1

Vitamin T



What should be part of anyone's healthy dose of vitamins is what I like to call Vitamin T, T for "Travel," not Taurine.

My family is flying to Capiz for a big reunion, and hopefully catch the fiesta in my hometown at the end of the month as well. Capiz never fails to captivate me! I'm so excited!
2

Craving For Pizza


When you're on vacation, so is your tummy. The Pizza Hut menu in the Philippines has some unique pizza concoctions like this new Star Pops Pizza which makes pie-eating more fun. The actual pizza is in the middle surrounded by bite-sized Swift hotdogs in finger buns. It comes with a dip for said hotdog bites.

I do believe that the halo-halo should be part of the Filipino Food Pyramid, especially during summetime. I do believe I need a BMI calculator for the way I'm eating right now, not a mortgage calculator!
3

Plants Vs. Zucchinis

My aunt is addicted to Farmville, and so is her son. I made it a point to bring vegetable seeds for her tiny backyard garden to show her the real joy of harvesting real vegetables.


My zucchini squash seeds sprouted seedlings in just a few days! I bet this is going to taste great with pinakbet! I've named this first seedling "Zuke." As in Zuke SoilCrawler. Pretty soon there will be a squash jungle in her backyard like the one we had in New Jersey last summer.

My aunt still prefers cyber-gardening, though. They have so much games and software in their PC that I won't be surprised if I find a stray project management software lurking in there somewhere.

Living in the provincial suburbs exposes you to some unpredictable plant life. Like this lone pineapple right smack in an empty lot by the sidewalk. If nobody claims ownership to it, then this pineapple is public domain! Haha.

2

Rodic's Rocks!


Where's the beef? A friend who lives in Quezon City took me to this street diner for breakfast and showed me not just any breakfast, but a true Pinoy breakfast with three components: Tapsilog (Tapa-Sinangag-Itlog or Beef-Fried Rice-Egg).


It's carinderia-style dining that's well loved in the U.P. Diliman campus. This one is the pioneer branch that started it all. Its original name was "Lola Adang."


I love how the beef toppings are in flake form, making the dining experience easier to enjoy. The meal comes with a small bowl of beef broth which I like to drizzle generously over the rice. When I eat rice topping meals, I like everything on it. Ketchup, hot sauce, a little bit of vinegar. Mix together with love. My tummy was happy to be home. All other discussions of things like free life insurance quotes dissolved in the background as I savored every spoonful of this beefed up breakfast.

My tummy is on a mission for more gastronomical delights.
2

Achara Apprentice


My aunt's specialty is achara. It's shredded green papaya salad cooked with vinegar, sugar, onions, carrots, garlic and bell peppers. One of my goals while here in the Philippines is to learn her secret recipe, hence I'm her "Achara Apprentice." My family in the states are such big fans of her achara that we always request her to make it if someone is flying from the Philippines.

My parents are flying to Manila tonight and this achara was specially requested by my mom. It's one of our home-made gifts for her. Lots of this will also be going into our luggage back to New Jersey. Hopefully, I'll be able to copy my aunt's signature taste!
1

Election Suggestion


They really should change the types of campaign paraphernalia allowed so that it's easier to remove and clean them up after the elections. Adhesive-types should be used less because of the hardship involved in scraping them off walls. Now that everyone's trying to be eco-conscious, there should also be a campaign-related legislation that mandates candidates to recycle their own campaign trash into usable products.


 And now that the election process is automated, will the use of security cameras be far behind? Maybe if the budget allows.
0

Beep-Beep, Jeep-Jeep-Yeah!


Behold, a Beatles-inspired jeepney: spotted in San Mateo, Rizal. Somebody’s obviously a fan of Beatles RockBand. The jeepney is still the king of Philippine public transport--your ride with an artful, customized hide used as a canvas of the owner’s personal pride. In this case, it’s all things related to the Fab Four. When will jeepneys end up at MoMA, I wonder?


The minimum fare is now seven pesos. I made it a point to carry a coin purse to store my commute-ready currency. While there’s the FX taxis for those who prefer to ride with airconditioning for an added rate, I still ride the jeepney for shorter distances. Besides, they’re faster. It also offers you the chance to people-watch and experience a close encounter of the “Jejemon” kind—which I recently had. Yesterday, I sat across a girl with braces grinning at her celfone-cum-TV receiver.

In this country still majorly spell-bound by Erap’s charm, most people can only speculate about Ford Taurus prices, Nissan 370Z prices, GMC Acadia prices, and Honda CR-V prices. Perhaps if I hung out at the Batasan Pambansa (Philippine Congress) parking lot, I’ll be able to see such cars…most likely bought with people’s hard-earned tax money.

My driving skills are challenged once again in this stick-shift-governed territory. I have manual driving amnesia, which is why I’m always a passenger while here in the Philippines. It’s a little embarrassing. I’m making up for it by volunteering as the paparazzi-on-board. I just hope I end up with enough photos to make our summer trip memorable.
0

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Beans


There are things worth flying thousands of miles for, such as food. Summer in the Philippines makes one crave this cold cornucopia of all things sweet: the Halo-Halo.

