Henrietta!

That's her name. She is 85 years old. I always see her walking down the street and I always smile at her. This morning I heard Henrietta call out softly "suman" (a sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaves) so I called her and she showed me her basket full of suman:

Henrietta stopped at our gate and introduced herself. She told me she makes the suman herself! "I wake up at 1 in the morning to prepare and cook the suman" Henrietta explained. I do get wary about buying food from strangers but how can I resist not buying a cake that an 85-year-old woman made at dawn and peddled on the streets from the next subdivision (she said she walked to and around our subdivision because she gets regular buyers here) and it takes her the whole morning to finish her basket of sumans. A package of wrapped suman with sauce cost P15 (2 sumans in one package) so I bought three packages. Roughly only $1 for the 3 packages!
And the still warm suman poured with home-made sauce made of thickened coconut juice tasted heavenly! It tasted the way my late Mama made sticky rice cake with coconut. Henrietta's suman taste of love! The next time I see Henrietta I will tell her that she got herself another regular customer!

Btw, I asked Manang Henrietta's permission if I can take a picture of her and share her inspiring story and she shyly said yes. This reminds me that I have to print out this post for her! ;-)

For Beverly and her pink lovers this weekend: