Hi i saw a post recently about finding the origin of their last name which also made me curious kung san nanggaling ang name namin. I heard that it is from bacolod but i am not exactly sure.

the Karihan Luvimin is basically the Filipino restaurant set up by Ricarte & his wife & family in Yokohama on exile in Japan from the US colonisers. I dunno when exactly they set it up but probably for most of the American era here (c. 19teens–WWII). Ricarte came back to PH in old age (and yes he did kinda side with the Japanese in WWII mainly because he genuinely thought Japan would liberate PH from the US imperialists), but it leaves open the question what happened to the restaurant back in Japan if anyone was left behind to run it. did it even survive the war?

Ambeth Ocampo said it was long gone by the time he went there within the last decade or so ata (nung pinuntahan niya either it's a modern Chinese restaurant or hotel or mall or basta commercial property na raw). but he said nothing about what the menu might've been like, and neither has any other historian or anyone who even studied this so far, Pinoy or Japanese or otherwise. kahit nga food historians like Doreen G Fernandez or Felice Prudente Sta Maria ewan ko lang if they've said anything about this.

so ... do we know or will we ever know what the Karihan Luvimin menu was like? I mean of course they probably served Filipino food, but what kinds? is there surviving copy/ies of the menu somewhere, photos or even illustrations of the foods etc.? if wala talaga then are there records by the Ricartes or their customers or kitchen staff (and families/descendants) re. what was served? diaries or interviews or letters? maybe records in ancestral homes, museums or historical collections they might have here in PH? or even by Japanese or other foreign locals who ate there by chance?

worst case if there really is no record then could it be determined via, I dunno, chemical analysis of the Ricartes' bones or anyone who we know passed through the restaurant?

and perhaps most importantly: could we ever reconstruct the Karihan Luvimin & its long-lost menu in future? kahit di sa Japan kung mahirap but kahit sa PH lang?

image found on The Filipino Historian on FB.

I found this while doing my daily hunt for Philippine historical artifacts last week, but I forgot to share this here back then. It is currently being offered for sale at around $1,900. I'm still waiting for a photo of the whole flag from the seller.

Taken as a war souvenir by an American soldier. The red is still vibrant, but the yellow part has already faded a bit. All I can quickly find is in wikipedia:

"Created in Tortosa by the Royal Decree of 27 July 1877, with the designation Infantry Regiment "Filipinas" No.52, named after the Philippines".

I'll try to research more about the engagement of this regiment during the Philippine Revolution era.

I lost on an auction before of an almost similar captured Spanish flag, but what made that special is that it was written the names of those American soldier who captured it. I'll post the photo on the comment.