A Filipino Baptismal Reception at Adarna Food and Culture

Front row: My Aunt Eva with baby Juliana. Sophia. Ieli with baby Guiana.
Back row: My cousins Barbie, Debbie and Angela - with my son Guijo.

It was the 25th of February. A day when our country commemorates the anniversary of the People Power EDSA Revolution.  It was a fitting day to hold a family milestone - the Christening of the latest addition to my mother's side of the family, the Serranillas. We celebrated the baptism of my niece, precious little baby Guiana Cevennes.  The baptismal reception was held in a venue that is as nationalistic as they come: Adarna Food and Culture Restaurant in Quezon City.  Attending that party that day made me feel very happy to be Filipino.

My uncle, Fr. Manny Serranilla, documenting the event.

Upon entering the restaurant, there's a nice little courtyard with no less than the Philippine Flag proudly displayed on one of the walls. My balikbayan uncle, Fr. Manny Serranilla, paid homage to our bandila by singing Bayan Ko as he videotaped the environs (Yes, I come from THAT kind of family - the karaoke (80's), videoke (90's), magic mic (2000's) song-crazy family...and we dance a lot too).  He's like that, my uncle. He sings with fervor, and not just an excerpt - but the whole complete song with matching crescendo, vibrato, and eye-closing climax. 

The venue: Adarna Food and Culture's Dining Area.

What a charming venue it is in a Pinoy-shabby-chic way. I've eaten at Adarna before, when Oliver's Ateneo high school class held one of it's reunions there. It's the type of restaurant with so many interesting knick knacks on display that even if you've seen it before, you feel like seeing things for the first time again, even on your second visit. There are many period pieces, memorabilia, clippings, ads and posters from bygone eras; There are old photographs on the walls, antique lampshades, precious heirloom crystal chandeliers; old hardwood tables and chairs, and floors. There are windows done in the old style; and ornately carved wooden trims - on the ceilings - partitions - windows - and walls.  Entering the dining area felt a lot like walking into an old family home, as though we were at a relative's. That's because the venue is an old house-turned-restaurant.  

The buffet set-up's blue and white china.

How delightful it was to use blue and white china, with that special patina that only comes with age and frequent use. I loved how the buffet was laid out on crocheted table cloths. It reminded me of my grandmother's memento at home,  a huge mantle she crocheted by hand. My grandma came from an era when talent in home economics was a woman's source of pride. The food too, reminded me of my lola - especially the sigarillas salad (my lola grew her own vegetables and she liked me because I loved eating them).  Lola hailed from Bicol, and one of the dishes was Bicol Express made with nice whole pieces of sili which I gobbled up enthusiastically even if I'm not usually a "spice girl". I also liked the piasok, a beef recipe from the Southern Philippines; and the desert, fried kesong puti with langka poured with syrup...oh gosh, I went for seconds (and thirds, and fourths).  How refreshing it was to have Filipino food that deviated from the standard classics, for a change.

Adarna's Sari-Sari Store for some free goodies.

I'd say Adarna is very kid-friendly.  In one part of the resto, they recreated a "sari-sari store" with free candies in nice old glass jars.  Guests can have their fill of goodies for free. Narra was in heaven! It wasn't just the candy per se, but the entire experience of getting to pick a treat,  hearing the grinding of lid on glass grooves, and dipping one's hand through the wide opening. The candies they put on display were nostalgia-inducing. There were harder-to-find homegrown brands found only in your usual neighborhood corner stores. Even the weathered bench in front of the sari-sari store seemed authentic, as though it was just plucked from some kanto.  

Narra trying out the rocking horse.

Adarna has a very relaxed vibe. One feels encouraged to lounge around, to loiter, to read (there are books to leaf through, and framed articles to read on the walls), and even to tinker with things. Narra spied an old wooden rocking horse, and I was only too happy to tell her, "go ahead, give it a try".  Narra had many questions about what things were for, and I obliged her with explanations.  She's been recently acquainted with Disney's Tinkerbell and Princess Ariel, and both these mythical heroines have insatiable curiosity for human inventions and gadgets.  Oh wow, I realize how many things that are so familiar for people of my generation, are so foreign to our kids.

Collection of antique implements and household gadgets.

On display in one of the walls were old everyday things, like a poso (water pump), or kudkuran (coconut grater), and even the palanggana (wash basin). I remember hanging out with our labandera (clothes washer) at the back of our house.  I was about 3 years old, and I'd sit on a piece of hollow block, and I'd also do my fair share of pagkusot (srubbing) and pagpiga (wringing).  Later, I would get a bottle cap or tansan, and domesticate my Barbie doll by making her do laundry using her own tiny little wash basin. Ah, the 1980s. Good old days.

My cousin Meg, Myself, Narra and Guijo, my mom Sonia, and dad Walter.
Behind: Yaya Jennilyn and my sis Marion.

That family gathering at Adarna took me back to the 1980's, the happy years of my childhood, when the country was in turmoil.  I remember our family praying countless rosaries, and my mother lighting countless candles in front of the many saints at Mt. Carmel Church in New Manila - throughout Martial Law, and especially so during the EDSA Revolution when my father's safety was in God's hands. My dad had to make the most important decision of his military career: would he side with Marcos or Cory?  This time 26 years ago, February of 1986, we relied on faith for strength, and on family for solidarity as we worried for my father and wondered about his fate in uncertain times. I looked around Adarna house that Saturday afternoon, February 25 of 2012, I saw the same faces, of my aunts and uncles, the cousins I grew up with, with new additions of course - the in-laws who married into the family - and the babies!  I felt the strength of family ties, and the importance of being anchored in faith.  The significance of a Christening isn't lost on me.  We need to do this, to go through the motions of coming together to welcome this little girl, because we are family, a Filipino family, and that means a lot of things - it means being there for each other when times get tough.

My cuz-in-law Jen, and the celebrant, Guiana Cevennes.

I look at my niece Guiana, the daughter of my cousin John.  Like me, Guiana's also a premie, born on the 7th month of gestation.  Like me, she too stayed in an incubator for weeks, and came out into the world as this tiny little thing.  Those who saw me as a baby, my parents and aunts/uncles all say I was like her, too.  Oh how excited I was to see her for the first time.  She seems fragile and delicate, but she is a survivor, a fighter, triumphant and strong. She reminds me of the Philippines, and our fragile democracy, induced in EDSA.   Adarna Food and Culture is that kind of restaurant. It makes one think of home and the past; of the country and its history.  Through food,  and furnishings, it makes you happy to be Filipino.  Welcome Guiana, to our faith, to our family, to our country, and our culture.