Feeling at home at Vicki's

I pick on remnants from the kitchen. That’s how I eat in the house of Dr. Vicki Belo.

No, she doesn’t feed me table scraps on purpose. In her home, I’m no longer treated as a guest. The owners allow me to help myself to anything, especially with food. But having been raised to be a practical person, I like eating leftovers.

When Vicki’s house was still new, we used to observe formality — and propriety. In the beginning, I’d bring wine because that’s what’s proper when you are invited to dinner at somebody’s house. I only stopped when I sensed that those bottles somehow always remained unconsumed.

I couldn’t blame them. Maybe my wine made them dizzy. You can actually get a headache when you drink cheap red wine.

From wine, I shifted to food — usually Dr. Belo’s favorite vegetable spring rolls. But I lost my lumpia supplier when the girl who ever so neatly rolls the egg wrapper in my caterer’s kitchen packed her bags to open her own food business in the province.

I also noticed that Vicki usually stops fussing over any visitor who had been to her place more than five times. From the formal dining room with a round glass dinner table, we had since moved to the clean kitchen. Yes, like in most Filipino homes, they have a showcase kitchen and an adjoining dirty kitchen where the actual cooking is done.

Their clean kitchen is very functional. That’s where they have their regular meals all the time. I like staying there myself because everything is within reach — cans of soda and especially the ever-present desserts.

It was in that kitchen when I first saw the architect’s sketch of the façade of the newest Belo clinic. I was stabbing with my fork cut-up pieces of Hainanese chicken from their last meal when daughter Cristalle Henares arrived from a meeting and dumped everything she brought in from the car onto the kitchen counter.

After giving me a respectful peck on the cheek, she excused herself to change into a more comfortable pair of footwear. Vicki, meanwhile, was upstairs fixing herself up for one of her nocturnal appointments. She always leaves me behind when I eat slowly which I do all the time. Vicki insists that most doctors are used to inhaling their dinner because that’s the nature of their profession — to always be on the go.

In between bites of the cold chicken dish, I checked out the architect’s plan on paper. When mother and daughter finally caught up with each other, Cristalle explained the details of the sketch to Vicki.

It was for the new Belo clinic and I thought that was the one Dr. Belo had planned to build in Greenhills. That rather French architectural design simply would not blend well in the Greenhills neighborhood where most structures in the commercial area border on the modern. For a long time there was a long discussion among us and we couldn’t agree on anything — until I was told it was for the new Belo Greenbelt clinic.

That was the last time we talked about the structure and I was surprised to find out that it already had a soft opening a few weeks ago. Belo Rustan’s had shut down and I grieved over that since it’s one of my favorites along with the one in Greenhills and Tomas Morato.

As I write this, I have yet to see the new Belo Greenbelt clinic that is very near the McDonald’s outlet there and adjacent to New World Hotel. I’m told it’s very spacious and has beautiful interiors by designer sisters Cynthia and Ivy Almario, whose works are always in Daphne Oseña Paez’s Urban Zone.

I have no idea if Dr. Belo and Cristalle had the design concept I saw implemented. I’m very excited this early for the formal inauguration and blessing this Friday, Feb. 18. Like most Belo events, it must be grandiose and fun — with food to be provided by Vince Rodriguez’s Peppermill.

I’m taking a break from leftovers and eat fresh food for a change. I have reason to celebrate with Dr. Belo.