64 FILIPINISMS
Onli In Da Pilipins - 1. n. a phrase used to define anything or anyone that only exists anywhere in the 7,107 islands of the Philippines || 2. adj. a phrase used to describe a Pinas episode or a Pinoy persona so rare one would never find anywhere else in the WWW (whole, wide world). It merits a documentation of some sort. By Aby Yap
PINOY FOOD TRIP ON THE SIDE WARNING: This article is guaranteed to make you drool. While I dug into the depths of my kaPinoyan, to write about something distinctly Filipino, a school of sweet and spicy dilis swimming excitedly toward a bowl of vinegar with crushed garlic and siling labuyo vividly flashed in my mind’s eye. My mouth watered. My stomach growled. I felt so tortured, I had to succumb to the gastronomic temptation. So I bought fish crackers and other nibbles at the neighborhood sari-sari store. Then I prepared a suka dip and invited everyone at home for a late afternoon chikahan while pigletting, er, pigging out (don’t you think this is too grand a word to use for these tiny packets of food?) on chichirya and sawsawan. Chichirya Anytime, Anywhere One foreigner friend observed that in the Philippines, the mouth is always busy. His description is so spot on. Most of the time we’re either singing along to the videoke or to the song on the radio, chatting with somebody or simply eating. Huge meals thrice a day, light snacks in between, and some chichirya practically anytime, anywhere. The Filipino’s passion for food is unbelievable. Believe it! The significance of such a diminutive tasty delight cannot be underestimated. If one will observe, in any event, it is the table filled with chichirya that gets the most attention. Eating chicha can
take place anywhere – at a feast, funeral, inuman or kwentuhan. It also doesn’t matter whether you’re alone at the office working on the computer, at the jeepney stop waiting for your ride or inside a bus riding out the traffic. As long as there is an abundance of salty or spicy nibbles, never mind if the gall bladder complains and lips turn white, everybody remains in high spirits. Some traditional favorites include nilaga or adobong mani (boiled peanuts or fried with garlic); crispy kropek
(crackers) and chicharon (cracklings); the Ilocos-born cornik (fried corn kernels) and chichacorn (chicharon and cornick combined) that both come in a variety of flavors like original, cheese, sweet, and spicy. While kropek usually has that fish or shrimp tang, chicharon may either be chicken, pork skin or variations like chicharon bulaklak (omentum), chicharon bituka (intestine), and other innards.