Last week, driving home from working in Salinas, I more or less demanded of my two friends and coworkers that we stop at a market in Seaside that I had explored previously with another friend, which was of the Filipino and Indian persuasion. Walking in to this market was – fortunately – nothing like walking into the few markets I’ve seen in Monterey. Rather than big, fluorescent-lighted aisles and more options than I know how to process, there are just six aisles of dried goods, canned goods, snacks, and paper products in this dimly lit store, with an area toward the back with a refrigerated section and a few tables of vegetables, fruit, and whole, dead fish. It was great, and much more resembled markets that I’m accustomed to shopping in from living in less affluent areas.
At first sight I had just been excited to see a market that sold curry and strawberry Hi-Chews (both a challenge to find in downtown Monterey), but as I walked up and down the aisles, I found myself squealing with delight as I passed by names that had so recently become familiar in my vocabulary. Words such as rambutan, pancit bihon, hopia, ube, halo halo, lined the cramped shelves and I scrambled to take pictures without seeming too strange to the store owners.
So I walked out of the store with an achy nostalgia, a package of ube hopia and Philippine dried mangoes. Both were annihilated within 24 hours, even though every bite was followed with the traveler’s standard and pestering complaint of, not as good as the real thing. But it was the closest I was going to get.
Such irony! I remember very clearly being in the trip, toward the end, and thinking about what I would’ve given to be back in the US with all the familiar foods I grew up with, and now I’m back in the US and I get a craving for pinakbet or mangosteen. Sure, none of the experience has to do with Mindanao’s conflict or peacebuilding process, but food! It plays such a strong role in our memory, that it’s very possible I will remember the all bananas and black rice long after I remember other details of the trip.