Agbate for Dinner!

Just finished eating my dinner. It is just 7:00 PM here in Michigan. Had one of my favorites - agbate - pinakupsan. I bought the agbate at Pearl of the Orient Store a week ago but did not get to cook it until last night. Had some last night and had the left overs tonight. It is one of my favorite meals.

Cooking agbate here is not the same. First of all - the bunch cost $1.89. Long gone are the days, when I walked Iya Payang's store to see if she had agbate for sale or wait for the tabu on Thursday to see if someone from the hills have agbate for sale. In grade school we also planted agbate in our school garden.

Like kamunggay, some folks in Catmon grew their own agbate - in which case, one can approach them to get some for free, if the harvest is bountiful. I wonder if they still do that?

I went to Pearl of the Orient Store today to see if they have Ube bread - Dominic's favorite. I was also looking for some tangkong - they did not have any. The mangoes are expensive - a case of 12 is $15.00. So I just bought the Ube bread and 2 cans of calamansi juice.

When did it become calamansi anyway?? It was lemoncito, when I was growing up. Lola Milyang (de Dios) used to have some trees and so did Tata Batyong (Montecillo). Now, I don't have to "kuhit" the lemoncito - I buy it by the can already mixed. I did buy some concentrate last week - see if I can mix my own like I did when I was a child.

Oh the joys of growing up in Catmon, back in the day!