Scraping the Fringe

Three o’clock in the afternoon is a special time in the Philippines. It even has its own name, oras ng merienda or simply time for afternoon snacks. Think of the Spanish siesta but in Filipino form. Children are just about done their classes, while the early day workers are already coming home. A myriad of street stalls start coming to life. Their owners start promoting, cooking, and hawking their products for their prospective customers. Here’s when you see Filipino ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and gastronomic adventurousness.

In terms of entrepreneurship, those selling street food are not rich businessmen or those with capital looking for something to invest in. Most of them are ordinary people who are trying to make ends meet. Stall owners are usually women who either by chance or fate could not get office jobs. They are mothers who have time to spare in between housework or grandmothers trying to help their families survive.

Their ingenuity comes from the brilliant products they sell. Grillers of skewered assorted meats are the epitome of merienda stalls. By the way, assorted meats is a euphemism for discarded meat product such as isaw (general term for either chicken, pig, or cow intestine), betamax (blocks of pigs blood), balun-balunan (chicken gizzard), and tenga (general word for ears but in this case pigs’ ears). What most people will discard, others will find a way to use them. It’s the old trash-treasure adage. Each stall will then have its own recipe for a thick sweet (matamis) sauce and a sour vinegar  (suka) concoction that you can dip your meats in. Sugar, vinegar, and a couple of other spices and you are set. No business plans required in this industry.

Honestly though, the most important aspect of merianda time is the gastronomic delight it presents to those willing try them. Tenga if done well gives you a strange crunchy, chewy, and sweet flavour that is paired well with the vinegar cocktail. Isaw flavours vary depending on the source animal. Chicken isaw looks solid but has a delicate texture that just melt in your mouth after one chew. My personal favourite is cow isaw that comes in large rings. Okay, I can’t really describe how they taste due to my limited flavour vocabulary. It just proves though that in many cases food is something to be experienced not described. Many people might find it strange but most though only need to get through that first bite. Chefs receive years of training to cook things like sweetbreads but stall owners just simply grill them until they look done.

Talking about them makes my water. I haven’t even started to describe items such as turon (banana filled spring rolls deep-fried with sugar), fish balls, and ice scramble (a very simple shaved ice dessert). Merianda is special in many ways but more importantly it shows that eating local food is cultural immersion in one of its purest forms.