Sugar Shock

Silay City / Bacolod City, the Philippines

January, April, and October, 2011

What do you expect from the sugar capital of the Philippines? I’ve been in my home province, Negros Occidental, three times this year and every time felt like a trip to a candy shop. I blame my sweet tooth on growing up next door to a sugar mill. I still remember waking up to the sweet aroma of molasses during milling season pervaded the house in the morning. My sweet dreams carried on after I had awakened – on to adulthood.

El Ideal Bakery in Silay City

And so when in Negros, do as the Negrense do – indulge your sweet tooth. These are some of the sweet stops on my dessert trail:

Gadgets, BC (Before the Computer)

Bacolod City, the Philippines

April 17, 2011

There was a time when stereo systems and television sets were furniture pieces and telephones were household fixtures. But with each new innovation in technology, we dispose of our obsolete gadgets. Not so with one family in my hometown who has preserved their appliances, among other things, reflecting the lifestyle of Negrense bourgeois in the last century.

The Dizon-Ramos Museum, formerly a house beside the mansion of Raymundo L. Dizon and Hermelinda V. Ramos, transported me, not only to the tantalizing world behind its perennially closed gates, but also to the bygone era of my childhood in the 70s.

Mom and a Candlestick Telephone