A sea spirit, which can metamorphose into a giant,
fire-breathing turtle that dug great holes into mountains - this is how the
indigenous people of Zambales, Philippines would describe animatedly the majestic
Mount Pinatubo.
When it erupted in 1991, dislodging four hundred thousand
people from their homes and killing 900, folklore was likewise displaced in
favor of more personal stories of surviving its wrath. But I was 9 at the time of the disaster,
and my recollection of it, though personal, might just as well be folklore.
Two decades later, when I heard that treks to its peak have
become a must-see, I just knew I had to climb this great volcano if only to get
a brand new story about it.
The volcano’s crater is now more appropriately a caldera, from the Spanish word “caldera”
meaning “cooking pot”. A Spanish
colony for over 300 hundred years, the Philippines no longer has a local word
for cooking pot other than caldera. So when we brought with us in our hike, a
caldera into the Caldera, I couldn’t help but muse at the poetry.
After a gritty four-hour hike we
reached the mountaintop in time for lunch. We brought out our caldera and
started cooking nilaga - a tasty
and delicious stew of beef with potatoes, seasoned by salt and pepper. Depending on where you grew up –
or the size of your wallet - the mixture may include more. Cabbage can
punctuate the color. And corn’s sweetness was never unwelcomed.
With preparation so basic and sparse of frills, it is not
dissimilar to the famed stone soup, where all contributed ingredients to what
was otherwise overhyped boiling water. All ingredients are brought to a boil,
not all at once, but in succession, the hardest to tenderize going in first. In
short it maybe a recipe for the poor in memory but it’s not a dish for the
impatient. Some would say it is a variation of the Spanish cocido minus the
sautéing and the sausages, but to the back-seater in history class it was
simply warmth on a rainy day; unconditional love on a sad day, a food worthy of
celebrating a mountain climb.
I don’t know - it must be the awesomeness of the scenery - I think nilaga is our version of ramen, where elements of earth, sea and forest
must coexist in one bowl, distinct and yet whole, an image of Earth itself.
I took a sip of the soup and told the chef of the hour that
it was good, but he brushed me off saying the beef needs a few more time. Since
it was not the only caldera around to spend one’s time with, I took my clothes
off and dove into the volcanic lake.
Most travelers and writers would say that it is the journey
more than the destination. But as I hit the sulfur-green, warm water, I knew
that for this one, they’d be wrong.
