Foot and Fire

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...

   The Secret Arch, Itbayat Island Yes, Filipinos can be found everywhere. I’m sure one can be found trekking and lingering in the outbacks of Australia or partaking a whiff of breeze in Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher while I am writing this piece. But Batanes is in the Philippines, and as Filipinos, we should all at least experience it once in our lifetime. Where else can we experience saying Hello as “Kapian capa nu dios” that translates actually to “God bless you” and random children ask for your hand to touch their forehead asking for blessings and as a sign of respect? So I write this as an open invitation for everyone to have a full sensory experience of Batanes, our very own outback and cliffs.        Racuh A Payaman or the Marlboro country as part of South Batan, Batan Island Batanes has always been at the back of my mind for a long time already. But one can never be too prepared for it. Imagine a laidback town, beaches to swim,...

I love long introduction but just like this dressing, this blog is very straightforward when it comes to kitchen inventions straight from the whatever-is-in-my-fridge shelves.  1T miso paste 1 t anchovies 2T Japanese style soy sauce 1T honey 2T mayonnaise Pinch of salt & pepper Mix and beat all together with your trusted fork.  I used a tablespoon for my dressing today and reserved the rest. Oh, yeah, Caesar who? 

Well, stormy days call for easy cooking. This rice cooker one pot meal is highly recommended. It has lots of mushroom so I enjoyed it.  Beef-wrapped Enoki mushroom  1 carrot, julienned 3 T oyster mushroom 3 T dried sliced shiitake mushroom 2T miso toppings (seaweed & tofu) 1 mug rice, rinsed 1 mug water Sesame seeds Sauce 3T Japanese Style soy sauce 2T rice wine 2T honey 3 T sesame oil 1T nutritional yeast In a bowl, mix the sauce well and set aside. In a rice cooker with rinsed rice, top the rice with all of the ingredients and add the water then the sesame seeds. Let cook.  After the rice cooker shifts to warm, add the sauce. Do not mix yet. Let cook again. Make sure the liquid reaches the bottom. Let stay in the Warm for 5 minutes. Mix well, let warm again. Serve as a one-pot meal. Add soy sauce, kimchi, and chili paste, if so desired.  

Watched two "based on true story" Netflix film features, The Match (2025) and The Dig (2021). As in all artistic license in fictional biographies, the true story must only be ten percent like limited alone to the names of the protagonists, but these two are really entertaining, and indeed great directorial accomplishments for turning difficult subjects interesting.  THE MATCH Baduk or Go, the sports interestingly presented in this film despite it's a boring boardgame.  I must have said that because I am so ignorant of this game and experienced an online version of it once out of sheer curiosity.   The true story herevmust be limited on Korea's D-9 level teacher Cho and  pupil Lee, who both eventually played against each other & beat each other in the matches.  THE DIG.  This ultra fictional film based on ultra fictional novel. This "based on true story" is worth the fictional personal tales if only to present one of England's important ...

         Disclaimer:  I am a self-confessed Park Bo-gum fan. I mean, he can be a believable Olympian boxer here, and also a silly pet puppy at the same time.  But that does not mean I watched the series solely on that ground. I watched his latest TV series Good Boy for another icing on top of the cake: a good story line. The central story of Good Boy is pursuing good to defeat the evil that is corruption. The former athletes, who were at one moment in time hailed heroes when they got their Olympic medals, joined the police force only to be discriminated against as "privileged," "no guts," "poster girl," "no good" and so on. And since, we are on this, let me say that the story line has some potential to be a classic but the comedy in an action K-series ruined that potential. But well, I'm not surprised. Disappointed? Yes, a bit because I love the reference to the poem of Yun Dongju.           The character of Pa...

BANGUS IN OLIVE OIL. In a bed of banana leaves, I pressure-cooked in my Instantpot two kilos of milkfish in Spanish-style condiments.  It has been a very long while since I cooked bangus using a pressure cooker. Well, it's all worth it.  I enjoyed eating the bones, especially the head since it's all melt-in-your-mouth tenderness. This is a welcome break to our fried fish or fish soup fare. I made 2 kilos as I want to have them as part of my packed lunch. I slowly placed the 2-3 sluces of fish in a tin container add the oil & spices so I can just heat it when it's time to eat. Made four containers even after eating this for lunch and dinner. Caveat: more cups of rice is needed. 2 pcs (about 2 kilos) milkfish, cut in pieces Black & Green olives, 10 pcs each 2 pcs Carrots, cut round 1T Baby Capers 9 pcs Chilis 20 pcs Bayleaves 1 head of Garlic, peeled 2T Paprika powder 2T Himalayan salt 2T Peppercorns 2C Olive oil Water Prep: In a bowl, put Water & diss...

