Spaghetti, Miss U chronicles

CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO

Did you know that when making party spaghetti adding banana ketchup actually cuts the acidity of pre-made sweet-style sauce, which thereby renders the finished product a legitimate bestseller in a class composed of five-year-old children?

I wrote that in one long sentence to simulate my out-of-breath experience yesterday morning while I was frantically making spaghetti for my children’s Christmas party.

I woke up late. The party starts at 8 a.m. but I only got out of bed at 6:08 a.m. I was having a panic attack. It crossed my mind to just tell my children that Nanay was not able to make spaghetti because she stayed up until 2 a.m. to wait for Daddy to come home from his trip abroad. Unfortunately, a mother cannot be too honest to three children who are between the ages of 3 and 5 unless she wants her morning to start with a crying fest.

Fortunately, I prepared the ingredients in advance the previous night deciding early on to make sweet-style spaghetti because the Italian sauce that we are accustomed to at home will never touch any plate in a party attended by Filipino children.

I have tasted too many versions of this spaghetti including one which tasted like pasta drenched in banana ketchup.

It destroyed my childhood.

Filipino-style spaghetti has to be creamy and sweet. It should remind you of colorful decor, contagious laughter and elementary school events. Too much banana ketchup in the pasta destroys those memories.

But I wanted to try out a different recipe for my first time to cook spaghetti for my children’s school activity. The back label of the bundle package of pasta and sauce listed banana ketchup as one of the ingredients for “party spaghetti.”

I was hesitant but what could 2 and 1/4 cups of banana ketchup do to my spaghetti, right?

The result was a product which my five-year-old daughter described as “the best sweet spaghetti ever.”

Quite an exaggeration actually. But when it is your daughter who dished out the praise, then you better believe that you are the next MasterChef.

This thought brought me to the recent post of Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, who thanked her parents for raising her as the kind of person that she is.

She is an only child raised so well by her parents in Australia but endowed with the Filipino virtues of humility, honesty and compassion.

Inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok last Monday, I was surrounded by supporters from the Dominican Republic to my right and Australia to my left.

Two rows down and two rows up were Filipinos bearing flags to cheer on Catriona.

Unlike Miss Universe 2016 in Manila, I did not scream until the Top 5 finalists were announced. But I was shaking and teary-eyed. I could smell victory. I have been a pageant fan since I was 8 or 9 years old when I watched Sushmita Sen of India being crowned as Miss Universe 1994 in the Philippines.

It was such a defining moment on how I viewed pageants. Sushmita displayed intelligence and depth in her answers in that pageant. At 8, when I was bullied and described as “bright unta pero di man na sya gwapa,” Sushmita became a personal hero; that it is okay to be intelligent because if you are, there is a huge chance that you will become Miss Universe.

Interacting with other pageant fans in Thailand revealed that I am not alone in drawing inspiration from Miss Universe in particular and pageants in general.

After the pageant, Filipinos gathered on Level 3 of the arena and lingered for a while. We congratulated and hugged each other for our victory. We raised our flags as we altogether sang Lupang Hinirang. There was so much Pinoy pride on that day. Filipinos from all over the world gathered in Bangkok to support Catriona for Miss Universe, which we agreed is the Olympics of the pageant world.

In this historic journey of witnessing the fourth Filipina to be crowned Miss Universe, I asked the five persons — Matthew Dotingco, Oliver Acebes, Bobby Manalang, Rowell Cuenza, and Albert Chan — I met during the pageant one question.

“Why did you spend money to fly to Bangkok to support Catriona Gray’s bid to become Miss Universe 2018?”

Their answer is the same: “It is a celebration of our pride and an expression of our honor to the Philippines. Catriona Gray embodied the Philippines from her national costume to her walk that it was impossible not to give her the support which she humbly and wholeheartedly requested.”

I am no Norman Tinio but mark my word, it will take a long time, decades maybe, to see another high-caliber woman of Catriona Gray’s quality (or better) to represent the Philippines.

Merry Christmas everyone!