Yaya's 5th Year Death Anniversary

So time indeed flows fast and it's been five years since my yaya passed away. I have yet to finish my thesis proposal and I know I need to work on it soon to finally make my yaya proud. It's not so much the degree, but the pride associated with having completed graduate studies. My yaya knew the importance of education and I feel sorry for her because although she obtained honors when she was a student, she never got to college and had to work. She taught me many things but the most important thing she instilled in me is to be independent and to be specific, to strive for financial independence so that I can do whatever I want to do with life without being a parasite to anyone.

When I was in Spain, I have learned to let go of many things. This lockdown I can very well imagine how she must have felt living with toxic people for many days on end for many many years. I know now because just the first week of the lockdown last March, I wanted so bad to go back to living on my own. I really hate stupid people meddling in other people's affairs when their own lives are so messed up. So I am happy for my yaya now that she is in a pace where there is no suffering nor toxic people. Today I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, I made vegetarian fried rice composed of beans, carrots, tomatoes, and turmeric. For lunch, it's fish stew with tomatoes and chili. There was some rice left from breakfast so I paired it up with the fish resulting in a very colorful meal. For dinner, I made chicken lumpia shanghai. I love healthy food so I put in only a small amount of chicken and threw in carrots and onions as main filling. The critical part is frying it which is a success. I now know how to fry things up in such a way that they stay crunchy later for dinner. My yaya will definitely be super proud of me.

Fish stew with tomatoes over vege fried rice: I always tell my mom I must be half-Mexican half-Indian in my previous life.

Crunchy spring rolls without much guilt because there's more vegetables inside than meat. And I used chicken instead of pork.

I wish Q and I became close when my yaya was still with us. She will be very happy to see me with a gentle man who is very talented and despite that, very humble.

08152019

While I am not one to travel for less than five days, I found myself saying yes to an unusual invitation from a former classmate.

We used to sit in the same class on my last semester in college. In that class, I was almost always late because I had to run from the gym (I had table tennis for PE) to my home college. My normal attire then was my UP PE shirt and the volleyball jersey shorts given to me by a highschool friend, and rubber shoes. Since I was usually the last one to enter the classroom, I had the special seat reserved for me, that seat which students would not dare take because it is the one nearest to the professor's table. Good thing I had no qualms about it and have never been intimidated even by terror professors. In fact, most of my classmates admired me for my ability to approach even the most feared of professors and to ask uncomfortable questions. So anyway, those times, that former classmate and I never spoke to each other. Just plain hi or hello. He was always seated between his two friends, one was friendly towards me, the other was a noisy guy in class. I remember being amused with those three because they seldom did homework and yet they endeared themselves to our professors by means of class participation and jokes.

This former classmate and I became Facebook friends but we never had any meaningful interactions save for a few likes of posts or photos, and at one time, he invited me to his house to celebrate his birthday but I wasn't able to attend. In fact, I had no plans of attending because I was afraid of being out of place since I am not like people my age who drink and party a lot. Also because back when we were classmates, I had a little crush on him and I stay away from my crushes because I saw crushes as threats to my peace.

So it came as a big surprise when a week after his birthday, he chatted me up on Facebook and asked if I was in Manila. Friends ask this same question whenever they want to meet and so they check first if I'm even in the metro. I don't know what spirit possessed me at that time or maybe it was out of reflex, I replied "yeah, wanna meet up?" And we agreed to have dinner near my workplace. I was able to keep myself calm upon seeing him. He used to be my crush and whenever I saw him in class I couldn't help but think that he must be a very nice person and a shy one at that. When I first saw him that time at the mall, I was surprised to find his size more than doubled. But he looked way more approachable now compared to the slimmer him. He used to resemble the Korean version of Domyouji (played by Lee Min Ho) and I happen to like guys with curly/ wavy hair, makes them look so hot and sexy. Later on, I thought to myself, maybe if he was still the same size when I first met him, I wouldn't have agreed to go out because he would seem like a threat to my peace, and that is the last thing I wanted after having just moved on successfully.

