The Mysterious Tocino Stall

In 1979 I discovered a stall that sold tocino in Arayat Market. An elderly woman was selling them, among other meat items. I bought half a kilo and took it home--it wasn't prepared commercially, and so, it was some of the best tocino we'd ever had. Years later, when Nelson was in college and Chito in high school, I sent them on different occasions to the same stall, describing it and even sketching a ground plan of the market and the stall's location, but neither of them could find it. In 2002, when Miranda's Cove opened, I remembered the tocino again and asked my daughter-in-law Ivy and her cousin CatCat to check out the stall. Like Nelson and Chito, they could not find it. I decided that, after the passage of time, the stall must have shut down and transferred ownership.

It is 2015. Ivy is in their house in Cavite while recuperating from hospitalization. Angelique and Aubrey prefer to buy our food in groceries, and only I go to market. Last week, finding myself in Arayat Market again, I thought I'd search for the tocino stall, buy I wasn't optimistic about it. It was there, though the wet market had been reconfigured since 1979.

Same elderly woman, same tocino.

I've been buying from the stall ever since.My granddaughters agree that the tocino is excellent. And to think that the woman who processes and sells them isn't even from Pampanga!