Roots

By July 23, 2008Archives, Opinion

Tinolang manok

By Marifi Jara

Quelimane, Mozambique–Eleven weeks ago, as I stood in line to get through the immigration counter at the Mavalane International Airport in Maputo, the capital city of this country, I caught eye contact with an Asian lady in the other line to my right (after that feeling, you know, of sensing someone has been looking at you).

“Are you Filipina?” she asked.

“Oo!” I blurted out quite excitedly with a big smile, like seeing a kababayan brought some fresh wind after being pretty knackered from about 24 hours of travelling passing through four airports and getting on and off three airplanes.

Keeping tabs of news and editing stories for
The Sunday Punch in a makeshift office at home.

Indeed she has been eyeing me, she said, since she saw me at Johannesburg’s or Tambo International Airport in neighboring South Africa while waiting for our connecting flight. We are quite a rarity in this continent where the crowd is mostly Africans (of course), Caucasians, and some Asians mostly from or with roots in China and India. But even in other international airports, where there would be a hodgepodge of Southeast Asian travelers, we can somehow “smell” our fellow Filipinos. I think it has something to do with our body language, facial expressions and in a way our choice of clothing. Despite our seemingly still weak and rather confused national identity, we do carry in us a certain Filipino culture and we do exude it somehow in our aura.

Slowly-slowly building up our home…

Anyway, so my new acquaintance Antonia — who has been living here in Mozambique for a couple of years doing volunteer work — and I get into a little chat and meet up at the luggage inspection area after getting immigration clearance. As our bags are being checked, she asked me what I brought along. I answered just mostly clothes (and, a bit shy of being thought of as vain, didn’t mention that also got a year’s supply of toiletries that I believe would not be available here). Oh, she said, you didn’t have to, there’s plenty of ukay-ukay here! Then she went on to say that what she’s got in her bag are mostly food. I did find it a bit odd after having read and been told that Mozambique actually has one of the best cuisine in southern Africa.

Mosquiteros are a necessity around here
as a preventive measure against malaria.

After a few minutes more of chitchat and phone number exchanges outside the airport, we parted ways and promised to keep in touch. She also gave us a number of another Filipina in Maputo, Ellen, who has also become one of our friends.

Now almost a quarter of a year here and fairly settled in our new home (finally getting internet connection in the house after waiting nine weeks from filing of application! ), I have come to understand why Antonia must have packed her bags with food items from home.

Experimenting with pesci de coco leite
(fish in coconut milk) in my Quelimane kitchen.

The basic Filipino kitchen condiment patis, for example, is not common here although Mozambique is a coastal country rich in fish and other seafood.

What would one of our favorite Filipino dishes, tinolang manok, be without patis?

We tried cooking it with just salt and it is not quite the same. Tinolang manok also does not taste quite like home without sili leaves (which surprisingly they don’t sell here in the markets despite an abundance of siling labuyo, which is used for piri-piri, a popular Mozambican sauce made of pounded hot pepper) and green papaya (which they also don’t sell but there’s plenty of ripe papaya around), or alternatively, malunggay leaves (I am surprised that I have not seen a single malunggay tree here when I know there is a lot further up northeast in Uganda).

Our housekeeper, Lina, and one of our guards,
Mote, are helping me learn to speak Portuguese.

But now we have patis! On a visit to Maputo, Ellen took us to dinner in a quaint Thai garden restaurant which had a little gift shop selling all sorts of Thai products including, yes, patis! Now I just need to muster some courage to go over at our neighbor’s and ask if they would be kind enough to pick and sell me even just one green papaya from their tree, and find out where I can pluck out a handful of sili leaves(starting my own little herb garden is also in the plan).

I must say the cuisine here is truly good, both what is generally available for home cooking and in the restaurants, with the local fare widely influenced by Portuguese, African, Indian and Italian recipes. It is just that sometimes, we do crave for that taste of home.

(Editor’s Note: Miss Jara continues to help edit our issues from faraway Mozambique where she presently resides. She promised to keep readers posted periodically on her experiences in that country as she keeps tuned in to her ‘Roots’).

(Readers may reach columnist at marifijara@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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