Craving for Banana Cue, Kamote Cue, Turon and Fried Mani

It’s merienda time and I’m famished.  I want to eat some banana cue, kamote cue, turon or some fried peanuts with Coke, yum! Then I remember, it’s a Monday and I will have to scour the neighborhood to find someone selling these or go the mall. And the ones they sell on the latter are clammy cold or a little hard for being re- heated many times over.

I wish it was a Sunday because these goodies are available across our church. Freshly cooked and ready to be taken home or eaten in the car. And if we’re not near the church, my husband will drive thru one of the palengkes in Sucat and we’ll get our banana cue or turon fix through our car window from a vendor near its fringes.

Yes, I can buy myself a bunch of saba, a pile of banana sticks, a cluster of kamote, a set of lumpia wrapper and a handful of uncooked peanuts but why bother. It would be too much work and besides, I attempted to cook banana cue before and it was a disaster. I forgot to roll the banana in brown sugar first, instead I fried it immediately then poured the brown sugar in. Wrong! So the molasses didn't stick. Oh, well better buy it than cook it if you’re not familiar with the process.

I just want to eat my merienda with the least amount of effort.  So please, let me eat my banana cue in relaxing comfort, warm and tender with molasses sticking on its side. Or my kamote cue, also warm and sticky and deliciously starchy or bite on my sweet and crunchy turon or taste the garlicky and earthy flavor of fried mani peppered with slivers of fried garlic, crunchy and tasty. And then down it with a glass of ice-cold Coke after. I may not eat all of it in one sitting but having these different options would be really nice.

I wonder if Filipinos miss these when they’re abroad, I mean they can cook it themselves. Or are the flavors different? Kind of like I’m unable to reproduce the dipping sauce of the fishballs peddled on the streets, somehow, it tastes different, “cleaner” perhaps?

Sunday would be here soon before I know it and we’ll be on our way to church or the palengke in Sucat. Meanwhile, I’ll have to be content unwrapping this clear plastic smothering my luscious Quickmelt ensaymada, one creamy and filling little thing.  Hmm..Not bad. Especially with a glass of chilled Coke.