All Aboard Bicol Express
I was never fond of Filipino foods. I may have been dubbed as part of the “upper-class”, but I never chanced upon tasting foods in carinderias, which are small food stalls typically located across roadsides. Smoke emitted all over the road stained my impression on these food stalls as it spelled dirt and dust sprinkling over their foods. However, it wasn’t until I came to spend lunch out with my friends in my university, where everyday saving was meant as a living statement for frugal students. We happened to come across a carinderia called, Kawayanan, where students, teachers, and passersby alike were feasting on meals offered by the food stall. There came a boiling pot of menudo, a steamy soup of tinolang manok, and, my personal favorite, bicol express.
My love for bicol express felt unreal, to say the least. I only happened to taste it as I was curious as to why my classmate kept reordering this, turning it into her staple lunch meal. It took much courage to taste beyond the oddly looking cream surrounding the food, partially covering the meat at its core, and the bizarre name it’s associated with. I could remember everything so well in the back of my mind– as to when I bought it, who I was with, and the spiciness that made Bicol Express stand out among all the spicy foods I’ve ever tasted.
Bicol Express is a regional pride of a stew made with pork, gata, fermented shrimp paste, and local chili. The dish is famously known for its origin in Bicol, where the cuisine was popularized by a woman named Cely Kalaw, who suitably named the dish based on the PNR train route from Manila to Legazpi.
The dish wasn’t just a “spicy flavor”, it was all so confounding. It would make you guess as to how much spiciness it would have, because unlike other days, I would taste it with more meat and less chili, or even spicier but less creamier. This culinary specialty surely elicits wild guesses on how creamier or spicier the creamy dish is, while satisfying the craving of a mouthwatering spicy dish.
I happen to be a person whose love for food stems from unusual impressions. I remember in my childhood days of not having to eat pizza because it looked unusual enough for a piece of bread to be sprinkled with various toppings. However, if not without my friend’s/ family’s advice, I wouldn’t have given in to the savory tastes of these foods. Such foods including Bicol Express was a testament to how foods mixed with various ingredients would come kicking in with a heaven sent meal, without having to distinguish all of the different flavors infused in one blend.
I’ve only tasted my first and last Bicol Express in Kawayanan, and I am still yet to further taste other dishes in other carinderias. The thought of not having to eat this outside carinderias weakens the tough love I have for this dish. To this end, I’d get to anticipate and relish lunch soon as classes would begin to gear up my tastebuds for an exciting thrill of a meal again.
I wasn’t really eating Bicol Express (as shown by me on the left pic, right part) but this was me in my carinderia infancy stage.
