Toothpicks and toothpick holders

Why is it that when we speak of Manila we refer to it in the past tense? Spanish Manila was once the walled city (Intra-muros) and the rest of the city outside the walls (extra-muros) were arrabales or suburbs. Legazpi founded Manila in 1571 in an existing city, may-nila, where the nila plant grew in abundance. (It’s not and never has been nilad with a “d.”)

Today Manila, inside and outside Intramuros, is just a small part of sprawling Metropolitan Manila or Metro Manila, which includes: Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas.

Pateros, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig and Valenzuela. Manila is a city that has seen better days and is best remembered through the soft lens of nostalgia and memory.

Manila is not the only place that only exists in memory and the imagination. There used to be Sulipan near the Rio Grande (or wide river) of Pampanga, which was visited by VIPs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “La Sulipeña” was where Joaquin Arnedo and his wife Maria Sioco held court. It was a home that welcomed royals like the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869, King Norodom I of Cambodia in 1872 (the same year Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were executed), and Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov, the supreme commander of the Russian Imperial Navy, in 1891.

Heritage recipes from this grand home were compiled by a descendant, Gene Gonzalez, kitchen-tested and published in the handsome but now out-of-print book “Cocina Sulipeña” (Bookmark, 1993). A sense of the place has also been recreated by another descendant, social historian Toto Gonzalez, in preserved heirlooms that include a curious pair of pineapple-shaped toothpick holders known in antiques circles as “paliteras.”

In Spanish, toothpicks are “pallilos de dientes,” therefore toothpick holders should be “palilleras.” Thus, “palitera” is a Filipinism because, according to Jaime C. Laya, it means “ice drop maker” in Spanish.

Filipinos of the 21st century are ambivalent about toothpicks and toothpick etiquette. To some, this device is a necessity that must always be on a dinner table or at least made available upon request. To others, the use of toothpicks is impolite, unsightly, even disgusting. Etiquette demands that a toothpick user cover his mouth with a hand while he dislodges food particles from the crevices of the teeth. But what are we to do with people who walk around or chat while chewing on a toothpick? And where and how does one dispose of used toothpicks? On or under the table?

In the late 19th-century Philippines, parts of Pampanga, Bulacan and Batangas boomed because of cash crops like sugar and coffee. Upper-class tables had sterling silver buyeras, or footed plates, for serving buyo, and paliteras   or toothpick holders were displayed both for form and function. Normally, paliteras came in the shape of a pineapple complete with leaves mounted on a base with claw feet. The pineapple “eyes” were little holes where the host placed wooden toothpicks with carved ends that could replace a floral bouquet on a mantelpiece. In some homes, ivory or even gold toothpicks were used, but the thought that these were reusable was not very appealing even if one boiled and washed them clean after each use.

Like dinosaurs, paliteras are extinct and are relatively unknown today, but these are described in American-period accounts of the Philippines, like that of A.R. Colquhoun, who traveled around Southeast Asia (formerly called the Far East) and noted this in his book “The Mastery of the Pacific” published in 1902:

“The table decorations are in all climes a safe subject of dinner conversation, but the unwary may be a little taken aback if, on addressing words of admiration to his fair companion, concerning a small pyramid in front stuck all over with flowers carved in wood or made of shells and tinsel, she forthwith stretches out her hand, pulls out a flower or spray, and showing him that it is attached to a small spike, proceeds to pick her teeth!

“It is not unusual in the houses of well-to-do Filipinos to see real silver, good china adorned with a monogram, and cut glass on the table, and among the wealthy hacienda owners and professional men the plate is often extremely handsome and valuable. Clocks and jewelry are two other weaknesses of the Filipinos. Many of the tradesmen’s wives and daughters wear costly and artistic necklaces and other trinkets, diamonds being the favorite gems.”

When William Howard Taft and the members of the Philippine Commission toured Pampanga, one of the secretaries noted this of the hospitality of the Arnedo family:

“…[A] great mahogany table glittered with the finest china and linen, its entire length set off by massive bouquets, pyramids of fruit, wonderfully ornamented cakes and [sterling silver] stands of most elaborately carved toothpicks. The number and variety of courses were amazing, creating a sense of wonder as to where and how they were all produced…”

There was a time when some Filipinos ate not just with the palate but also with the eyes, their tables adorned with the best linen, china, and flatware, the better to serve and emphasize the special food. Maybe it’s my nostalgia on overdrive, but I have always been fascinated by these paliteras made from melted Mexican silver coins and crafted by Filipino artisans into functional works of art.

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Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu