Foot and Fire

Instantpot has become my bestfriend these days. It definitely can slay thick cuts of meat. I bought beef knuckles  1 kilo beef knuckle 1 pack 200g tomato paste  6 pcs bayleaves 2 bellpeppers sliced 1 chopped onions 6 cloves of garlic 1t Chili powder 1t Paprika powder 1Tcnutritional yeast Dashes of pepper & salt Lightly toasted & ground Spices 1t each: anise seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, whole peppercorns 2 cups water 2T soy sauce 2T fish sauce Wash and pat dry the meat. Rub tomato paste over meat.  In a bowl, mix the rest of dry spices. Too bad, got no cumin for this one.  Massage the spices all over meat.  Set Instantpot to Meat Stew setting. You'll get fork-tender beef after 35 minutes pressure cooking & 15 minutes natural cooling down.  Separate meat strands with fork before serving. Serve sauce together with meat or in a sauce server. Serve piping hot over rice or Pita bread. TIP: If desired, thicken sauce b...

ON APPLICABILITY OF GCTA: I beg to disagree in part on the decision reached in Guinto Case In excluding the persons charged with heinous crime, who agreed in writing to abide by the same disciplinary rules imposed upon convicted prisoners, in availing credits for preventive imprisonment through the decision reached in Guinto v DOJ, En Banc , GR 249027 and 249155, 3 April 2024[1] and the consequent issuance of 2024 IRR of RA 10592 thereafter, disregard the intent of RA 10592. The Guinto case was brought by the convicted prisoners who were released by virtue of RA 10592 but were excluded in the 2019 IRR. The portion of the 2019 IRR was nullified in so far as it disqualifies persons deprived of liberty who are subsequently convicted by final judgment. Justice Leonen has a dissenting opinion while Chief Justice Gesmundo and Justice Caguioa have concurring opinions and all support the dispositive portion. It was a surprise how our esteemed justices missed another way of giving l...

Our Strawberry with a garnish of yogurt, just kidding. Sagada Strawberry Cafe won our palates & tummies.  Three days and two nights are not enough to explore all of SAGADA's yogurt and lemon pie hang-outs. As someone who drinks caffeine as an antidote to migraine, I dont drink coffee every day so we skipped the cafe-hopping. But as someone who loves yogurt, I can eat a cup every day.  Well, because in Sagada not all lemon pies are equal, my sole sisters and I decided to go yogurt & lemon pie hunting. Majority of restos serve yogurt and lemon pies, in-house made or not, we couldn't be very sure.  Also, the peddlers in the terminal have the yellow boxes of lemon pies and if you look closely, there are variations in the label but only three words are consistently present, SAGADA LEMON PIE. So far we tried 4 lemon pies and 3 yogurts in different places, we found our unanimous preference.  MARIE'S YOGURT PLACE - We had Y & L. Best Lemo...

           Phallic Ashtrays of Sagada ANOTHER Top Only-in-Sagada finds. You'll 1. SEE this Old Man with coffee irises carved out of the stump 2. HAVE Free Cabbage that weighs 3-4 kilos a piece (Thank you Labanet) 3. SIGN up for pottery sesh & find yourself guarded by a fat black cat which reminded me of Netflix's The Time That Remains which stars Carlo Aquino as a Pinoy vampire who started as a black cat with many lives 4. FIND not only Hanging Coffins but also Nestled Coffins on the cracks & crevices of the karsts 5. ENJOY backyard bonfire because branches/wood of pine trees were used and the smoke smelled like Frankincense and we all became smoked gals after. This bonfire is reminiscent of the Mang-aapoy (or Panag-aapoy / Panagdedenet ) tradition of the Indigenous Igorot community where they light a bonfire beside the tombs of their loved ones on Nov 1 as they believe it provides warmth and light to the souls, comforting them an...

Happy to have done the Sagada Trip in 2026. I had been raring to go there as early as 2010 and planned to do it in 2022 and 2024 but circumstances didn"t cooperate. Finally, May 2026 gave in.  I did this tour with my sister and cousin. We took the CODA Bus in Cubao at 9pm as it has a CR and arrived Sagada at 9am. I booked via their website. The bus is comfortable with medium aircon as it had a trouble on our way. The site warned of coldness so we went in warmed, only to take our jackets off. Travel time is 11 hours, given the troubleshooting, we had 12 hrs with 2 or 3 stops. Fee P1,400+ per pax one way with insurance When we arrived at 9am, we directly went to the Tourist Information Center. We paid 50 (100?) pesos each and kept the tickets for reference during the tours, and we also took an optional insurance for 100 each for 3 days.  We checked in early to our homestay SAGADA LABANET (P1,500/3pax/night) which had welcome freebies of giant heavyweight ...

Found Yogurt and Lemon Pie in one place in Sagada. As one who makes yogurt at home, I find their yogurt at Marie's something different. It is not tangy and the texture is a bit like silken tofu or even like a slimy version of taho. We tried the honey yogurt topped with fruits in season and granola. Other variants are strawberry and blueberry yogurt as base of the parfait. It's worth coming back for more! Sagada is home to lemon pies but in Marie's the lemon pie is worth a try too. The merangue is fluffy and not too sweet as to contrast the lemony custard. The crust is not special enough to be impressive but the combination of the three layers blend well. Not so sugary and very lemony so I liked it.  Shall try other lemon pie houses. Stay tuned. More photos in my instgram . 

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...

   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.