His pick: YAYOI. Awesome Japanese food. It's easy to see that I am a consumer of Japanese culture and cuisine.

It was a simple catch up. I was a bit nervous because I really knew nothing about him except that he travels way more often compared to me. So I had to make sure to stick to safe topics and he also made me feel at ease. He talked about his family and I was surprised at how he seems to be comfortable talking about his childhood trauma to me, a mere classmate who hasn't seen him in almost a decade. I could very well relate since my family is pretty toxic, also. But at least I had my yaya who was my source of comfort in this cold dark world. I told him about my potted plants and how I would love to own a piece of land just so I can have my own vegetable garden.

My sister and I had agreed to go home together and when she got tired of shopping, which is unusual BTW, she texted me asking when are we going to finish. So we had to part ways and I even forgot his name when I introduced him to my sister. (It was super embarrassing but nothing can compare to  what happened late last year when I went out with a guy whose family is friends with my brother's fiancée. We had lots to talk about because we both travel a lot and after getting dinner and some ice cream, we exchanged numbers only to find out we both forgot each other's names! How awkward and stupid was that! I still laugh when ever I tell that story to my friends.) So J mumbled his complete name which is rather long and I find it cute and I really didn't comprehend half of it but I suddenly remembered his nickname! My sister asked me again his full name when we were headed to the van terminal and I just said, I forgot. Shucks.

So anyway, I didn't want to give it much thought except I am happy that someone from my past without much connection to me reached out and went out with me. It felt like my reconnection project after finishing my post-graduate diploma studies. Weeks after, I invited him to watch movies at a film festival but he declined due to an emergency. We lost contact for a while and out of nowhere he messaged me and asked me to travel with him just because he found me one very cool person. (Spending New Year's Eve with him up until daybreak of 2020, I remembered to ask him what he meant by "cool" then and he said that I was fun to be with. The same comment I get from my male friends who just want to hang out but never did try to pursue me romantically.) So in October of 2019, we went to Albay together with my roommate in Penang, a girl whom I eventually regretted bringing with us because she was overly dependent on us and cared only about herself. We stayed in his house the night before our early morning flight and he cooked fish curry for us. He used pampano and it was really good, except I would have preferred a spicy version. That was the first time I saw how cool J was. And he became an even cooler person in my eyes because he never complained even when we stayed in a non-AC room, even when in Rapu-Rapu Island we never did any of the touristy stuff and had simple meals in the local carinderia. We swam in what the locals call "Look" which is a bay facing the open sea. It was pretty safe, not much waves. I saw how strong he is when we hiked to the waterfalls and back. I wanted to hug him if only because he reminds me of my favorite panda Po, as he tried to keep up with us. In order to make the hike a bit entertaining and less tiresome, I played sweeper so I could keep an eye on him in case something happens and sang animé songs like my favorite Fields of Hope. The objective was to lighten up the atmosphere because I was thinking maybe he didn't like all the strenuous activity. I was surprised he knew the song! And I think I began to like him when we did some karaoke with the locals and it turned out that he is karaoke king! WOW! I once told myself, I wanted to be with someone musically inclined and who knows how to cook. Maybe he is sent by the heavens to me.

I finally got to see the majestic almost perfect cone of Mt. Mayon, pride of Bicol.

Never mind that he didn't greet me on my birthday. Never mind that he still hasn't handed to me the dried fish he bought in Seoul in September as of this writing. But when I was asking around who'd love to go with me to a concert where Ben&Ben would be performing, he was the only one who said yes. We had early dinner at High Grounds in Timog area. He said he used to play computer games there. The café has really cool fusion food. He planned to treat me but I was almost 30 minutes late so I volunteered to pay the bill. I´m so happy to find someone who´s super passionate about music and who can understand me whenever I talk about why I love this kind of music and why not that kind of music. We shared a cup of DQ ice cream during the concert and after that, went for some milk tea, my first time to taste Macao Imperial. Then we headed to a cool karaoke place where the mic seems to beautify everything. We did 2 hours and he dropped me off at our village gate at 3AM, the latest I went home to since we moved to the north. Before arriving home, I managed to ask him if he has plans of settling down and he said, if given the chance, why not.

