CAVORTING IN CAVITE

Since it’s summer and election season, how about taking a trip that doesn’t require the hassle of packing and a plane ride? More importantly you get to taste wonder-ful food, frolic in the surf, and experience a truly inspiring dose of natio-nalism.

In short, the perfect day trip entails driving an hour south–with traffic on your side–along the Coastal Road to Cavite.

Blessed with an extensive coastline and white-sand beaches, Cavite has long served as the gateway to Manila, with fishing towns like Kawit a source of fresh seafood. (In fact, the name Cavite is derived from kawit, a shortened form of kalawit, which means native sickle.) The province is also the birthplace of Emilio Aguinaldo, revolutionary hero in the war against Spain and first president of the Philippine Republic.

Having been invited by International Wine and Food Society member Lisa Alvendia to their outing "Pistahan sa Cavite", we were only too willing to tag along for a day of fun and feasting.

To maximize a trip to Cavite, leave Manila right after breakfast, at about 9:30 a.m., and arrive at the Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit before 11 a.m. The shrine is actually Aguinaldo’s estate, a fantastic mansion with seven stories (eight, if you count the underground bomb shelter) and a tower that must have served as an excellent lookout point in wartime.

Here, Katipuneros met and plotted the revolution against the Spanish and Americans. It was here, too, that Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence on June 12, 1898. At 5’3" and only 28 years old, he took his oath of office in a Tanza convent. How did this diminutive young man become so patriotic so soon? Harsh conditions in the friar haciendas and liberal ideas from Europe caused his, and most Caviteños’, awakening. For proof, look no further than the town of Imus–formerly a friar estate and farmland–where the first revolution succeeded against the Spanish in the late 1800s.

Not bad for what, back in the day, was a province of day laborers. Through education and entrepreneurship, they pulled themselves up and created an upper class from which sprang the leaders of the revolution. Aguinaldo himself came from such lofty beginnings. His father grew rich from trading, became town mayor and owned farmlands and fish ponds. Perhaps his most enduring legacy was this huge family manor, which his son later turned into a secret meeting place and architectural symbol of the revolution.

At the shrine today you can see all the apparatus that went into Aguinaldo’s triumph: the "balcony of sinners"–so named because that’s where the revolutionaries plotted military strategy (in reality, Aguinaldo would joke, it’s where most courtships leading to marriage took place); the many hidden doors and secret passageways leading to the tower and floors below (lift up the dining table top and there’s a stairway to the underground shelter); the Mauser and Remington rifles used by the Spaniards and collected by Katipuneros after battles; the samurai sword given to Aguinaldo by the son of the Japanese emperor.

Outside Aguinaldo’s office hang sepia photographs of revolutionary officers, among them my maternal great-great grandfather, General Licerio Topacio. Legend has it that because of Topacio’s heroics in battle and his seniority (he was 58 then), he was first in line for the presidency of the new republic. A Caviteño himself, Topacio hailed from Imus (a monument honoring him stands today in Imus Town Plaza). But Topacio felt the nation needed new blood and chose to give way instead to the much-younger Aguinaldo. The rest, of course, is history.

Imbued with patriotic fervor and a hearty appetite after trekking up all those flights of stairs, we proceeded, along with the International Wine and Food Society, to Josphine’s Resort in Kawit, where Alvendia and owner Josephine "Jiji" Sanares greeted the group with a banquet of truly kingly proportions.

While live musicians serenaded guests with homegrown tunes, the kids donned their bathing suits and ran to the pools and water slides, and we cooled off in breezy cabañas built over the water. Set with numerous buffet tables, an open-air grill and festooned with bunting, the atmosphere at Josephine’s was truly festive.

After weeks spent researching Cavite cuisine, Sanares and Alvendia concocted a menu of over 25 specialties sparked by influences from the Malays, Chinese and Spanish who settled in the area.

Appetizers consisted of crispy crablets sautéed in a perfect sweet-spicy mixture of chilis, soy sauce, vinegar, catsup, molasses and lime; and glazed miniature squid, which had to be caught at their tiniest to provide a similarly satisfying crunch.

At the bar, three cocktails brimming with native flavors were hip enough to make one forget all about cosmos: champagne-dalandan sweetened with a dash of syrup; mango daiquiris, a refreshing blend of dark rum, Cointreau and ripe mango juice; and white sangria, which mixed a bottle of white wine with a half bottle of soda water and fresh Cavite fruits like star apples, dayap (lime) and fresh mandarin orange pulp.

