Comfort Food

Most people automatically associate comfort food with a fluffy chocolate cake with thick icing, or a big heap of ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top. But for someone like me who's terribly homesick, comfort food is something as shallow as a snack chip and the ubiquitous little pastry from back home.

Thanks to the cleaning lady of my former serviced apartment, I found a small grocery that sold Filipino products and I walked out with 2 bags of Clover Chips and Hopia Baboy.



Clover Chips has always been a favorite since elementary school days. Back then, it came in an opaque plastic bag and was sold for less than a buck a pop. Now, it comes in this nice, shiny foil pack with nice graphics, but thankfully, the taste remains the same.



Hopia Baboy reminds me of sitting at the steps of the bakery in front of our house in Tomas Morato. My playmates would take a break from playing patintero and agawan base, huddle by the steps, and eat hopia baboy along with a pack of Zesto. (Actually, my playmates would drink Coke, but I wasn't allowed to drink softdrinks.) The hopia sold here is much, much smaller than the ones in Manila. In fact, i can eat these in one bite. But as the adage goes: "Beggars can't be choosers."



And oh, it costs HK$6.00 for this teensy weensy pack. For the same price, I can get two trays of those humungous Hopia Baboys from Marby bakeshop! Ah, the price we have to pay for a taste of home.