By Enrico Dela Cruz and Adrian Portugal
MANILA (Reuters) - Putting quality over profit during inflationary times, Manila restaurant manager Ely Cundangan has refused to mess with her signature beef marrow stew - the same amount of onions must go in the pot no matter what.
"Our ingredients have become so expensive that we are almost earning nothing. But we can't change the recipe," said the 76-year old Cundangan, taking a break from cooking to man the cash register. "Our customers will surely notice, and we want to keep our customers happy."
Elected last June, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has struggled to fulfil campaign promises to bring down inflation, which hit 8.7% in January, driven by an 11.2% jump in food prices, the biggest since 2009.
Like the rest of the world, the Philippines is having to pay a lot more for energy imports, but it is the steepling prices of staple foodstuffs that has become most hard to stomach.
The cost of onions - a mainstay in almost all Philippine dishes - shot up from around pesos 70 pesos ($1.28) a kilo in April to as much as 700 pesos in December, making them more expensive than meat.
Awkwardly for Marcos, who also holds the agriculture portfolio, the onion shortages stemmed largely from import delays. Imported onions, bought mostly from India and China, require sanitary and phytosanitary permits for quarantine and biosecurity purposes.
Acknowledging that part of the fault lay with poor planning, Marcos has acted to speed up imports and prices have tumbled from December's highs, but rates in a Manila wet market are still around double the year ago levels.
"The price of onion is still like gold," said Joey Reyes, a 52-year-old grocery store owner, who is waiting for prices to come down a lot further before she starts stocking onions again.
Consumer frustration is limited for now to social media memes, with some finding humour the best way to deal with hardship.
A bride from Iloilo city became the talk of the town after she walked down the aisle with a bouquet of onions, while one enterprising florist in the capital sold bouquets festooned with onions and chillies for Valentines' Day.
"We wanted to have a different type of flower arrangement (for Valentines), especially since the prices of onions have gone up and we'd like to join the trend," Nhits Evangelista, the 25-year-old florist, told Reuters.
Earlier this month, a branch of Japan Home Centre, a popular chain of retail stores in Manila, accepted onions as payment for a day, promising to donate the onions to food banks for families unable to afford the staple.