Real Living Space

I took Ivan Man Dy’s Old Manila Walks’ Binondo tour during the long weekend. In spite of the fact that my friend and I felt absolutely ancient next to the bagetsaphonic college students who also went on the tour, I totally enjoyed it. This was primarily a food tour and was blogged about many times in the past, so this will be more about the cultural flavor of the area, and it sure is full of flavor—and architectural gems as well!

Our first stop was Binondo Church, seat of Catholicism in an area that still steeps in Buddhism and traditional Chinese superstitions. That’s Roman Ongpin, of whom the area’s main street was named after, and who contributed financially to the Philippine Revolution, and as a result was jailed. I’m sure you know this kind of practice (financial support of their chosen government officials) is still practiced today, and if you look closely at the statue Ongpin is holding an envelope.

Right across the church is the Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz (my dad still knows its old name, Plaza Calderon de la Barca), which still has these very beautiful fountains with Baroque-style detailing (probably to match the Baroque façade of the church). I felt sad because it seemed none of the passers-by appreciated it, and someone even chucked Styrofoam containers into the fountain!

Our next stop was a short walk to this decades-old chocolate store along Ongpin. They still make tableas the traditional way (hand-pounding and rolling), it was just too bad the factory was moved to Tondo. But what I liked best out of it is the vintage packaging, unchanged after all these years…

There were beaded corchos (felt slippers) along that street as well; I remember my lola wearing them 24/7, whether she stayed at home or went to church. An interesting note: in the past, this store sold slippers for bound feet!

Our first actual foodie stop was the Mezzanine Café (I guess you can also call it the Fireman’s cafe) above the Eng Bee Tin store. Owner Gerry Chua channeled his ube hopia windfall into putting up an incredibly efficient volunteer fire brigade, complete with their famous ube-colored firetrucks:

If you eat at the here, all proceeds go to the volunteer fire brigade. Brilliant! The walls were decorated with amazing Robert Capa-style shots of fires in Binondo, as well as firemen’s hats…

We also had our first meal of the day, more of a simple brunch than breakfast; lovely Hokkienese rice with peanuts and mushrooms, paired with fishball soup and iced coffee, yum (this was actually my favorite food of the day since I love brunch)…

Afterwards, we walked towards a Chinese pharmacy with traditional Chinese medicine (dried lizards and herbs, that sort), which was fascinating since the only Chinese meds I knew was Pey Pak Wa. I also got my anonymous Chinese tea here; very simple and earthy tasting unlike the green tea-variation-sh*t we get in the mall cafes. Then it was dumpling time in a hole-in-the-wall shop along Nueva (now Yuchengco) Street. It’s freshly-rolled by the window, and filled with pork, kuchay, and other lovely things:

I spotted a tenement-style building near the dimsum place. It may not look like much, but I hardly see these 1950s-60s buildings with concrete sunscreens anymore. Even though it’s dingy, I love it.

More Chinatown stories tomorrow!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Arts And Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.