'sang platitong mani

                   

The Pinoy's love affair with  peanuts (arachis hypgaea L.)or mani,harks back to the time when the Spanish friars were dousing the pagan islands with holy water on one hand while treating the resistant  erehes  and political unbelievers with their lethal brand of fire and brimstone with the other. (Ah, "so many people have died in the name of Christ" as pareng Crosby, Stills and Nash would lament centuries later.)  I can imagine a  tableau of natives gassing up on boiled peanuts while listening and wincing  to catechism detailing the interior design of  purgatario and hell. I don't consider this a far fetched scene during those conversion times. It was a nutritious way  to digest the concept of an alien Christ.

Segue to the age of mass media.The phrase" isang platitong mani", popularized on the boob tube by the late comedian Bert "Tawa" Marcelo to sell a beer, has become an idiom of the Pinoy's propensity for everyday, after work happy hour(s). Beer and a side dish of fried salted  peanuts equals fun. As fleeting as  the setting sun, the binging is a fitting balm for a work weary soul. In a way, it serves as a transitional respite from work to the agony  of  being stuck for light years in an unending traffic jam on the way home.

The Pinoy's romance with the flavorful legume still lingers. It is popularly  enjoyed deep fried with tons of garlic. Walk the streets of  any regional metropolis. The scene is incomplete without the presence of peanut vendors. Before the era of box-type monolithic shopping malls, the esquinita-a small street corner-- near a movie house is one of  the favorite habitats of the lowly peanut entrepreneur.  Manug-mani is how we call them in my city. They would set-up with a bayong-- a circular  shallow native woven container --of  freshly fried peanuts propped up on big biscuit can. Eventually the container evolved into a stall  well equipped with a gas burner to fry the peanuts on.

The fried peanuts I prefer are the native variety. The kernel is smaller and the skin thinner compared to the popular variety sold all over.

Comments

[ces]

wow! i know, i know..this is best served with smb! i had one night of non-stop eating adobong mani in manila..but with half a bottle only...getting old i guess..haha..or is it my inkling now for wine? hmmm..
btw, tagged you!:)

[relly]

You remind of my pasalubong to my mother almost every day coming home from work and school.
Not really good for health if without moderation.

[thess]

timeless pulutan...and the garlic, wow!

[iska]

tama si ces.. patok parati yang samplatitong mani na yan with SMB...