I am not very skilled with Canva but I tried to collate the six poems so you may easily access them. Click this link and use the poems to spread the campaign against corruption. Here is the  CANVA  link to all the poems.

Do not go gentle into that cave of billions, honest people should burn and rave  about “labor is honor” every pay day, and  rage, rage against the dying of the conscience. Good people, pinned against the wall,  know glitters are strong and blinding  for their honest words had forked no lightning,  and yet honorably, they again and again do not go gentle into that cave of billions. Good people, some of them wave by,  crying how the cave’s full of glitters, their frail resistance even rewarded them  with luxury cars with premium umbrellas. rage, rage against the dying of their conscience. Corrupt people, who were caught and now try hard  to declare that their cave is dull and empty, learn, albeit too late, they deserve to grieve  on their way to the pinnacle of shame. Told you:  do not go gentle into that cave of billions. Nepo babies, living like barbie dolls & movie stars, they’re such a blinding sight, shimmering stars...

     While I was simmering my ideas for this blog entry after watching Netflix's Kontrabida Academy , I came across a news article posted by  ABS-CBN News just an hour ago as of this writing saying that content creators launched Creators Against Corruption . This made me smile because I immediately had a wild thought that these content creators must have graduated from the K ontrabida Academy.        These content creators must have felt powerlessness in their meekness and patience and by the external forces that takes advantage of that meekness and patience that they immediately enrolled in the Kontrabida Academy and emerged as best fighters by all means. I myself felt that way. I wanted to be Classmates with them and Mayor Vico in this cause. I am a public servant serving my fellow citizens since I was 26 years old, and though I did my share in stopping corruption within my sphere of influence, I felt that it is never enough, that i...

I have a handful of walnut on my pantry mixed with a few almonds so I looked for a recipe utilizing them. This vegan dish is a perfect try and I got some frozen flatbread/pita so try I did right away. Persians have many versions of this recipe but the foundation is the walnut & eggplants. 4T olive oil 1 big white onion 200g walnut, ground to paste 400g panfried eggplant 1t cinnamon 1/2 t turmeric 1/2 t black pepper 2T tomato paste  4T muscuvado + 2T lime juice 200g ice cube In a pan, saute onion in oil until trasluscent. Add the ground walnut, and continue to stir for 5 minutes. Add the pan-fried eggplants and mix well. Add the three spices. In a bowl mix tomato paste, muscuvado sugar and lime juice, add a bit of water to thin the paste. Add to the walnut mixture. Mix well. Add the ice cubes to shock the walnut & emit its natural oil. Let cook for 20 minutes to reduce. Serve over rice or with bread. Notes: Pomegranate molasses is in the o...

On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous  by Ocean Vuong Paperback, 196 pages This is the first novel of the contemporary American Poet Ocean Vuong which tells of a story of writer Little Dog through letters addressed to her mother who is illiterate. This may be a novel but it's fifty percent autobiographical. Some nonfictional portions are the fact that Vuong's mother worked as a manicurist and he also became a writer and that they are Vietnamese immigrants and lived in Hartford, Connecticut. He's also a queer.    The story is told in an epistolary form but in a non-linear manner. It is about struggles of being a child of Vietnam war who immigrated to the US with his grandmother and mother, who grows up to be a queer, who had a relationship with an all-American boy who is an addict.       The story may be about the coming-of-age of a Vietnamese immigrant in the US seeking to fit and thrive and survive in the land of milk and honey but in the end, it i...

I was looking for a movie to watch on Netflix when I stumbled on this Korean thriller. I was surprised that I liked the film for many reasons. I have not read the webtoon to which the movie was based and I couldn't tell if the movie is a faithful rendition or has some special addition to it.  First, I was pleased that there's no unnecessary comedy the K dramas are known for.  Second, I was surprised that the director was from the movie Train to Busan, a highly successful zombie film which I think just a so-so when you assess it visually and when it comes to character exposures in the story. (To digress, I now recalled that I also liked the Peninsula as the standalone sequel to the Train to Busan). The actors are well-chosen for their roles. The Pastor, the detective and the ex-convict, the triad of the movie are all fit for their roles. The visual cues are all necessary and useful given the 2 hours limitation of a film. The film has tied the loose ends so that the ...

Because I loved Netflix's eight-part series Ripley for a lot of reasons, I was compelled to read the book to which it was based, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. This was a novel experience for me to  want to read after watching a movie based on a book. Part of it perhaps was because I want to find out more about the paintings featured in the film only for me to uncover that none of them was referenced in the book.     Director and writer Steven Zaillan did deliver a visually stunning film from a book with a valuable addition of allusions to the life of Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio whose works led the way to modern chiaroscuro , a technique that heavily uses light and dark to which was later referred as tenebrism  from the Italian word tenebroso which means dark, gloomy, mysterious.  The black-and-white wide shots and the micro shots are all necessary ingredients to the film's delectable dish. As homage to the book, the...

