Movies We Remember

One Sunday while having a late breakfast, I could hear from the television the sweet voice of Lea Salonga singing "Reflections", one of the soundtrack music of Disney's "Mulan".  I said to myself, youngest daughter Kara is already awake. 

Ever since Mulan became available in VHS, Kara, a toddler then, was already glued to the television set watching it day in and day out.  It was a family joke that the VHS is already worn out from its non-stop use.  Now, more than ten years after, her fondness for the movie hasn't waned a bit.

While the teenagers of today have Disney to thank for the numerous movies that they have enjoyed during their formative years, one movie holds the distinction of "favorite old movie" for me.  Like Kara's Mulan, I never tire watching "Sound of Music" starring a very young Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.  Sometimes I can't imagine the two of them enacting other roles after "Sound of Music".  For me they would always be Maria and Capt. von Trapp.

I remember I watched "Sound of Music" for the first time with my parents and siblings in Loida Theater, the only theater then at Sorsogon, Sorsogon.  My father arrived before lunch from his job in Manila and brought all of us to Loida Theater to watch this much-acclaimed movie.  We also had a soundtrack album of the movie that we could play anytime.  I played each song several times to get its lyrics, something that is never heard of today what with different lyric websites in the web.  Several years passed when I had the chance to watch it again, this time through CD that I rented from Video City, one of the video rental stores in the 90s.  I could still sing the lines from memory, thanks to my lyric jotting days.

Technology has made old movies of better quality.  We and the future generation are assured that we will always be able to view them anywhere and anytime.  Right beside me is a blu-ray DVD copy of the "Sound of Music" awaiting its turn on the DVD player.  Well, later, I'm still finishing my article.

Local Food Specialties

Food and travel always go together.  When one is travelling either on official business or on leisure, he is not only exposed to the different tourist spots that the place is known for but also the kind of food that the place offers.  Filipinos, known for their hospitality, cook the delicacies of their town or province and it would offend their feelings if one declines.

I remember when our family went to Davao in 2009 for a much-deserved vacation, our hosts Edward and Rownee Braceros fed us with seafoods, fruits and vegetables that are synonymous with Davao.  Imbao, a seashell native to the Visayas and Mindanao was cooked tola-style.  Tola is a kind of soup wherein garlic, onions, ginger, moringa leaves and salt are added to the stock and imbao.  It brought out the real taste of imbao, not eclipsed by the taste of other seasonings.  It was the first time for us to eat imbao and we were not disappointed.  It helped that we are not picky with food and are adventurous to try new ones.

Products of Davao - tuna sashimi and tolang imbao

For our mission trip to Western Samar, our hosts from Gandara served us not only fresh catch of the sea but also cottage cheese made of carabao's milk.  Gandara's version is thinner and round compared to the ones that come from Laguna which are thicker and squarish.  I am not a lover of the local cottage cheese but I had more than one serving of this Western Samar delicacy.

Local food helps a lot in learning the history of a place. Just by looking or tasting the different ingredients that go into a dish, one can picture what is abundant and what grows in the place.  The Bicol region is known for its spicy coconut-based dishes.  When you look around the surroundings, you would see tracts of land planted to coconut.  Majority of the dishes, be it seafood, chicken, meat or vegetable based, are cooked in coconut milk.

Bicol Express

Cosmopolitan Manila, on the other hand, has several food establishments catering to the different palates of its residents who come from all parts of the country.  Eateries could either be offering regional specialties like Saisaki and Mangan or could play around a theme like Bagoong Club.  Some restaurants have included in their menu samplers of the different dishes that they are offering.  From one order, one can savor three to four different viands in pint size versions of the original.  When a certain eatery that I go to has a sampler, I never fail to order this.  I am able to taste the best of what the eatery has to offer at a one time visit.

Max's Restaurant's Dessert Sampler

Mangan's Merienda Sampler

Chocolate Kiss' Cake Suite

Truly one has a lot to learn from the food of a certain place.  It not only satisfy one's gustatory cravings but tells a lot about the place where it originated.

Surviving Maid-less Days... Months

Every time a maid leaves our employ for one reason or the other, I am forced to think of ways to doing household chores systematically.  I have to have a plan on how to do things so I can do more things in a day.  Aside from things to be done in the house, I still have errands to attend to for our business.  

Wives and mothers based abroad where maids are only for the rich might find what I have to say as trivial.  I understand that they might not have known any other life, that is, a household with a hired help as technology is there to compensate for the absence.  But here in the Philippines, a third world country, embracing technology totally is not yet the norm as infrastructure like a reliable supply of cheap electricity is not yet in place.  Getting  a housemaid is a cheaper alternative.

After a maid leaves, I take over the kitchen automatically, read that:  COOKING  .  Cooking is the most time consuming chore, I cook at least twice a day, compared to dish washing and doing the laundry.  Cooking is the easy part but food preparation is another thing, yes, even if all the ingredients needed for the dish are available.  Below I will be listing down tips on how I survive maid-less days that stretch to months.  Don't get me wrong.  Even if the tips are helpful, I would still hire a maid to do things for me.  Hehehe.

1.  Have a microwave oven pronto.  On an ordinary school day, I wake up one hour before the children's scheduled breakfast time.  I cook only easy to cook breakfast items like ham, sausages, and hotdogs.  If there are leftover foods that survived without being eaten over night, I reheat using my ever reliable microwave oven. Viands that take longer to cook are a no no for me as waking up early for a late sleeper like me is plain and simple torture.  For the rice (my children prefer it to bread for breakfast), I reheat last night's leftover rice again in the microwave oven.  What will I do without my microwave oven?

2.  Hoard cereals and fresh milk.  Cereals and fresh milk are the latest additions to my shopping cart whenever I go to Shopwise Commonwealth.  I buy the biggest size as they come out more economical.  They save the day for me as the kids do not oblige, make that force me, to attend to them in the morning.  They can take care of breakfast, thank you very much.

3.  Have ready to cook (RTC) or ready to eat (RTE) food handy.  Stock up on tinapa, fried fish, canned fish, canned meat, bread, tuna sandwich and chicken sandwich fillings,  cheese, butter.  When you come home late to cook lunch or dinner, eating store-bought food once in a while is forgivable.  Give me a break!

4.  Designate a Cooking Day.  Tuesday is the lightest day of the week as our vehicle is banned on the streets on this day.  Instead of doing errands and what have you that will take me out of the house,  I schedule the general cleaning of the house and cooking marathon on a Tuesday.  I don't do this alone though as my laundrywoman, Vilma, is there to do most of the housework.  My husband also does his share though with the use of his gadgets, the vacuum cleaner and the circular mop that my youngest daughter find so cool.

For Jun and I's trip to Baguio City last week for the Couples for Christ Weekend Conference, I did a cooking marathon with Vilma's help.  After buying fresh fish and vegetables from Commonwealth Market, Vilma started preparing the ingredients to be used for the different viands that I will be cooking.  I prepared a menu for what the kids will be eating while we were away.  Done with the cooking, I stored the food in several plastic containers and kept them in the refrigerator ready for the day to come when they will be reheated using ... ehem... the microwave oven.

5.  Run to Mommy.  When everything doesn't work for utter lack of time or planning, ask the help of your mother.  I just provide Mommy's cook, Encar, all the ingredients needed for the food that I like to be cooked and voila, dinner is ready.    

It also helps that I live a block away from my parents' house.  When the kids do not like the food that I prepared, they scurry to Lola's house sparing me of the complaints and whinings. 

With Mommy and my sister, Joji.

This phenomenon of the scarcity of housemaids is not new to us.  Ever since more developed countries have opened their homes to Filipina domestic helpers and nannies, finding reliable housemaids is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  It is as if housemaids have joined the ranks of the species going extinct.  I will not be surprised if five to ten years from now we will have maid-less households like our Western counterparts.

Bicol Express

I haven't eaten Bicol Express ever since my Bicolana maid, Cita, left more than two months ago.  Cita's Bicol Express was something I looked forward to after the weekly trip to the wet market.  Her version is just the way I like it to be, not so hot (so I can eat a lot, hehehe) and cooked to perfection in the right amount of coconut cream.

For weeks I was craving for this dish synonymous with the Bicol Region.  I know how to cook it but haven't tried doing it specially since I don't have a maid right now. It is easy to cook it but never attempted because of the tedious preparation.  I hate squeezing the grated coconut meat to extract the cream and the milk. On the other hand, I cannot ask my Mom's Pangasinense cook to prepare one for me as I will only be disappointed in the end.  Since my craving is getting intense by the day, I decided to try my hand on cooking the Bicol Express.

At the late hour of 6:30 in the evening, I drove to the nearby wet market to buy the missing ingredients. Bought P20 worth of pepper, one big coconut and had it grated, 100 grams of pork.  Good thing I still had supply of disposable gloves to protect my hands from the hotness of the pepper when I sliced them (this is also one of the reasons why I don't cook this hot dish).  I prepared all the ingredients that go into this dish and saved the squeezing of the coconut meat for last. After twenty minutes, my first attempt of cooking Bicol Express was ready.  It looked right. For ginataang dishes, the oil of the coconut should be evident and the pepper or whatever vegetable was used should not be swimming in the coconut milk.  It was hot for my taste but just the way my hubby wants it.

My Bicol Express

They say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  My daughter ate dinner again after she saw it on the table.  My husband liked it too.  I guess I will be cooking this dish more often in the future.

Buying Online

My husband and I have a small business engaged in the wholesale trading of petrochemical products.  The thing with a start up business is that it doesn't have enough funds for rental, office equipment and other operating expenses.  I am in that situation right now.  I need a laptop that we can use for sales calls and at the same time as a backup computer.

Asking around, my friends advised me that if I want a cheap laptop, I should purchase it online. People who would want to upgrade their computers and gadgets often dispose of them online with a remarkable discount.

I tried my luck on online shopping.  Surfing the internet for that cheap laptop led me to AyosDito.  I was amazed at the things that I can buy online.  I saw a lot of cheap laptops being offered plus practically everything about computers and gadgets.  One need not look for other websites as the selections at AyosDito were numerous and varied.

I found my laptop, a Hewlett Packard  6530B being peddled by Marlon for P22,950.  Marlon said that it is slightly used but in top condition.  I ran through the specifications and the specs suit me fine. I wrote down Marlon's contact numbers and made a mental note to call him up tomorrow morning.

Buying things online is becoming popular here in the Philippines.  Filipinos are slowly embracing new innovations in technology.  I think online shopping will grow and more things will be offered in cyberspace.  This kind of shopping sits well with me. I hate walking long distances and queing to pay for what I bought when doing my shopping at the malls.  Aside from the convenience of buying from home, I have the whole cyber world to do my window shopping.  Convenience and wide selection make shopping online truly an experience that a physical store cannot match.

Drink to Pure Pulpy Goodness!

I just drank a bottle of Minute Maid Pulpy. They say it’s got ‘no preservatives added’. Aw, c’mon…It’s bottled juice. Is that even possible? So I thought maybe... it's just a marketing ploy to create a buzz.

I didn’t believe it the first time I heard it’s got no preservatives added.  So I read the ingredients (even the fine print) and everything checked out! It really has NO PRESERVATIVES ADDED!  That means it doesn’t have ingredients that may turn out to be allergens, or worse...carcinogens!  Whew! Now that’s healthy goodness that tastes so good, I... just can't wait to have my hands on that pulpy goodness.

So okay, it’s got no preservatives added. That’s really good, right?  Not just because it doesn’t have those icky, harmful ingredients, but it also means... that only choice oranges fresh from the farm were used.

So far anyone who still has a hard time believing that Minute Maid has got no preservatives added - meaning it's THAT natural, it's almost like it's plucked straight from the tree, it's just as Mother Nature wanted your orange juice to be, it's got nothing but the good stuff yes, none of those potentially toxic stuff that can harm your brain, kidneys, heart; cause tumors aargh- the list of preservatives' bad effects just go on!!! Anyway, just to prove a point on just how good Minute Maid Pulpy is 'cause it's got NO PRESERVATIVES ADDED, I'm gonna blog about it and shout to the world how good and healthy Minute Maid Pulpy is.

Feels good to know about the real pulpy deal, right? C’mon show me a smile on the comment box, and you might win yourself a Really Pulpy Deal! (That’s a chance to win a Minute Maid gift pack simply by commenting. Sweet! C'mon you just might be picked as the lucky 'commentor'!)

Love,

Marla Jimenez Rances

Comfort Foods

When was the last time you craved for something that reminds you of home or gives you a feeling of security?  I just did an hour ago.  Jun and I had to go to Shopwise Commonwealth to buy red rice because we don't have any for tomorrow's lunch.  But aside from rice, a half gallon of Arce's Pistachio and a pint of Coffee Crumble ended up in our cart.  The pint is for me while the bigger one is for Jun and the kids.  I am no great lover of ice cream but I couldn't resist a scoop of Coffee Crumble.

Though I know I should go slow on sweets and fats, I feel a certain high and secure feeling after indulging in Coffee Crumble-flavored ice cream.  This kind of food which makes one feel good, gives a sense of nostalgia or self-satisfaction are tagged comfort food.  It doesn't have to be healthy but is a welcome respite from the raging storms inside you.  So folks, what are your comfort foods?

Aside from the Coffee Crumble ice cream that I adore, I feel good with the following;

• Mommy's Arroz Caldo.  I remember that my mother didn't fail to have this on the dining table when one of her children lost his appetite for food because of sickness.  Who would not regain his appetite upon tasting this porridge-like chicken dish laced with ginger?  My son, Marco, likes his arroz caldo with quail eggs.

• Tita Babie's Homemade Hot Chocolate.  As far as I am concerned, Christmas is not complete without Tita Babie's hot thick chocolate.  Ever since I can remember, our Noche Buena is always punctuated with this special brew .  I prefer my chocolate to be slightly bitter and Tita Babie has perfected it.  It is made from cacao beans that she picked at the back of her house and made into tablea.  No store bought tablea for her.

• Mommy's Beef Pochero.  I love this beef soup dish because it is very flavorful what with slices of Spanish sausage and Chinese ham.  This is a complete meal in itself because of the vegetables and potatoes that come with it.  When I was having morning sickness when I was pregnant with Marco, this was the first dish that I was able to eat without throwing it out after.

• Alaminos' Longganisa.  I love the garlicky and salty flavor of this sausage from Alaminos, Pangasinan.  It goes well with fried rice (fried in oil from the longganisa), fried egg and Tita Babie's hot chocolate.  My mother hails from this beautiful place known for the Hundred Islands.

• Mama's Pili Molido.  This is my paternal grandmother's signature pili dessert.  When my grandmother was afflicted with first-stage cancer in her fifties, she would gift her doctor with this heavenly pili recipe whenever she goes for her regular check-up.  She made them herself.  Molido is made of grinded boiled pili nut, sweetened with condensed milk and some flavorings.  She would cook it much like how one cooks ube halaya, flatten it with a rolling pin and cut into rectangles.  She would wrap the rectangles one by one with wax baking paper very similar to the pastillas. I would patiently wait for her to finish so I can eat the extras.  With Mama already gone, I have to settle with Nimfa's molido which is available all year round in Sorsogon City.  Mama's version is better though.

Whenever I think of these foods, I can't stop from turning nostalgic.  They not only nourish but most importantly, they evoke fond memories of people and events.

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