the taste of okra

Can anybody really explain the taste of okra?

looking back now, my son came up with some sort of a description of the taste of okra. he's known for his complex analogies on food and their different tastes, and he had this to say about our soup one night:

“when you first taste it it’s just like water, but if you let it stay longer in your mouth you will begin to realize that it tastes wonderful. it came from one source but they have different tastes  inside your mouth. mommy, this soup is like parallel evolution.”

there isn’t a day when we don’t have okra on the dinner table. my kids love to eat vegetables and my daughter who's four years old now, would even trade cookies for white onions when she was one.

my then eleven year old’s review of okra?

“it’s the taste of emptiness.”

                                              

photo by koshersamurai

i love the smell of wasabi. if i’m not eating it, i’m sniffing it. so dipping okra in soy sauce with wasabi is like sitting between  conan o’brien and dexter -- a description of a great experience.

according to our food guru, “the taste of wasabi is complicated.”

no further explanation to that. no implosion or explosion of flavors. just that…wasabi tastes complicated. 

running in red stilettos is a top philippine lifestyle, home, living, advice, style, technology, mommy and women's blog, top manila blog on depression, anxiety, mid-life crisis, career, college advice, health tips, psychology, inspiration, love, spirituality, diet, slimming, weight loss tips, homebased work okra, wasabi, food review, soup, manila, philippines, parallel evolution, SAHM

capiz shells -- old friends come back around

yes, you're seeing eggs in our living room.
we like making our decorative pieces functional   

we recently went hunting for interesting pieces for the house and discovered this antique shop/warehouse not too far from where we live. the boys and i hyperventilated when we saw the pieces being sold. i revamped our home office a couple of weeks ago and the husband and i agreed that aged window panels embellished with capiz shells would look perfect on the off-white wall behind my desk.  we found just what we were looking for and that made it an awesome sunday for us.

maxi, the antique shop owner, told us our pieces are from ilocos

i personally have a special connection with these window pieces because it reminds me of our humble home way back in the 70's. as a little girl, i enjoyed sitting  by the window where the planters were to watch what was happening on the busy street below me. we lived in an old apartment surrounded by sliding windows and i remember how pretty they looked, especially when the sun shone on the capiz shells in the morning. 

my mother owned an insanely heavy oval antique table with intricate carvings. to her it was part of a collection, but to me it was my house. i’d bring my toys and stay under there most of the day. if the house would fall silent and i was nowhere to be found, that meant i had fallen into slumber in my “house”. one of the things i remember doing while lying under the table was watching the blue sky through a hole in the window where a piece of capiz shell once belonged.

now, seeing these panels on different parts of the house pleasantly sweep in nostalgia. we only needed two panels for the office but ended up buying five — because they’re too pretty to turn our backs to.

i’m currently completing the work that i’m doing in the office. i’ll post pictures when we have the final look. for me, it’s half done without the lamp. we’re still hunting for the “right one”.

capiz shells, antique shop, manila, philippines, sunset, sunlight, home office, decoration, window panel, old table

“metro manila” gets sundance award

a film by sean ellis

metro manila, a film by british director sean ellis gets the world cinema dramatic audience award in the recently concluded sundance festival.

it’s piquing my curiosity how ellis tackled the issue of a destitute life in the philippines.  for most of us, the exodus from the province to metro manila, the hand to mouth survival, the danger of living among scofflaws is just another everyday story. 

the reviews i’ve read were a bit telling of some flaws in the film, but the actors were given high praises. i believe in the acting prowess of john arcilla who is one of the most respected actors in the industry. he also did a cameo for bourne legacy (which i found a bit disappointing). 

i’m saving my two cents and i hope i get my hands on this one, and many other indie films that i missed, soon. 

john arcilla in metro manila

production companies: independent, chocolate frog

cast: jake macapagal, john arcilla, althea vega

director: sean ellis

screenwriters: sean ellis, frank e. flowers

producers: mathilde charpentier, sean ellis

executive producers: sean ellis, enrique gonzalez, celine lopez

director of photography: sean ellis

production designer: ian traifalgar

music: robin foster

editor: richard mettler

no rating, 114 minutes

sundance film festival, sean ellis, metro manila, john arcilla, jake macapagal, althea vega, philippines

ricky lo’s interview with anne hathaway goes cruddy

 

what a way to choke on coffee

anne hathaway, les miserables

ricky lo, showbiz commenter

if i was somebody from the philippine showbiz industry or a friend of ricky lo’s, i’d also probably call anne hathaway a bitch. it’s called loyalty around here. if i was hathaway i’d probably be thinking, “who is this guy and why is he even doing interviews?” for somebody like me who has made no psychological, physical and emotional investment in the showbiz circle since birth, i’m thinking, lo didn’t do his homework and should work more on his speech.

in a recent interview with anne hathaway, veteran showbiz commenter ricky lo was at the receiving end of hathaway’s forthright answers leaving him a bit flustered in front of the camera. he’d probably never get that from a local celebrity because getting an interview with him means you just got a shot at stardom. being asked very personal questions is the norm and interviewers never get a “no” or “i will not answer that” from people in the philippine showbiz industry. 

