LAS VEGAS — There’s a special dish, boiled to blissful perfection in my mother’s now-gone kitchen, that I surprisingly rediscovered in a Filipino restaurant — Ang Sariling Atin — in this perplexing gambling mecca a couple of days back.
It’s the meat caldereta, cheese, tomato sauce, chili and other magical mix, served with a steaming plate of rice.
I last tasted that gorgeous hot dish nearly two decades ago, when my dear Mom could still do what she loved best. Cook what we, her sons, loved best.
I have all but given up tasting that unforgettable dish again.
You know what? I told the Three Musketeers of Cebu (namely Homer, Salven and Sam) that Manny Pacquiao can’t lose his rematch with Erik Morales.
Why, they chorused.
Because you’ve treated me to this magical dish.
Yeah, the trio from Cebu wondered, but what has it got to do with Pacquiao’s victory.
***
Not so simple. It just so happened that this special dish is called by a different name in these parts.
What?
It’s called puchero, but it’s actually my mother’s glorious caldereta of old.
Don’t leave yet. It’s past deadline but this piece is being rushed, a couple of hours after Pacquiao had done the miracle feat of stopping Morales, the once unstoppable Mexican boxing great.
I repeat: Pacquiao could not miss because there are many good signs that had augured his ultimate success.
Like the Mass celebrated by a Filipino priest, Gerry Beof, who flew all the way from New York yesterday.
Pacquiao, it was bared, had had steamed fish for lunch, little soup around 3 p.m. before moving out of his suite at Wynn Las Vegas for the showdown with Morales yesterday.
There are many little things, several intangibles, that helped propel Pacquiao to the biggest win of his career.
***
Rex (Wakee) Salud swore there were three things that made Pacquiao win, namely tapang, lakas, tatag (courage, power, dedication).
For his part, trainer Freddie Roach bared that a great ingredient of the Pacquiao winning formula goes by a Mexican name.
Cleto Reyes. Yes, this was exactly the same pair Pacquiao had sorely missed when he failed to stop Morales in their first fight.
Said Roach when it was his turn to bare the secret of success: “That, Cleto Reyes, was the main ingredient that was absent in the Manila Ice the last time out.”
To those who have forgotten it, Manila Ice was the secret weapon promised by Roach for Pacquiao’s first fight with Morales last March.
It finally fitted into the fight scene on Pacquiao’s second and successful try at immortality yesterday.
But, then, Roach explained Manila Ice was not the biggest secret behind their victory.
The biggest weapon? Overhaul.
Pacquiao, in his preparation against Morales, had to be reconditioned like a racing car being primed up for a championship race.
Roach tinkered with the Pacquiao system and, voila, the GenSan great learned how to duck, weave and defend.
He also developed counter-punching abilities.
Imagine Paquiao, whom we thought could win only by knockout, out-pointing and beating the technically superior Morales in his own game.
No, we can’t call it an overhaul, because Pacquiao will always be Pacquiao, Roach explained.
So what’s the name of the biggest ingredient behind their success?
No name, Roach explained.
All they had to do was learn from their biggest mistake the last time.
They no longer underestimated Morales, unlike the last time when Pacquiao had bragged he would overrun the Mexican great.
Pacquiao rediscovered humility and, just like this reporter with the caldereta by a strange name, was rewarded with bliss.