The sunset as viewed from our simple room in Rapu-Rapu Island

The next few days saw us becoming closer in chats. I was starting to feel at ease with this guy who´s just so talented and so kind I cried a couple of times whenever I remember stories of his exes. Of course everything was from his POV but then imagining the abuses he´s had suffered from different people, my heart hurt for him and I cried. Why do people hurt good people and love bad people? Everytime we're together and remember all the pain he's been through, I wanted to hug him and protect his happiness, seeing that he is a very nice person although he has numerous flaws of his own. I was thinking what if years back I had been bold enough to be friendly with him, what if I attended his birthday party in 2013, what if I confessed to him back then? On second thought, looking back, me during my undergraduate years is an angry girl and I might not be able to give him the love and care he deserved.

Bicol's famous chili ice cream at 1st Colonial (NAIA T3): I had the spiciest one. He had the less spicy version. 

I invited him to jog around UP but we ended up walking and going on a mini food trip. That was fine. I actually foresaw that already. We talked more about relationships, his past mistakes which he regrets so much. I asked how his brother is doing after a sudden breakup with his fiancée. Out of the blue, he said that marriage is just something society expects from us and all the postmodern stuff. It made me sad, because it seemed like suddenly he changed his mind about marriage. While right now I am still ambivalent about marriage, I am pretty sure I'd want to have children of my own, although at times I fear that bringing them into this world might be a bad idea because of the chaos and the prevalence of heartless, robotic humans. At this point I was surprised to learn that he wrote a children's book. We talked about poetry and songs and how he likes Sylvia Plath and postmodern stuff and I said I like Romantic ones like Wordsworth, Blake, Becquer and that I care about the form and structure of the poem as much as I care about the message.

We didn't see each for days and on the 31st, I picked up the courage to ask him if he's free to hang out. At that time, I have noticed that I was always the one who's taking the initiative to ask him out and to plan activities together and I was kind of thinking that maybe he is just being polite when he tells me he enjoys being with me. He never asked me out except for the trip that we planned together. So I was thinking maybe this time he will decline because NYE is kind of special and if he declines, that will be the last time I will be proactive. He was more than happy to see me but he asked to meet up after their family dinner, which is understandable. As for me, I panicked when I later on realized that establishments close very early. I asked him if he wanted to postpone to a later date instead because we didn't have anywhere to hang out in and he asked his friends around and one couple agreed to take us in. So he picked me up and together we spent NYE and first hours of 2020 together. It made me feel special but I do not want to assume anything since he never said he liked me. Everything just happened so fast and I just want to relax and see how it goes.

Tra Vinh (Ayala Cloverleaf) 07272019

This year, I played chaperone to my mom while she attends unofficial reunions with her highschool friends. Our arrangement was that I go to some other place to eat while she spends time with her friends. It is a weird arrangement and a friend even remarked that it doesn't seem proper but I am okay with it because:

1. They'd be more comfortable among themselves since they've known each other for years.

2. I can go explore restos on my own and wouldn't need to think about different preferences.

3. My me time is sacred and I need to also read for my thesis.

In one of their reunions, they agreed to meet up at Ayala Cloverleaf. It proved to be a good opportunity for me to visit TRA VINH, a restaurant I first came to know years back in Banawe. It serves Vietnamese food and some Southeast Asian ones. My first impression then was so-so, nothing special. I still liked Pho Hoa or Pho Bac. But the Cloverleaf branch is different. The food here is more flavorful and I just couldn't believe how awesome everything I ate was.

Duck soup with rice noodles. I could have opted for the usual yellow egg noodles but this one is light and balances the intense flavors of the duck soup.