the first 20 seconds of the interview was already off-putting with lo asking hathaway how she lost 25 lbs. ooops. any filipino actor would have no problem answering that question and would even be glad to divulge the nitty-gritty details if it’s the wish of the interviewer.

so what went wrong?

lo would not be the one to offend any actor because he has decades of experience under his name and whatever flub he made in those four minutes was obviously not a conscious effort. what filipino interviewer would have the audacity to do that to an international star anyway?  but there are so many ways for an interview to go wrong. based on experience and observation, starting off on the wrong foot goes a long way, and the boat will not stop rocking unless as an interviewer you make a colossal redemption of yourself or counteractively ease an agitated interviewee.

unfortunately in the case of lo’s interview with hathaway, it ended with what to me was a lampooning “why don’t you invite them? i think they’d rather much hear it from you” when lo asked hathaway to invite her fans. when he also asked her for her message for lea salonga, hathaway said, “oh, we already talked about that.”

again, i’m sure lo meant well when he asked hathaway how she identified with her character in les miserable. when hathaway expressed confusion over the question, lo explained further by asking her if she ever had “an experience to be hungry, to be poor…” to that, hathaway curtly answered, “that’s a very personal question.”

lo’s questions were somehow fair and valid, but the manner of asking, what with his limitations in the english language, turned it into a disaster of sorts.

if say, lo asked that question to a filipino actor, we know we’d be treated to a historical account of what life was like prior to showbiz and specifically what it was like being poor. what could be a better human interest story anyway?

the interview was a thorny four minutes that made me cringe in so many places. oh well, my coffee did taste a bit funny this morning.

anne hathaway, les miserables, ricky lo, showbiz, hollywood, filipino actor, interview, manila, philippines

 

hitting icebergs –- along timog

what business did my son and i have traveling 17 kilometers to get to quezon city on a humid thursday?

we wanted to hit icebergs.

i was scheduled to do an interview with a revered feng shui practioner for an article that i was developing for the magazine. my son also wanted to try the famous frozen offering of icebergs so off we went on a horribly humid day. on our way to timog, dr. ang called to say he'd be an hour late. his prior appointment kept him and he couldn’t take another step without having lunch first, unless i was okay with him passing out on me during the interview.

that’s what i call a fortunate unfortunate event because that gave us an hour to discover icebergs. the restaurant has been around since 1986 and started out as a small shop with only five tables offering cold delights. business picked up quickly and the rest was history.

we voted to have a second lunch (a sure win, with the first one taken three hours before the trip) and icebergs’ menu had a lot to offer for weighty lunches. to help us decide quickly, we narrowed down our list to the “bestsellers”.

my son ordered sisig (broiled and chopped pig ears and cheeks) and i went for the tacos. sisig might sound like something that you wouldn’t want to put on your plate but it’s as popular as the president here and could be quite unforgettable -- if you find the right chef to cook it for you, that is.

icebergs' sisig

the sisig lived up to its bestseller reputation. the meat was tender and was not dry, certainly a pleasure to the bite. sisig could be a pretty versatile dish so there are several versions of it. i’ve tried the sweet, dry and spicy versions. icebergs’ wasn’t sweet and what a delight that was. i’m generally not a big fan of sweet dishes. i know how cole’s sisig tasted because i reached out across the table and dug in.

my tacos were a different story. i wasn’t too thrilled with the soft shell, and the absence of cumin, paprika and jalapeno pepper didn’t hit the spot for me. it was not bad, it just was too different a version of tacos and more like good spaghetti sauce with veggies stuffed in taco shells. i like my tacos sinful with spices and the whiff of mexican chilies.

tacos sans the chilies

the oreo banana split will speak for itself. the server forgot to top our delectable oreo banana split with oreo of all things, and yes, we really had to get them. so he came back with a smile and this time with the lovely duo on top of our dessert.

oreo banana split

budget for two: php 400-500

branches

tutuban center mall, santana grove, harbour square (near picc)

quezon city

banawe, timog avenue, metrowalk complex, trinoma

sm branches

sm city north edsa, sm fairview, sm moa, sm by the bay

robinsons branches

robinson's galleria, robinson's place ermita, robinson's midtown

contact number: 415-6778

icebergs, food review, sisig, timog, banana split, tacos, manila, dessert, lunch, philippines, quezon city, fast food

clementine: story of a sunset

the veranda is cloaked with the day’s last rays of the sun. clementine leaned on the baluster feeling the dolour slowly creeping in. she closed her eyes listening, waiting for a sound from the empty road across the 30-year old bungalow where she stood, telling herself to stop counting the hours. it’s silent. the house stands at the far end of the road, its facade boasting of senescent beauty. it is no home to her but a refuge from years of mislaid youth. it’s where she embraced age and began to understand that happiness does not always present itself as an ally. most of the time, clementine even failed to understand what it stood for. happiness, like love, would come and leave at every command of the earth.

the sun behests everything it touches. plants bow down to kiss the ground when the sun starts to hide, and people become leaden near dusk. nothing and no one is spared. i would like to know though, how it would be like to be free. but be free from what? my despair is unknown. it has no name, no face. it has been there ever since i can remember. it’s like a story where everything is the same even after the hundredth time you read it. how you begin it or how you end it is how you want it to be. but what happens in it is like the sun; always setting the moment it gets its cue. how did all this begin? she thinks to herself as she does every single day.

