JUST A THOUGHT: Naps are nature’s way of reminding you that life is nice, like a beautiful, softly swinging hammock strung between birth and infinity.---Peggy Noonan
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DEAR ONLINE SELLERS: First of all, this note to online sellers: Please state the desired prices and your location whenever you post your products or services.
These matter a lot when an interested party wants to make a purchase.
Your products---dish, clothing, pre-loved appliance, gadget---may whet my appetite, but if your asking price is beyond my budget or your location is too far away from mine, then it won’t be worth my time.
That means I will be spending so much more on transport. They call it shipping. Sending you a private message as stated will make us sound like…we are close?
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NEW MARKET PLACE: In case you haven’t noticed, Facebook and the rest of social media have become one big (super) market place in the time of pandemic.
Name it, from chicken wings to eye make-up, from liempo to face mask, from tenderloin steak to bopis. Like SM, they’ve got it all for you on this new platform.
They’re selling everything on line, including pride and prejudice, if I may say.
Social media has become no different from Divisoria, the sprawling Quinta market in Quiapo, or the neighborhood talipapa on the side streets of Trabajo in Sampaloc.
Every other person, friend or stranger alike, is selling something or other. The line-up of sellers is made more colorful by the presence of personalities one would usually not imagine indulging in such mundane, ordinary activities, like cooking and selling.
Well, it seems this pandemic has neutralized people from all levels of society. It is proving to be the great equalizer where earning a living is concerned.
In the absence of regular work from TV and movies, both partially shut down by Covid-19, actors and assorted personalities have turned their kitchens into their new home studios.
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MARVIN’S BANANA: I scan Facebook and see Marvin Agustin working furiously at the kitchen, preparing the ingredients for carrot cake. That, and banana cake (or is it bread?) are two of Marvin’s specialties on sale.
In both instances, Marvin says he pours yoghurt into the mix to give it a soft, moisty touch.
There’s also veteran actor, Nonie Buencamino, who serves laing on the run. Celeste Legaspi says this vegetable dish, smothered in coconut milk, has never tasted as heavenly. Half the credit must go to his wife, Shamaine.
Ai Ai de las Alas is promoting her line of breads and pastries that include ube pandesal, Oreo cheesecake, and brazo de ube.
There’s Lotlot de Leon selling ready-to-cook meals like tocino, bopis and chicken barbeque.
A friend who ordered bopis from Lotlot’s Homemade swears by its delish taste, unmindful of his uric acid the morning after.
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MARCO SISON’S BARBECUE: Good friend Marco Sison has launched his own business, MS Barbecue, all the way in his hometown, San Antonio, Binan, Laguna, where the marinated skewered pork meat has become a hit, like his timeless music.
Sarah Lahbati, who’s half-Moroccan, has partnered with her mother in preparing cheesy-thick Swiss lasagna.
The mother-daughter tandem has stepped up the lowly bico and transformed cassava cake into a designer piece.