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Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Parts Unknown: Manila. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired April 24, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[21:00:48] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huh? In a week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God! This is from Albert!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a request from the audience.
(TAGALOG MUSIC PLAYING)
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": 'Twas the week before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Actually, that's not true at all.
Metro Manila, bustling, sprawling, Southeast Asian capital of the Philippines, home to somewhere between 12 to 20 million people. The world's most densely populated city.
(CHRISTMAS SONG PLAYING)
But it is Christmas.
A twinkly, festive wonderland where the mostly Catholic population take their holiday season very seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello! Merry Christmas!
BOURDAIN: Because Filipinos are for reasons I have yet to figure out, probably the most giving of all people on the planet. Think I'm talking shit? Keep watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon, everyone. We're the band called Keystone.
BOURDAIN: OFW stands for Overseas Filipino Worker and they are one of the Philippines' largest and most important exports, people. Go abroad, make money, improve the quality of life for the whole family. All over the world be the Philippines sends architects, doctors, construction workers, nurses, house keepers, nannies. The entire Filipino economy relies heavily on the money sent back by more than 10 million OFWs, roughly 30 billion U.S. dollars a year or about 10 percent of the nation's GDP.
Until recently, after domestic workers, the largest category of OFWs were musicians. Like Filipino cover bands. They're everywhere, on cruise ships, and
hotel lobbies, bars and of course, in Manila, where the competition is fierce and the penalties for not getting a beloved biker favorite like, I don't know, Billy idol, can be severe.
(BAND PERFORMING)
[21:06:09] Know this, pampered Rock 'n' Roll stars, at any given moment somewhere in the Philippines there is at least one person and probably many more who can step in and do your act better than you. And after only a couple of hours' practice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, mom. Jolly afternoon!
BOURDAIN: It is true that I lied to my daughter and tell her that Ronald McDonald has been implicated in the disappearance of small children, that I smear at fast-food, revile it at every opportunity. But I'm also a hypocrite. Because to me, Filipino chain Jollibee is the wackiest, jolliest place on earth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, sir.
BOURDAIN: Hello, hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon.
BOURDAIN: Hi. Could I have a jolly spaghetti with the hot dogs on it, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.
BOURDAIN: OK. Also, chicken joy. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jolly afternoon!
BOURDAIN: Welcome to Jollibee. There are over 900 of these things all over the 7,000 plus Philippine Islands and a whole lot more internationally wherever there are homesick Filipinos. There is a Jollibee in New Jersey, by the way.
(JOLLIBEE MUSIC PLAYING)
I hate mascots. You know they fart in those suits. Oh, yes. Chicken and spaghetti and not just any spaghetti. I think it's like sweet, banana, ketchup with hot dogs. The spaghetti is deranged, yet strangely alluring. Oh, it's not a burger. It's rice. Wait, my sinister brown sauce. I don't know what it's for.
That's awesome. That's a (INAUDIBLE) brown stuff. I hate myself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi ma'am. Jolly afternoon!
BOURDAIN: Did I mention it's Christmas? The 7,000-plus islands that make up the Philippines rank number one according to internet scientitions when it comes to celebrating the jolliest time of year.
Holiday cheer begins a full hundred days before the 25th of December which means there is a lot to do in this town especially if you like crashing other people's parties.
Let the party start.
Welcome to the seven continents travel and tours corporate Christmas Party held in the fabulous banquet room of the downtown Pearl Garden Hotel.
(CHRISTMAS SONGS)
BOURDAIN: So, cheers.
MALES: Cheers!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas!
BOURDAIN: Very Catholic country?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very Catholic country, with 80 something percent. Christmas starts in September.
BOURDAIN: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It starts in September. You go to the mall and your start hearing their carols and then it end up --
BOURDAIN: I would lose my mind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. So at 12:00 midnight at September 1 everyone greets Merry Christmas on Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There's lechon on the menu.
BOURDAIN: I have very fond memories of the last time I had lechon in the Philippines, in fact, not because your ass, but it is the finest pig I've ever had.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Amazing.
[21:10:38] Providing these babies to holiday parties is big business and standards here where pork is king and the lechon the best in the world, very, very high. Today our little friends prepared the old school way, turned slowly, slowly on a spit over coals for hours. Oh, delicious, delicious lechon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, during this time of the year there are a lot of Christmas parties and the lechon is always the star of the party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They gauge our grand party is by the presence of the lechon.
