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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider 'Pasalubong'

'Pasalubong'

Published Apr 16, 2026 12:02 am  |  Updated Apr 15, 2026 04:40 pm
MEDIUM RARE
Never having been a balikbayan, I was curious to watch what my kid sister Mary Jocelyn was buying to take home as her “pasalubong” – is there a perfect translation into English of this word? – for her husband Dave, their son Marc and grandson Lincoln.
A pasalubong is a gift bought abroad for someone upon a traveler’s return to home base. In her case, Jocelyn of Sacramento, Calif., bought beach sandals and bedroom slippers for the two big guys – who are both 6 ft tall – and toys for five-year-old Lincoln.
I have no idea how Jocelyn is going to explain to Lincoln how a jeepney works and how a horse-drawn calesa is expected to perform on a city street! But I trust her motherly instincts to do the job. She put the miniature calesa in a shoebox and wrapped the jeepney with her pajama top.
In addition, as she could not resist the “uniqueness” of it all, she bought a bottle of ube liqueur – there is no way I can translate these two words – one in Tagalog, the other in French – into English! But that could precisely be the reason to take the drink home as a souvenir, its very Philippine-Frenchness.
For herself, Jocelyn found three – or was it five? – pairs of linen pants in different colors in her size, in a store with a global brand. No S sizes in the US? There are, yes, but their “small” is not our Asian small, if you know what I mean. In other words, their S is a bit large on her, apparently because a US small is not the same as an Asian or Philippine small.
Jocelyn’s family – sisters, nephews and nieces, cousins – would’ve wanted to give her a truckload of going-away gifts but the reality was that all they could do was feed her a feast – a fiesta a day! I guessed she found the “sinigang sa bayabas” a treat, as well as the fried chicken marinated in “patis”. (I can see her trying to invent a similar recipe in her kitchen back home!) For merienda, we fed her bibingka, which she knowingly paired with hot lemon tea, after which I challenged her with this question: What’s the closest to bibingka that you can think of, back home?

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MEDIUM RARE JULLIE Y. DAZA
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