After browsing at Tutubi’s and Ivan Henares’ blog articles about Malabon, I became excited to have a D-I-Y tour of Malabon’s old towns. But this time I did not encounter any trouble for doing an unplanned tour (never did I experience one in all my travelers except one in Los Baños). In fact, I want to describe this journey as a serendipitous experience for several reasons.
First, it was the town’s fiesta making the atmosphere colorful and the mood of the people festive, second I met a Malabon old timer who toured me to see the old houses in Barangays Concepcion and Baritan and third, I had an unexpected meeting with Monchet Lucas, one of the prime movers in promoting some parts of Malabon as heritage and tourist centers.
With all these, I’ve dedicated an entire week to share my serendipitous journey to Malabon.
Malabon Fiesta
Today, the Malabon town center or “bayan” celebrates its 367th foundation. Make shift stalls along streets surrounding the church and the city hall display and sell various merchandizes, believe it or not came from far away provinces.
Malabon was known for its knives, one stall sells knives of diffrernt sizes, from small slicers to huge bolo called the Sangbarlome which is named after the town’s patron San Bartolome Apostol. However, I was told that the knives were manufactured in Apalit since there are no more pandayan or smiths in Malabon to this day (I have no confirmation on this).
Also sold on streets are the papier mache horses from Pakil in Laguna. I’ve learned that this is a common practice during fiestas. Since the Spanish times, merchants would bring their wares where a fiesta is being held.
Aling Vangie who owns a kakanin store at no. 13 Pasalubong Center (tel no.: 630.32.60) in Antipolo and other dealers of sweet treats have come all the way from the Marian town to sell their various kakanins and have set up a stall within the church compound in Malabon.
Speaking of kakanins, one of Malabon’s pride is Dolor’s Kakanins that makes delicious sapin-sapin, bico, ube halaya, kalamay, kutchinta, puto and more. To meet demand of their increasing popularity, Dolor’s Kakanin has opened several branches in Malabon and some in the Metro Manila.
This is the first of a six part article. Click here to move to the next post.
Traveler on Foot 