Foot and Fire

Ganduyan Museum is a private collection of Christina Aben. It is a small collection but I got amazed with the leglet, a bronze coil jewelry worn around the legs for health benefits and as badge of wealth where the longer it is, the more affluent the wearer is. At first, I even thought it is worn around the neck just like the Karen Tribe in Thailand. It was one nice thing to know from this museum.  In the museum one can find baskets used for farming and cayching snails. There are old cloths too because Sagada is know for weaving too. Jewelry consisting of beads used for dowry can also be found.  Ganduyan is the old town name of Sagada, a name taken from a farm tool because of language barrier it was the thing used by a native was first asked what's the town name. A booklet is lent containing descriptions of the items but it would have been nice if the lady in charge is explaining and interacting. Check my instagram for more photos of museum finds....

Thanks to my airfryer I get to cook sisig. I don't like to deep-fry so I avoid making sisig. I also can tolerate chili so I used some aise from sweet bellpepper. the secret of sisig is in the complex flavor of the sauce, not just salt and pepper hiding in the shadow of sizzling butter and drizzles of mayonnaise. Here, I'm sharing my recipe: 500g airfried tofu 1T olive oil (or butter) 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 medium onion, chopped 2 bellpeppers, chopped 3 stalks spring onion, chopped 3 long chilis, chopped seed incuded Sauce mixture 1/4 C soy sauce 1/8 C mirin (or any cooking wine) 1T oligosaccharides (or any sweetener) 2T pickle relish 2T fish sauce 1T sesame oil 1T nutritional yeast salt (optional) Airfry the chopped tofu at 200F for 30 minutes to brown it. For softer texture, I suggest 20 minutes and for crispy version, add ten more minutes.  Prepare the Sauce mixture. Set aside. In a pan, add oil and saute the garlic and onion and add the rest of ingredients. S...

Having a firm tofu in the house is a joy because it's easy to cook and enjoy. I also feel the need to review the Season 1 of Culinary Wars because that highlighted the ways on how to enjoy Tofu when the chefs developed several dishes out of it. So far, I did Tofu Sisig and this. If tofu comes in blocks, I can do some White Spoon/Black Spoon kitchen moves.  Tofu and Kimchi Stew 1 T Olive oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 medium onion, chopped 250 g tofu, cubed 1 cup water 3T kimchi 1T Kimchi juice 1t chili paste 1t Oligosaccharide (or any preferred sweetener) 1t Mirin (or any cooking wine) 1 t fish sauce 1T nutritional yeast (optional) Salt In a pan, saute garlic and onion in oil. Add the cubed tofu and brown the sides a bit.  Add water, kimchi and kimchi juice. Let boil. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer. Adjust salt according to preference. Serve on top of rice. Serves 2.

Brida  Paulo Coelho Fiction/Novel  originally published in 1990 Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jule Costa hardbound, 212 pages This is my second Paulo Coelho book. I first read The Alchemist and it did not transform me into something after reading it (even just into something next to stone). It was eons ago that I read it, and sadly, all I can even recall now is how I was thinking that everything in it were cliches. After reading Brida, I wonder why I think/felt that way with The Alchemist that I am on a mission to reread it. Perhaps, as a reader I was, in time, transformed too. Not that Brida got me totally. It is just that I gave it a chance as I went on, perhaps because Brida is a woman and this is March, a celebratory month for women. And usually, the equinox happens in March. I should have some mystic vibes so I can be more receptive, I guess. But that is the point of reading, to explore a world, an idea outside our own and somehow finding some connect...

Men without women By Haruki Murakami Fiction, 228 pages Just a little after valentine's day, I met up with my friends but opened this book to pass the time as I was in the last two short stories out of the eight. When my friends saw the title, they surmised that it might be about misogyny. No, I said they're short stories. Actually, I was in the seventh kafka-esque story of Samsa In Love and I was deciding if I still liked the book itself. I liked how it started with a woman driver and flowed till the fifth story of Kino which I was a bit lost (need to reread this one to get to where it's headed but perhaps that's the point, being lost). Actually, this is the first nonfiction of Murakami that I finished, the first attempt was The Wind Up Bird Chronicle which I find too difficult to continue. I loved Murakami's memoir " What I talk about when I talk about running " that I decided to read his nonfiction. In this shorts, he is still philosophical ...

Two imposing rocks on a circumferential road while we were on our way to villages of Sumnanga and Nakanmuan in Sabtang Island Expectation: Batanes is prone to typhoon Reality: Yes, but not all typhoons are feared in Batanes I heard from a cousin that the best time to visit Batanes is in fact after a typhoon. That stuck in my mind so that I fearlessly booked a PAL flight in October, and of course, led by the fact that it was booked as seat sale. We were supposed to fly out to Manila on the eve of October 18 and take the first flight to Basco the following day. The Manila-Basco Trip was cancelled due to Typhoon Ramil and we had our flights rebooked and chose to fly out of Iloilo/Bacolod on October 23 and on that day, Typhoon Salome cancelled the Manila-Basco flight and we were monitoring weather updates. Flights to Basco resumed on the 24th and we were able to fly. Like this Arius Tree in Itbayat, the Ivatans are fearless when it comes to typhoons for they are res...