Our Lady of Light Parish

Miss Iggy was at this church last month to witness a wedding in Cainta, Rizal. It was quite close to where Gingmaganda lives. The motif for the wedding was "pomelo peach."

Does the pomelo fruit ever have a peach hue?

The Iggy Trinity

On Wednesday, there was a mini congregation of the Miss Iggy Sisterhood at Gingmaganda's residence in Cainta, Rizal. In attendance were two Mr. Iggys owned by Sailormoon and Gingmaganda joined by the only Benguet rose among the Igorot thorns: Jersey Iggy. It was a night of savory food on pretty Mikasa china lovingly prepared by Gingmaganda's family, followed by videoke and "addicture" (picture addiction) sessions. It was also an educational night with a special emphasis on Jejemon 101.

mr. iggy at sta. lucia east grand mall

mr. iggy at the sta. lucia east grand mall--cainta, rizal's first ever shopping mall.

sta. lucia east grandmall is at the crossroads of cainta, pasig, marikina, and antipolo and is a favorite transit point for commuters from these places on their way to quezon city. hopefully it will have its very own train station in the near future. loyal mallgoers refer to the place simply as, "santa lu".

coco jam iggy at Aling Kika's (or vote biko for nation-building)

mr. iggy found himself at Aling Kika's in Cainta, where the town's famous "bibingka" comes from.

there's a wall full of coco jam jars behind the counter. gingmaganda borrowed a jar for a photo op:

and the purpose of the visit:

yummy bibingka. bibingka is usually referred to as "rice cakes" but depending on where you are in the philippines, bibingka can take on many shapes and forms. here in cainta, bibingka looks like this:

the brown part is biko with latik (sticky rice with something only marketman can explain), the orange one is kutsinta and the white one is sapin-sapin (literally means "layer-upon-layer"). birthdays, christmases, new year's eves and other parties are not complete without bibingka from Aling Kika's. Filipinos believe that biko brings good luck to parties. the sticky rice dish makes people "stick" to one another too, injecting a sense of unity in a community. if one is to read this in a larger perspective, or in a metaphorical one, the biko has powers for nation-building, with rice being a staple food for Filipinos from north to south.

an added bonus when you visit their store are the various paintings on the wall. they are of ladies in traditional Filipiniana garb with a bilao of bibingka on top of their heads, ready to be sold to anyone who fancies a slice of the sweet rice cake treat. there is also a painting of the old Aling Kika's store when it was still a bahay-kubo ("nipa hut"). you can also get a peek into their "kitchen"--- where large ovens stand like sentinels and where all the bibingka goodness comes from. a larger-than-life image of the nazarene might also be seen should one of the main doors open, the ones in front of the bibingka counter.

to get your own Aling Kika's bibingka, their store can be found along A. Bonifacio Avenue in Cainta, Rizal, a few meters away from the municipal town hall. give them a ring at 63-2-655-00-29. they also have puto, atsara, peanut butter, and other sweets.

[cainta, rizal is also known as the "bibingka capital of the philippines."]

reunited and it feels so good!

last month, these two igorota siblings reunited at kenny rogers' roasters restaurant at sta. lucia east grand mall in cainta, rizal, philippines.

their adoptive travel buddies, namely, fortuitous faery from new jersey and gingmaganda from cainta couldn't believe they'd meet again after only nine months.

at the dinner date, they anticipated sailormoon (now also a blogger for miss iggy) to join them, but she couldn't make it at the last minute. she was super-thoughtful, though, for sending us christmas gifts and delicious treats from breadtalk via personal courier. the pastry treats even had sticky notes to indicate the flavor. fortuitous faery loooves the "spicy floss." this is THE kind of floss you'd love to sink your teeth into!

fortuitous faery and gingmaganda caught up with each other's lives and discussed miss iggy's progress and potential recruits over kenny rogers' chicken meals. after that, they wrote a little critique of the dining experience, because the waitress was a little persistent that we do so.

the comment reads, "the wall containing kenny rogers' picture is dilapidated...needs some renovating to encourage people to enjoy their meal."

miss iggy and belen

Miss Iggy bids the Holiday Season farewell with the Feast of the Three Kings! we now have summer to look forward to!

our lady of light church, cainta, rizal

miss igorota meets the star of the noche buena feast

Purefoods Fiesta Ham. you know it's Christmas when you smell this juicy ham!

miss iggy and wheels

she wants to ride a bicycle, she wants to ride a bike!

miss igorota and frank the typhoon

her malunggay tree is windswept



while rain patters heavily against the glass windows

suffice to say, there was no electricity all day.

pasinaya

maligayang pagbati mula sa cainta, rizal, pilipinas!