September 24, 2016 at 1:45 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Food and Drink, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Philippine History, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: Doreen Fernandez, Filipino food, San Francisco, Saturdays
Does our taste for asim come from our sour green landscape? From the proliferation of sour-towards-sweet tastes in our fruits and vegetables? Certainly we Filipinos have a tongue, a taste, a temper for sour notes, which is one of our chief flavor principles. We not only sour our soups (sinigang) and cook sundry dishes in vinegar (paksiw, adobo); we also use vinegars (nipa, coconut) and citrus (calamansi, dayap) as dips and marinades.
— Palayok: Philippine Food Through Time, On Site, In the Pot, by Doreen Fernandez
P.S. Señor Sigig, a Filipino food truck, was just featured on Bay Area food program Check, Please! Owner says everything is marinated for at least 48 hours. But the lines!
It’s Filipino/Mexican — there are burritos and nachos. Open every day for lunch and dinner. Average price of a meal: $12.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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September 15, 2016 at 6:50 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Food and Drink, Links, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Filipino food, flash fiction, indulgences, Literary Magazines, The Philippines
Bakery, Kanlaon City, Negros Occidental, The Philippines
- When she was a toddler, cook cut everything into tiny morsels so that the girl’s mouth would not stretch and become wide and ugly. The girl ate only the sweetest pastries, only the smallest and most tender eggplants. Cook herself grew these in a corner of the garden, which every summer sprouted with little trees with purple-tinged leaves.
— “Appetites,” published in The Café Irreal, Issue 31
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September 7, 2016 at 5:17 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Food and Drink, Links, Niece, Places, Relatives, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: art, fast food, Florence, nonfiction
Anyone with a little bit of money can buy a Louis Vuitton handbag, of which thousands are manufactured each year. Very few people can buy the new Jeff Koons, even if they do have the tens of millions of dollars required.
— Brazillionaires, p. 29
Self’s question is: Why would anyone want to buy a Jeff Koons? A Koons was in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence when self was there with her niece, Irene, last November. It was placed right next to a Michelangelo and it was ugly. Hope it was only a temporary installation.
(Side note: In Florence, on the road to the Santa Maria del Fiori, you will pass a McDonald’s. Which was always packed. Self just could not understand it. When all around were great, really great local restaurants. It must be the convenience.)
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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August 21, 2016 at 10:37 pm (Books, Food and Drink, Memoirs, Recommended, Sundays, Women Writers)
Tags: indulgences, pets, reading lists
Before school I would go for a run with my dog, Rambo, then make two large peanut butter cookies in the toaster oven and eat them, steaming hot, on the bus.
— Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies
Really enjoying this book. Stay tuned.
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August 12, 2016 at 6:57 pm (Food and Drink, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: Calgary, Calgary Stampede, Canada, Events, Fridays, indulgences, postaday, postaweek, summer, Wordpress
- Share a photo of something fun! — Michelle W., The Daily Post
Quite Easily Done!
First, from the fun central of Alberta: Frydays in Calgary!
Mr. Potato looooves poutine! In Calgary.
And what could be more fun than Deep Fried Tequila Flavored Shots???!!!
2016 Calgary Stampede
Finally, an ice cream food truck:
You scream, I scream, we all scream: ICE CREAM!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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August 10, 2016 at 1:59 am (Eavesdropping, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: discoveries, postaday, postaweek, websites, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is MORNINGS.
Self always enjoys taking a look at other people’s blogs to see how they interpreted the photo challenge. Here are links to three she particularly liked:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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August 9, 2016 at 3:41 am (destinations, Food and Drink, Links, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: breakfasts, Cork, indulgences, Ireland, memories, Mondays, photography, postaday, postaweek, restaurants, travel, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is MORNING:
- For this week’s photo challenge, publish a new post with an image that means morning to you.
Self’s idea of a perfect morning is waking up in Café Paradiso in Cork.
It means a good, hearty Irish breakfast with scones and croissants and butter and cream and jam and yogurt:
One of the great pleasures of staying in Café Paradiso is, in addition to the great FOOD, the selection of art books in the rooms.
And dear blog readers know about self’s fascination with windows, right? These are the windows in the Blue Room:
The Blue Room, Café Paradiso, Cork
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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August 1, 2016 at 6:18 pm (Explorers, Food and Drink, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: advice, Banff, Mondays, novel, Philippines, revising, writing process
- The old servant woman placed before each of them a white plate on which were artfully arranged four thin, golden slices of ripe mango.
Novel got her into the 2015 Banff Literary Studio, where one of her mentors was so scrupulous he marked sentence by sentence. Things like: WHO IS THE SPEAKER HERE?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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July 29, 2016 at 5:45 pm (Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Surprises)
Tags: advice, complaints, desserts, disappointments, duds, Filipino food, humor, indulgences
See the words on the lid of this bottle of macapuno (coconut fruit preserves)?
Self has been trying to get at the contents for two days. Granted, anyone who spends two days trying to open a bottle must be bonkers. But self really, really loves macapuno. And she hasn’t had any in about 10 years.
In Redwood City, she used to have this nifty thingamajig by Zyliss that wrenches open bottle caps in 10 seconds. But here, she hasn’t seen any store that sells the thing. So, she has to resort to:
- running bottle neck under warm water
- pounding on top lid with knife, block of wood, and hammer
- inserting knife tip under the lid to break seal
- wrapping lid with rubber bands and twisting and twisting and twisting
The Filipino manufacturer should be proud! They have perfected the super-tight seal! Bottle lid’s tighter than a seal on an oil rig! Paging BP Oil! No, even better, paging NASA!
In the meantime, those words EASY OPEN CAP on the lid are simply taunting her. Has the manufacturer never heard of “truth in advertising”? This dilemma has also given rise to snarky thoughts such as: You want the macapuno? You can’t handle the macapuno!
This problem would not occur in the Philippines where self recalls never having to touch food of any kind — because of help! LOL — unless it is delivered on a tray.
Jar of Macapuno, Absolutely Impenetrable. “Easy Open Cap.” Bought two days ago. Enough is enough. Tossing today. Good-bye, $3.99
When all hope is lost, self shares her dilemma on Facebook. Which then leads to a Filipina sending her a link to this instructional video, which contains the words: “Even a two-year-old should have no problem opening a bottle lid using this method.”
LOL LOL LOL
Stay tuned.
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July 28, 2016 at 2:56 pm (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Food and Drink, Plays, postaday, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: California, discoveries, Events, festivals, London, Mendocino, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
- Let’s celebrate the cherries on top! — Michelle W., The Daily Post
The good news: self was back in London in the spring. The Cherry on Top? She was there during the week of the annual Chelsea Flower Show. Just look at the fresh flowers framing the entrance to the Bloomsbury Hotel!
The Bloomsbury Hotel, London: May 2016
The good news was: Self was in Philo, CA. She found a small market that sold delicious potato salad. And the cherry on top? The ceiling lights were things of beauty. From a glass studio in Fort Bragg, the checkout lady told self:
Ceiling Light, Lemon’s Philo Market, California
The good news was: self was spending another winter in Mendocino, CA. The cherry on top is that she got to see “Quills,” a play about Marquis de Sade, performed by members of the local community (It was a very entertaining production!)
“Quills,” a drama about Marquis de Sade
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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