CAST CHRONICLE

By Ruel de Guzman

WE often see at the corners of our streets one of today’s hottest street food sensations today, the one they call chicken nuggets. Actually, nuggets really don’t look like the ones that we are fond of buying today. But because of the creative and imaginative minds of some of us, the popular food item was brought closer to us in the same ways as we have known foods like fishball, kikiam, tokneneng and the like. One afternoon, while the group is strolling on the way out from Narciso Ramos Sports Complex and Civic Center, one of us have thought of buying something to eat and so happen to be that we have seen a vendor of the popular chicken nuggets, the street style. Out of curiosity, one of us asked if what that is. The vendor gladly answered that it was chicken manok. At first we thought he was joking but he was not. We decided to continue asking and it turned out to be a worthy interview after all.

The name was Mr. Eduardo Fernandez. He is accompanied by Mr. Precious Malasa. We were very much aroused by our curiosity that we asked to what the food is all about and what the story behind his little business is. “Poppye” as called by his “suki”, originally thought to be a seaman and a welder. Unfortunately, he was not able to succeed to this dream of his and so have decided to look for other means to earn money for living. Coming from Bacolod, he came here to Lingayen and started out to be a pedicab driver. One day, a friend of his asked him to try to sell fishball on the streets. He tried it and found himself to be the first to sell fishball with m a t c h i n g drinks they call today as palamig. The success of this endeavor drove him to be able to think of a modification of his small business and so he has decided to have a motorcycle for installment. Because of his ability in spot welding, he was able to create a design for his motorcycle kariton which looked like a boat which deviated from those that we commonly see on the streets today. In the year 2006, he was joined by his still present assistant, Mr. Malasa and up to date, for the record, the “Poppye” that was known by many before is still the same as we can see him now.

When asked again about the recipe of his food item, he said that it was a combination of chicken fats and meat and flour plus a little bit of water and spices. He also added that every ingredient used to make his food item very tasty is a combination of all the recipes that he has gathered from his friends. He also talked about another food time we popularly term as Boknoy. He said that it was quail eggs that were wrapped in what he termed as “mahiwagang harina”. We also asked him about his tasty palamig because it is way far better from those we commonly find on the streets today. He said that it was made with real milk and so you can really taste it mingling with the delicious buko, water and sugar. He told us that aside from the melon colored palamig and the violet one, they also used to sell blue one. It even astonished us because it is very rare to see a palamig colored as blue. After few moment, we felt like satisfied with all the results of the interview and so we bid adieu and paved our way heading the printing press.

Regardless of all the talks about food that we had, there is this one line that came from him that really given us the thought that he (Mr. Fernandez) is such a kind person and that is when he answered the question that goes like this; “Bakit po kayo nagdecide na magbusiness ng ganito?” He smiled and answered that of course, for living and to help students to be able to have delicious meryenda at a very reachable price. That is one thing that not all businessmen would say if asked the same question.