Tinolang Manok, the culprit?

I confess, I don’t like tinolang manok. I offer no sound reason to snob the ginger infused chicken soup. Whenever we have tinola at home, a couple of chicken pieces are fried for me. But this dish has more historical impact than any other I know.

In Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, the tinolang manok is a key element in chapter 3, La Cena (The Dinner). Don Santiago de los Santos or Capitan Tiago served the guests tinolang manok to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for Crisostomo Ibarra’s safe homecoming after studying for seven years in Europe. The host ensured that the guest of honor had something familiar he was not able to enjoy while in Europe. Everyone had a hefty bowl of the soup with bottle gourd (upo), chicken breast or leg, except Padre Damaso. His had skinless neck, tough wings and gourd. He barely touched his soup, noisily dropped the spoon and forcibly pushed away his plate. The infuriated Franciscan friar focused his ire on Ibarra by embarrassing the young scholar in front of all the guests. Ibarra had no recourse but to politely excuse himself from the party. Another guest, Señor Laruja, later wrote on his column in the Estudios Coloniales (Colonial Studies) how tinolang manok caused disorder in a delightful gathering.

The Katipunan’s Supremo, Andres Bonifacio, was so inspired by Jose Rizal’s writings that he yielded to Rizal’s advice of recruiting Antonio Luna to the secret society. Luna refused and around July 20, 1896 confessed to his supervisor of the existence of Katipunan and later confirmed the fact to Governor-General Blanco on August 3. The revelation forced the revolution to begin.

Bonifacio and his generals set the uprising to commence with the assault on Manila on 12 midnight of August 29, 1896. By 11 pm, General Ramon Bernardo and his force of 1,000 men were in Sta. Mesa waiting to join forces with the 1,000 strong troop of Bonifacio plus the 300 well armed men of General Valentin Cruz. Realizing that they were four hours late, Supremo moved the planned offensive to 10 pm on August 30, 1896. Around 5 am of August 30, while waiting for Bonifacio and his men for six hours, Bernardo and his weary band had breakfast of steamed rice and tinolang manok. Unexpectedly, a dominant Spanish army attacked them and diminished their number to 30 very demoralized men.

Did Bernardo’s men have too much of tinola, making them belly heavy to move about and eventually lose the battle? Or was the tinolang manok so badly cooked that they suffered from bum stomach? Any answer will surely endear me more to fried chicken than to tinola.

In recent events, tinolang manok gained notoriety once more. Do you recall that a few days before the scheduled rematch to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez on March 15, 2008, after weighing in just three pounds overweight and finding no reason to starve himself anymore, Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao indulged in tinolang manok? The Pacman won by decision although many were skeptical if he truly deserved the victory. It makes me wonder if it’s the tinola factor again. Hmmmm…