photo by Daniel Y Go on flickr

Ten exciting days before Christmas, and tomorrow marks the first day of  Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo here in the Philippines. Misa de Gallo roughly means rooster’s mass, not because it was meant for our feathered friends, but because this mass was celebrated very early in the morning, before the sun rose and the roosters crowed.

Nine days before Christmas, we wake up early to the sound of church bells ringing, and we walk/travel to church to attend mass. Filipino’s believe that if you can complete the nine days of Simbang Gabi, you can make a wish and it would be granted.

When I was younger, I was thankful that our neighbor’s panabong (fighting cock) would start crowing at 4AM. I didnt have any alarm clock back then and I faithfully attended Simbang Gabi wishing that I would get the Christmas gift I wanted. The Philippines in my youth was not so westernized. I really thought Santa was just a mascot, esp since we had no snow or reindeers here. For me, the one who really grants wishes was God and the babe in the manger.

I have so much to be grateful for this year. We survived the terrible flood of Ondoy, friends and family helped us out to get back on our feet again, and my sister gave birth to a lovely baby girl. I couldn’t wish for anything more. If I would have a wish, it would be for good health, peace of mind, and happiness. I don’t have enough cash to buy gifts, but I know I could cook something or bake some cookies or brownies and give that out this Christmas.

Tomorrow when the rooster crows, I hope I wake up early to attend mass.

Now here are some recipes that I would like to make for Christmas

Delicious Brownies

Dulce De Leche

Maja Blanca

A couple of weeks ago, we chanced upon a Cordillera trade fair at SM Megamall. Furnitures, fabric, and food…some of the best the highlands had to offer was at that event…I could almost smell Baguio as I walked along the different booths at the Megatrade hall.

What made the event special for me was our reunion with the best coffee I ever tasted…Kalinga (kah-ling-gah) Brew. It was back in 2006 when we first attended our Cordillera trade fair. My husband and I just started dating back then, and as new couples go,we discovered that we shared the same passion for coffee. And what cemented that special day was that first sip of Kalinga Brew.

Kalinga Brew, Unoy, Stevia sachets, a wood carving, and a musical instrument called kubing

We met the owner of Kalinga Brew, Ms. Antuza Refalda, back in 2005. She’s an amazing woman. What I remember most about her was her optimism and how easy it was to talk to her. She talked about the coffee farmers back home. About how she struggled to market this product, and how difficult it was to ensure the freshness and quality of the coffee beans…we had a long but happy conversation while we waited for the percolator to be ready. This coffee is nothing like Starbucks. The aroma is much sweeter, and the coffee is rich and really smooth.

After four years, I was really excited to see Ms. Antuza again. Unfortunately, she was in another trade fair and wasn’t with the group in Megamall. I liked the new packaging of the product, and while talking to the staff of Nor-ref food products, we learned about the success of Kalinga Brew at the China Expo last November 2009. I was really happy for her! Another great product Ms. Antuza markets is the Kape de Motit or the Kopi luwak/Civet coffee. I forgot how much she sells the product, but I’ve been meaning to buy one from her.

Aside from the coffee, one thing we were really excited was UNOY. We love champorado or chocolate-flavored rice porridge. But the great thing with this organic rice blend is it doesn’t need any chocolate. A cup of this UNOY rice would give you roughly 15 cups of porridge. It’s magic I tell you!

With the weather getting cold, we look forward to the holidays ala highlands style. Sipping our Kalinga coffee and having unoy for breakfast with some tuyo or dried salted fish.

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“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”

I was still a child when I first heard about this declaration. It was something I heard on the radio, or something I overheard from conversations between my father and his friends…human rights…our rights. My father was a firm believer and fighter for human rights. It was only now that I am older that I found out about the things he had done in his youth to fight for his beliefs.

Non-discrimination is the focus of this year’s commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This means not judging a person on the basis of race, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, disability, property, birth or other status. For me it just means one thing…respect.

My previous jobs had me exposed to all sorts of people. From socialites and corporate bigwigs, to getting down and dirty with butchers, street vendors, and everyone else in between. It is not too hard to relate to these people if you only realize they are not so different from you after all. And in the global marketplace where I now work, skill and talent is key to getting a job and not because you have flawless make up or a stunning profile photo.

There is still a long way to go to end discrimination, but it can be done through our efforts, education, and teaching our kids about the different culture and practices of people around the world.

Not your regular cookbook contest

Food Bloggers this could be your time to shine!

Food Bloggers from around the world are invited to submit their favorite blog posts, recipes and photos to compete for a spot in a Foodista.com cookbook. Foodista.com and Andrews McMeel Publishing are working together to get y’all food bloggers in a best of the best food blog cookbook.

