When I was little, we’d occasionally have hot cups of chocolate made with tablea.

Hot cups of chocolate reappeared on the breakfast table when I gave birth to my first child.

Forcing daughters-in-law to rebuild all the shrunken pre-pregnancy energy by way of high energy and the so-called cleansing food would be imposed by Chinese mothers-in law. Traditionally, cocoa accompanied chicken cooked in aromatic sibut herbs and seeds. I was fed all kinds of chicken, from white to black. Those were the fattest, saddest 30 days of my life — in pajamas, with unwashed hair, a colicky baby and all the postpartum blues.

Following the incredible advancement of the world, with Starbucks and Cafe France presently occupying spaces on Chinoy land, La Resurreccion Chocolate, established in the 1930s along Ongpin Street, has survived the arrival of Horlicks, and then Ovaltine and Milo, and later Swiss Miss.

Chocolate tablets dissolved in hot water and beaten with a batirol is now rarefied, if not nostalgic. La Resurreccion has since moved to Benavidez Street.

The tablea are still packed the old way. They come in sweetened and unsweetened varieties. The factory is now in a different location.

Things like these make me miss my childhood days.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2014