SEEDS OF HOT CHOCOLATE
Antonya or “Tonya” is 61 years old of which she has spent 25 working as a cook in a house in Pintuyan, a small town in Panaon Island, Southern Leyte. She does not speak nor understands english and instead her language is bisaya, the native language of the central islands of the Philippines. Maybe that is why she always seemed to give the impression of apathy and even loneliness but her recipes proved the opposite. Only someone with so much love for cooking could give the flavor Tonya did to her meals.
One afternoon I found Tonya peeling cacao seeds for making tablea, a bitter, dense paste used to prepare hot chocolate. In a mix of english, bisaya and skepticism I asked Tonya if I could take some photos of the tablea process. She agreed with an almost imperceptible head movement as she usually did when I asked her a question. Like this, while behind the camera she explained in her language how she toasted, peeled, ground and sieved the cacao seeds to later on cook them and extract the oil which gives the paste its creamy texture.
Today, I cannot repeat a single word Tonya said that day but to understand her deep knowledge about this tradition I did not need words but a moment of trust and to simply notice her smile with great, yellowed teeth and the movements of her worn-out hands which explained better than her a story of years of experience.
