The next Lasang Pinoy topic is Let's Wash it Down with Booze, hosted by TingAling of World Class Cuisine. This time, we'll explore foods we associate with drinking. Most Filipinos do not merely drink alcohol; like almost everything in Pinoy life, it always involves food. There is a whole slew of viand associated purely with drinking. Having one without the other is almost sacrilegious. I should be close to an expert on this topic, my father (my whole family, actually) lives the barkadahan way.
Barkada, loosely translated as a group of friends, is best described by my blogkada, Tito Rolly, and posted on the Blogkadahan site:
Barkadahan, a Filipino way of life that is based on compatriotism that fills the common tao's [man's] need to belong. It is this sense of belongingness that made the Filipino endure a long tumultuous past of colonialism followed by an even more deprecating self-infliction of poor governance under a dictatorship whose primary goal was to shamelessly enrich himself. It is this sense of belongingness that made the Filipino rise over the remnants of a dilapidated country under a dictator whose guile was complemented by an equally, if not greedier wife, who managed to fool even herself that she is of noble origins. A foreigner not attuned to the ways of the pinoy would be skeptical. However, a close scrutiny of this phenomenon will prove that we endured all these social maladies because of our own brand of camaraderie. Why not? Among the potent tools of the barkada is the ability to laugh at himself/herself with his/her compatriots in times of the most humiliating experience making the experience a welcome respite from a serious and cruel world.
There are several requisites to a good barkada or group of friends: alcohol (lots of it), guitar (or a number of portable instruments, the easier to take wherever the party is), an uninhibited willingness to share your singing voice (whether you have a good one or not is not important, a good singing voice gets cultivated the more of these get togethers you join), and the most important of all is FOOD. You've just gotta have food. Even when you only have enough cash for a bottle of beer, you just gotta have at least a handful of garlic roasted peanuts with it.
So it's time to again dust off your memories and share what you remember consuming with alcohol and in the company of good friends. Visit TingAling's guidelines and post your recipes on your blogs. If you don't have one, just contact any of the Pinoy bloggers participating in Lasang Pinoy and we can host your entry. Cheers!
Well I will be looking forward to your meme-ing this week but I must compliment you on a very interesting post about Barkada. Yup, I drink, my friends drink, and although we may be of filipino or part-filipino blood, I have never heard of barkadahan. Too much influence from an american upbringing, I am ashamed to admit.
Hi Rowena! Yep, one meme down (I just posted one) threee more to go :-) Even though you've never heard of barkadahan the term, I'm sure you've been around the ritual even though you didn't know what to label it. It's the Pinoy way, you know, we just can't help it ;-)