Pancit Crawl in the Time of Covid-19

Last year, I had an idea to do a food tour around Binondo to visit the oldest restaurants in the area, which are also some of the oldest in the Philippines. I called it a heritage food tour. It just so happens that all of them are panciterias. So, it became a heritage pancit crawl. Great, right?! 

So I pitched it to Ed because I never do pancit crawls without Ed. I also told him that I intend to write an article about the pancit crawl on this blog .  He liked the idea, he also said that he'd take pictures and videos that I can use for the article. He also named it Heritage Pancit Crawl.

Myren, Ace, and Isi were kind enough to indulge me and joined us on our pancit crawl around the oldest Chinatown in the world. We called the group the Pancitouristas, just because we felt that we need a team name, like the Avengers.  It was March 7, 2020. We went to four of the oldest restaurants and tasted some of the oldest recipes of pancit still being served at a Filipino restaurant. One even dates back to the Philippine Revolution of the 1800s. 

But there was uneasiness lingering. It was due to the news about the unknown, highly contagious virus coming from China. The first virus transmission locally was confirmed just the day before. The stigma was evident, Chinatown wasn't as packed as it used to for a weekend. But nonetheless, it was a fun-filled, carbo-loaded Saturday.

As I was preparing to write this article, things got serious fast. On March 15, 2020, community quarantine was imposed by the government. Just a week after reported local transmission. It was an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus. Our lives were changed forever.

Now, more than a year has passed. Instead of finishing the article that I should have published a year ago, I'm writing an apology letter, trying to justify why I procrastinated.