“it’s here again,” she tells benedict.

“i know. pushing the rays to one side again, yes? you like to think of the impossible,” benedict teased.

clementine picked up a tiny orange santan before answering. “reading my mind again?” she smiled at the thought of benedict knowing exactly what she wanted to say. reading each other’s thoughts happened too often that every bit of excitement in those unlikely coincidences had been exhausted. when arguments erupt between them they quickly turn to silent rage and allow voicelessness to bind them back.

benedict moved a pile of papers away from his desk and blankly stirred the mug with stale coffee in it. he’d been staring at the dummy of the magazine the whole morning. benedict could not deny that the odds worked overtime against him. he had been working on every section of the magazine with unceasing ardor for four six weeks when the publisher called him up to tell him she had changed her mind about publishing it.

"budget’s gone awry and we need to cut back on expenses. it’s not something i can or want to deal with at this time," the sonorous publisher told him. from the other end of the line, all benedict could hear was a mumble. he knew the product of his hard work had faced its demise even before benedict got to the last page.

he had waited two years to leave. i can’t sit hit here and let time to go by, benedict thought to himself. clementine’s sunset has come again, he said with finality.

balcony, condo view, cypress towers, manila, penthouse, philippines, romance, short story, sunset

new year's resolutions for the antsy

here's wishing everyone a fabulous new year! 

were any of you ever required to write down your new year's resolution on a piece of paper by your teacher? i did that my entire grade school and high school years. makes me wonder where those piles of paper ended up since there were hundreds of us trying real hard to make peace with the word “nice” at the end of each year. it's been decades since i wrote my last one but i sure remember so many of those resolutions that i made. 

after watching the display of fireworks from our balcony last night, i dug up my memory for past resolutions (fireworks never fail to inspire me) and i mentally picked up a piece of paper from 1992. here's what's written down on it. i will never speak one bad word ever again. i will study every night. i will never forget to pray. i will never be late for school. i will significantly cut down daydreaming time.

no, it was another paper that i used in the confessional box. 

the long break from resolutions came in college because i got stuck in the limbo years. when motherhood happened in 2001, that's when it all came back and i didn't have to wait for the turn of the year to make my resolutions... and i didn't have to write them down either. they came on a weekly basis and i worked harder on each item on my mental list. i just have to tell you though that up until now i'm still working on #5 from that antiquated list.

how far could you go with your new year's resolutions? antsy people (like me -- just had to say) have too much going on in their minds and in those webs of thoughts, new year's resolutions are difficult to find -- just like the best episodes of twilight zone. 

here are a few things that will help you stick to those resolutions and make 2013 your happy ever after. 

if you've just written down...

i will dominate the world once i've lost weight-->first, lose weight. that can be done by befriending those excess pounds. looking at yourself in the mirror and hating what you see will only stress you out, and stress eating tags along everywhere like a kid out of school. if the gym sounds like area 51 to you, start by setting realistic goals. don't make the gym a part of your itinerary. dance,  do jumping jacks, clean your house. if none of that works, consult a weight management specialist. i highly doubt it though if those ten-minute workouts  won't work. 

i will quit smoking for the love of my kids
-->heaven just sent you down... but only in thought. sure, you're the universe's gift to mankind for sincerely wanting that but i'm sure as hell your mind will play the part of lex luthor. quitting cold turkey almost always never works. find alternatives like herbal cigarettes and work your way up from there. 

i will have a nasty breakup with procrastination-->know (right now) why you procrastinate in the first place. re-asses your work space because if there's nothing within your reach that makes you giddy especially on mondays, then you're doomed. take yourself on a weekend trip and think about what really makes you happy. really. you might be killing yourself slowly by staying in your least favorite job in the last five years.

i will try something new every chance i get
-->create a calendar that will help you keep track of events, festivals and activities that you want to experience. setting aside a monthly budget is not a bad idea either. it's a great idea.

i will take the road less traveled-->great, because major thoroughfares are now clogged with people who are not even sure where they want to go. and oh, the less traveled road may lead you to your dream job, coveted relationship, whatnot. 

i will eat healthier-->understand what healthy eating means because you may be on the right track and not know it. fad diets may be bad (excuse the corny rhyme) so don't jump right into the band wagon without knowing what is the right diet for you. it does sound like a lot of work to see a nutritionist but you only have to do that once... if you're not naughty. 

i wish everyone the best of luck for the year of the water snake. cheers to everyone in the first ubc for 2013! thank you michelle shaeffer and michele scism for hosting such a great event. 

new year's resolutions, ultimate blog challenge, cypress towers, c5, fireworks view, year of the water snake, philippines, manila