Santi's Delicatessen spread With the easing of the restrictions, long-awaited get-togethers were at an all-time high. I’m sure many new home cooking discoverers were busy sending off their products. The lockdown also brought out something positive. Many home cooks and bakers were born. Most of...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza This time it’s fear that’s fueling the surges. Fear is good if it keeps parents from taking their tykes out for a walk in the park along with 20,000 other people. Fear is good if it pulls us back from going out for the sake of going out. Fear is good if it keeps us...
Anyone who knows Portia knows her as the pink lady who cannot live without pink P FOR PORTIA Portia Leuterio, the lady who thinks pink, drinks pink, dreams in pink; and the table is set, almost, for P (as in Portia) and her guests. Portia Leuterio teaches ladies and their daughters and...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Christmas ends on the 12th day, two days from now, with the Feast of the Three Kings. Looking back, it was the second half of December that put us in the merry mélange of a near normal season of anticipated joys, gift-giving, family bonding and hopefulness. Now look...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza In her 2021 book, The Madness of Crowds, the novelist Louise Penny writes: “What’s a year? Why do we need a new year? Is the old one broken?” Not all memories are good, but the following list shows that as in using a stairway, there’s always an upstairs and a...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Word of the year 2021, according to Oxford Dictionary, was “vax” – not “vaccine,” just vax. Vaccine is an old word whereas vax is a pandemic-2020 invention, shorter to pronounce and spell, especially for headline writers. Word of the month of December 2021 based...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Gifts unwrapped. Boxes torn open (why the day after Christmas is also known as boxing day in Western countries, when presents bought in a store are allowed to be returned or exchanged for another size, style, or color). Some children looking disappointed. There’s always...
FOOT FETISH Chicken feet A chef friend once told me, “If you think about it, most foreign cuisines only have a handful of dishes that are popular and really stand out.” Images of dishes from other countries came to mind, in particular, Thai cuisine such as tom yum, pad thai, pandan chicken,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Christmas, wrote Alexander Smith, “is the day that holds all time together.” Poetry? Theology? Psychology? What would the world – humanity-- be without Christmas? Still, there are those who do not believe in the story of the First Christmas or who prefer to forget...
Despite the pandemic, the Food Haven of the Philippines lives up to its new title with culinary victories left and right Photos by the author. HURADOS The judges from left: Thirdy Dolatre, Kevin Navoa, Tibong Jardeleza, Don Baldosano, Sandy Daza, and Angelo Comsti Iloilo is known for its culinary...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza For the first time in two years of lockdown I dared set foot in a flashy hotel-casino-resort and not feel guilty about it (without an escort). To reach the restaurant where I was to meet friends, I was advised by a tallish usherette to walk through the casino, straight...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Who cannot be impressed by the size of adoring crowds that adorn every political event where the rule is the more the merrier? It’s Christmas, the season of joy. It’s also a time of extreme climates – a super typhoon just the icing on the cake after heavy rains...
