CHIVES FLOWERS AND SEAWEED GRAPES

 Once upon a time in childhood, chives flowers and seaweed grapes were family salad meals— and to this day I would never forget their beauty on the plate and their crisp-sweet-brine-citrus taste. Grandpa always had them prepared on Sundays at the rest house in Laguna, among other delicious food and desserts, but these floral vegetables were my all-time favorite. I suppose I was, by nature, an aesthetically and culinarily curious lad, but Pa made cooking and eating really interesting for me. And these informative years began by tagging along with him at the local farmers market and fruit stands along the provincial highway. Basket in hand walking up to his go-to venders, he would ask enthusiastically about what’s fresh and what’s good, exchange recipes with them and how-to, and then gather up his usual staples for salad; they’re already prepared, they knew I was watching with a shy smile behind Pa, they would say hi, and off we go. (Foodnote: chives flowers are a family of green onions/scallions plants but their root-to-stem structure is firmer and the tips have bulb nodes signifying imminent blooming.) However, in my family they’re “eaten in the bud.” Pa prepared it this way:  a chives bunch was cut in equal thirds and steamed piping hot for a few minutes— and then immediately served dim sum-style on small plates topped with oyster sauce. The allium nuance and unctuous salt was what I loved the most about it, with white rice. For balance this was how I was taught to enjoy it best: with a side of chilled seaweed grapes salad with chopped tomatoes and diced green mangoes tossed in coconut vinegar, a little salt and pepper. (Foodnote: seaweed grapes or sea grapes or “green caviar,” latok/lato is the indigenous name, is a very common seaweed/kelp grass in the Philippine Islands where I grew up.) Think of a vineyard growing chardonnay grape cultivars, and on the vine bunches form tiny green berries shaped like tiny Christmas trees— that’s how lato looks. On the appetite level, it’s awesome because the flavor is hidden in the sea berries that would eventually burst in your mouth. Chives flowers with rice and then latok salad is a panoply experience of inherited good eating and how that play in plants combined could fullest deliciousness be achieved.

 

An older photographer friend of mine visiting me in New York a few years back (by the way he is also a gourmand and a food critic), over dinner at my apartment told me that the best way to eat well and fulfillingly was the substance of nostalgia. Pa and the farmers were always happy to see each other every Sunday at their stands. Pa had gathered three generations of his family every Sunday at the rest house and wonderful food was served all day long al fresco. And what I remember most was after lunch, he’d take a strong shot of drip espresso in the kitchen and then head to the lanai for a nap on a bamboo bench… looking always happy, and at peace.