The fog’s thicker; Pinoys must be cooking

While the San Francisco Giants face the Texas Rangers in the World Series, three things all-Filipino will crash into California’s prime time psyche in a single pitch.

Pride, food and humor of the self-deprecating variety.

Opening night’s pitcher and 11-7 winner for the Giants, 26-year-old Tim Lincecum is one-fourth Filipino—a descendant of the De Asis family of Bellevue, Washington.

A Cy Young Award recipient for two years running, Tim’s the darling of rabid Filipino baseball followers in the heart of Giants country—the Golden State’s San Francisco Bay Area. 

A quarter-of-a-million-plus Filipinos, who call that megalopolis home, comprise one of the largest Filipino 

communities outside the Philippines. More than 1.5 million Filipinos live in the United States, most of them in California.
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Texas beat the New York Yankees while the Giants outlasted the Philadelphia Phillies to prevent what media organizations call another East Coast conspiracy to choose baseball’s top team this year.

The Rangers lead the majors with a .276 batting average. But the Giants, behind Lincecum, have outstanding pitching.

The Rangers have never been to the World Series. This is their first in the franchise’s 50th season.

The Giants last won it with an upset of the favored Cleveland Indians in 1954, before they packed their bags to leave New York for San Francisco.
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Rey Ramos, a friend in California, told me by overseas phone that after Pinoy pride Lincecum won the opener 

Wednesday night (Thursday in Manila) at AT&T Park, Giant fans remain dazed and unbelieving that their team is poised to end San Francisco’s 56-year drought in the World Series.

What about Pinoy diehards?

Having lived for a while in Baghdad by the Bay before moving to Los Angeles and finally settling in Sacramento, the state capital, I know they have pinched themselves to reality.

They’ve even found the perfect excuse for a party, if not a full-blown fiesta.
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In the next several days, Filipino cuisine, not as popular as their Asian counterparts, will find a resurgence and go mainstream for the benefit of the multicultural guests, many uninvited to watch the Series in Pinoy homes.

Typical come-ons to a Pinoy TV klatch include the usual mouth-watering fare—adobo, sinigang, bangus aka milkfish, kare-kare, pansit and lumpia.

Filipinos tend to outdo each other in the kitchen that a joke—author unknown but suspected to be one of their compatriots—has sprouted wings and become a favorite punch line during cold, foggy nights.

The fog’s thicker not because of the marine layer hovering over the Bay, goes the joke. There’s zero visibility because of the smoke from the kitchens of Filipinos who’ve decided to cook rice and adobo all at once.