On news from home and Filipino food

Sinigang na maya-maya bought and cooked the day the hubby arrived from the Philippines, March 2015

Eh – I don’t know whether to be glad after reading news related to things Pinoy and the motherland. For example, who wouldn’t cringe at the headline In the Philippines, mourners honor the dead by placing bets ?? And yet, it’s the reality. That the practice baffles me no end does not erase the negative impression raised by the article which comes complete with photographs showing gambling in all its colors.

The lowly pan de sal at the all-day buffet restaurant at Atlantis Hotel, Dubai, June 2014

Then again, who wouldn’t be pleased that several Filipino colloquialisms have entered the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED)? According to CNN, Pinoy words ‘balikbayan,’ ‘halo-halo,’ and more – like high blood (meaning: angry) and utang na loob (meaning: debt of the heart) – are now listed in the OED. Ugh … I must be old because it seems like only yesterday that Imeldific became an adjective in the OED.

Squash from our backyard garden cooked in a broth of coconut milk, April 2014

In any case, there’s much to read about the Philippines in printed media here and elsewhere. Today’s Gulf News Tabloid, for one, has Filipino celebrities (don’t know who they are actually but my eighth grader pointed them out) on its cover. And Positively Filipino, the magazine that featured Hadassah Peri’s story, has a feature article on Pinoyspotting around the globe. Now that is one exercise which I indulge in from time to time whenever we have a staycation at a hotel (courtesy of the hubby’s company) ….

Pasalubong from a fellow Batanguena: pinais na dulong (anchovies stewed in banana leaves), April 2014

Meanwhile, for someone who marks her days by the food one has eaten, I am hankering again for a taste of sinaing na tulingan, that quintessential Batangas recipe of claypot-cooked fish that is slowly simmered in dried camias. One does not need to read the Inquirer’s Celeb chefs enjoy Anilao – and the small fish to miss the taste of home, especially now that summer has killed off our backyard vegetable garden. Bulanglang, kinilaw, dulong, galunggong, anyone?

Tom Yam soup we tried during Tatay’s absence, March 2015