Thinking of Kris, Joey over mongo con hielo.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Ambeth R. Ocampo

BEING away from home provides some perspective on the scope of the Kris-Joey break-up. On the lurid topic, my mailbox was swamped with all sorts of messages that far outnumbered all the junk mail I now receive regularly from "presidentiables." From the quiet retreat of Kyoto, I could imagine how the world stopped in the Philippines for Kris and Joey. Some readers suggested I hook on the topic and write on Juan Luna who also poked a gun on his wife during a jealous rage. The main difference here is that Luna actually pulled the trigger and murdered both Mrs. Luna and his meddlesome mother-in-law.

Other readers requested a column on heroes with sexually transmitted disease, and all I could think of were the rumors, floated by Apolinario Mabini's political enemies, suggesting that our Sublime Paralytic was syphilitic. Post mortem autopsy has ruled out STD. Mabini's legs became useless due to polio. Yet the syphilis rumor is so hard to dispel. Given my limited experience, I cannot convince those who have made up their mind that one does not become a cripple due to venereal disease. Even castrati can sing and walk.

To get fresh air and ideas, I walked aimlessly around Kyoto and noticed three things: golden Billiken statues in antique shops, shaved ice and mongo in small restaurants and children playing Jak en Poy. All of the above were introduced in the Philippines at some point. The only question is whether we can trace their origins back to Japan.

Mongo con hielo and halo-halo are so much part of Philippine cuisine, we think they have been there forever, that these were probably indigenous. Halo-halo needed ice and the Philippines got its first taste of ice in the 19th century, when an ice ship carrying crystal clear blocks of ice from Wenham Lake, USA made a quick stop-over in Manila before proceeding to India. Thus, halo-halo cannot be traced all the way back to pre-Spanish times. I don't think it was economical in the 19th century to shave imported ice into halo-halo, so perhaps we can date it to the turn of the 20th century when the Americans established the Insular Ice Plant by the Pasig. I presume Japanese settlers introduced mongo con hielo, which developed into that fantasy of mixed colors-candied banana, assorted beans, leche flan, ube ice cream-that we know today as halo-halo. Tracing food origins can sometimes lead to some surprises as most Filipinos do not know that corn and chico are just some of the crops introduced in the Philippines by the Spaniards from Mexico.

As I watched Japanese children play what I know as Jak en Poy, I was surprised to hear them ...