Suman and Hallow's Eve

Tomorrow night, A. and I will celebrate our first Hallow's Eve. We have candies for the kids who will come Trick or Treating and a scary contraption we have christened as the "Fag Hag", with no disrespect meant to our gay friends.

The Fag Hag

Halloween is such a foreign concept for us, having  celebrated only the All Souls and All Saints Christian holidays for most of our lives. We both grew up visiting the graves  of long dead relatives every November 1 bringing flowers, candles and food offerings that the souls of the dead can partake of as they travel to the underworld.  The food offerings are commonly made of grains and yams cooked into sweet sticky concoctions... champorado, bico, suman and ube. A small part of what was cooked would be put in small containers and left on the tombstones of our loved ones.

Though I no longer practice this tradition and have been converted into celebrating Halloween (as the fag hag floating on our gate can attest to) I still miss having sticky food during this Filipino holiday. And so tonight as we prepare the candies to give out tomorrow night, I am thinking of the most recent  sticky treat I had the chance to eat... Rosalie's Buko Pinipig suman.

Wrapped in fresh banana leaves, each green roll of rice smells like tradition.

There is no need to coat each small log of rice with sugar. The sweetness is blended in as well as the toasted pinipig and coconut bits.

Biting into it brings back good memories of the All Souls Days of my childhood... innocent laughter amidst the darkness and graves of those who have lived their lives.

Boys! Boys! or How to Make a Meal Out of Martian Brains

Halloween was never an occassion celebrated by my family as I was growing up.

My first and only Halloween Trick or Treat experience was around ten years back when my then ten-year old baby bro' Angelo and his friend Bernard decided they would try their hand at amassing sweet treats from Bernard's neighbors in a gated community in Marikina. 

   Angelo and Bernard then...

Bernard's dad, Chito, and myself played costume master and mistress, borrowing Roman soldier costumes ---complete with toga, helmets and sandals--- from another friend,. When the boys went out in their costumes, Chito and I realized that we had just dressed two boys in flimsy white skirts, something that they'd probably never forgive us for when the pictures resurface via Facebook.

A few hours later, the boys returned with a bagful of candies, plastic toys and unhappy faces. Apparently, they realized that the homes they visited towards the end of their Hallow's Eve jaunt were already having supper.  And when they were handed their treats, they were disappointed  because the tired and hungry boys wanted to be gifted with rice and adobo instead of sweets!

They are now both in the cusp of adulthood and are on the brink of facing the truths of life that turn boys into men. But Angelo and Bernard will probably always be those pre-pubescent boys in my eyes.

   ...Angelo and Bernard today.

Here's a Halloween recipe for the boys...

Martian Brain Noodles

Ingredients:

1.5 kg Malunggay pansit

1 cup pork,  sliced into thin 1 inch lengths

1 cup Pork or chicken liver, cut into ¼ inch cubes

1 cup Chinese sausage, cut into ¼ inch circles

1 cup Shrimp, shelled, deveined and halved

1 cup tenga ng daga, softened and cut into 1 inch long strips

1 ½  cups Squash, cut into 1 inch high triangles

250 grams tofu

500 grams wombok

4 ½  cups water

3 tbsps soy sauce

1 tbsp Kutchai, minced

1 tbsp garlic, finely minced

1 cup onion, finely minced

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 shrimp bouillon cube

Salt and pepper to taste

Place pork in ½ cup water and add a dash of salt. Allow water to boil and the pork to become tender. When about 1 tbsp of water is left, add the Chinese sausage. Turn fire to low. Allow the remaining water to cook the sausage and bring out the oil of the pork to brown the meats.  Add cooking oil, garlic and onion. Then add the liver and tofu. Sautee until brown.

Dissolve the shrimp bouillon cube in 4 cups of water and add to the mixture when the liver is almost cooked. Add in the tenga ng daga, and squash. When the squash is slightly tender, add the shrimp and soy sauce to taste.

When the shrimp changes color, add the malunggay noodles and mix gently. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix gently for five minutes, making sure to evenly distribute the ingredients and keep the noodles moist.

To serve,put a helping of the noodles in a bowl and mold. turn over to a plate and garnish with vegetables.

ha