For the soup, Alvendia chose a Tagalog favorite and her own childhood comfort food, sinampalukang manok. While cooks from different regions of the country use a variety of ingredients to sour the soup–from kamias, calamansi and native vinegar to sampaloc (tamarind)–Cavite cooks use fresh tamarind leaves, finely chopped and squeezed with salt so the juice comes out. Unripe tamarind fruits are also boiled separately and their juice utilized. What results is the most soul-satisfying and deceptively simple of sinigangs, with its plump, fresh chicken and vegetables like kalamismis, radish, kangkong and okra.

Of the six cold salads, the standouts were the singkamas ensalada with toasted pinipig, the radish salad with shrimp, and the ampalaya salad with flaked tinapa and salted egg, which so skillfully balanced flavors that one completely forgets one’s dislike of the ampalaya’s bitterness.

The hot main dishes illustrated how the Spanish and Chinese have influenced Cavite cuisine. In the bangus belly tocho, the fish belly is simmered in soybean miso, tausi and lots of ginger. The Spanish imprint is evident in the use of ox tongue in an Imus specialty, kalderetang dila, which was pronounced "melt-in-your-mouth" by one of the connoisseurs present, Adrian Ocampo.

Frog is an occasional specialty that traditionally comes with the onset of the rainy season, hence the adobadong palaka marinated the adobo way, then dredged in flour and fried.

Also served in palayoks were binagoongang lechon kawali, sautéed in bagoong flakes, and the simply delicious kilawin na tahong sa puso ng saging–shredded banana heart and mussels with vinegar and sotanghon noodles.

All fiestas in Cavite are incomplete without an abundant spread of fresh seafood, usually just charcoal-grilled: fresh oysters picked up at 5 a.m. and lightly grilled to open the shells, served with a shredded green mango dipping sauce with shallots; pinaputukang kitang and pompano stuffed with tomato, brushed with soy sauce and coconut oil, wrapped in a banana leaf and char-grilled or pan-fried; barbecued prawns and a mixed meat grill of pork spareribs, lechon manok and lamb shoulder.

Dessert featured sweet Cavite confections like minatamis na langka, ube, macapuno and nata de coco, and a cart of the locally famous Edwin’s dirty ice cream in ube and cheese flavors.

Food writers like Chicago-based Susan Tan have noted the honesty of Cavite cuisine: "[It’s] basic, with freshness a preference over sophistication, necessity over gourmet, efficiency and quickness over the slow simmer, and fiesta mass celebrations over sit-down intimate affairs."

After lunch it was on to the Bahay na Bato Museum at the De La Salle campus in Dasmariñas, Cavite, for another dose of culture and to settle the vast amounts of food consumed.

Drawn from the architecture of the houses of three of the wealthiest provincial families, this museum is one of the few existing examples of the stone house in the Philippines. Typical of the 1870s and ’80s, it looks like a two-floor bahay kubo-meets-a-European-palace. Cool and dim, its architectural details and furniture were sourced from as far away as Vigan and Abra, with tons of ornate woodwork, moldings, kamagong floors and pressed-tin ceilings handpainted in elaborate mosaics. Most intriguing to the cooks in the group were the ample kitchen, and a sample menu from 1940, on which Spam was the star entrée.

You would think that the lunchtime feast would sate the most demanding of appetites, but they don’t call this group a wine and food society for nothing. Stomachs still heavy, we proceeded to Alvendia’s childhood home in Imus for merienda and a mini-market of more Cavite treats. With the help of Evelyn Aldaba of Lily’s Flower Shop in EDSA Shangri-La, Alvendia set up an inviting array of poolside tables under tents for people to relax at this last stop.

Guests were urged to make their own lang-lang, the hot noodle soup that is an Imus specialty, and made special (along with pancit luglog) at Imus’s Plaza Canteen. With two kinds of noodles–fresh egg miki and bihon–plus shrimp torta and condiments like tofu, chicharon, chili powder and wan soy, it was a meal in itself.

Also laid out were the condiments for halo-halo, which were all homemade, according to the host, and samples of Don Roberto’s dry green and sweet yellow mango wine for export.

After the group fell in line to snap up bargain delicacies like kesong puti made from carabao’s milk, we departed for Manila with our hearts, minds and bellies full.

The Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, Cavite, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided tours are available. Josephine’s Resort is located in Kawit, Cavite. For inquiries and reservations, call (046) 434-3176, 5721. The Bahay na Bato museum (Museo de La Salle) is located within the De La Salle University campus, Dasmariñas, Cavite. Open from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; call 844-7832, 844-9116 or (046) 416-4531 local 3151 for inquiries and reservations.