I just love this idea. I have seen a lot of creative food bloggers out there who write great posts and show food photos that could really make you drool! Great food blogs that I follow like the Pioneer Woman, Gluten Free Girl, Steamy Kitchen (to name a few) have successfully launched their very own cookbooks. But not everyone has the time, funds, or the right contacts to get their delicious masterpiece published. It’s just way too expensive. But this time, you can have your blog post, recipe and photo published in book form!

The Foodista Best of the Food Blogs Cookbooks would choose recipes/posts from entries submitted by food blogs from around the world. If you’re a food blogger in Africa, Europe, India, Philippines, China, or Antarctica, you are more than welcome to join!

And you can even get your friends, family, to vote for you You can embed this cute widget on your blog so your readers can vote for your entry. Check out the contest rules here. The contest runs from December 1, 2009 through February 28, 2010. Keep those entries coming, you’ll never know if your recipe will be part of the 100 Best Food Blog Cookbook.

Happy Cooking!

Virtual balloons for Foodista! Yey!

Thumbbook lovingly dedicates the whole month of December to one of it’s favorite site on the web: Foodista. It started out as a simple food blog that I would occasionally visit to get some meal ideas, then right before my eyes, it grew, gained more followers, then launched into an online food encyclopedia.

More than once, I come across a spice like “devil’s dung” that I never heard of before, or how about a technique called supreming? This is where Foodista comes in handy. By searching for a recipe, ingredient or technique, you will be directed to a page where you can find a wikipedia entry, and links to food blogs as reference.

Investing in cookbooks are great but it can be expensive, and we all know not everyone follows what is in the recipe. Foodista and the different links they have in their list of blogs who have made a recipe like it is very helpful in giving me an idea of how it is prepared and what to do differently. I can say I’ve learned more about food thanks to this site.

Foodista has indeed come a long way. The International Food Blogger Conference, Night School and FoodSnap, are just some of the events launched in 2009. This is quite a feat considering Foodista.com only launched last December 17, 2008. It’s been one great year Foodista and Ronald, Gabby and I are really looking forward to more milestones, delicious food, and foodie events to come.

This is the ultimate torture machine of the 21st century.

photo by mycebuphotoblog.wordpress.com

Look at the four monsterous sub-woofers. These serve to amplify a cacophony disguised as singing and can definitely induce a migrain produced by the bass of this torturous device. It used to proliferate bars, or entertainment areas, but thanks to the enterprising pinoys who mass produced them,  videoke machines  are bigger and louder! The lack of regulation by the city government enabled the happy patrons of bars and videoke halls bring one home. No subdivision or residential area is spared from the onslaught of these videokes.

I love singing too. I used to sing in a choral group and although I maybe a little rusty, I can still sing in tune. But I’ve always been careful that I do not disturb anyone if I do belt out songs by Regine Velasquez, or sing along to the tunes of RENT or WICKED. What I cant understand is why there are people who know that they sound awful, still have the nerve to let the whole neighborhood know how much their voices suck?

I was in tears the other day because I couldn’t get any work done with all the jarring noise outside. As much as I want to  complain to the authorities about this, I do not want to cause any trouble since we are only renting here, and it is our landlord who happily bought this godforsaken machine. My husband and I are even driven to think about saving up for a house up in the mountains of Montalban, but a part of me is saying we cannot always run away from our problem…you see even when we were in Cebu, there was a videoke machine right next to our room. This videoke machine was one of the challenges we faced in our relationship. I have always been the one willing to bear it all, but my husband would always get into a fit whenever the machine was in full swing. We solved our problem then by going out for a walk. By the time we got home, all is quiet again and we had a fun stroll in Ayala or SM Cebu.

Since we cannot afford to buy a house yet, I made a quick research about how to sound proof our house/room. All I needed was foam, cloth, and thick curtains to absorb the noise coming from outside…nice I still have to plan how we can accomplish this but it’s better than just running away.

I recommend every home to have a sound-proof room. A place where you can rest or where you can make as much noise as you want without disturbing the neighbors. If you are renting a room or studio, think about sound-proofing your bedroom too so you can have some peace and quiet.

If you know some great how-to instructions about installing foam or sound barriers in a rented apartment, do let me know. I will try to share some of the results in my quest to a noise-free house/room too

I was stunned by the evening news last Monday, when the reporter on TV described a massacre in the province of Maguindanao . When the images came out, I still couldn’t believe someone would do such a thing.

Photo as seen from wawam.wordpress.com

57 people, reporters and civilians, were killed and buried in pits dug alongside the highway near Shariff Aguak. The group was led by Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, the wife of Buluan Vice mayor  Toto Mangudadatu, who was heading out to file the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for her husband who was running for Governor of Maguindanao. Thinking they would be safe because most of them were women, and they had the media as escorts, they went ahead not knowing that some evil plan was already waiting them.

