Jollibee in two texts

Everybody has a Jollibee story, everyone a Jollibee moment. When no less than the president of the not-so-strong Republic becomes the virtual endorser of easily the most successful of Filipino fastfood chains, you know that the company is doing something right. And more of the right stuff comes our way with the release of the coffee-table book, or is it hamburger counter book, A 25-Year Love Story with the Pinoy (Jollibee Foods Corp.), compiling essays and poems from a star-studded cast in contemporary Philippine literature, from Jessica Zafra to Fran Ng, from Carlos Cortes to Cirilo Bautista, and from Natasha Vizcarra to Cesar Ruiz Aquino (more on him later). Indeed what a long strange trip it’s been; browsing through this love story that first foray to the Jollibee food joint near Coronet Theater in Cubao – which was no more than a hole in the proverbial wall – now seems a distant memory. Well such was the stuff adolescent dates were made of, the smell of hamburgers frying combining with the anticipation of a little petting and necking in the balcony, and up on the big screen those despicable Vietcong were slapping De Niro and Walken crazy in a forced game of Russian roulette, mao! It is to be expected that such a jolly love story has our writers and poets sharing with us their own respective Jollibee moments, ranging from the factual journalistic stuff delving on the wondrous beginnings of the company and an interview with topnotch endorser Aga Muhlach, to essays on semiotics and related deconstructionist reveries, to outright poems, good god, all worthy of postprandial philosophical meanderings. Kicking off the collection, as well he should, is the National Artist Nick Joaquin, still going strong at 86 with his groovy phrasing and paeans to the world of authentic Pinoy hamburger. And to think that wasn’t it only yesterday that a slew of black propaganda came out against Jollibee, if propaganda it can be called, stating that their burgers were so langhap sarap because they were in fact made from organically cultured worms. Or that time when a famous broadcaster raised hell when his family encountered a bangaw in a viand at one Jollibee branch, for which the witty talking head relentlessly labeled the restaurant Jollifly. But that is all water under the bridge, or shall we say flies out of the screened estante, and for many Filipinos (or at least for those naturally born ones, as the case may be), when given a choice between Jollibee and that other tantalizing main rival of the golden arches, then el Pinoy would most likely go all-Filipino, except maybe for the french fries. Edited by kapit bahay columnist Krip Yuson, 25-Year Love Story has more than its fair share not only of moments Jollibee, but also the wild and wooly ramblings of literary notables who may have spent one too many mornings with a grumbling stomach.

Which brings us to – Cesar Ruiz Aquino and his essay for the coffee-table tome, which incidentally serves as a chapter to his novel-in-progress, "Mr. Mxzyptlk Pops into the Room," excerpted in the author’s recently launched Checkmeta (Midtown Printing). Piece number 23 ala Michael Jordan in the Jollibee love story is Ruiz Aquino’s "Mythologizing Jollibee (by way of legends, clowns and children in the islands of eating)," and it begins: "The way to a man’s heart is through his tummy, OK, but the inverse sounds just as right if not more so: The way to a man’s tummy should be through his heart, i.e., through his sense of yummy." So far from being another essay extolling the sense of yummy, the Jollibee piece by Aquino is ratcheted up a notch or two when it becomes part of a novel, albeit an unfinished one. And like our favorite fastfood joint, there is more to Checkmeta than meets the eye, because not only is there the excerpt from Mr. Mxzyptlk, there are also stories and narratives by Mr. Aquino, poems and literary criticism. Many times Aquino – can we call him Mxzyptlk? – blurs the genres and leaps and bounds through fiction, metafiction, anti-essay, and lyric poetry, only to come out in one piece and wearing a dolt’s grin, and what’s that he’s holding, a junior champ? Well and good, while Mxzyptlk nee Ruiz Aquino texted us the following input again proving the wonders of cyber criticism: The poet Erwin Castillo believes the poem "X Sight" is Aquino’s best because it passes the A. Houseman test of all true art: Does it make the hair bristle? I texted back and asked if this also applies to the hair in the nether regions, aka pubis, and the author replied while on the slow boat back to Dumaguete, that I should not take Erwin’s paper in vain because he is Don Juan while Mxzyptlk is only Castañeda. More Yaqui knowledge was provided by text: Mom Edith Tiempo thinks that "Point of View" is the author’s best poem, while expat writer Willybog Sanchez vouches for "Song." Something more should be said for Checkmeta, because Ruiz Aquino or Mxzyptlk is among the most influential writers of his generation, more Hamlet than Hamlet, a chess whiz whose playing can be writing can also be eating during the hottest noons of high summer. He’s on a slow boat to somewhere, trying his best to write it all down before memory deceives him. The next wait now consists of how well the author will weave the Jollibee essay into the Mxzyptlk novel, seamlessly we guess just so we keep the line moving.