My taste buds had  fun chasing and savoring the mix of spicy and salty seasonings of these grilled treats. YUM! 

Just the right dessert to cap off an awesome meal. Not too sweet (I made sure to ask for no added sugar) and it's creamy. 

Toriko Movie 1 Kaimaku Gourmet Adventure

Since I was stuck in One Piece’s Water Seven arc and haven’t moved on from there for several years now, I have put OP in the backseat and have been exploring other animé. Toriko is one such animé although I wouldn´t be too interested in it to allot time to watch the series, it being a far cry from my favorite cooking animé Cooking Master Boy and Yakitate Japan. These two really set the standards! I first encountered Toriko in a crossover special joined by the main characters of One Piece and Dragonball Z. It should be noted that one thing in common in these three series is that the main hero of each is a known glutton!

In Toriko Movie 1, a young village boy named Peck looks for Toriko to kill Gerold, a five-headed bird reminiscent of Pokemon’s Dodrio except with a scary monster look. The bird monster has eaten up the other animals and the village is in danger of being wiped out after an initial attack. Peck requests to be Toriko’s disciple to also learn how to hunt so he can support his village. His knowledge of the predators lead him to help Toriko out when they eventually fight the Elephant Bear, a giant creature that goes out of its cave only every 15 years. When it is outside, it just keeps on eating and eating, thus causing the other animals to flee.

seems like this creature was inspired by the Pokemon Dodrio

and this creature is just too ugly I wouldn't think of eating its meat!

What I find disturbing in this animé is that nonchalant killing of creatures for food. Toriko is not guided by any noble principle, his stomach being his boss. In this light, species extinction is not thought of as long as nature satisfies man’s appetite. He even remarks while fighting the elephant bear that humans may not have powerful claws nor sharp fangs, but that humans have tools for eating, human weaponry as he calls it. This brings to mind cultural anthropologists who have long recognized that what sets humans apart from animals is our extrasomatic adaptations wherein naturally we are not endowed with sharp claws and/or teeth, or other body weapons but that we are able to create tools that we can use to protect ourselves. 

Vietnomnom and Some Childhood Memories

On the last Sunday of May after our annual pilgrimage to Antipolo, we headed to Maginhawa for lunch. Times like this, even though disputes with my father are endless, I know that there are times he wants to close the gap between us two. I was (probably still am?) his favorite, and he used to be my ally whenever my mother would pick on me. In my childhood days, I viewed my mother as a monster, and fantasized about my yaya being my real mother. My mother has always had a penchant for releasing her frustrations on me. When, as a young child, I saw my then five or six year old aunt on a pony in a photograph, I took the photo and claimed it was me. Memories are always blurred (that's why I keep this online journal) and they have a funny way of being remembered, like how that visit to a Vietnamese restaurant made me experience again that my father still loves me. (Coz you know, food is love.)

chicken bowl: a lovely mix of greens and meat on rice.

shrimp pomelo salad: cheaper here compared to other establishments. Super love the sauce. Also, super love the pomelo because it's not everyday that one gets to eat sweet pomelo. (And I remember someone special who brought two pomelos from Davao for me, the first (and last...) time he brought me something from his travels.)

mushroom roll: hands down my favorite in this resto!!!

This is a super late post. I normally let it pass when it's been a long time but then I want to document our food trips after the Antipolo pilgrimage. Last year it was at Alex III along Matalino St. The most memorable one is when I was in high school and we stopped at Grilla where I discovered my love for grilled food. Yum!!!

First Night in New House

Around this time last month, my parents, a sister, and I slept in our new house in the north. It was a tiring day having to unload all our stuff from the car and then finding the space to place our things. The house is smaller than our previous house and we had to move due to financial difficulties. (It is hard to do business in PH because of poor government implementation. We have brilliant minds and brilliant ideas that look good only on paper but do not get carried out faithfully in real life. In addition to that, traditional people need to keep up with the fast-changing world lest they lose in the rat race. The world is already full of evil and cunning people, the ones who will do everything just to get to the top.  I wonder how they can sleep soundly at night knowing the harm they do to other people. Okaaaay, I digress...)