(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

The governor of Maguindanao is Andal Ampatuan Sr. Until recently, I didn’t know how powerful his clan was in Maguindanao. My understanding is that he set his sights on passing the governor’s seat to his son. When Vice Mayor Mangudadatu announced his plan to run as governor, he immediately planned to have him eliminated. You can read more about it here.

Today is Black Friday in the Philippines too. A day of mourning for the lives lost in the Maguindanao Massacre. I have little faith in our justice system and I seriously doubt something good would come out of this. It’s now day 5 since the massacre but the investigation is soooo slow. All the evidence points out to who the mastermind is. The “hatchet man” was already taken into custody, but because of the powerful ties between the current government and the monster they created, Im sure we would just get the roundabout here. To quote the news “Palace says Arroyo WONT cut ties with the Ampatuans”.

You can find out more about the Maguindanao Massacre on the web, or you can also visit wawam.wordpress.com

I’ve been reading a lot of food blogs and most of them veer on eating healthy, and checking the label of what you eat. I’ve never paid much attention to what’s on the label as long as it tastes good.

In the Philippines, we are so fond of instant noodles. In supermarkets, almost every basket or cart falling in line would have packs of these instant goodness.

Now our family loves Lucky Me products, I even bought their latest Mac and Cheese packs, which tastes like cheese whiz, but I hate products when they make false claims!

It says NO MSG ADDED...think again

Lucky Me claims that this product has no MSG added…but they DO have MSG and it is discreetly cloaked as HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN

According to Wikipedia:

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. The acid hydrolyzes, or breaks down, the protein in vegetables into their component amino acids. The resulting brown powder contains, among other amino acids, glutamic acid, which consumers are more familiar with in the form of its sodium salt, monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods.

For some people who have adverse reactions with MSG, this could be deadly. But for us who do not know that HVP is also MSG…well, now you know.

It’s been so long since I found a PSP RPG game I would love to play. I’m not too fond of the games made by Ubisoft, Prince of Persia was confusing and difficult for me and my son, and any game that we both can’t finish is thrown out or archived. I love the graphics on this game and so far, we’re enjoying it. I cant tell you much about the game yet, because Gabby spends more time playing it than I do. But since this would be our first time to ever play Assassins Creed…it looks really great for a PSP game

Photo by Andrea Vascellari on Flickr

Guess what fell off the tree? Huz came home the other day with a big white box strapped on his motorcycle. He had swapped his  sleek black laptop for a pre-loved white mac book. I eyed it suspiciously. I generally dislike gadgets or things that I didn’t buy. It looked okay, but I hated that it didn’t have a laptop bag that went along with it. When we got our laptop, it came along with a sturdy bag that I would often lug around to the mall when we didn’t have internet at home. Now this one just sat there on the table…a dull boring white piece of equipment. And it didnt help that Huz was all excited about it that he didn’t even kiss me when he got home…hmp!

I didn’t want to use it, sure I liked taking crazy pictures on it at first, but after a while I got tired of it and went back to my trusty PC. Huz wanted me to try it out, but I refused. ..until I gave it a go last night.

I didn’t like that it doesn’t have the office applications I was used to. The desktop was confusing and I had to google how to shut the thing off (lol). The keyboard felt weird and my shortcuts to copy and paste is now command-c and not control-c. I felt uneasy not knowing how to navigate through it, and more than once I kept looking down for the time but had to look up at the top of the screen since the taskbar was on top.

I spent one-two-three hours doing my work on it, then I lost track of time. It became easier to handle when I grew familiar with some of the commands and it was fun!

Photo by Fintan on Flickr

I liked that it had no games installed so I could concentrate on work. I liked clicking the middle mouse to show all the applications I had open…and I like that  could force quit firefox (oh and happy birthday firefox!) when it freezes in the middle of my work. It’s fast and before I knew it I was in love.

I still have a lot to learn about how to use it. I don’t know how much a pre-loved mac book costs but I know it’s expensive. Don’t ask me how he got it or what he had to do to get this, but I know he didn’t shell out any cash for this. Someone up there must really like Huz for him to get this.

Huz had been pining for a mac since he started working at his present job. They use iMacs at work which is cool for a design company. But because it is expensive all we could do before was just drool when we pass by the apple store.  The closest I had to to an apple product was when my Papa gave me a shuffle 2-3 years ago and that I didn’t get to use much. My sister has an iTouch my Papa gave to her (I still cant believe that she had one and I didn’t get any), so I have resigned myself to believe that an apple product is way out of my league…it still is, I’m just grateful this came our way.

We have already named this Mac as “puti”  (poo-ti) which means white in Filipino. This is definitely something to be thankful for. Hard work and patience really does seem to pay off.

I wonder how hard it would be to really switch over to Mac…I’m still using my PC…I still love it, but I think Mac and I are going to be great friends