It was some relative’s birthday and we couldn’t go so they sent us food. Typical. I talk about Filipino noodles a lot. It’s a traditional dish called pancit or pansit made from bean vermicelli noodles (note not rice vermicelli- these aren’t shiny) with chicken, pork and vegetables. The noodles have this translucent quality. They positively gleam and bring me inexplicable joy to see because they are a pain in the ass to make but always remind me of special occasions. Food memory.
I wiki’d a bit of background for you- these noodles were introduced into the Philippines early on by Chinese Filipino settlers and over the centuries they have been adopted into the local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the chinese and means ‘convenient food’. According to food lore handed down from the chinese, noodles should be eaten on one’s birthday. Fun facts.
GuyZ it’s legit. Wiki says so. Society here is still partly held together by archaic structures of a colonialist mentality, it’s in the blood. It’s not as bad but it’s still a thing. Example: your last name is important and so is your family’s pride. Can’t you tell that I’m terrified of shaming them? ‘please don’t come here unmarried and pregnant’. The black sheep bar they have set me is low. Your skin tone not only reflects your heritage but also your status (I had to swim at night until the party 4 real). But not in that way that white people assume it’s because poor people worked out in the fields and are therefore dark. This one’s deep racial. The more white you are the more Spanish blood you are more likely to have. The Spanish being the OG colonisers had all the cash money. Ergo you white, you rich, you status. It’s pretty fucked in the sense of how divisive it gets because being Hispanic white is different to Chinese white (which is still rich but different) and old people can look at you and generally break your genetics down on the spot to how white you are to the 16th ie. They just know if you had a great grandparent that was white. It still counts. If Xtina is 1/16th Argentinian. It still counts.
This is an old proud city where the original families still hold strong and defend their culture from food to language. Creating otherness is the main tool that people use to protect their heritage while maintaining acceptance. This is not assimilation this is cohabitation. Everything has a quiet undertone of judgment. You can tell who is not from good standing by the kind of noodles they serve. Is it traditional? How much meat? Did they cut the green beans right? Have you just shamed our family by presenting mediocre pancit? I told you. Everything you do reflects on your family’s honour.
So I’m eating another family’s pancit and I ask my grandmother why are the noodles really long compared to the ones she made me cut to a very specific length for my birthday- not too long, not too short. She gives them the side eye and says to me ‘long noodles long life,’ like this is a thinly veiled compliment to smooth over that it is different to her way, ‘they were not cut to the correct length so they are hard to eat. Use a knife so you do not choke’. Noted. Do not comment on other people’s noodles unless you are in the safety of your own home. Savage.
I’m getting to my grandmother’s birthday. Chill we have 6 more weeks. The birthday noodle tradition is one of my favourites and her happy little saying about ‘long noodles long life’ also traces back to Chinese origins where one should not symbolically cut the noodles to avoid cutting one’s own life short. Cheers again wiki. But I wont be changing the family recipe any time soon. I’d rather cut my own throat than not cut the noodles the right length.
xx SJ