Since the stove and cooking utensils were still in our former house, we had dinner at a restaurant nearby. We had all my favorite food: roast beef, calamares, and tempura. During lunchtime, I only had mangoes and rice because my dad bought lechon liempo and I got furious because he hadn't thought of me. (I don't like pork.) We also bought Jollibee chickenjoy meals but these were just enough for the workers. What happened was, on the way to the new house, we stopped by a Jollibee drive-through and ordered value meals while my sister went down to buy our food in the shop besiide Jollibee. After getting our purchases, we waited for sister at the exit. Much to my dismay, she bought lechon liempo (roast pork) instead of lechon manok (roast chicken). Since we were in a hurry, I resigned myself to fate. Thank heavens we brought mangoes with us. At least it felt like eating sushi.

roast beef: we all love the sauce

Like the calamares, the tempura lacks character and taste. Maybe the cook forgot to add salt!!!

We slept super late that night because there still were a lot of things to do. It was a simple night: the parents slept on a matress-less bed, made comfortable only by the thick blanket I was able to bring. My sister and I shared the sofa bed. Good thing I was able to bring a small pillow. Since we were all dead tired, we fell asleep immediately only to be woken by barks outside and my paranoid parents grew suspicious and anxious. Thank God the next day was a holiday.

Dohtonbori 12222016

H and I make it a point to meet at least once a year. She is four years my junior, a Math wizard and a sudoku grandmaster. We got to know each other and became friends way back when I was about to finish high school and she was just about to complete grade school. Both of us were exposed to competitions, she excelled in Math whereas I was the jill of all trades, master of none. But then because she is much more focused, she is able to create a niche in a field she loves so much. I, on the other hand, loves life in general, so much so that focusing on just one thing is out of the question. 

December of last year was when we last met, after my two travels and I just want to update her on my research. She has been helpful in introducing me to her friend and fellow Math coach based in Mindanao. Although the friend and I failed to meet, at least we were able to communicate and I was able to express my interest in their school for my research.

So anyway, she is up to whatever I like, probably because she doesn't go out much. She has been to many countries for competitions up until now and I am a bit jealous because she gets to travel a lot. But then those are the kind of travels that are highly structured because of course the contests are the primary reason, the field trips are just an added bonus. I still prefer to travel the way I like, on a shoestring budget, getting to interact with locals, and really discovering things on my own. So anyway, we both agreed to dine at Dohtonbori.

Super yummy pancakes but the price makes our wallets bleed. But then it's something that we both would like to visit again. For me, anything with seaweeds and bonito flakes are sure to be yummified!

H's order of meat okonomiyaki (I didn't get to take a photo of my squid mix)

a bit of oil then this, like you would cook a pancake

must be on low fire; it takes long to cook (the two are rice balls)

the awesome sweet  sauce

mayo and seaweeds

and top with lots of bonito flakes

Lettuce and Apple Salad

Last month, I put myself under an austerity program because of many things that are happening all at the same time. For one, I purchased a new laptop because my Fujitsu's monitor is broken and replacement is difficult because the monitor is not a common one. Second, I finally decided to be a migrant worker and rent a place near my workplace because traffic is getting worse and I couldn't seem to do the things I want to do like read books and just enjoy music; every night I arrive home I just want to sleep. Third, I want to save up again to travel.

So last month, it just so happened that my brother visited Baguio and brought home balls of lettuce. Cute. My mom still had lettuce left which we bought from Camp Benjamin. I just couldn't resist the urge so I took some to the office for dinner, together with two bottle of Kewpie: one roasted sesame, the other spicy cheese. Yummy!

