Omnomnom

Of course, I cannot write about Buddy's restaurant without showing you the food that Lucban is best known for: pancit habhab and Lucban longganisa (which, in the unique and highly recognizable Tagalog dialect of Lucban, is pronounced langgonisa). Two things distinguish Lucban's sausage from those of other provinces: its heavy use of garlic and the fact that the pork is not ground as finely. In fact, it is almost a disappointment if a piece does not have chunks of fat. The best way to cook it is to fry it in its own fat until it is tostado (toasted). Crunchy Lucban longganisa is one of my comfort foods and always brings me back to childhood summers spent in Lucban. I'm half Lucbanin, though I've lost my accent—and the use of peculiarly Lucbanin words—ages ago. And just a special note to Francisca: I had my first sip of lambanog on my 8th birthday!

Leaves of rice

The Pahiyas Festival celebrated in Lucban and in other towns in the Philippines is a harvest festival. It is always held on May 15, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer or Farmer). The highlight of the festival is a procession of revered religious icons followed by the town's prettiest girls in fancy gowns, which begins and ends in the parish church. The houses along the roads where the procession goes through—the route is changed every year—are decorated just for the festival and this is what pahiyas (ornaments) refers to. The decorations are composed of the fruits of the harvest and Lucban has a special kind of ornament made of rice, called kiping, which is why the festival attracts thousands of tourists every year. Grains of rice are pounded to a flour and mixed with water and food coloring to form a paste, which is then brushed over leaves and left to dry. The result is thin, translucent, jewel-toned leaves which are used to cover the houses' facades or strung into elaborate designs, like this almost two-story high chandelier which graces the entrance of Buddy's restaurant in Quezon City.




Smaller kiping lanterns are hung all around the restaurant's interiors, and the flower pattern at the building's facade is echoed by the beautiful light fixtures on the ceiling.




A photo collage about Lucban—the higantes, the procession led by the statue of San Isidro, Mount Banahaw, the parish church, and a house richly and colorfully decorated with pahiyas—curves along the wall of the staircase which leads to the second floor.

Fiesta!

During the opening of the Timog Avenue branch of Buddy's restaurant (see yesterday's post), the owners recreated some parts of the Pahiyas Festival. It was a fun treat seeing higantes (giants)…




and a brass band. Of course, both attracted quite a lot of attention from passersby, including a vendor hoping to sell some balloons to guests with little children.

Slurp

The town of Lucban in Quezon Province is most famous for its Pahiyas Festival, which I Heart Manila featured extensively last month. Almost as famous is the town's longganisa (sausage) and pancit (noodles). Buddy's is the only restaurant that I know of in Metro Manila that specializes in Lucban cuisine and it just opened a new branch along Timog Avenue in Quezon City. The flower design over its entrance is typical of the festival's decorations. Lucban pancit is regular street fare and usually served on a piece of banana leaf—no plate, no fork—and one is supposed to eat it straight from the hand. Because of that, and the sucking sound that people tend to make while eating it, it is also known as pancit habhab. Of course, customers don't have to do that in Buddy's though I won't be surprised if they have banana leaves in stock just for those who want the experience.