Kain Tayo Let's Eat

Hello everyone, this is the Sherwin M Podcast and I am your host, Sherwin. This is episode 6, Kain Tayo. So I’ve noticed there are taglines that podcasts use and I don’t have one. So I’ve been thinking about what I should use. How about this? What if I use this tagline?

The Sherwin M Podcast. A podcast about being Filipino-American, a father, a developer, a retired sneakerhead, and beer. How about that? Because in my social media accounts, that’s what I put, right? But I’m not sure if I’m going to be talking about being a retired sneakerhead and or beer often.

It’s mainly just being Filipino-American. And being a father. So I don’t know, we’ll see. But let’s test that out. So let me know what you guys think about that tagline.

A couple of updates before we get started. A few days ago, my parents and my son were involved in a car accident. And some of you reached out on social media because I posted a photo. So thank you for all the shoutouts and stuff. Everyone’s okay.

They were at a stop. Stoplight. And I guess another car ran a red light. Then hit another car. And then one ricocheted off and hit them.

Thankfully, everyone is okay. But it’s just one of those things, you know. You never know. I get a phone call from my brother. And man, that adrenaline just kicked in.

Like, oh my goodness, you know. But again, everyone’s okay. Just be careful out there. Drive safe. Drive as if everyone on the road is a worse driver than you are.

That’s how I always look at it. So yeah, be careful out there. Not worth rushing. Let’s practice Filipino time. How about that?

Even if you’re not Filipino, practice it. That way, there’s no need to rush. Just be careful out there. Another update. This episode, I’m standing up.

I got this new iMac. And my desk is a little awkward. It can’t really support the iMac, I guess. Like, the way it’s laid out. So, it’s somewhat more comfortable if I stood up.

My desk, where the monitor or where the iMac is sitting, is pretty elevated. So, when I’m sitting down, I have to look up. So, I’m going to try this out. This is like my, I guess, standing desk. Or I’m just forcing myself to stand.

So, we’ll see. So, there’s been studies out there that says when people stand, they’re smarter. Their intellect is a little higher when they stand. I think it’s like 7%. Someone told me.

I’m going to look it up. But yeah, I’m going to look it up. And then I’m going to link it to the show notes. And hopefully, I sound smarter in this episode. And yes, I am getting a little better.

I still have to clear my throat often. I don’t know what it is. But these allergies just won’t…

Go away. Shout out to the people in the East Coast of the United States. They are dealing with some pretty bad weather. Blizzards and stuff. Some family have shared pictures on Facebook.

And yeah, but us here in the West Coast, we’re battling some pretty rough weather too. Like mid-80s weather. Sorry. I mean, it’s pretty much summertime here in California. And it’s like March.

So, I actually… I miss winter. I prefer cold weather myself.

I don’t know if it’s just being from Chicago. Or I just… I think I’m more comfortable in cold weather.

I’ve always looked at it as… You can pile on clothing to keep yourself warm. Whereas…

I mean, you could be naked and it’s still hot. You can’t unzip your skin. I’ve always looked at it that way. So, I’ve always preferred cold weather. Because you could just keep piling on clothing until you’re comfortable.

Whereas, when it’s just… It’s hot. It’s hot.

You can’t do anything. I mean, that’s it. Or just stay indoors. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is.

So… Let’s get to the feedback. A good friend of mine, Rich Lieberman, who is a school psychologist.

Really awesome guy. He’s known in the student mental health environment. So, shout out to him. He reached out to me and texted me. And just gave me a few words.

And… Yeah. And he said he loved the Manopo episode.

I think that’s episode 4. And… So, yeah.

Thank you, Rich. Thank you for listening. And he listens as he goes about throughout the city and, you know, do his thing. So, I thought you’re retired, man. Go relax.

Anyway, thank you, Rich. I hope we can do lunch sometime. I miss seeing you. I miss talking to you. So, thank you.

And so, in this episode, we’re going to have a few Tagalog words. As I mentioned before, this is episode 6. Kain tayo. So, kain tayo is translated in English as let’s eat. And so, another word that I would like to share with you is pagkain.

It may sound like there is kain there also. It does, right? So, kain tayo. Let’s eat. Which is kain is eat.

