Dashing Divas

A report on expatriate life in Manila would not be complete without a tale about a Filipino beauty treatment. Dashing Divas is a small, girly-pink nail bar in Power Plant Mall that I visit from time to time. Manicures, pedicures and occasionally, when my own nails are split and peeling, stick-on nails – or Virtual Nails as I discovered they were called today.  (And let me tell you, when you don’t know the exact expression, yelling ‘you know, stick-on nails,’ five times in case they are deaf gets you nowhere!)

An hour and a half in a beauty salon or nail bar is time well spent, and not only for the obvious pampered self-indulgence. Retreating from the madness of a pre-Christmas shopping mall, I spent a fascinating hour or so discussing Filipino food with Ness and Lorna while they clipped and polished my nails, soaked and scrubbed my feet, wrapped them in cling film (???) and generally made me feel a million dollars. It turns out one of the girls had done a Hospitality Course at university, but as is often the way in the Philippines, convenience and availability has kept her at Dashing Divas. I know another university graduate – with a degree in archaeology of all things – who earns better money working 4 days a week as a housekeeper. Apparently this is all too common in Manila.

Anyway, to return to the foodie discussion: Ness asked me if I had ever eaten balut. For anyone unlucky enough never to have experienced this taste sensation, join the queue. Balut is a fertilized duck egg, old enough to be visibly duck-shaped, but young enough that the bones don’t crunch when you bite into it. Boiled and eaten in the shell, it is apparently an aphrodisiac (that kind of sex I can do without!) and is a popular, nutritious street food in the Philippines. Ness loves it. Lorna doesn’t. I’m with Lorna.

It was, however, a good distraction from the loofah tickling the soles of my feet. That experience normally sends me into orbit.

We moved on to discussions of their favorite foods, how to cook it, and what I must try. This included pinkabet (p’kbet in shorthand) which is a green vegetable dish topped with fish paste. I was pleased to be able to say I had tried this before, and the salty bagoong (pronounced bagu’ung) is an interesting addition to a bowl of steamed veggies.

Paksiw pata is a stew now on my ‘to do’ list. Ness tells me it is made with loin of pork (she explained this by pointing at her thigh) cooked with vinegar, soy sauce and banana. It is her favourite, so I have promised to look out for it.

Sinigang, they agreed, is one of those dishes into which you can throw just about anything, but they both prefer theirs with pork and gabi (taro), white radishes, sitaw (local beans, like extra-long strands of spaghetti), sampalok (tamarind), eggplant and okra. I have found this recipe by googling it, so I will try cooking it one day soon and get back to you.

We then discussed traditional Filipino Christmas fare, but for these girls it was more about volume than any particular dishes. Puto bumbong, however, is a must-have at Christmas, and apparently I can try it at Via Mare. A dessert or merienda, it is made from ground rice coloured with purple yam and steamed in bamboo tubes. When removed from the bamboo tubes, it is spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar and niyog (grated coconut). It can then be wrapped in banana leaves to keep it warm and moist until you are ready to eat it.

This led to a discussion of colours (I knew yam was ube in Tagalog, which also means purple) and so I was able to show off my extensive understanding of their language which consists almost entirely of nine colours that I was taught by the boys at the orphanage. Let me share them with you.

Purple/violet = u-bay/lee-lah

Orange = cah-hill or dalandan (also a fruit)

Red = poo-lah

Brown (beige) = murang cah-pey

Black = itt-im

Blue = boo-how/ah-sool

Yellow = di-laow

White = poo-tee

Green = ber-day (from the Spanish verde)

I have written them phonetically, partly because I have learned them by ear and have no idea how to spell them, but also so you can practice them and be assured of a warm welcome when next in Manila and able to show off your fluent Tagalog. Then the girls taught me rosas. Pink of course. Although that is not the colour of my nails, but I am yet to learn the word for bronze or copper.