Eat Matters

BalikBayan, Balik Blog, Hala Bira

I'm Back. Na naman, I am resurrected after all the holiday feasting frenzy.I know its a little weird to write about holiday hangovers when the season is breezing to the last days of February. Am I having a delayed reaction? The holidays should have ended right after the Feast of the Three Kings. Not for me.

I went home for the Holidays  a few days before Christmas  to Jaro, Iloilo City ,Philippines and went overdrive with the binging for about a month and half. I am not  lying when  I brag that my bacchanalian overload just ended last February the second with the celebration of the Feast of Nuestra Candeleria de Jaro. It is touted to be one of the biggest Fiesta celebrations in the archipelago. (Maybe after Quiapo?)

The Fiesta sa Jaro is miraculous, festive and chi chi.

It is miraculous because  the mix of the hoi polloi, the well-heeled,the pseudo celebrities, the doubting Thomases make a beeline to the Lady of Candles(the santos(statue) is said to be  gradually growing ) to ask for holy favors in her cathedral. In the gates of the convento, devotees buy her blessed candles with a far reaching reputation for cure alls.

The Candelaria is festive because.... ah... that's self explanatory. San Mig sales people need not explain to the ignorant. In this aspect, I am a devotee.

The glitz and glamor is underscored when daughters of the country's who's who in Pinoy politics and business are happily dressed by famous couturiers to sit as Fiesta Queens. Last year it was the Senate President's Villar comely daughter who got the right to hold and wear the much sought ( an exclusive committee chooses,with political ,manoeuvrings, the lucky lady)scepter and tiara. This year it was a granddaughter of one of the Lopez's of the ABS_CBN and etc. fame who warmed the  glitzy throne.

A week before the Fiesta de Candelaria was the Dinagyang where the Ilonggo's culture, artistry and festive spirit was showcased; not mention the stamina for alcohol consumption. This is actually a ceebration of the Feast of the Santo Nino that has been unofficially challenged to  be the feast of San Miguel. After the world-class performance of the different contesting ati tribes, people take to the streets to dance and well, take it to limit.. ..one more time. Shouts of Hala Bira! fill the air.

I am now in the tail end of my fabulous holiday.I am now in Manila chilling out, remembering the wonderful memories still clear as day even when distilled with the ice cold powers of my fave brew. In a few days I will be flying the Land of the Maple Leaf which is my second home. All of these experiences will become stories that  will tell to the homesick Pinoy friends.

Google Cooks and Eats Good

It appears that Google doesn't only want to be  the world's leading search engine. It also wants to make its presence felt in the corporate eating world as well. San Fransisco Chronicle staff writer  Olivia  Wu reports that:

With its dedication to providing free and largely healthful, organic and artisan-produced meals three times a day to its employees, Google may well be leading the way in corporate food-service programs in the same way it has set the bar for search engines.

Inside its vast corporate campus, Google  has encouraged the proliferation of  restaurants and cafes whose repertoire of recipes represents the taste buds and flavors of its multi-cultural workforce plus, that of  the other  foodies who make it a point to visit these cafeterias.

What  is unique  about  Google's  food service concept inside the Mountain View premises is that it goes beyond the basics  of providing  accessible  and  affordable dining to its  employees. It has embraced and put into place a forward-looking and synergistic  food  program that involves and benefits  not only the company but the community and the environment as well.  According to Olivia Wu's article:
               

By the sheer numbers of its employees  --  Google is mum, but estimates put it at 4,000 and growing  --  and its purchasing power, the company will likely affect the survival rate of local, small, organic farms as well as what ingredients appear in local markets and, down the line, how much agricultural land is saved from development.

 Besides the impact on the local economy and food producers, Google is creating a new model for how corporate cafeterias serve their employees, both by the wide variety of offerings and the creative freedom allowed its chefs.

Amazing isn't? And the notable thing is that it's achievable. Why am I blogging about this?

In the aftermath of last weekend's  crude political thrilla in Manila, I got to thinking if the only way out of the quagmire where the Philippines is helplessly drowning would be to incessantly  babble and squabble  for power, favors and positions.

Perhaps the Internet's mogul corporate food service  agenda can serve as a model for  both  the political administration, for those at the odd end of the  spectrum and for us Pinoys.

If  we could only stop talking and start thinking like Google.

This is just my little exercise in wishful thinking. Really.

Read more about the article here .

Blogging, Coup d'etats and Street Food

My food blogging sked has been waylaid by the interesting  political drama in the Philippine theater last weekend. I was ready to  do some writing when  I stumbled on the breaking news  section of the on-line INQ7  that  Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had declared a state of emergency. My  initial reaction was: "Oh, no, not again". I immediately texted my friends in the Philippines with: "de ja vu. 9/21/72". One replied that it was just an SOE declaration and not the Martial Law all over again. I texted back with " same dog different collar" and followed it up with: "Hope GMA's left hand knows what her right is doing". I was right in most respects but I leave that to the legalists and the pundits  to expound.

So with the flow of events, I  tuned in to DZRH on-line and hopped from one opinion blog to the other in between clicks on the cyber broadsheets to get bits of commentary and pieces of the action. Two of the blogs that I frequented were Sassy's  and Manolo's .