I have a mental check-list of local food joints to indulge my intestines in. I'm trying to be careful enough not to have to resort to Dr. Natura Colonix in case I get too gastronomically adventurous. Next on my list is Tropical Hut hamburgers and their tasty chicken sandwiches, Greenwich Pizza's Garden Fresh Pizza, Goldilocks fresh spring roll with peanut sauce, fishballs with spicy sauce at U.P. Diliman campus.

That list isn't final.
7

Litratong Pinoy #83: Estranghero (Stranger)


They say birds caused the power outage in our area on Election Day. Those birds must be really kick-ass to kick out our power supply like that. Not sure if they were fried in the process. Poor birds, blamed without the opportunity to oppose the accusation. That's Philippine elections for you.

A GMA news crew dropped by to document this strange event. I left my camcorder at home, so I only have this photo of the camera man shooting the MERALCO truck at work.


Ibon man may layang lumipad, sisihin mo ng brownout at umiiyak!
3

Automated Frustration

I could have come up with the edgy title "Rage Against The Machines" for this post, but Conrado de Quiros beat me to it. The Philippines' first-ever automated nationwide elections proved to be historical with the introduction of the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines. What used to take days upon days of manual ballot-counting and sheets of manila paper now took only a few touches of the button and even less paper. Also, the need to decipher hieroglyphic handwriting on the ballots is obliterated, now you need only shade circles.

The lines, however, were terrible. My aunt and I arrived at the polling station around 8AM. The voters were herded into a confused cluster of queues which made the wait time extend to three hours, perhaps even more for some unfortunate ones. Three hours under the sun in order to shade circles for three minutes. Oh the suffering entailed by exercising the right of suffrage!

But that's not all! We didn't have electricity since five in the morning that day. What a convenient time for a power outage! Batteries aren't PCOS' best friend, it causes it to overheat! As if its technological tantrums aren't enough!

People tried to keep their cool and their sense of humor intact by cheering everytime the poll watchers ushered in a new batch of voters inside the classroom. Same cheering occurred everytime the election staffers passed by with bags of packed lunch and water bottles. Those pink candies from presidentiable Bayani Fernando weren't enough to keep our hunger at bay.

But despite the chaotic queues, the bigger benefit is that the electoral process is remarkably faster. Not all changes are smooth and glitch-free, but this is the direction that the technological tide is turning to.

Now please tell me how to cure my LSS dilemma with the Sex Bomb Dancers' song "May Bilog Na Hugis Itlog."
1

Who Let The Lights Out? (Who, Who, Who, Who?!)

meralco

Philippine politics takes one big leap into the future by using the controversial and expensive PCOS machines in its first ever automated nationwide elections. What an exciting time to be in the Philippines. However, some things never change. Like mysterious power outages on the eve of elections, and on the day of elections itself. Such was the case in our area. Electricity vanished at 5:30AM today and was restored by MERALCO only six hours later. The heat was truly on: both literally and politically speaking.


meralco2

They say a couple of birds got caught in the power source. Because of this brownout, the poor PCOS machines in our precincts had to run on batteries. Apparently, the machines can't operate continuously on mere batteries, causing intervals of shutdowns, pissing off scores of voters in the process. A popular Beastie Boys song comes to mind.
4

JFK-ANC-TPE-MNL

I'm heading to JFK airport in just a few hours. My flight leaves at almost midnight tonight. If I can sum up what my carry-on consists of in a song, it's "I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, I've got who's-its and what's-its galore!" It's because my check-in lugggage contains stuff for people to give away. All my personal stuff is crammed in my poor Roxy suitcase. While other people may pack things like hgh supplements, I am bringing multivitamins and lots of cameras, digital (2) and otherwise!

Things I look forward to in a long-haul (20 hrs., 2 stopovers!) international flight are: the in-flight movie marathon, in-flight travel magazine, and hopefully, delicious airline food!

If I don't blog as often, that just means I'm out baking myself in the Philippine sun, ideally with a generous helping of beach waters. Back in Jersey in June!

P.S. I will try to tweet via text messaging at least.
0

This Ain't No Helmut Lang Helmet


Recognize this battle helmet? It's the same one used in that graphic novel-turned movie "300." It's part of the Ancient Greek art display at the Met Museum. You know what other use I can think of for this? An ancient metallic mask for someone who badly needs an adult acne treatment. It's the paper bag disguise of Grecian yore. It amply covers your skin's gore.
3

Pore Your Eyes Only

It may sound weird, but this Greek bust at the Met Museum in New York reminded me of blackheads...only it's the holes in his/her hair that did it. And we all know blackheads don't exist in hair strands.

I had my first facial in the Philippines two years ago which involved a rather uncomfortable treatment for blackheads. Let's just say it was a method which involved a lot of squeezing and squashing. They had a fancy term for it: unclogging the pores. Well, after that ordeal, my skin did feel unclogged yet sore; and it seemed my face was an unearthed landmine with holes as big as the ones on this sculpture's head.

Alternatively, the hair looks like a well-populated beehive.
Related Posts with Thumbnails