Lettuce and cubed apples in Spicy Cheese dressing

Chicken Tiyula Itum

The day before Christmas, he finally fulfilled his promise to cook for me. (He had promised this many times, even on my birthday but that didn't materialize.) I wasn't in the know as to what he would prepare, but I had a strong feeling it would be chicken curry. We both love chicken and we both love spicy foods, including curry. (And somehow whenever I eat curry, I will always remember him...)

We went grocery-shopping together. We were supposed to buy the ingredients at the wet market but it was already noontime, too late. I chopped garlic and onions, sliced green bell peppers, and peeled and cut potatoes, while he marinated the chicken in charcoaled coconut and added spices like turmeric powder, pepper, Spanish paprika. Then he went out to but fresh coconut milk. I'm not too keen on using the one in can because I am too sensitive to tastes and canned coconut milk tastes like metal. So it was a good thing we were able to use the fresh one.

He first sauteed the garlic and onions in coconut oil and later on added olive oil which he found lying somewhere. LOL. It smelled really good. It's been a while since I last cooked at home because of my busy schedule and one of  my faves is the smell of sauteed onions and garlic. Yum!!! Enough to make me drool.

Once onions are caramelized, he put in the chicken and left it to simmer over medium heat.

Then, put in coconut milk. He told me that one has to keep on stirring when the coconut milk is poured in lest the milk coagulate.

He then added a knotted bunch of lemongrass. I instantly thought of tom yum. AT THIS POINT, I COULDN'T WAIT TO EAT!!! But then we had to wait until the meat is tender then we put in the potatoes and the sliced peppers. And wait some more. My stomach was already grumbling.

We had this simple meal of chicken tiyula itum and brown rice at around 2PM. YUM YUM YUM!!!

Notes:

1. Research where to buy burnt coconut meat. Then again, maybe I can do it on my own.

2. He says that when you cook, you must put in the right amount of salt. Because a bland cook is a bad spouse. (Which caused me to fantasize about being married to this guy who most times breaks my heart but then those few times he does things for me, I feel loved.)

3. To cook brown rice properly, rice to water ratio should be 1:1.5. That worked well because we got nicely cooked brown rice, not the extra dry one my sister makes because she wouldn't listen when I tell her she needs to put it more water. Hmp. @.@ (Okay, he really surprised me there. I thought he was just trying to impress when he told me before that he was a good cook. I, the [delusional] Cooking Master Girl, do not even know that [golden] ratio.)

*********************************************

I wish we could do this more often instead of dining out which can really drain our wallets. This first time he cooked for me, just when I was feeling lonely because nobody fetched me at the airport when I came back from Thailand, I felt special for once, like I can be hopeful again that there's a future for the two of us. [But I dare not bring up the topic because he might just feel pressured again. So I will just write about my feelings. :( ]I was surprised to feel that way, because I have been travelling  by myself for years and I am used to going to the airport and coming home all by myself with no need of people to fetch me. But then, when you arrive in Manila on a December day, you will see other passengers being fetched by families. It's the holiday season, I forgot. I'm just not so into the season because I see it as just another marketing ploy towards consumerism. Mental note to self: never travel by plane in December.

February 2016

February being the month of love finds me reconnecting with many people.

The first weekend, my highschool friends and I finally were able to schedule a mini reunion at K Pub where we had fun talking about high school life. (I initially thought I wouldn't be able to consume a lot of meat but having grilled chicken or beef wrapped in lettuce creates wonders.) It's amazing that my friends still remember many things about me, but most especially the unforgettable umbrella episode wherein I broke an umbrella which scared the shit out of them. So they teased me, calling me bakemono (monster). No insult for me, in fact I took it as a compliment and I felt like a strong little girl. (And they would tell me I'm like Biscuit who looks like a cute girl most of the time but transforms into a muscled woman when it's time to fight.) I'm glad that finally one of my guy friends has a GF. So that means among the five of us, only two are left with no love life. (All four of them are boys and due to my scholastic standing I was considered the boss. LOL.)

