We Filipinos really love our sari-sari store snacks. While they aren’t the most nutritious, these colorful varieties of biscuits, chips, chocolates, and bubble gum have been a tasty, familiar staple for our palates and created fond memories we’ve grown up with.
That’s why Subtle Filipino Traits, a Facebook group bringing together a community of Filipino kababayans from all over the world, has been holding various local food ‘tournaments’ in their group. Currently, they are holding a Sari-Sari Store Snack Tournament including classic favorites such as V-Cut, Chippy, and SkyFlakes. The quarterfinals are set to begin today, 30th June.
The mechanics of the games are simple and resemble those of a basketball tournament. To determine the winner of each round, two sari-sari store snacks are pitted against each other, and the snack with the most number of vote reactions wins. The tournament consists of 8 preliminary rounds, 4 quarterfinals, 3 semi-finals, and a final round.
Image credit: East Side Asian Market
Round 1 began with V-Cut vs. Boy Bawang on 14th June. Earning 2,400 votes, the spicy potato chip won by a 1,100 difference in votes against the classic garlic snack that got just 1,400 votes. While V-Cut won by a clear margin, though, the round was difficult for some voters. Alexa Navasero, for instance, found it hard to pick just one, as V-Cut is her “lunch snack” and Boy Bawang is her “beer snack.”
V-Cut is going up against Choc Nut in today’s quarter-finals
Image credit: Subtle Filipino Traits
For the rest of the 7 rounds, Choc Nut, Clover Chips, Piattos, Golden Sweet Corn, Potchi, Nova, and Cheese Rings also won, advancing to the quarterfinals that begin today.
The Sari-Sari Store tournament is just part of the group’s series of food tournaments. Previously, Subtle Filipino Traits also held tournaments pitting different Filipino ulams and desserts. The classic sour Filipino dish Sinigang, custard dessert Leche Flan, and Mango Float were declared as the champions.
The champion of the sari-sari store edition will be determined on 16 July 2020, and all Filipinos and friends of the Philippines are welcome to join the group and vote. In the next couple of months, we can expect the group to launch other tournaments revolving around larong kalye, Filipino TV shows, iconic Filipino memes, and Karaoke songs sung by our titos and titas.
According to Joram Bonus, one of the admins of Subtle Filipino Traits, the goal of the group’s tournaments is to help “nostalgically reconnect” the online Filipino community, and “food plays a big part” in building this sense of connection across the diaspora. Furthermore, he shares that around 80% of the members of the Subtle Filipino Traits community who live outside the Philippines reconnect to their Filipino identity by “having snacks like Fudgee Barr for breakfast, wearing Cheese Rings as wedding rings, and pretending to smoke cigarettes with Stick-Os.”
Indeed, our favorite sari-sari store snacks are close to our hearts for a reason – aside from satisfying our palates, we’ve been with them in all the times we have experienced being a Filipino.
The group has around 80,000 members as of writing. If you haven’t been a part of the group yet, just send them an invite – no matter where you are, as long as you’re Filipino by blood or at heart, you’re welcome to join.
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Cover image adapted from: @kookie_48
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