NEW YORK– Americans have all sorts of parties to celebrate special events that are broadcast on television. There is the Superbowl Party celebrating the final game between the two best teams in pro American football. There is also the Oscar Party celebrating the broadcast of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences Awards night. There are many others like these in the American calendar when fans gather to watch these events while munching on their favorite morsels and drowning themselves with booze. It is as if people would find every excuse to party, which is needless to say, a good thing, especially in economically challenging times like this.

In recent years, there is a kind of party that is gaining momentum among a significant size of the population: Pacquiao Party, also known as Pac Party.
Pac Party is the almost annual indoor gathering of Filipino-American boxing fans watching the greatest boxer of our time, Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines, destroy his latest opponent. This party, is every bit as festive and perhaps the most gastronomically abundant sports/television party to date.

While football fans gobble on hotdogs, fries, ribs, burgers, steaks, chips, and beer on Superbowl night, traditional Pac Party attendees devour  hotdogs, fries, ribs, burgers, steaks, chips, beer and soda. But they also supplement these with pigs roasted whole to crispy perfection, Crispy Pata –crispy pork legs-feet included (yes, Filipinos can never get enough of crackling pig meat), rice by the cauldrons, noodles on plates as large as  14-wheeler truck rims, non-recession special skewered meat, a wide array of sweets that could more effectively knock one’s teeth than Pacquiao’s jabs.

The dubious origins of Pac Parties

Pac Parties probably began when Manny Pacquiao gained recognition in the American boxing scene. We could place this after he pounded Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera to submission in 2003.
Barrera then was at his prime and the current toast of the boxing world, while Pacquiao then was as obscure as a Don Johnson B-side track.

So by the time of his next fight against another Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, Pinoys in the US may have already organized themselves around their television sets, paying HBO the obligatory PPV fee, and may have feasted on Sisig(toasted pig head parts sprinkled with chilies, onions, and fresh eggs or sometimes, ox or pig brain) and beer.
Yes, Filipinos back then were still unsure of Pacquiao’s abilities hence were reluctant to splurge on food for their guests. Pacquiao did not beat Marquez in that fight. It was a draw, but it was hailed as one of the best fights of the decade: Pacquiao knocking down a shell-shocked Marquez three times in the first round, and then Marquez summoning all his strength coming back to even the fight. A Classic match indeed.