Archie’s Tinola: Day Four of the Drunken New Year Adventure

January 2, 2009

It was a cold day in Baguio and everyone decided to sleep in. I was the earliest to go to bed, hence I woke up first to find leftovers from a drinking spree the night before. Having nothing to do and fearing eviction from such wonderful, and best of all, free accommodations, I started cleaning up. I was washing the dishes, extremely mindful of the cold cold water running from the faucet when Archie and Jane also woke up and started cleaning up as well. Pretty soon it was all finished and we started lounging around the living area, with our faces buried in the glow of laptops.

I guess all of us didn’t mind staying in as we have all had our fair share of what Baguio offered in the past. Archie tinkered with Jane’s awesome mp3 collection of the best Disney movie themes, hardcore videoke classic OPMs and ultimate power ballads on her hard drive, obviously impressed with her taste in great music! Archie, not one to be left behind, also bedazzled the room with classic Pantera, Metallica and Alice in Chains anthems, interspersed with hard hitting riffs from the likes of Clair Marlo, and several Japanese pop icons.

And so most of the afternoon was spent doing nothing but listening to Archie’s pint-sized speakers and talking about a range of topics from the mundane to the even more mundane.

I remember having suggested that I was craving for Tinola, and Archie gamely volunteered to do the cooking, obviously to impress on everyone his above average culinary skills, thus proving that Ateneans not only are able to rant about the uncanny weight of the common papaya, but are also able to make a meal out of it, too! So late in the afternoon, the whole gang finally got off their asses and made a trip to the market to justify the killing of a perfectly innocent chicken for human sustenance.

The marketplace was packed with people that you could drop a pin and it would never reach the floor. Ingredients were bought: spring chicken, ginger, papaya, and whatever else made up Tinola. I bought broccoli while May and Jane picked strawberries from a pile. There was also the hypnotic appeal that somehow brooms had on Archie and me in the middle of the market. We stood there swallowing the vendor’s sales pitch hook, line and sinker. We didn’t want to leave, it was all wonderful, we wanted it so! Unfortunately, we couldn’t have it. We had to let it all go and stick to the food.

Loot in hand, we went back to May’s apartment. Appetizers went out, strawberry fondue and broccoli. Archie lovingly cared for his Tinola, making sure that it received enough attention and very careful not to overcook it. You see, Archie is quite superstitious about these things. Last year, I was with Archie on lonely Potipot Island to celebrate the start of the year, he was cooking up something then as he is now. Turns out, he had undercooked it back then, and his year ended up in a culinary fiasco, either bitter to taste or sorely undercooked. Understanding his obsession to get his cooking right this time, I supported him all the way, knowing fully that this was something he wanted to end up perfectly.

And so finally, he laid out his Tinola on the table, and it was a resounding success. All the ingredients seemed to match each other perfectly, and the textures and tastes were exquisite! Archie was ecstatic deep down inside and secretly hoped that this would be his year at last!

Achie’s Tinola success was celebrated with Vodka later that night. Chomping on left over bagnet and tuna, all of us, with the exclusion of the hard working May, let our minds expand, tackling topics such as Relativistic Physics, the absurdity of religion and, of course, the dreaded love. Obviously, such topics were too much for a single bottle of vodka so I made a run for another bottle while picking May up on her lunch break. And as I paid for the vodka while carelessly flirting with the clerk at 7-11, I couldn’t help but wonder if it will indeed be the year of Archie, picturing him pounding on his chest as all the months of the year swing by, hollering our new found motto.