Hala Buko Festival

During my childhood, a jingle is played on the radio that surely get each person's appetite to height. It goes, "When you're hungry, tat-tarat-tarat-tat, -----s is the place to be"  This song reverberate in my mind while on my way to one of favorite restos in Quezon City, the Coconut House.

The house that coconut built.  Everything coconut.  From BREAKFAST of Coco Pancake, Veggie Coco Omelet, Coco Pandesal, Cocolog to LUNCH/DINNER of Chicken Binakol, Gatadobo, Pork Sinigang sa Buko, Kalderatang Dagat sa Gata, Coco BBQ Fiesta.  And a whole line of coconut desserts and drinks.

In celebration of World Environment Day, I hope you find time to choose your food.  Know more about Food Safety and Security.


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Mmmm Mommy...

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, their hearts forever. (Anonymous)

Weekend is here!! I can smell something is cooking in the kitchen..  MMmmmm...

Mom, with her busy hands, is preparing spaghetti for snack.  It's my favorite!!! Oh I cant wait to have a plateful of it,  with sansrival, mom's favorite cake, on the side.  Who would miss this weekend at our family house?

I would.

I do.

I miss it because mom is no longer there to bring food steaming from the kitchen.

But her memory lives on... As I keep this good memory alive in my mind and my heart, I stopped by a quaint restaurant in the neighborhood, run by mother-daughter tandem, had spaghetti with sansrival for dessert.  While I savor each bite, I savor each memory of my mother who in her busy schedule as a working-mother and class-A weekend tennis player still find time to concoct something special during the weekend.

Her love for us is burning in my heart...


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Natural Isotonic Energy Drink

Suki-- Buko!  Suki-- Buko! (Patron-- Coconut!)  shouts the man who peddles around our neighborhood with coconut.

There are different varieties of coconut and my preference (as with other fruits) is the sour kind --the "manipis" (very thin) or grossly called "malauhog" flesh with sour juice.  "Malakanin," the thick kind is more popular to Filipinos because of the sweet taste.

Varieties, and so I thought, are the stages of coconut.

6-month old = very thin; known as malauhog
7-month old = nicely thin
8-month old = fleshy, rice-like texture or "malakanin"
9-month old = thicker; used for buko salad
10-month old = thickest; transitioning to maturity
6 to 10-month old ="buko" (young coconut)
11-month old = "niyog" or mature coconut; normally, its meat is grated to use as a coconut milk while the water is trashed. What we dont know is we throw "the best coconut water of all", says Mr Jun Castillo of Coconut House.


Incidentally, Mr Castillo and the Filipino Coconut Farmers have captured the nutrition of a fresh mature coconut, bottled it up to make it accessible anytime, as a NATURAL energy drink for athletes, the active and sports enthusiasts.  It is called 2Big Nyog!

Coconut water or 2Big Nyog, a substitute for the popular Gatorade or Powerade?  That is for you to find out. Below is the comparison study for the popular brands and coconut water:

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Guilty! or Not?

Guilty or not guilty?  This may be a simple question the judges need to answer to conclude the impeachment process of the Chief Magistrate.  But how they lay their premise is another question, a more important at that, to me the least.  This is a way for me to take a peek on how each one of them thinks.  Each senator who is supposed to exercise their duty of being impartial, apolitical, serving justice over the accused.

After hearing all of them speak.  Some completely prepared.  For others, mind boggling, they seem to have just arrived at their decision at the rostrum.  Were they pressured to say the popular vote because they are seeking second term in office?

I must admit the best one for me is Bongbong Marcos' though I cannot fully commit to everything he said.  It was well crafted, words were carefully chosen, almost oratorical.  And the courage to be different, it is for me something worth emulating.

Saying or believing in the unpopular is not popular.  In a country where yes means no (or maybe), where we'd rather lie or suffer in silence than to take a stand alone.  We might learn a thing or 2 from this speech, with no fear.

The lady justice wears a blindfold for a reason.  She is to render judgment based on law and evidence, without regard to the circumstances and personalities of the parties involved -- however controversial they may be.  She is to dispense justice without fear or favor.