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...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza The 99.9 percent solution applies to commonly used household products, everything from bath soap, detergent, disinfectant, toilet bowl cleaner, even shampoo, everything that requires cleaning and cleansing, getting rid of germs, or so the TV commercials say. As the...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Why is the camp of Bongbong Marcos not replying to accusations that he has not paid his taxes, not filed his income tax returns? “Why should we do their work for them?” said a source in BBM’s inner circle. “They make accusations that cannot stick and they’re too...
