Marikina • June 2013. Maligayang Bati, Karl! A Vikings Buffet Flashback From Marikina, 2013. karl perseveranda birthday, vikings luxury buffet marikina, sm city marikina, perseveranda family archive, balikbayan titas, marikenyo, filipino american family, kapamilya.

MARIKINA • JUNE 2013

Maligayang Bati, Karl! A Vikings Buffet Flashback From Marikina, 2013

Karl turns 29 today. Before the happy birthday, a flashback to the one afternoon the balikbayan side and the Marikenyo side of this family shared the same table — and the same all-you-can-eat spread.

Vikings Luxury Buffet, SM City Marikina — June 28, 2013. The balikbayan titas and the Marikenyo Perseverandas, together for a treat.

Today, Angelo turns 29 — Karl Perseveranda to the rest of the world, but he's been Angelo to this family since before he could walk. He's my first cousin Michelle's eldest, and as far as the Perseveranda family tree goes, he's the eldest cousin of his whole generation — the one who came first.

Before I get to the happy birthday part properly, I want to go back thirteen years, to June 28, 2013. That's the last time both halves of this family — the balikbayan half and the Marikenyo half — sat down at the same long table.

📌 Did You Know? Marikina has officially been the "Shoe Capital of the Philippines" since 1956 — a title that traces back to 1887, when a local named Kapitan Moy taught his neighbors how to make shoes. By the 1930s the city had more than 100 shoe shops running full-time. It's also home to the world's largest pair of shoes and a Shoe Museum holding part of Imelda Marcos's infamous collection. And here's the coincidence: Henry Sy, the man behind the mall the titas treated everyone at that day, started out selling shoes too — a small store called Shoemart, opened in Quiapo in 1958. Different city, same instinct.

🇵🇭 Tagalog Word of the Day

Pamangkin  (PAH-mahng-keen)

Nephew or niece — but looser than the English word. In a Filipino family, a pamangkin isn't only your sibling's child; it stretches to cover a first cousin's child too, which is exactly what Angelo is to me. English makes you pick a box: nephew, or cousin-once-removed. Pamangkin just makes room.

The Balikbayan and the Marikenyo

On one end of the table that day were the balikbayan titas — my dad's sisters Diana, Grace, and Luz, out from LA — plus Tess and me. We were the ones who'd flown in. On the other end were the Marikenyo, the side of the family that never left, or came home to stay: Tita Neneng — Adelina, married to my late Tito Sonny, Marciano Perseveranda Jr. — and her three kids, Dave, Michelle, and Pauline, who nobody in this family has ever called anything but Twinkle. Dave couldn't make it that day, but his wife and their son came anyway. Michelle brought her whole family including Angelo, fifteen years old that summer. Was he the tallest one in the group photo?

Vikings Luxury Buffet, SM City Marikina

The titas were treating, and they picked Vikings — the 2nd level of SM City Marikina, done up in what Vikings calls a "Home Inspired" theme: warm lighting, family-style seating, built for exactly the kind of big, loud group we were. Vikings had only been around since April 2011, when it opened its flagship at SM Mall of Asia and more or less invented the idea of a hotel-quality international buffet at a price a Filipino family could actually justify on a random Tuesday. By 2013 it had already become the default answer to "where do we take everybody" — sushi and sashimi on one side, a carving station doing roast beef and pork ribs, a full dessert bar with halo-halo, and every drink at the table, including draft San Miguel for the adults, included in the rate.

For what it's worth: the Vikings birthday promo works a little differently than most people assume. On your actual birthday, you eat free with just one paying adult. Any other day within your birth month, it's free with four paying adults. June 28 wasn't Angelo's birthday — that's today, September 1 — so this one was simply the titas being generous, no promo required.

The Last Time, So Far

I didn't know it at the time, but that 2013 trip turned out to be the last one the titas and I made together. Tess is in that photo too — one of the last big Philippine trips we took as a family. My own kids are in Bukidnon right now, on Tess's side of the family, and I wasn't able to go with them this time. Sayang. Next time.

So — maligayang kaarawan, Angelo. Twenty-nine years old, still the eldest cousin. See you at the next Vikings run.

Sources

• Vikings Philippines — Company Milestones
• Vikings Philippines — Branches, Rates & Birthday Promo Mechanics
• Vikings Luxury Buffet, SM City Marikina — Booking & Pet Policy

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Founder & Editor

J.F.R. Perseveranda

J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.

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