.jpg)
This afternoon I felt the desire to make chicken curry for my dinner. I asked my wife if we had any chicken and she said no.
“Go to the store across from Nanay.” She said.
I knew the place. It
was a little sari sari store. Smaller than
ours.
“They sell chicken there?” I asked incredulously.
She assured me they did. So I headed off, down Reconie
street.
The sari sari store she sent me to was really tiny. And cute. Little more than the window to the house with a few vegetables
sitting on a counter out front. It was
raining a bit and I stooped to get under the awning. I stood there in front of the store window waiting.
"Crystal May!" From behind me across the street I heard my sister-in-law call out a name. The owner’s name I
presumed. My sister-in-law must have seen me waiting. And yes, in a moment a little
old lady appeared at the window.
Crystal May.
“Do you have Manok?” I asked her. Manok is chicken in Tagalog. One of the few words I know.
She squinted her eyes at me, for a second, and then said, “It’s frozen.”
“That’s OK, " I said, "I just want to get a piece.” and patted my
thigh like just a piece.
She gave me a lop-sided grin, “You want the leg?” she asked and laughed wryly.
“Yah,” I said smiling.
She disappeared for a moment and then returned with a frozen
half chicken.
I looked at it. It
was a little more than what I had wanted but whatever, “That’s great.” I said.
“You want me to cut it?”
she asked.
“Sure, that would be perfect.” I answered.
She pulled out a meat clever from somewhere and tried to cut
the bird with it, but the meat was frozen solid. After
a couple of tries she put the clever down and disappeared.
Then she returned with a full-on black machete.
“Good God” I thought.
She took a big swing with the machete. And Whack! The chicken was in two pieces.
“Wow,” I said, in amazement.
She weighted the chicken quarter and said to me, “70 pesos.”
I gave her the 70 pesos and she handed me the chicken.
Dinner was looking good.
Calbayog City 2022
.
No comments:
Post a Comment