inaugural food poem
My cousins told me about this bougie Filipino restaurant in NYC called Cendrilion. I didn’t have a chance to check it out the first time I went to NY and instead, had pizza at Rinaldi’s in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and noodles at a Korean liquor store/sushi/deli in Manhattan. What better way to start out a food blog than with a poem written by pare Luis Francia? (btw, check out Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream 1899-1999)
———–
Invocation for Cendrillon
In the name of the mother, Amy
In the name of the father, Romy
In the name of the holy spirits in the kitchen
In the name of black rice
In the name of bagoong, patis, at
Sukang may sili
In the name of all beings, sentient or
Otherwise
Who have come and been nourished here
In the name of all creatures of the sea and earth
That have nourished us
In the name of Doreen
In the name of all of us
May the spare ribs and pancit palabok
May the ube and saging and Manila clams
May the kare-kare and adobo and buko juice
Keep singing to us
We who have our mouths open
In adoration
(And yes, some starvation)
May our meals be done in heaven
As they are at Cendrillon
(Lord, have Mercer on us—and Grand, too!)
May Amy and Romy keep leading us into temptation
And deliver us from the evils of white bread
Forever and ever–
Salamat po!
Luis H. Francia
Monday, December 12, 2005
