Against Culinary Ignorance: Tanduay Eggs

My friends often comment on the lack of dining finesse in me. 

Even as an ignoramus when it comes to the art of dining, I appreciate the field very much. As a young high schooler, I used to reenact cooking shows in our kitchen. Diluting Milo with drops of water and putting them atop a stove to make cookies (with cousins, of course) was my favorite recipe. My cousins though have advanced from our cookie-making days to more daring recipes. This one is theirs. 

Tanduay Eggs. It's self explanatory. Tanduay (a locally produced cheap-ish rum that comes in flattened bottles), eggs and some added ingredients. 

Ingredients include:

Onion sprouts*
Ginger*
8 Chicken eggs
Soy Sauce*
Sugar (to taste)
Tanduay Rum (to taste, or tolerance)

(*for the amount, please refer to the photos. I do not speak culinary measurements.)

Directions:

Hard boil the eggs. While they boil, mince the garlic and onion sprouts.

Take the shell off the eggs. This is the most therapeutic part of the whole process. Then slice the eggs in half and prepare a pan for frying.

We fry the already boiled eggs. This recipe is really friendly to the people I know who wince at undercooked eggs.

Then we make the sauce:

Add soy sauce, sugar, Tanduay, garlic and onion sprouts to a hot pan.

Add it to the pile of fried boiled eggs, have a highly choreographed photoshoot, then boom, product is ready to serve!

(Yes to my first recipe post, try it out! It's so good to eat!)

Zamboanga Sibugay is a real place

When I answer the question "Where were you born?", it launches a brouhaha wether I am telling the truth or not. I was born in Zamboanga Sibugay, an inland province in Mindanao. Not a lot of people know about the place so they immediately assume I made it up or picked a random name from a long list.

I'm here in Zamboanga Sibugay having a good time with cousins. They have five bottles of Bacardi 151s and we are about to have fun. I won't be able to blog so much (attending to hangovers or getting one) so here is a pretty photo:

I went to EK with high school friends before going home to Iloilo then to Zamboanga. Yay!

Study Tips and a Playlist

It is my summer term finals week and I am cramming everything in the syllabus into my brain here at Starbucks.

Here are some tips that I do not guarantee will work on you. I am no expert in studying (proof: I focused on my skills to rap last semester instead of studying chemistry overnight. The end result was a really bad final exam result and mediocre rapping skills) but I have been forcing myself to study for over ten years already.

Here are some tips I came up with while mocking my technique:

1. Don't stay in your room. As a college dorm resident, I have a small space. My study area and bed share the same room with four other people. All my memories in this room include staying up until 2 AM watching the latest "New Girl", "Community", or "Game of Thrones" episodes. Just a mental image of my place reminds me of the distaste I have for studying. That is why I move out of my room every time I need a study binge. Plus the bed is a professional seductress.

2. Ready the notes. Nothing is as annoying as settling down in a cozy coffee shop and realizing you don't have any material to dig your head into. That is just sad. And I have this notion that studying only a part of the subject is as worse as not studying at all. Spreading papers across the table will also help you anticipate the amount of effort needed.

3. Lower the self-esteem. Some people think that studying is an admission to inferior mental abilities but you have to admit and shout to yourself that studying is a necessity. No matter how lucky your congenital characteristics are, studying will help you and wearing your IQ around your neck won't guarantee a passing score in exams. Convince yourself that you need studying, that you are insufficient and a dummy. That is inspiration.

4. Consume. The brain is an old machine. It needs more fuel per punch when it is bombarded with information. Although Sudoku won't drop the pounds, sugar will help keep the head active. Tip is eat when you want to if you're studying. All-nighters are not Nicole Richie moments.

5. Rewrite the hell out of everything. When I was younger, my key to memorizing bible verses for my   school was by singing them. This method was very effective in keeping my Christian education grades  and the neighbor up. Over time, my method grew less embarrassing into rewriting. Rewriting notes keeps them in my head. Additionally, it is a goal in life to develop very good handwriting. If you've seen my longhand, it is Victorian excessive. Practice. Practice.

