I had not returned to the Motherland since 1985. My last memories of it were dark and negative. It didn’t help that my last trip was in August, the dreary, muggy, rainy season. I was a teenager at the time and I was forbidden to wander off on my own lest some terrible tragedy befall me. I can only imagine what that may have been now that I’m much older. After my last visit, I had decided that I had left the Philippines and all of Asia forever, never to return or partake in anything related to the culture.

It wasn’t until 2011 when Ching He Huang’s show premiered on Cooking Channel that I became remotely interested in preparing Asian food at home. Once I began implementing some of the basic tenets of Asian cuisine, a whole world opened up and I intuitively was able to improvise quite a bit and produce restaurant quality food. The “a-ha” moment came after I cooked up a simple shrimp and broccoli noodle dish which tasted unctuous but was not oily or greasy like at the local Americanized Asian restaurants. That’s when I realized that I had inherent knowledge and possessed skills which had traversed generations and had been ingrained in me. It inspired me to continue to experiment on the cooking front, and I allowed myself to watch shows featuring Asia. When Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode in Manila, I was a bit unnerved because it was his stamp of approval and if he had gone, it was no longer controversial for me to return. By the end of the episode, he had convinced me to venture back and rediscover my roots.

This past Christmas, I went to Boracay, a beautiful but financially challenged tourist spot an hour flight from Manila. The people who inhabited the island exhibited a very severe dichotomy of extreme poverty contrasted with a strong will to survive and persevere. I remember seeing beach vendors selling hats, sunglasses and tours from the crack of dawn til the wee hours of the night every single day, with the hot sun bearing down on them as they walked up and down the beach on the blistering sand and into the pitch black of the evening, being rejected by one person after another with very little success and yet they continued on their path. I appreciated and gained a deep respect for their tenacity, their  perseverance and conviction.

Thank you, Boracay, for opening my eyes, heart and mind.