Foot and Fire

In 2009, I raised a birthday fund to buy a desktop personal computer, printer and prepaid globe tattoo for my local elementary school. For every gift given to me, I complimented with a collection of my essays and poems. The collection is called, Framed Words. It was a fun and productive birthday made possible by friends and relatives. In fact, I recalled that some belatedly given fund were used to pay the tuition of some children.  I came across this note of one of the essays in the collection. Hope you'll enjoy this too. Forgive that these were screenshots only. 

Burying the typewriter Childhood under the eye of the secret police By Carmen Bugan Picaodor, 2012, 235 pages with appendices I bought this book from Book Sale at a super steal price of ten pesos without any doubt that it would steal my heart. I am delighted that it did. Of course, the tag is secondary to why I picked this one up because the title lent mystery to it and so mainly, the title caught my attention. I love the visuals attachef to title which refers to a machine that is now buried dead by computers and cellphones as means of communication. And there is some kind of homage in the title to the freedom of expression. Of all defects of democracy I suffer because we are not human if our freedom is repressed. Then comes the secondary title which gives me a bird's eyevew that this book must be about childhood in times of repression of the freedom to express. It turns out, Carmen Bugan mainly transported me to her childhood in Romania which has beauty in its comm...

Atis is a seedy fruit with pleasantly sweet pulp when eaten at a certain ripeness... I can recall when i was small, we used the plentiful seeds of atis in sungka boardgame in lieu of pebbles or small shells. Delicate sweetness is one of the traits of an atis pulp...   Last five of a kilo of atis...

One of the best sugarcane strain is called la carlota... It is robust with purplish green peeling. Pang us is a hiligaynon term for eating or chewing sugarcane and extracting its juice while it is still in the mouth! Munching is not an exact translation because pang us is exclusively used to describe in eating Pang us is a hiligaynon term used to describe eating sugarcane. It can be described as munching or chewing while extracting the juice of the cane and spitting the fibers. One of the best sugarcane strains is called la carlota, it is a robust, purplish and greenish in color and of course, sweet. Every one who came to live and had his/her childhood in Negros understands the pleasure of munching tubo or sugarcane... It is great to travel to memory lane once in a while.

This is one fried rice I learned from my father. We were so happy partaking the fried banana on top. And we even grew up calling it morosquita... Hahaha. So today, I uncovered that it is called morisqueta and it is Mexican in origin. The original recipe calls for boiled rice topped with salsa made from tomatoes and beans and cheese. Well, the morisqueta i grew up with is with minced beef, green peas and raisins. And the highlight is the fried bananas on top.... Here, i am sharing my own twist using tuna and sweet corn. Banana Canola oil for frying Canola oil 1 pc oinion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped 1 can Solid tuna in water, drained 1 can sweet corn whole kernel, drained 1 can green peas, drained 3/4 kl boiled rice (day old rice is welcome) Salt, pepper and dried basil Raisins Sesame oil Peel the banana (saba variety), slice vertically Into three parts. Deep fry until brown and set aside. In a skillet, add oil, onion and garlic. Add the next three ingredients and stir ...

Verba or chinese batuan as we knew it here is also a childhood fruit. We used to climb two trees of it in Brgy. haguimit where we were used to have a short vacation. It is sour and turns yellow when ripe. It has no much commercial value as the same cannot be used in cooking although it is called batuan... It round and the size of longgan and the seed or two is found inside and as big asthe fruit itself. It can be enjoyed by peeling and squeezing the fruit seed inside one's mouth and letting it stay there for a moment while one is grimacing because of its sourness and then one ejects the seed. If one is lucky, some ripe fruits are sweet with only a bit of sourness.

Ang prinsipe na nakaupo sa tasa... Kasoy! I love this riddle and the fruit is memorable as when i was small, this fruit was a menace once because we played under the cashew tree and we picked the hanging fruit as it was within our reach. We bit it and our mouths were burned as it turned out, the fruit is not yet fully developed as the seed grows out fast first before the fleshy meat. Kasoy is a childhood fruit, as its juicy and messy flesh can only be tolerated by children. But this fruit will not go out of plantation as it is valued for its tasty nut. How do we eat the fruit? Slicing and dipping in soy sauce, by biting and licking some salt in our palms or by simply chewing it whole and munching until the fiberous flesh gets manageable to be swallowed.