6. Listen to music. As an audiophile and hipster, I'll go cray cray studying in silence (Imagine yourself talking inside your head over and over again, eek!). My current study tunes include: 

"Closer Than This" - Sta. Lucia

"Enjoy the Silence" - Depeche Mode

"Easy" and "Heartbeat" - Tahiti 80

"We Are Young" (Alvin Risk Remix) - Fun ft. Janelle Monae

"These Hands" - The Belligerents

"Jamming" - Bob Marley

"There is a Light That Never Goes Out" - The Smiths

Bjork's "Biophilia" Album

 

 If you read your notes to the beat of the song, it usually becomes more interesting (or intelligible). Music also keeps you awake.

(Notice: This playlist is also an anticipation for summer.)

7. Avoid comfortable situations. Starbucks might be cozy but my body's failure of homeostasis and their air conditioning equals a feeling of north pole. I "forgot" my jacket and it's so cold sleeping would kill me here. Some discomfort will remind you it is not time for sleep.

8. Take active breaks. These are breaks where you do something else (for example writing a blog post). Studying is like tequila, you can't down a bottle in one go. It will destroy you. So you have to take it apart and distribute it through the amount of time you have.

This list was originally written for myself. It might do you harm, haha. 

Fashion + Postal Services: YES!

Alexander McQueen stamp, part of a set from the UK Royal Mail commemorating great London fashion.

Once upon a time, I chanced upon a big photo book chronicling the legacy of Alexander McQueen and I immediately liked his approach in clothing. Well-thought-of, never cheap bizarreness and fine craftsmanship. And have I told you about my fascination with the postal service? They made commemorative stamps for great london fashion houses!

How happy am I? Very!

And a friend who lives in UK will be bringing some of these stamps to the Philippines for me in July. Happy happy joy joy! Check the stamps here. 

PS: I have been waiting on a book which was sent by UK Royal Mail for weeks already.  I guess the creation of these stamps is supposed to pacify me for the meantime. Nonetheless, thank you Brits. 

Anastasia moved to the Philippines

As if the recent airport brawl isn't enough action to keep the Filipino entertained, a recent finding by a granddaughter might be the key to the debate wether Anastasia escaped the Romanov massacre by... drumroll... moving to the Philippines!

COMPARE THE PORTRAITS The picture at left is that of the writer’s “Grandmama Tasia” when she was a young girl. The one at right is the portrait of the young Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia, which she found on the Internet. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

Photo is from the Inquirer. Follow the story here and a part two will go on print tomorrow. Exciting!

Fleeing to the Philippines at 18, she was brought to either a monastery or orphanage in Manila before she met Lope Pelayo, the author's grandfather. The story is just so exciting.

What to do this Mother's Day

This was written by an 18-year old son who lives in a college dorm far from his parents. The items on this list may appear to only be necessary in such circumstances but they are not. They were carefully tailored to be as universal as possible.

1. Watch "The Iron Lady" and see Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep. Although the movie steers clear of the motherhood of the "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher still had twins and a mother is always a mother.

Prepare tissue because Meryl Streep won her third Best Actress Award for her role in this movie. Old people in movies are the most merciless tearjerkers.

2. Buy a book. I'm still finishing Dicken's "A Tale of Two Cities" and I bargained a second-hand copy of Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", a more modern classic, from a book sale. Reading books is almost as enjoyable as seeing your parents everyday. Sob sob.

My copy beside Ana's Story, a book with exceptionally bad writing.

(You might think that these items do not make use of the day's special novelty but bear with me.)

3. Put some marshmallows in a microwave for 15-20 seconds and make sticky, sweet goo that you can eat. Eat with mom if possible. Just imagining it from where I am, I'm sure you'll both enjoy it. And it's something new (at least for me).

