ROYAL BRUNEI

Precy was a school teacher who quit her job to work as a househelp in Singapore, went home after a year unaware that her family has relocated to NELA in Isabela, her eldest travelling to Almaguer on borrowed fare money as she made her way to them (mobile phones were unknown then) with both finally catching up as Precy was handwashing a mountain of laundry.

Among the pasalubong she brought home were the silverware from Royal Brunei (real utensils were used for inflight meals then) where she flew from Singapore, most probably via Brunei to Manila, the memory of which slicing through the thick cheesecake of Bo's Coffee in San Jose, effortlessly deboning the tender chicken adobo and fried itik of Kantina Sabel in Makati, and rustling through patches of flowering wild sugarcane in Sto. Tomas.  

That was my prelude to my last of the 10 ASEAN member states, an almost empty red-eye Royal Brunei flight depositing me to the care of a half awake liaison officer at the Brunei International Airport who led me to a bus where I was the sole passenger, which took me to Gadong, the designated commercial area of Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital), and Brunei's "grandest and biggest mall" where I foraged for local cuisine in an almost empty food court. 

There is actually not much in Gadong, The Mall is more of the pre-Robinson NE Pacific in Cabanatuan, and I had kambing bakar (roasted lamb) and iced milk tea for lunch.      

In nearby Gadong Wet Market, I killed some of the afternoon hours and it must be frequented by Brunei's Filipino expats judging by the way I was recognized and greeted like a longtime suki. 

What might be the jewel of Gadong is its Night Market (Tamu Pasar Besar Gadong), open daily from 4 pm until almost midnight, where I have my fondest recollections of small durian fruits with gold and red bulbs, jackfuit with a smooth skin, vats and bowls of an assortment of noodles, grilled fish and meat (mainly chicken and lamb), rice cakes and other local snacks, multi-colored fruit juices and milk tea, and the plain joy of rummaging through the stalls for dinner, sharing tables with strangers, and getting high from the heady smoke of cooking food.

The downside: Brunei is strictly alcohol-free.