A colleague who walks with me to the train station wanted cheeseburger but I told her, I'll just have sundae as I'm not really a fun of the hamburger clown - I used to but I got converted into the Happy Bee with its "juicylicious" and "cripylicious" chicken together with the fiesta "palabok." So I told Ate Bebot to take care and I'll be off on my own at Jollibee.
The line is always long and the place is always packed - rarely will you see a person seating on her own. They're always with somebody - their friends or families. So I lined up and got the one piece chicken with palabok - without the soda. I asked for glass of water with ice and looked for a place to settle and eat. I chose a corner table. I squeezed the calamansi onto my noodles and started eating the fried chicken. After two or three bites, I started crying. Partly because of the taste but mostly because I thought of our tatay. At the end of this month - it will be one year since his death. I used to hate Jollibee chicken palabok. I was the cheeseburger type. But when he was alive and whenever I visit him, I need to bring any palabok dish as this is the only one that he would eat - Tropical Hut, Mang Inasal, Kuya J, Goldilocks, Red Ribbon, Pancit Malabon, the panciteria in Ampid and Jollibee. The last was his favourite. When he became too sick and I can no longer bring him to the restaurant, he stopped eating the chicken. But somehow, the noodles no matter how much he wanted to stop eating and thought of giving in to the disease - the palabok would give him enough reason to eat.
I suppose it was because he used to bring his "apos" to Jollibee. Maybe it was because Ipeng, my youngest sister who is in Canada and his favourite, would feed him palabok during her rare visits. Or probably it was just Jollibee.
