in Manila, he stepped off the plane and made a beeline for the nearest branch of Jollibee, where he ordered a one-piece Chickenjoy with a strawberry tea float and a side of photo opp.



Even mighty McDonald’s, perhaps the greatest economic and cultural emissary of our one-time colonizers, never managed to close in on Jollibee’s market share. After a decade-long battle, the Golden Arches faced a choice: leave or imitate. When McSpaghetti appeared on their menu, it was clear which path they’d chosen.



Laing sa gata at the Salcedo Weekend Market

Manila’s sprawl started soon after World War II, radiating north, east, and south from the Old City. Immigrants arrived from all over the country: Tagalogs from the surrounding provinces, Kapampangans from the central rice plains, Ilocanos from the north, Bicolanosup from southern Luzon, the Cebuanos, Ilonggos, Negrense, and Mindanawon from the center and south.



By 1975 this sprawl had created 17 cities from open land and was officially renamed Metro Manila. From 1980 to 1990, the population doubled from 5 million to 10. By the 2000s, Nielsen, the TV ratings firm, had coined a new term, Mega Manila, a geographic region representing 25 million people, a quarter of the country’s population.



Arriving in the capital, a domestic immigrant finds no welcoming enclave, but she can always sniff out food from her hometown. My mother, every chance she gets, buys laing sa gata (dried taro leaves in a spicy coconut stew) at the Salcedo Weekend Market. This food market, operating only on Saturdays at Jaime Velasquez Park in Makati’s Salcedo