To foster relevance, think of it this way: the microwaved marshmallow is like your mom, so soft, so sweet and sticks everyone together.

4. Write a letter and send it via snail mail (if you live away from your parents or if you have a doubt that postman/men still exist). 

I have seen my mother's rare stamps collection and although she tried very hard to keep it off my ungraceful hands, I know how much she values her collection. I decided to send her a few mails in "Par Avion" envelopes to just remind her that 1.) time runs fast but it does not break understanding, 2.) let her know what I've been up to and that I'm still alive, 3.) avoid the 160-character SMS limit and awkwardness of voice calls, and finally, 4.) illustrate the necessity of e-mails in this day and age. She enjoyed it very much and she sent me one cheesy, hand-written reply that will mean a lot to me until I lose it.

Make a letter for your mother and be just as honest as you can. I have a feeling that parents perpetually wonder what goes on in their offspring's mind. Its about time they are given relief from the wondering. Cards have generic messages. Target 500-1,000 words. I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

Happy Mother's Day, mothers! And to the children and husbands, 2012 is the year to make this day extra special!

Barreto vs Tulfo: CLAUDINE FANBOY ALERT

From the awesome Spot.ph article

One of my first magical encounters with motion picture was this Mula sa Puso scene where Claudine Barretto, in a grand white wedding gown, was stuffed into a metal drum and dumped into the ocean. Seeing her holding her breath inside slowly being engulfed with water, I held my breathe and realized the magic of film.

So I am a Claudine fanboy. I saw the YouTube video and marveled how the average Filipino with access to the internet can be the worst jury ever. The video shows a brawl - no cause, just an effect and suddenly everyone believes that Claudine belongs to an asylum.

Have you seen the Tulfo brothers video which was basically a death threat on national television? Go ask Claudine to knock some sense into you!

Weekends are getting boring

It is so unbelievable how the rain has been on and off when days ago you could almost smell everything burning under the merciless heat of the sun. The weather is so disconcerting that I could imagine people questioning their consciousness ("Is it really raining? The sun was shining a while ago. Is this real life?").

It is a Saturday of a boring weekend that I will share with leisure. Everyone should have a good rest this week because I have a feeling the coming days will be stressful.

By the way, you have to see this:

From: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/eye.on/index.html

The EYE ON: The Philippines page by CNN is awesome. Average age of 22.9! We are a young bunch (or on an escalating level of baby production)! They have the awesome graphic above, which could pass off as a wallpaper and hopefully spark a nationwide interest in the concept of macroeconomics. Below the graphic are links to several articles regarding the Philippines. For some reason, the articles paints a rather weird photo of our country.

fake (l/n)ights : not an editorial

I live with three other guys in my college dorm room and we all have been ending our days quite late so we all have to cross  Katipunan Ave. where a plethora of fast food chains are open 24/7 to consume dinner. These photos come from a night as such and I brought along my compact (pink) digital camera and snapped some photos. Post-processing then boom!, a photo set.

There is awesomness (and a lot of imaginative horror) living inside the Ateneo de Manila campus although walking it at night on hot summer months is not as feel-good as December strolls.

There are moments when you just grab the nearest pole and get all crazy. 

This is what you get when you mix me, dinner anticipation, late nights, a digicam and a lot of loose bolts. I've been wanting to make an actual summer fashion editorial (unlike this one, which is technically an album for a trip to a fastfood chain, yuch) and I still hope I'll be able to help making one before the sultry season ends. 

Its awesome having a compact 'digicam' again and being devoid of all the drapery and weight of dSLRs.

BTW: For all the people who count the number of people in photos, the other roommate was not in the mood to go out that night. 

A day in *M

As part of the relaunch where I promised to let go of any shame I use to hide whatever attempts at art I make, I bring to you a small video montage. This is because I have a compact (and pink) Canon digital camera that takes HD video and I've been itching ever since to be able to do something like this.