the chewy nature gives it a very distinctive texture. The usual way to cook them would be adobado, seasoned with a lot of soy sauce and spices. When served, the feet need to be really dark and sticky, because that promises a really strong soy sauce taste to go with the chewy feel. The second thing, and this is crucial, is that chicken feet need to be eaten by hand. It’s absurd to eat them with utensils since you have to use the cutting tools with incredible dexterity to get the meat off the bones. But put all these elements together, and you have a really busy meal, with the heavy marinade coming off not only on your hands but also on the rice, becoming a kind of extra sauce. The day I realized that chicken feet is an acquired taste was a viewing of “The Amazing Race.” In Asia, the teams had to eat cooked chicken feet and the teams were uniformly and overwhelmingly disgusted by the task. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “what’s so hard? It’s lunch!” After that, I found out that many, many people find chicken feet to be a truly reprehensible meal. There are many reasons, none of which I understand, which is pretty much the case for anyone who eats anything unpopular. The strange thing is I have never considered myself an adventurous eater. My parents tell me I was very picky eater as a child. So why can I eat something that many others can’t? It’s a tasty mystery to be sure. Read about all kinds of exotic food in the March 15, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine OF all the relationships that end, it's the ones we have with food which seem hardest to forget completely. Maybe it's because food activates a sensory aspect, one that is more visceral and thus more difficult to simply erase. A sniff of a similar aroma will suddenly flood the senses with nostalgia. The most poignant thing to lose is the favorite restaurant. It's particularly difficult when the waiters know you, and even know what you without asking. "The usual." Places move, chefs transfer, and customers will just have to accept the fact that their favorite haunt is gone. I have dealt with this particular situation twice. My first favorite restaurant was Café Intermezzo in Greenbelt. I would be there every Wednesday, and inevitably I would meet friends there because they knew I'd be there at that day every week. Their lamb chops were my regular meal and once Intermezzo left, replaced by a Burger King, I never found another place quite like it. The second place I really liked going to was a friend's joint. Clinton Palanca is both a wicked fictionist and an impressive chef. Prospero's was his place, and I loved both its incarnations, in Katipunan and Greenbelt. The tenderloin was amazing and the iced tea remains the best anywhere. Clinton eventually decided to move on, Prospero's gone with the tide, but its memories remain. And though I never ate there often enough, Full House on Katipunan Avenue was always a great place for merienda. The spaghetti was tasty, but the chicken crepe was sublime. Full House was only one of the many places along Katipunan that, due to the ebb and flow of students in schools fronting it, came and went. We remember fondly Puzzle Point and Anne's, but are joyful that Café Sweet Inspirations endures with the best Mongolian Barbecue setup in Quezon City. Of all the institutions close to Ateneo's campus itself, it is the eatery inside Ateneo that impresses with its longevity. Last semester, the Comm Dept. moved to the mainland, but Manang's remains where it has always been, dispensing inihaw na liempo to a crowd of students and an ever-increasing stream of alumni. Inevitably, favorite products vanish as well, driven to extinction. I know many friends who remember Choco Vim fondly. I know I am not alone when I speak of missing the original Magnolia Chocolait in those awesome glass bottles. The small ones were really cute and the big ones inhabited fridges for years as water bottles. I miss the original Jack N Jill Munchies (the cheese ones!) as well as Carol-Ann's Potato Sticks. Nothing has the same spicy crunch as Granny Goose Hot Stix. Despite was seemed to be a complete disappearing act, Serg's Chocolate is reported to be back. If true, that is great news. In fact, I am happy to note that not all our favorite snacks have been exterminated. Some thrive in their natural settings: the school canteen and in student's pockets. Haw Flakes were perfect for pretend communion, while the amazing Clover Bits were perfect for eating undetected in the classroom. They're not easy to find, but they are still very much around. Long live Haw Flakes and Clover Bits! Read about other winning tastes in the November 9, 2008 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.