And then pagkain is food. And then this other word that I’d like to also share before we get started is salo-salo. So, salo-salo, not only is it if you’re familiar with the restaurant, there are restaurants with that name. But the translation for salo-salo is like a gathering, right? A gathering around food.

So, you can eat together. It’s just like sharing, sharing the food or sharing the bill of the check. It’s kind of like a potluck. But, you know, it’s just you guys or gals or everyone, they’re just, you’re together around food. That’s what salo-salo is.

And so, in this episode 6, I want to talk about kain tayo. So, kain tayo. If you’re Filipino or are familiar with…

With our culture, we tend to always invite. We tend to invite when we’re eating. For instance, let’s say you go into…

At work, you go into the cafeteria or just a place where people eat. And there’s a Filipino person there. And you walk in. Guarantee you, guarantee you, they’re going to say, look at you, just nod and say, kain tayo. You know, like, you know, let’s eat.

Let’s eat. Always inviting. Always inviting. I’ve never really noticed that in other cultures except ours. Although, I don’t really look for it.

But, it’s very common in our culture. We’re always inviting. And the weird thing about it is, even if it’s like, let’s say, let’s say I’m eating, right? And I always, I always try to be that way. And even though…

The food that I have is enough for myself. It’s like a… It’s an automatic, like, automatic phrase that just comes out.

You know, if I see somebody else, you know, kain tayo or let’s eat. I mean, I don’t just say it to Filipinos, but I also say it to other people that I know. Like, hey, you know, since I’m eating, why don’t you go and join me? Even though I only have enough for myself. But, of course, you know.

For the most part, everyone just says, oh, yeah, thank you, you know, and I’m gonna get my own and blah, blah, blah, blah. But, it’s that whole initiation. I guess, an icebreaker. I guess, I guess it’s an icebreaker. I don’t know.

To just say hello or whatever. Acknowledge that you see them and you’re just saying hello. But, instead of just using, you know, the usual hello, let’s eat. So, and yeah, and then on the other side of that, usually the person you tell it to, they never accept the invitation. Like, not that they won’t eat with you, but more on because you’re saying, hey, let’s eat.

Eat some food with me, like the food that I’m eating, I’m willing to share. No one really accepts it. For the most part, I’ve rarely seen or heard about the other person sitting next to you and like, okay, I will eat the same food as you. But, we always do that. We always invite people to eat with us.

I’ve always wondered though, like, what if one day I do that and I’m almost done eating and they’re like, okay, what are you having? And I have scraps left. Like, how does that work? I don’t know. I don’t know.

But, yeah, usually the other person, you know, because you’re like in a cafeteria or a place where you eat. You know, they’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat.

They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to say, hey, let’s eat. They’re going to go ahead and get their food anyway. And sometimes they’ll sit with you.

Sometimes they’ll have, you know, they’ll just eat by themselves. Depending on people’s mood, we sometimes don’t want to eat with other people. We just want to be alone. Other times, you know, you want a company just to chat with, you know. So, Filipinos, we have a tendency to always, whenever we’re eating, we just invite.

We just, you know, we have, I don’t know if it’s an obsession or just it’s programmed in our head. Like, we always invite people to eat. So, maybe it’s like that feeling of the salo-salo, right? You just want to be with other people, not only enjoying the food, but you’re just conversating. It’s that eating together at the same time.

So, that’s what ka-en-tayo. So, if you see or hear that, that’s what that means, ka-en-tayo, let’s eat. So, I want to expand more on this and share a couple of things. With the eating togetherness. So, a few years ago, when Abby, my wife, got to America after we got married, she was asking about the whole eating together thing.

In the Philippines, it’s very common for everyone to eat together at the same time. And so, I somewhat knew about it, but I was trying to explain to her that it isn’t as common in America. And, like, we tried it. I tried to accommodate her, but it’s just scheduling. That’s one of the reasons why not many people eat here at the same time.

I was trying to explain to her it’s not common to eat together because our work schedules are different. People get home at different times. And so, but she wanted to bring that with her here. And so…

So, when she arrived, she would wait for me. She would wait for me to get home and we would have dinner. At that time, she was still studying the pharmacy boards. And so, she didn’t have any work. She just studied all day and then just waited for me.

We didn’t have kids yet. So, she would wait for me to get home and then that’s when she would eat. I thought that was cool. You know, I appreciate that. It was awesome.