After I tasted this in Myanmar years ago, I couldn't forget how the Burmese incorporated cashew nuts in their dishes like stirfried vegetables and noodles just as much I couldn't forget how the Chinese in Beijing/Tianjin added boiled peanuts as side dish and deftly used chopsticks to pick the nuts one by one. There is surely a connectedness in the evocation of places we visited and the evolution of our palates. Today, got a chance to replicate the cashew addition to dishes. 2 bunch Bokchoy 2 bunches Pechay 2 mefium Carrots A handful of French beans Clean vegetables. Slice into serving sizes. Bring water to boil. Set the steaming pan and steam per vegetables for 4 minutes for uniform cooking. Set aside. Stirfried sauce 2T vegetarian stirfy sauce or Hoisin sauce 1T Soy sauce 1T sesame oil 1T mirin 1T rice wine 1T toasted garlic Dash of himalayan salt Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl. Heat pan and add the mixture then bring into a simmer. Add vegetables and stir for...

Let food be your medicine.  And I bet this soup is one example of a food that really heals. I have been avoiding commercial dressed chicken from the market, the then 45 days had been reduced to 22 days. That number refers to chicken's lifespan from hatchling to being ready for dressing. I only eat such chicken whenever I can't avoid it or simply miss it. So, it is always a joy to find a backyard raised native chicken. Given the convergence of the native chicken, the mongo and the ginger and the lemongrass, the broth is aromatic and tasty. 700g native chicken 2 thumb-sized ginger 150g mongo (mung beans) 200 g ubad (banana pith or core stem) Olive oil 3 cloves of Garlic 1 medium onion Water Lemongrass, tied Nutritional yeast Salt Fish sauce Soak mongo overnight. Drain and let boil until tender and can be mashed. Set aside. Boil chicken pieces and ginger covered with water for 25 minutes, just until fork tender. Set aside. Halve the banana pith or core stem and slice t...

Got slices of grass-fed Aussie lamb rounds from the grocery last time and I got to make it into stew. It's cooked to tenderness quickly as the cuts were just about half-inch thick. The sauce is worth a wipe with a bread. Add olives to yours, missed here because I run out of jars from my pantry. But I still had a last batch of my onion pickles, I'm still in luck somehow. 500gms lamb round cuts Tomato paste dried parsley Salt & pepper Pickled onions 2T juice from pickled onions 1t mashed anchovies 2t muscuvado sugar 1T nutritional yeast Butter 1 C water or broth of choice 100g mushroom with water Marinate lamb rounds in the next eight ingredients. Let rest in fridge until time to cook. Melt butter in a dutch oven, brown the meat about 3 minutes on each side.  Add the marinade, thinned by water. Add the canned/pouched mushroom with water.  Let cook covered for 15 minutes.  Serve with rice or bread.

I bought four cans of green peas after watching Bogummy's When Life Gives you Tangerine thinking that I will add a can of green peas whenever I cook rice just like what they did in the movie to add protein in their diet but of course, I was not able to do so.  This weekend, the first can is down. I made a burger which I call Kofta-and-Falafel inspired. Both of middle eastern origin, Kofta is a meatball with spices while falafel is vegetarian and uses chickpeas or fava beans. Since I used beef, mushroom and green peas combination and my patties were not round but oblong as we only found bread for hotdog in the grocery, I rather call this Kofta-and-Falafel-inspired and when the bread with mayo & ketchup came in, it became a burger.  200g dried shiitake mushroom, softened with hot water 300g ground beef 300g-can green peas, drained 1 big white onion, sliced 6 cloves garlic, peeled 1T turmeric powder 1T dried parsley 1T nutitional yeast Salt & peppe...

I just need to develop the right sauce and paste ratio combination but inorder not to forget this mixture, I am excited to post it here since this passed my nephew's taste test.  The spice from gochujang or korean chili paste, the umami from the japanese miso paste, the tangy taste from mustard paste, and saltiness from the soy sauce as well aa dashes of my cracked pepper & himalayan salt are all perfect ensemble. And oh, squeezes of lime or calamansi can enliven the taste buds when eating a chilled thinly shredded cabbage plus any of your favorite vegetable salad additions!  Just remember to toss before serving so as not make your salad soggy. Also, I want my cabbage raw but if desired, give the cabbage a quick hot bath for 30-seconds.  Vegetables:  shredded cabbage seeded cucumber seeded tomatoes sliced white onions Sauce: 1T or half chili paste 1T miso paste 1t mustard paste 2T soysauce 1t hot water Salt & pepper Mix well in a bowl until smooth...