Sunday, February 19, 2012  A Filipino Feast at Mesa: Modern(e)
Crispchon and Mor(e)  During my recent trip to the Philippines
there wasn't that much time to be a tourist. That was fine, of
course, as I was able to spend quality time with not only my
father, but the dozens--if not hundreds--of people that we
consider our relatives, which is to say most of the occupants of
the town in which my father was born and raised. I was also,
however, able to slip out one night for a meal with some first
cousins, and they whisked me away from the rooted tradition of
my ancestral home into the most modern part of Manila, Makati
City.  Among all the towering skyscrapers and bustling evening
street life we headed to a mall. Of course we did. Malls have
replaced plazas, parks and the picturesque waterfront as the
gathering place of choice for urban-dwelling Filipinos (but that
is another topic altogether). But shopping wasn't on the agenda
that night, rather they were taking me to the hip, crowded Mesa
restaurant in the admi