It was different and it was weird. But, yeah. So, she would wait up for me and then we would eat together. And then, she finally got a job, passed her boards and all that and it ended. Like, because now she’s understanding that the whole scheduling thing is one of the big issues of where we cannot eat together at the same time.

So, yeah. And I tried to explain to her like that whole eating together thing don’t work also because people have… People have different schedules of going home but their eating habits are also different.

Normally, we don’t wait for other people to get home. We just eat whenever we feel like it. So, yeah. That’s like one thing we’re still trying to work on and hopefully, we could do that especially with our kids now. We want to be able to eat with each other.

So, what we try to do on the weekends at least when we’re both have our days off, we try to go out as a family with the kids and we eat lunch together and we try to wake up around the same time and have breakfast together and then dinner together. So, we try to take advantage of the weekends when we don’t have work and we try to also have the kids eat at the same time. They do wake up a lot earlier on weekends which is odd when there’s no school. I don’t understand it but it’s always a challenge during weekends. When there is school that it’s just hard for them to wake up.

So, not only is this a little weird for me, eating together at home at least, being like Americanized but I also have like Spanish culture in me and so I remember growing up with my parents and stuff like my dad would tell stories when he was young. And that they also eat together but the thing is when they’re eating, you got to be quiet. Like, you know, he was explaining that part of being Spanish, it’s like they’re really strict, right? And so, I think there was a story one time where my grandfather would have the belt on the table. It’s pretty much like him.

Him and his siblings would be eating and it’s like nobody talk because if you say a word, you’re going to get a closer look at that belt and I’m like wow. So, it’s somewhat became part of us growing up as well, my brother and I where when we do eat together, like you can’t talk. You got to be quiet, pay attention to your food, you know, handle your business with the food and then go about your business after that. So, that’s how it is. Growing up, that’s how when we ate together, we got to be quiet.

It’s a little different now when myself and my family eat. This is the opportunity for me to ask, you know, the kids like how was school, you know, I got to check up on them and make sure like he’s not being bullied or he’s not bullying someone else. So, it’s like it’s different being a dad but, you know, I try to take that opportunity and just bond with them. Because throughout the week, just schedule is so rough. It’s really rough.

So, but it’s a little different from how I grew up and how my dad grew up and what I’ve experienced. So, yeah, I mean, I’m not that strict when we’re eating, like, you know, you’re free to talk, just pay attention to your food, try not to be too distracted and we just try to update one another with things. It kind of sucks though because now you think about it. The weekend is the only opportunity that we get to do that, but at least there is an opportunity. So, that’s how it is with food.

Like we try, as Filipinos, we try to eat with each other and, you know, and as much as possible, like even if you don’t know people, you try to also invite them. So that’s kain tayo. Now it doesn’t stop with food. It also extends. It extends with alcohol.

Now for sure that doesn’t happen here in America because, so the way it works with alcohol is in the Philippines, many, many people would drink outside, like in their, the front of their homes. I don’t know how frequent it is now, I think the current president, Duterte, has banned that kind of activity outside the home. You could do it indoors but prior to this president, many people drank in front of their homes. Now when I’m talking about in front of their homes, like they don’t have a front yard, so they would be like on the street or they would drink in front of like the corner store, like on the street or on the sidewalk. So well, see and sidewalks aren’t even common over there.

So you’re pretty much on the street. But yeah, so many people would just have their drinks. Now if you’re not drinking, right, and you, you know, just happen to walk by and they know you, and sometimes they don’t even have to know you, but you live, like you look familiar because you lived in the area or whatever. Now keep in mind, walking is common there because, you know, not many people have cars or it’s just. It’s just better.

Like, you know, they, they walk. I don’t know how else to explain it. But so let’s say you need to go to, you know, a relative’s house who is three blocks away and blocks isn’t the same distance as blocks here in America. So blocks seem far, three blocks seems far, but it’s not that far anyway. So let’s say you just had to walk somewhere at night and there were people just, just drinking alcohol.

There was a lot of people just drinking alcohol, but you know, there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of people, you know, there’s a lot of people that just, you know, they’re just drinking alcohol. You know, they’re just drinking alcohol. You know, they’re just drinking alcohol. And you know, they’re just drinking alcohol. You know, they’re just drinking alcohol.

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