BOURDAIN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, if you have two lechons, you must be a big star.
BOURDAIN: That is good pig.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- HR director -- and also the happiness (INAUDIBLE) of the Philippines!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the season to be jolly!
BOURDAIN: As we all know, one must at a holiday party, drink, and then get drunk and tell off the boss. This, I expected and was prepared to do, but the games, I was a little surprised by.
Wow! Ladies?
(LAUGHTER)
Then, if I remember correctly, I totally kicked ass at a game of drunken musical chairs, but I can't be absolutely certain.
I told them I was Bob from accounting. When they found out things could get ugly.
(JINGLE BELLS PLAYING)
(CHEERING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:17:14] BOURDAIN: Hello. Halo-halo, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One halo-halo.
BOURDAIN: Thanks so much. Thank you, ladies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, sir.
BOURDAIN: This is wonderful.
I don't even know half of these ingredients are. I mean, it's delicious, but how is it made? What's in it? Let's find out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Halo-halo.
BOURDAIN: Halo-halo means mix mix.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Banana.
BOURDAIN: And it is delicious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nata de coco.
BOURDAIN: Looking good. An icy, milky, technicolor concoction of sweet mung beans, candied fruits and gelatins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mixed coconut.
BOURDAIN: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Milk. Delicious. Delicious.
BOURDAIN: This is a wonderful creation. It's like that kind of like fruit loops marinate and a milk for a while. The milk kind of tastes like this. Yes. You want one?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. You say, thank you.
BOURDAIN: That's okay.
Very satisfying. Yes. I recommend it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sisig!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sisig!
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kampay.
BOURDAIN: This looks really good.
Night in Metro Manila, and I am ready for my single favorite Filipino sweet food, possibly the best thing you could ever eat with a cold beer.
I'm talking, of course, about sisig. Hot, sizzling pig face with a runny egg on top and bitch, you better ask somebody because nothing is getting between me and this spicy, chewy, fatty goodness.
BOURDAIN: Mix it up and go?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of sisig restaurants here, but this one is the best.
BOURDAIN: This is really, really good.
This evening's dining companions, cover band regatta.
(JINGLE BELLS PLAYING)
BOURDAIN: You may remember them from some such epic office Christmas parties as last night's.
This is the Christmas season. A lot of Christmas parties?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: A lot of work?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A big season.
BOURDAIN: All over Southeast Asia. Any hotel lobby, any hotel bar, there is a Filipino band.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that is true.
BOURDAIN: And I've sat there drunk and challenged band after band, no problem. All of dark side of the moon, no problem. All of guns and roses, no problem.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that is true.
BOURDAIN: Music and singing are a huge part of life in the Philippines, so making it as a cover band, being sent abroad to perform is a big deal.
But one thing remains the same always, to succeed, you better be able to pick up new material fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Beatles, and Elvis Presley.
BOURDAIN: How many songs in your repertoire? Around how many?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around 1,000.
BOURDAIN: And if you don't know it you pretty much can fake it real quick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Five years from now where would you like to be? Where would you like to be playing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good question.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like, my biggest dream is to play in Las Vegas. In the U.S. This is my dream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we get to the dream, you know, playing at Las Vegas, we want to the play when we got there, we are the champions. If we get there. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:26:35] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas, everyone!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas, everyone!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy New Year, too!
BOURDAIN: Despite initial appearances, the Philippines is not all holiday cheer, warm hellos and dancing bugs.
The Filipino national martial art Kali is among the most brutal, the most remorseless defense systems going. It was developed to deal with some very harsh realities and a very tough, very bloody history.
Three centuries of brutal Spanish colonial rule. Invasion by the Japanese, near the end of World War II, American forces bombed Manila, pretty much leveling the city. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos' extravagantly corrupt regime, martial law. Although the Philippines has remained a democracy since then, it can seem at times fragile.
Now you both are photojournalists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Based out of Manila?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Me. Mark lives in Mindanao.
BOURDAIN: In Mindanao?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Now, does a journalist need to carry a firearm in this country?
MARK NAVALES, PHOTOJOURNALIST: For me, yes.