The following week, I had a date with my mom, just the two of us, on a weekday. We watched Everything About Her, starring Vilma Santos, Angel Locsin, and Xian Lim. (I just find AL too beautiful and I haven't seen a lot of her on TV except for the Saturday talent show which bores me BTW so no thanks.) We had light snacks at Figaro then quick shopping, then movie. After the movie, we had dinner at Shi Lin, her choice because she wants to eat xiaolongbao which is aligned to my expectations as well.

That same weekend, I traveled all the way to Laguna just to see a friend whom I missed a lot. Whoever says that I don't value friendship is dead wrong. I may be busy but I make sure to be there for a friend in need. And this is exactly what happened. I think she needed to be surrounded with friends following a breakup. So we ended up chatting until very late in the evening. It's sooooo good to be around her again. I think the reason why we jive so much is because we're both respectful of other people's views. We tend to disagree on things like art theory (she's an art studies major) but most times we have similar views especially when it comes to politics and civil service.

Third weekend was spent with a researcher whom I met at a conference last year. It was soooo good to see her again and to experience her warmth and generosity. We hang out at the library as she was finishing her research before we visited her friend who was equally warm to me. Then she toured me at the wet market in Kamuning and we had dinner at the heritage resto Kamuning Bakery Cafe where I had the longganisa pasta. Yummy!

Third Sunday was spent working on reports. Not yet finished but I sneaked out of the house to watch Deadpool with co-volunteers because Z was temporarily in the PH and would be returning back to China soon. It was an ambush invite but I was glad I was able to meet with them. I had loads of fun with the highly wittily comedic movie.

On the last week, I finally was able to visit my first godchild. Cool!!! The father has become a close friend following our deployment in Cavite last year doing volunteer work. And I finally met his wife, a lovely and warm woman, sweet and caring to their child. I'm so honored to be chosen as the godmother, seeing what a loving couple they are. (And yet they throw me that one question I often hate: When are you getting married???  >.< But I don't even have a boyfriend!!!)

Food in Mexico

Because I can't seem to get enough of Mexican food...

what I cooked for my hosts in Campeche

my first meal in DF with...

tomato soup (LOVE this!) and...

love the chips. The bread were good, too!

Had this in Teotihuacan. Complete meal and very delish!

Conference food. Love the bacon!

at an eatery near St. Jude Thaddeus Church near Reforma. This one's got a funny taste, but probably just the corn in the tortilla

oat crackers which I bought for my long bus ride

inside La Venta they sell pozol, a chocolate drink with maize. YUM!

And this pack of potato chips made my day in Villahermosa!

my last meal in Villahemosa consists of this sopas, this very refreshing lemonade, and..

the chicharron rice!

free breakfast in the hostel

Halloween 2015

On Halloween, I visited the Light's grave in Taytay. I almost didn't recognize the area where her tomb was because other tombs suddenly mushroomed around. I lighted two candles, and left sweets, cookies from HK, and biscuits from Mexico. She would have been delighted to eat those were she still with us.

On the way, I got hungry so I had quick lunch at a small Japanese resto. My order was pork tonkatsu. Now, I'm not fond of pork but I had no choice. It was the cheapest that was available. The meat was too thin but made to look thick by the batter and bread crumbs. Fairly decent but it feels like consuming oil and grease.

looks yummy to a hungry gal on a budget

one can barely see the meat...

 After that, I met up with Archaeo boy and we had dinner, his treat, at Salliano's Restaurant & Bar in Marikina. I love Marikina when it's not raining. It's probably the cleanest city in NCR. It was the first time that I had Spam fries. Basically it's spam sliced like thick French fries, battered, then fried. It's amazing except I'm not a big fan of Spam so I only had a few pieces. We also had chips and the bestseller garden salad. Love the walnuts in the salad.

