Last June 12, Coco Beach celebrated the country’s 112th Independence Day,  decking the entire Carabao Restaurant  with the colors  of the Philippine flag-red,  white, blue and yellow.
 
The theme for this year’s celebration was “Paggunita sa Araw ng Kalayaan” (Remembering Our Independence Day). Our waitresses wore the traditional “baro’t saya”  that  women wore up to the early 20th century  while  the  waiters and bartenders wore the “kamiso tsina", the traditional garb for the menfolk like fishermen and farmers. The supervisors wore the famous ”Barong Tagalog”  which is the national costume of the Philippines and  is still worn  to formal functions by Filipinos, including the former presidents and  foreign dignitaries  who  come to visit our country.

The Coco Family greeted everyone in traditional Filipino clothes

Chef Noel and his crew prepared  a delicious  feast  for our guests, combining traditional Filipino dishes  found all over the archipelago. The special menu  consisted of chicken “bola-bola” for appetizers; “ batchoy”  which had its origins in the Visayas and “krema ng kalabasa” for the soups, “ensaladang talong at mustasa”, red salted eggs and tomato for the salad and for the main course, it was “ginataang liempo” rolled pork belly in coconut milk, (a tribute to the Bicolanos with their coconut-based dishes), beef “salpicado” with its Spanish influence, sweet & sour fish of Chinese origin and chicken inasal- charbroiled chicken dipped in locally made vinegar. Vegetables consisted of  “pakbet”,  a top favorite among Ilocanos. Of course, everything was served  with  “pandan” or rice,  our country’s staple food, without which Filipinos  would not be satisfied  with their meal. For dessert there was “ginataang halo-halo”, a sweet dessert made up of sago, rice flour balls, “langka”  or jackfruit  and cooked in coconut oil, and  sugar as well as fresh fruits that grow abundantly in the country like mangoes (national fruit),  watermelon, pineapple and bananas.

Philippine pride. The Philippine flag decorated the restaurant

The Coco Band veered off from their usual repertoire of  English songs  and  sang  plenty of original Filipino music which included  ballads and love songs including the very nationalistic song “Bayan Ko” plus other pop songs  made by Filipino composers.
 
It was indeed a simple but elegant remembrance of our bravely and courageously  fought independence and birth of the Philippines as a nation.