Journ

HAPPINESS IS SERVED

Frances Coreen Shane A. Ostan

It’s now past nine in the evening. Your stomach growls and you remember you haven’t had lunch because of a report you were working on since ten in the morning. As you leave the office, you decide to go to that brilliantly lighted place your office window overlooks at. On the way, your friends call you and tell you they’ve been wanting to go to the same place as well. You all arrive at the destination and walking down a cement aisle, you take whiffs on the puffs of grey smoke hazing your view. “Mmm, that smells heavenly,” you say. At this moment, your squad has already begun a feast of scrumptious meals in spicy barbecue sauce. Roxas Avenue may be a driveway for jeeps during the day but it is a thriving food market by night.

Roxas Avenue at night is lined with dozens of street food vendors with their stalls encircling a canal stretch. These vendors mainly sell viands that are deep-fried, grilled, or steamed such as pork or chicken barbecue, sinugbang isda, isaw, proben, chicken skin and siomai, served with rice and barbecue sauce. They also sell desserts that are chilled, cooked, or even fried like buchi, “dirty” Ice Cream, fried ice cream, and assorted flavored juices. The aisles between stalls are always so full of customers coming from all walks of life – students, employees, and even tourists! Some people are eating while standing up while others use the chairs and tables provided, their faces eager to finish the meals in front of them. Every time customers pass by a stall, its vendors welcome the customers and greet them with a smile. It’s like the place is always full of good vibes and luscious food that no one goes home hungry.

As your day ends, you walk away from the avenue with a smile on your face signifying your satisfied stomach. As you leave the Roxas Avenue grounds, you do not only leave behind the delicious street food and seasoned aroma of the barbecue smoke. You leave behind the laughter with your friends while feasting on the isaw. You leave behind that kind stall vendor who attended on you while you were eating siomai. You leave behind that gratifying burp you let out after drinking buko juice. Roxas Avenue is brought to life because of all the people coming together – vendors and customers – making memories through food to create a unique community despite the diversity.