Light's tomb

Then off I rushed to SM North EDSA to have a date with my sister. The mall was having a Garfield exhibit and my sister, a Garfield fan despite her age, wanted to have her pics taken. I was late, many thanks to the traffic, and she was a bit mad about it but we still had dinner at Lugang Café in The Block.

xiaolongbao: good enough but Shi LIn's still the best!

xiaolongbao up close

beef noodles: This I LOVE!

fried spring rolls: I thoroughly appreciated the vinegar dip. Didn;t enjoy this that much though normally I'm a fan of spring rolls. Probably because I have had too much of fried food for the day.

Christmas 12252015

Christmas Day this year was spent in the office, one hour shy of completing my normal shift but I had to go because I wanted to spend sometime in a church as I did last year. Except I didn't go to my peaceful sanctuary because I left later than planned so I opted for the nearer church.

We had free lunch meals ordered from Cafe Nenzo as in last year. I love the fish fillet with garlic and butter. The cheesecake was exciting at first but the heaviness of cream cheese made me just gulp down the whole thing with water. The chocolate cake was one of the best ones I've had, to think I don't even like chocolate cake. But this one had just the right sweetness and the cake itself was moist. Yummy!

While to many working on holidays suck, I welcome the opportunity because I am more productive when I am alone. I get a lot of work done and I think better when alone.

Before heading home I dropped by Booksale to claim my reserved books: Pillars of the Republic and The Journals of Lewis and Clark. The latter is something I have been wishing for but it was always priced in the P150-P250 range so now that it dropped to P50 I saw my chance of having a copy. The other book is not much of interest to me but the blurb says something about common-school development before the American Civil War. Lately I have become interested in developments of systems and institutions as opposed to my earlier obsessions on origins (that's why I took up archaeology in the first place).

Walking on major roads, one can see the ugly side of Christmas. No wonder I am always gloomy and in a bad mood at this time of the year. Metro Manila is turned into one big stinking garbage city thanks to the undisciplined people and also to the MMDA's little effort in apprehending the violators of the Anti-Littering Law.

As I was looking for my last jeepney ride, I chanced upon one empty but on the inner lane so I hopped inside. The driver asked me where I was headed to because he was about to go home already. Just so happened that he would pass by near where I live so he told me there was no need to pay even though I insisted many times. So I just wished him a Merry Christmas.

Pila, Laguna 04092015

April 9 is Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor; commemorates the fall of Bataan during World War 2... As we are talking about the supposedly joint forces of Filipino and American soldiers against the Japanese forces, I cannot help but be angered at how the Americans made a mess of our history to portray themselves as allies when it fact they were, and still are, colonizers and imperialists!). I chose not to work so that I can join my new friends in mapping Pila, a historic and heritage town in Laguna.

Pila Church: San Antonio de Padua Church, taken late in the afternoon after raining. Lovely effects.

It was a good decision since Pila was also where the 2014 fieldschool took place, except I wasn't part of it although I would have wanted to. We discovered an old bridge, a Gabaldon inside the school, an old church and convent currently being renovated, ruins of an old church, and of course have my picture taken finally at Pagsanjan Arch. We capped the day with a lovely dinner at Calle Arco. It's got sizzling tofu which is a great fave of mine. C ordered that and I had chicken burrito. YUM!!!

Too bad we didn't get inside the museum. It was closed on weekends. HMPH!

monument

Pila Church retablo and altar

Pila Church choir loft

Pila Church marker

Pagalangan Ruins: an church used to stand in the site but was relocated because of flooding; the site was near a lake

my two companions are lucky to have this pic taken from under the Puente Sta. Clara-Norte: I descended to further inspect what's under the bridge

marker of an old Spanish-era well

an old Spanish well inside a private property: the waters are allegedly so clean in the morning that it is fit for drinking

where I had fake bulalo without knowing it because I was so hungry: Instead of beef, they used pork. Ugh!

Formation House

antique collection of a heritage house owner: I'm always lucky to be invited inside to see antique stuff :)

Pila Municipal Hall

a heritage house in Art Deco style which appeared in one of the Nissin wafers TVC

Gabaldon building