There’s a sense of history – more than 200 years of it, in fact – that fills you once you enter the Tansojoy house, one of the few remaining stone houses in Malolos City. Built in 1812 for Doña Rufina Tanjosoy, it was eventually inherited by Don Antonio Bautista, aide-de-camp of the late President Emilio Aguinaldo.
The open windows from the second floor of the Tansojoy house provide VIP viewing access to the colorful street celebrations marking Fiesta Republica, an annual event commemorating the Malolos Republic that culminates on Jan. 23. Outside, there’s a parade of brass bands not just from Malolos but from neighboring cities and provinces, too.
It was raining every so often, it was humid, and the kids have been perspiring in their costumes for several hours now, but the show went on, and it was a beautiful show.
Here, they celebrate the country’s “other” independence day when the Philippines made its debut in the international community as a free nation more than a century ago.
“We just want to give justice to the declaration of the first Philippine republic. We were the first ones to establish a Constitution in Asia –the Malolos Constitution. The declaration of independence on June 12, 1898 was the start of our journey toward becoming an independent nation recognized by the international community, but the declaration of the first republic on January 23, 1899 was the culmination of this process,” says Malolos City Mayor Christian Natividad.
“There’s a bill now pending before the House of Representative to declare January 23 a national holiday as Republic Day. We are hoping that our lawmakers will be nationalistic enough to recognize this legacy that completes our sense of being Filipino,” he adds.
Part of that rich history leading to Republic Day was the ratification of the Independence Proclamation on Sept. 29, 1898. A “high-style” luncheon for 200 select diners, including the assemblymen in Malolos, was prepared. The sole surviving copy of the printed menu – which bore the words Libertad, Fraternidad y Igualidad (Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, the rallying cry of the 1789 French Revolution) – has been preserved in the museum of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro. It was written in French, then the language of diplomacy and haute cuisine, and it has been re-enacted several times and several ways by some of the country’s renowned chefs. But this year, a local restaurant – Bistro Maloleño – was tapped to bring to life the dishes that fed the people who paved the way for the declaration of the first republic.
Based on the original menu, members of the Malolos convention were served seven kinds of appetizers, followed by seven main courses and five choices of cheese and desserts, and capped by a progression of red wine, champagne, sherry, and cognac, and to end all meals, a choice between coffee or tea.
Bistro Maloleño recreated for this year’s festivity the following dishes: nilasing na hipon on top of crab roe sauce (Crevettes roses), sardines in tomato sauce (Sardines aux tomates), lengua estofado set in pastry (Vola-au-vent a la financiere), Malolos longganisang hamonado topped with olives (Saucission de Lyon), adobong balun-balunan (Abatis de poulet a la Tagalo), hamon Bulakenya served with asparagus (jambon froid-asperges en branche), tortang alimasag (Coquilles de crabes), and roasted turkey (Dinde truffee a la Manilloise). For dessert, there was strawberry gelatin (gelee de Fraises) and mantecado sorbetes (Glaces) mixed with Bulacan’s famous pastillas de leche.
Nick Joaquin once described the menu as a “culmination, like Malolos itself, and should stand side by side with the Malolos Constitution.” Indeed, knowledge of these events leading to our nation’s birth – including the dishes served to our republic’s Founding Fathers – reinforce our sense of identity and help us find our place in history.
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