MEDIUM RARE 

Back in the day, in a nice building with a nice name, Gold, Charley Barretto held her listeners spellbound with tips on how to become prosperous. For more than two hours each day for three days she talked extemporaneously, without notes nor a pause.

In those days, “prosperity” was a mantra. Paul Lau, Charley, George Sison spoke the language, for they were described as prosperity gurus. In Charley’s class, I sat in the middle row, always on time, at 5:30 p.m. One participant was always late, by 10 to 15 minutes, so he took the middle seat in the back row. He never raised his hand to ask a question or take part in the discussion.

I don’t remember how or when I found out who he was. Decades later, when his fastfood business became a success, it just dawned on me – you know, like the sunrise that comes without bidding – that he was none other than the Tony Tan Caktiong who was, long ago, my silent, reclusive, mysterious classmate in Charley’s class. If I’ve spelled his name wrong, charge it to the man’s almost obsessive need to keep his name out of the public domain. You’d know him as Mr. Jollibee.

This may be a roundabout way of introducing (?) one of the most successful entrepreneurs behind one of the most popular fastfood brands today. Jollibee is famous not only in the Philippines with 1,150 stores but also all over the world, including America. On page B-2 of this newspaper last Saturday, the big story was “Jollibee cautiously expanding in China, opening 100 stores in 2024.” They already have 560 stores there.

Now, why didn’t I go into the fastfood business like my classmate?

As a rule, I don’t eat oily stuff, but when I saw 10-year-old Emily digging into their home-cooked fried chicken and licking her oily fingers, I remembered my restaurateur friend’s advice, “The secret is to fry with lard, not oil.”

I haven’t learned if Emily’s family cook uses lard to produce those crisp and crunchy results, skin included.

But just when I thought chicken was “safer” than red meat, here comes Dr. Jimmy Galvez Tan reminding his listeners on radio that chicken meat is no different!