California: On any given day, hundreds of Filipino-Americans trek to the Eagle Rock Plaza nestled on the southeast side of Freeway 134 and the Freeway 2 interchange. That includes me too. When I get a text message at the office from my wife at 3 pm on any given work day with the key text words “ Let’s b.b.q 2nyt”, I have one place to go in mind. The one stop mall which my kids have jokingly now named “Robinson’s Eagle Rock.” I proceed to Eagle Rock Plaza, the huge Mall that used to be Westfield’s Mall and now is called by the locals as the “Mall of Manila on Colorado Blvd.”
On the rooftop parking you can clearly see the mall being anchored on both sides by Target and on the other side by Macy’s. There is roof- top parking too. But the real Fil-Am ambience is at the lower level. You navigate your car in a dimly lit parking lot filled with parked cars (reminds me of Manila Malls) to look for an empty parking space closer to the Mall entrance only to be behind a single file convoy of 3 or more cars whose driver have the same exact objective as you do; find a parking spot (hmmm, feels familiar just like in Manila, too).
As you head for the mall entrance, you can see why my kids call it Robinson’s” (after the famed Robinson’s Department Store and Grocery chain in the Philippines). On the right is Fil-Mart, which sells traditional products from the Philippines, from wood carving to Barong Tagalog, the store beckons you to come in and be transported back to the Philippines. Joanne De Leoz, whose family owns the store states “Our store is really like walking into Manila”.
Then there is the Cell Phone stores (cell phones complete with disco lights), DVD and CD store-carts offering the latest in Philippine movies playing on a flat screen, it never fails to stop my wife to look at the latest drama film being played. Of course, where can you get a great tasting hamburger or spaghetti where the Food Chain employee still call you “Sir” or “Ma’am”, but only at Jollibee, an international Filipino Food Franchise (with a giant sized bee sporting a white chef hat and a red blazer) which operates 14 stores in California and Nevada, and other international locations including Hong Kong, Vietnam, Brunei, Guam and Saipan. Next to Jollibee is the famous Filipino pastry and dessert store, Goldilocks, another icon in the culinary life of Filipinos. Goldilocks is synonymous with fine pastry and cakes. Ben Chan’s world famous apparel store “Bench” is also located here. He has expanded heavily also in Mainland China with the "Bench" trademark stores.
Even the best "Halo-Halo" in the Philippines (Believe me;I did a four YEAR vacation in the Philippines 1997-2001) is now available here. "Halo Halo" (from Tagalog word halo meaning "mix) is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added boiled sweet beans and fruit, served chilled in a tall glass or bowl. My favorite are those with sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), nata de coco, purple yam (ube), sweet corn kernels, a slice of leche flan, banana slices and topped with your favorite ice cream. The best "Halo Halo" in the world is available at nowhere else but "ChowKing", a Filipino Chinese chain which serves dessert as well as Siopao (dumpling buns), Siomai (steamed baby dumplings), Noodles, Almuchow (breakfast?),and Pancit (now even some non Fil-Ams knows this noodle dish is very good). "Chowking" operates more than 300 stores worldwide.
My goal though is Seafood City supermarket. I migrated to Los Angeles during the small Lorenzana Market days of cramped aisle and limited choices of products. But on entering Seafood City, my gosh, I have never seen so many Filipino food items jammed into one store, outside of the Philippines. From the bizarre looking but very tasty red hot dogs (good for sweet spaghetti), a dozen different kinds of canned corned beef, V-Cut chips and thousands of Filipino products, even the exotic "balut", a boiled fertilized duck egg with a nearly developed embryo…. Ok I will stop the description…. To the milkfish (bangus) and dozen of choices of fish, poultry and meat for (pang ihaw) barbeque. The choice is endless.
My quest is done. I get my wife’s texted list for the barbeque tonight. But just gazing at the aisle and aisle of Filipino products while waiting for my fish to be fried (yes, fish cleaning and frying is free too), I was thinking to myself, I can save myself some dollars from a Philippine Airline ticket because practically now, I can feel the ambience of the Philippines without the hassle of air travel & gulp, pasalubong. My claim-tag number "4-Oh-6, 4-Oh-6" is called over the public address system from the fish frying section and I was jolted from my dreaming back into California.
On my way out, I checked the magazine stand where they carry a variety of glossy Filipino magazines from the Philippines including “Pinoy World”. Was I very glad when I saw the latest issue of PW on the stand priced at $2.99. After all, I know my articles and photos are featured in this latest Pinoy World July-August 07 issue. Sporting a quiet smile and passing folks reading Filipino newspapers on the latest news and gossips here and in the Philippines, I slowly make my way back to reality. The only thing I can think of is boy do I miss the Philippines. Well, for now, I guess, home is where the heart is.
Article by Jay Fermin ppp-usa
(Filipinos now rank the second fastest growing ethnic population in the US at 2.3 Million behind the Chinese at 2.7 Million among a total of 12.2 Million Asians among six major ethnic groups in the US)