After a short deliberation, my co-host Stef and I decided to post the round-up for the launching of Lasang Pinoy this evening since we’re still receiving entries. In the meantime, I’ll post something which I would give Ninoy if he were alive today.After his assassination in 1983, numerous articles on Ninoy came out in both the government-controlled and the underground press. Many of these articles tackled his private persona - the son, husband and father who happened to have big dreams yet remained down-to-earth. A feature article I still remember vividly is about Ninoy and the food that he liked. Since he was from Concepcion, Tarlac which is ethnically Capampangan, he ate like his forefathers did before him.

Aside from the article I read, Atching Cora also confirmed that one of the delicacies enjoyed by Capampangans and which was known as Ninoy’s favourite is a dish of plump mole crickets (Gryllotalpa orientalis Burmeister). These are called camaru (also spelt ‘kamaru’), which are burrowing insects found in soft ground such as rice paddies.
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By Cora Castellvi

(Below is an entry sent in by a Filipina-Canadian reader of her encounter with Sen. Aquino as they ate and talked about what else but food!)

Ontario, Canada - IT WAS FALL, 1981. Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was the guest speaker at a symposium organized by a group of young Filipino-Canadian professionals in Toronto. I just wish I had something with me at that time to record the event and the next 24 hours when Ninoy was in town before he went back to Boston, where he was in exile with his family.

The evening was charged with so much energy. Ninoy spoke with so much passion and fire, for about 3 hours, non-stop - and only glanced at his notes, every once in a while to start a new topic.

He did not complain about the discomfort he was feeling right then. It was roughly a few weeks before when he hurt his ankle and he was walking with a little limp and was using a cane.
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Note: revising still but comments welcome

We chose to launch Lasang Pinoy, a Filipino food blogging event, on Ninoy Aquino Day to commemorate the death of our most well-known modern-day hero. Today, Filipino food bloggers and friends in many parts of the world will post their thoughts on being Filipino and the food that go with them.

Try as I might, I cannot recall what I was doing on 21 August 1983. Perhaps it was my typical child’s day of play, homework, raiding bookshelves, piano lessons, cartoons and whatever a nine-year old third grader would do. The day after is what I vividly remember.

My mother was reading the papers early in the evening, and in a tense and troubled voice confirmed: “Mete ne pin y Ninoy” which is Kapampangan for “Ninoy is really dead”. I had no idea who Ninoy was but it seemed that he was someone my mom knew very well. Could he be a relative or a very close friend? I was sure he was either one.
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