o, ulan!

              a friend once told me that people ought to have their picture taken every so often so that when they die they would have a recent picture to put above their coffins or wherever a picture needs to be put while their body lies inside the coffin.  said matter-of-factly: so that when she dies she would have a recent picture put up.  this is probably more of a chinese tradition (this thing of having the picture of the departed put wherever a picture needs to be put) but filipinos have been catching on if you have observed.  it's a good idea if you have a beautiful face; i hate having my picture taken.

                it would be good (for me) to be remembered by the songs i’ve written, and the joy and the smiles they’ve brought to friends.  i’m not dying, am i?  or am i?  of course, i am.  who isn’t?  i hope not soon.  but how soon is soon?  sharks, darn socks!

                i’ve written a handful of songs from nature songs to love songs to death songs, yes, death songs, songs about death and dying, which if you ponder is what life, in a nutshell, is all about.  i’m not being morbid, just realistic and... matter-of-factly.

                the truth is i wished some great artist would sing my songs, i mean, someone other than, better than or just better equipped than me.  a handful of the songs i’ve written, i imagine some artist were singing it.  “insensitive” (i imagine) would sound a lot better with a group like side-a band.  “nangibang-bayan” for someone like bamboo; a friend commented when he heard the title “nangibang-bayan”, he said, “e di nakaka-iyak yun.”  sabi ko, “hindi, actually.”  baka ang maiyak lang dun e yung electric guitar, pag pinaiyak na ng lead guitarist, hahaha!  my long-time pangarap was for grace nono (or someone of her genre) to sing “takip-silim”; sunsets are dramatic, melodramatic.  did i mean nostalgic?  melancholic?  whatever... 

                a couple of notable influences are obvious in a couple of songs i’ve written.  “capricho” (it becomes obvioius, yeah, once you hear it, which really might take a while) was heavily influenced by “muli” by the mysterious man.  “o, ulan!” the featured song in this blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY7zWGn-dJM&feature=youtu.be (it becomes obvious) was heavily influenced by “abakada” by florante (but not including laura).  it becomes obvious that i’m heavily influenced by artists from the 1970’s.  it becomes obvious that i’m heavily influenced by the catch phrase, “it becomes obvious i’m heavily influenced by”.

                a generation gap is when you and your friends talk about simon & garfunkel and your kids think it’s a law office!

                by the way, some of the songs i mentioned above have not yet been previously recorded.  they may or may not be in the days to come, depending on multiple factors, one of which is my broken heart, ah, i mean, my broken guitar, hahaha!  a broken guitar = a broken heart.

                well, pasensya na, the songs come from archived audio files in my hd which were not professionally recorded.   and, tiyaga na lang sa mga pictures, hinack kolang kung saan-saan yan hahaha!!!

                but whenever i sing these songs live, to my friends only, of course, it brings them joy and smiles – make my day!

               

tofu w beans

this recipe is for idiots... really.  excuse me, i meant this recipe is for dummies, dummy, whatever.

i realize what the problem with “going on a diet” is: trying to lose weight you gained in a year or two in a week or two!  if that isn’t the stupidest thing a rational human being can do.  that – to my mind – is suicide and largely the reason why diets fail.  but alas! we are like... hmm, i lost the thought. 

another reason why diets fail is when our appetite gets the better of us, or rather the number of times we allow our appetites to get the better of us.  just last week i had to give in to my appetite.  i love lechon paksiw, it’s my favourite dish.  whenever and wherever i find lechon paksiw sold or served, i am suckered and hapless, swallowing hook, line, sinker, rod and fisherman!  but i am not on a diet so the chances of the diet failing is highly improbable and close to nill.  sometimes there is a real advantage in being a mathematician (or a statistician.)

at any rate, i have made up my mind not to try to lose the weight i gained over the past year and some months in a week or so, no, not even in a month.  my goal (today) is to lose ahm 20 pounds in 100 days.  okay, okay, 16 pounds; hmm, that would make me roughly less than 16 lbs in 100 days since i started to change my eating habits.

there you have it, straight from the bee’s hive, the ant’s hill, the horse’s mouth – the secret to losing weight: a change in eating habits.  100 days they say is the number of days to achieve system overhaul, where your body has well adjusted to your new eating habits somewhere in your basal ganglia, hmm...

the date to watch: june 8, 2012.

the weight to watch: 16 lbs less (hopefully more than 16 lbs less!)

100 grams baguio beans (as we call it)

250 grams tofu

desired dressing (or vinegarette)

slice baguio beans into 1-1/2 inch segments (make diagonal cuts)

heat 500 ml water in a saucepan

when tiny bubbles appear, dance the hu-ki-lao...  no, quasimodo!

when tiny bubbles appear, immerse beans and simmer for 3 minutes.  *yawn*

remove baguio beans from water and drain.   *yawn*

or you can nuke the beans in a nuclear (pronounced “nyook-kilær” by george w bush) microwave oven for about the same time.  still *yawn*

deep fry tofu cubes until golden brown.  *yawn*

drain.  *yawn*

arrange on a plate and drizzle with desired dressing.  *yawn*

serve with boiled sweet potato (kamote) and top tofu with shredded carrots.

