We recently attended the 18th birthday party of a classmate of Juvy’s. Later in the evening, after the celebration — giving of roses and candles and singing happy birthday to the girl and eating chicken barbecue, we found ourselves out in the back bamboo party house. It was a shelter made of bamboo with a bench wrapped around the outer perimeter. It’s where all the guys and a few of the girls wound up. One of the classmates had mixed something they were calling a “Burning Tanduay,” which was made with the local rum.
The way Filipinos drink is to share. So one Burning Tanduay is mixed in big pitcher. And there is only one shot glass for about 15 people. Only one glass. The drink master sits at the central table and pours a shot out of the pitcher, then he hand it off to pass around the bench to the person who needs it most, or the person who hasn’t had any for a while. When that person finishes, he passes the glass back to the drink master who pours another and passes it out. That way, shots go around to everyone, but no drinks too much.
They also call this “jamming,” hanging out with friends, drinking, joking, smoking, laughing. When the father brought out more barbecue, the dogs had to join the jamming as well, since they could eat whatever meat was left on the sticks.
The Burning Tanduay didn’t burn at all. In fact, it was quite sweet, a mixture of a bottle of rum, chocolate and condensed milk.