BOURDAIN: In the Philippines a press badge is no defense, particularly in the south of the country where Mark Navales lives and works.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mindanao (INAUDIBLE) for the last how many years, because of the radicalization of recent years, this growing specter of ISIS, Mindanao is a fertile ground for that.
BOURDAIN: Now, traditionally, the argument against journalist arming themselves is that journalists have always been able to portray themselves as noncombatants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: There was some presumption that they would not shoot you --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: But these days people seem to not make that distinction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Dating back to the Marcos years.
NAVALES: Since 1992, 77 journalists were killed.
BOURDAIN: Politics here can be deadly.
[21:30:00] Just before Christmas in 2009, the Maguindanao massacre claimed the lives of 58 people, dozens of whom were journalists. It was the single deadliest event for journalists in history. Mark was the first one on the scene with a camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no justice. There is no government attending to your needs.
BOURDAIN: Nobody is coming to save you, is that what you're saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one is coming to save you.
NAVALES: You know, I have my family, I have my small kids.
BOURDAIN: Yes.
NAVALES: For me, my last recourse there is to defend myself.
BOURDAIN: It's very much to do it yourself culture and you can see that ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: ... you can see it in people's homes the way they just stacked one top of each other, built out using spare bits of metal. It's like nobody else is going to give it to me. I'll build it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: I'll make it myself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
BOURDAIN: There's a lot of poverty in this city, that is for sure, but there's not a sense of hopelessness or rage. You know, they decorate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: They may not have much, but they decorate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They sweep the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's still a sense of humble ownership in a sense of this is my home and it's going to be safe, it's going to be fine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:35:53] BOURDAIN: In any metropolis you find all the good and the bad in the world. Manila being bigger than most, has plenty of both. Yet this is a nation of 7,000 islands, and I really wanted to see at least one more of them. But I learned about something Filipinos are only too familiar with, the typhoon. So it looks like it's going to be Christmas in the city.
Thank you.
Name of the band is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keystone.
BOURDAIN: Keystone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: How long have you been playing together?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around five years.
BOURDAIN: Five years?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys ...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adobo's in the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Looking pretty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.
BOURDAIN: As one does, I dragoon the band Keystone in a lunch assuming correctly as it turned out that one of these young punks would know how to make a good adobo.
Is there a single authentic adobo recipe or does everybody do it differently?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone would stay claim to having the best adobo, but the basic ingredients I think will remain the same. So it's garlic, pork, we can now add the chicken, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaf, soy sauce.
BOURDAIN: This adobo is amazing. It's really, really good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, thank you.
BOURDAIN: Where did you learn to cook adobo?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned this from my mom.
BOURDAIN: So the answer as always as to who makes the best adobo is mom.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: Filipinos like feeding people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
BOURDAIN: What else do Filipinos like?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Filipinos are hospitable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Music.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody knows how to sing. They don't necessarily have to be in tune, but they want to sing, they like to sing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been listening to music like from a very young age.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the drummer for the band, but I'm not actually formally trained. Up to this day, I don't even read notes, but I can memorize a song if you gave it to me, like in a day, I could play ...
BOURDAIN: That's pretty much -- you have to, right? I mean ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: You guys have played abroad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No?
BOURDAIN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. So, that's one of the goals, actually.
BOURDAIN: Five years from now, where would you like to be?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully we get to play for a bigger crowd, you know, because I think the fulfillment for me is actually getting more people to enjoy the music.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:44:44] BOURDAIN: Filipinos speak about home with immense pride and love, and if you're an Overseas Filipino Worker, longing, especially during the holidays.
[21:45:01] AURORA: Oh, come in, come in. Merry Christmas. God Bless.
BOURDAIN: It's always, always about family in the Philippines or anywhere you find Filipinos. For Christmas, of course, everybody, those who can, anyway, gets together. Like family matriarch Aurora and her daughter Ana Lynn.
AURORA: OK, Ana Lynn, yore a big help.
BOURDAIN: And Amy and Ruben, her adopted children.
AURORA: Amy, can you hand me that bay leaf. Wow, smells so good.
BOURDAIN: Also cousin, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, even some great-grandchildren.
AURORA: La, la, la, la, la. I love cooking. I really love cooking. Kare-kare is one of the favorite of the Filipino people. And to make a Kare-kare, I use tripes and I put the ox tail on the pressure cooker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, wow.
AURORA: Now the peanut butter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here are the peanut butter, mother.
AURORA: Peanut butter, please. No more, no more. Now the banana blossom, the eggplant, the eggplant.
Oh, holy night, the stars are brightly shining. Here is the Kare- kare. I hope everybody will enjoy this. OK, it's time to eat.
(CROSSTALK)
AURORA: Amen. I'm hungry. Although we always say ladies first, I think we'll serve you.
BOURDAIN: It's OK this time? Just this once. So good. So how long have you been back in the Philippines?
AURORA: In the Philippines? Three years.
BOURDAIN: Three years now.
AURORA: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: Where have you worked? Hong Kong for five years.
AURORA: For five years and then I went to America. I stayed there for almost 30 years.
BOURDAIN: Aurora is recently backed in Manila after most of her life spent abroad.
What kind of work were you doing?
AURORA: I did the house keeping, you know, and baby-sitting.
BOURDAIN: The money she sent home put everybody here and many, many more through school, lifted them up to a more comfortable life.
BOURDAIN: And you left family behind?
AURORA: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: To go out there and make money. That's never an easy decision, a painful, painful choice. Aurora's children now middle age are finally getting to know their mother.
AURORA: OK, OK, bring in the foods inside.
BOURDAIN: Many, many, many Filipino women like you who had to leave their families, go abroad.
AURORA: Yeah. Absolutely. Her three children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My eldest is about four years now in Qatar, then the other one is two years and then other one is in Hong Kong.
BOURDAIN: Working conditions for OFWs particularly in some Gulf States can be punishing, at best, abusive or worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I'm a single mom with my two grandchildren. I really cried a lot especially in this holiday season.
BOURDAIN: Still, due to lack of opportunity at home, many Filipinos have little choice, but to go, somewhere far away, find a job, money.
But hopefully in a few years, you think, they come back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
AURORA: Yeah, I hope so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really ask them to go home because I'm not getting younger anymore. I need them with my side. I tell them several times they call me up, please get home soon. I need you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:45:05] BOURDAIN: Any Filipino watching will recognize this immediately, the balikbayan box. A Christmas tradition, a way for OFWs to show loved ones though separated by oceans that you miss them, that you're still out there. What's in these boxes? Whatever you can send. Little things you'd casually give to a loved one if you didn't live on the other side of the world. This facility alone sorts thousands of these boxes a day during the Christmas season, just one of hundreds of facilities like it. Some five to seven million boxes a year. That's a lot of love.
So how many relatives do you think you have in America?
AURORA: In America, oh, my gosh, Seattle, California, Albert. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My ate, my eldest sister is in California.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Hong Kong we have at least 10.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 10.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then Dubai around eight. And Qatar ...
BOURDAIN: I'm at this Christmas gathering today because of one of our directors, Erik Osterholm. It was Aurora who raised him. For over 20 years she cared for and loved Erik and his sister, looked after his whole family.
Erik sent me a letter talking about you. I wanted to read you what he said. "Aurora is such an incredible woman. She has an infectious and loving energy that is so powerful. I am 100 percent the man I am today because this woman literally raised me from when I was six months old.
[21:55:00] Singing to me, dancing with me, wiping away my tears, cooking for me and making me laugh at every turn. Unfortunately, like so many Filipinos, her story is not all smiles and love. She had to choose a life away from her daughter and thousands of miles from her family. There are literally thousands of people around the world, thousands of people around the world, me included, who have been influenced by her endless kindness and love."
Filipinos' gift of themselves, of their time, their money, their love, to others. They do and continue to do what needs to be done to survive.
AURORA: Edelweiss, edelweiss, every morning I greet you. Small and white, clean and bright, bless my homeland forever, blossom of snow may you bloom and grow bloom and grow forever. Edelweiss, edelweiss, bless my homeland forever.
Oh, my gosh, this is from Albert. Oh, my gosh.
There, you can have it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my name.
AURORA: I really hope you enjoy the simple gifts I send, and I know that my heart is with you always. I love you very much. Albert.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven and nature sing. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove. The glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love.