“zzzzzzzzzzzzz...”  *snore*

good eat!

tofu soba

this recipe was inspired by a post in google+ by an old classmate and friend named jim ayson.   he’d just come from spain, and having got tired of the vegetarian fare there the first thing he digged at upon arriving here since its more fun in the philippines was a “tofu soba” which i presume is a vegan fare, jim being a vegan.  this “tofu soba” recipe i post is simply a crude creation (read: imbento) of mine and is really a far cry from jim's post.

i am not vegan, and this is... american idol.  ahaha, i meant this is not vegan, this “tofu soba”,  it’s quasi-vegetarian.  it would have passed as a vegan dish had it not been for the dumplings (actually squid balls; and there are lobster balls, and tuna balls, and what have you dumplings to dump into your soups to give it richer flavour.)  take away the dumplings this dish would pass as vegan.  but for now it’s quasi-vegetarian.

quasi-vegetarian yah similar to quasi-judicial and quasi-political which is the senate impeachment trial of chief justice renato corona; which as the expert political analysts and legal luminaries say is neither judicial nor political but both and sui generis *scratches head*;  which are quasi-vegetarians which are vegetarians that are not vegetarians and both.

so this quasi-vegetarian “tofu soba” is a vegetarian dish and not a vegetarian dish both at the same time; which is neither mathematically nor statistically improbable.  go figure.

i can actually prove that 2 = 1... probably later.

you might need the following:

250 grams fresh soba noodles

450 grams firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

250 grams dumplings (optional)

250 grams pechay tagalog

100 grams carrots, cut diagonally into wedges

50 grams spring onions, chopped

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, sliced and diced, or merely sliced

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt to taste

added seasoning (optional)

1. soak, wash and drain noodles.

2. fry tofu cubes in canola oil until color turns very slightly.  drain.  set aside.

3. in a wok, saute garlic and toast slightly.

4. add onions and cook until tender.

5. pour 750-1000 ml water into wok and boil.

6. add noodles, dumplings, pechay, carrots, spring onions, cumin, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and seasoning.  bring mixture to a boil then simmer until liquid is reduced to a thick broth and the flavours of the ingredients are drawn out.

7. serve in bowls.  top with tofu cubes and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.  serves 10 midget, 3 giant, or about 5 regular-sized tummies.

 

good eat!  ...or eat good! ?

ginataang labong w/ saluyot

i’m back.  it’s good to be back on track.

for more than a year now i’ve left off my monkey diet-it’s not actually a diet because diets don’t work, it’s just a simple food program i’ve created-which is not really called monkey diet in the first place, but by a longer, much longer, name, ahm, needless to say.

it was about the time of year (last year, no, last, last year) when good friends are dear, the time of year when the world sincere ruins any and all attempts you make at keeping your weight in check and at par and you find everybody else agreeing with you (eventually, or so you’ve convinced yourself) that “it’s christmas and diets are suspended during christmas!”  well, at any rate, it’s good to be back on track, after more than a year’s leave not just from my diet-which-isn’t-a-diet but likewise from my taking pictures of the various foods i prepared at that time.  our point-and-shoot digicam broke!  at any rate, the people i live with (that would be my wife and 2-3 children-who-are-no-longer-children) now have phones that are equipped with cameras.  we also have a pet dog named “doorstopper” but probably, i guess, you’re not interested in that.

thanks to a friend of mine who said, “you’ve done it before, you can do it again!” 

this viand is a classic, or a variation of a classic dish (whatever that means.)  ginisang labong was a favourite of mine growing up.  my mom prepared this viand often as i still recall (it’s never easy to forget) that spine-chilling odorifarious grub fresh from the market (it’s fresh but it’s actually been chemically processed.)  but i don’t recall her cooking it ginataan, it was (as i recall) always ginisa-and never with saluyot because she isn’t a G.I.

stories abound (do they?) about the saluyot being the national plant or shrub (whatever) of ilocoslovakia.  i remember reading long before how the inimitable max soliven never so often mentions this in his editorials in the philippine star.  i read pdi nowadays.  anyway, the analogy goes something like this: the saluyot is a hardy plant, you can plant it anywhere and it thrives in any kind of soil against the most adverse conditions, just like the genuine ilocano, he can prosper anywhere in the world and in the most adverse economic conditions.  ahm, for the most part, that’s it.  mabuhay ang mga G.I.!

now, for our recipe you will be needing...

about 1/4 kilo labong (bamboo shoot)

saluyot (leaves) from about 6-10 stems

3/4-1 cup coconut cream, pure (kakang-gata)

2 cups coconut cream, diluted

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium onion, sliced or diced

1 thumb-size ginger, sliced or diced

1-2 red chili peppers, optional

100 grams whether pork, shrimp whatever (if you use)

salt or bagoong (or whatever flavoring you use)

some vinegar for boiling

here’s how: (this is assuming everything is washed and clean)

1. boil the labong in water with some vinegar (okay, about 2 tablespoons vinegar.)

2. drain.

3. combine the diluted coconut cream with the garlic, onion, ginger, pepper, pork (or whatever), salt (or whatever) in a saucepan.  bring to a boil.

4. add labong and bring to a boil.

5. add the saluyot and simmer until labong is tender to the bite.

6. adjust taste.

7. add the pure coconut cream (kakang-gata) and cook further  for 1 minute.

8. turn off heat.  mix and serve.