“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” The first time I heard this phrase, it was likely yelled by a behemoth of a man, a bouncer at a bar, about five minutes after the ugly lights came on. Another welcome overstayed. This phrase came to mind when I was at the … Continue reading Onward Ticket Required: You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
Right after Christmas ends, the Philippines’ evening news will start running its stock New Years’ Eve stories, filling in the gaps around any breaking or hard news stories. They include: Continue reading “Happy New Year! 2013 Philippines edition. Or, why I will always try to take pictures of fireworks even though it never turns out as awesome.”
Baby Jesus is officially here, y’all. Get your pancit-eatin’, lechon-balat sneaking ass to church, but then let’s party. Maligayang Pasko, madapaka!! This is what’s on our tree this year, Manila edition. Click for a full-size pic. Yes, it’s a “pine tree” with white and glitter sprayed tips for snow effect. Putting this up made me … Continue reading What’s on your Christmas tree, Philippines?
Beyond the brown sugar and coconut milk, my aunt said, any available fruit or vegetable may be used for the Filipino ginataan recipe below, like taro root (gabi), corn (mais), even mongo beans or guava (this last one she said was especially good). The important things are that, like the work of a farm, everyone pitches in – peeling, chopping, dough-ball rolling – to do a little something to make the dish a sweet success and that the ingredients are local, seasonally available, excess crops.
Eating seasonally and locally makes sense, right? In much of the world, this is the only way to eat. In fact, in America, we are used to eating out-of-season, faraway and/or foreign. Continue reading “How to Cook Ginataan Bilo-bilo, a Filipino sweet soup snack”