From my vantage point  across  thousands of miles from the troubled isles, I could only imagine probable scenes based on the commentaries and running accounts from  the various sources.

Now, on hindsight, I am amused of the mental collage I have assembled. Among the crowds, soldiers and mean machines, I have not excluded  images of the little faceless people who could be happier that day selling mani,sigarilyo,bananaQ, fishballs, Stork, balut, soft drinks in plastic supot,bottled and ice water and what have you for the consumption of  the hungry rallyistas  and  ever loyal mirons.

I will stop short of saying that those nameless ambulant vendors made a killing that day. Their happiness, though short-lived, was triggered by a higher than usual take that promises a possibility of eating three full meals at least, for the morrow. Thanks to the pretenders, grabbers and powers that be and their vicious game of expensive Chess. I wouldn't be surprised if the lowly and hungry vendors wish for a coup and a rally every day. This is the only way unknowing  pawns can survive in a famished arena.

Long live the Queen. Ehem.

Consider this as my food blog for the day.

David and Goliath:Foodie Version

This is good news for Slow Food advocates.

Richard Owen, reporting from Rome for the  Food & Drink section of The London Times Online (UK), writes that :

 The closure of McDonald’s in Altamura, Apulia, was hailed yesterday as a victory for European cuisine against globalised fast food.

To read more about "The baker who beat Mcdonald's" click here .

Christmas Shopping

I hate to say it but  there seems to be no cure for this pocket-draining ailment that gets critical during the Holidays. Buy, Buy, Buy, said in many ways, disguised in many fashions that tickles the consumers mind.

Over consumption rhymes with hypertension. Obesity is now a  community threat. Forest covers are sacrificed to  feed the buying  frenzy.  Gluttony is a human right.  The spirit of giving  is an able excuse for buying--- MORE.You don't feel good if you can't catch that sale in the mall. Right? You think its crazy? No. You're only crazy if you act like Mr. Scrooge.

My Sunday school  teachers said : Jesus was God's greatest gift to humanity. I think they  were wrong. The  credit and debit cards are  the greatest gifts. No piety  needed to attain happiness. God is with us.  The Holy Book is right. HE is with us in the wallet all the time. In plastic.Wal-Mart and Old Navy are the Holy Grounds.  Sell to the world the Lord is come Ad gurus sing. The ONE who  was born in a manger is the ultimate  sales icon. Name brands bow to him and make him their fashion model. Don't believe me. I am just kidding. Don't worry I'm Baptist. We don't ex communicate.

Ah, It's Christmas, almost so I'll stop ranting. But still am plain curious  about the habits of Canadians when it comes to  their  Christmas shopping.  I am also interested on how effective were the advertising and retail gimmicks used to lure consumers  to splurge their hard earned Canadian $$$.

Yiling Zhang of the Distributive  Trades Division  of Statistics Canada has this to say in  a report, Consumer Holiday Patterns :

The traditional last-minute Christmas shopping spree may not be so last-minute as you think. True, many consumers make an 11th hour rush to the local mall to fill up those Christmas stockings. But analysis of retail sales shows there is a tad more method to shoppers’ madness.

 

Data show, in effect, that consumers start buying big-ticket items, such as furniture, electronic equipment and appliances, in November. But they wait until December to buy less expensive Christmas gifts.

There  is a method in  consumer  madness after all.  That is wonderful to hear. Indirectly shows we still know how to use our brains. Thank God.

A Sleigh Ride

My  4  year old daughter's school had a  mini-winter carnival  yesterday.  It  was  not really a big  carnival with all the glittering extravaganza that comes with it. It was more family focused with a   children's musical , a  craft making activity, ice skating on the school rink and a sleigh ride.

The sleigh ride was  what we were  after. For a Pinoy recently  transplanted in the middle of winter wonderland this  was  an experience worth taking. Perhaps it  was  the redundant memory of  singing "dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh"  in a the  middle  of  a  tropical and humid  country full of carabaos(water buffalo) and carrosas that  amplified  the  excitement to take that ride. Yesterday evening, with  bells jingling  on the  two white sleigh horses pulling a   big open sleigh, the colonially implanted winter fantasy became flesh.

The ride wasn't dashing at all. Understandably with kids and toddlers in tow the speed limit was a slow leisurely drag not in an open field but  around the public park full of pine trees. We wanted to laugh all the way but stopped short when each chuckle is  punctuated by an unhealthy waft from the horses organic fertilizer factory. One wonders  why this was not in the  Jingle Bells Song ?

Two Left Feet (A Test Post)

If blogging is doing the Tango then I'm dancing with two left feet.I'm stumbling and fumbling in syncopated time. My moves are foolish counterpoints to the regular beat.I've got no rhythm. Frustration is what I make out of trackbacks,XML's, RSS's, and other E.T. lexicon. Tis an ambient pain in the cranium.

    A nasty thing is brewing in me and I'm starting to grit my teeth.I just  couldn't  glide to pin that swirling moment.I'm glad my molars are no dentures yet.That would make a costly trip to the toothman. I wish I was  holding a good pen and some real paper instead. Then I wouldn't be humming an aria of expletives.Gloria. Ah,time was when  being tech savvy was a fantasy.

    I shall overcome.Soon.Just you wait and see.