So the Midnight Snack lasted the whole weekend. I guess the transition lasted longer than expected. So far my eating ritual consisted of at least a taho. On Saturday morning, I had champorado ( chocolate rice ). For lunch, I had macaroni salad, rice, fried fish, and soup with string beans sautéed in coconut milk. For dinner, we ate in SM Mall of Asia’s Tapa King: soup, rice, sunny-side eggs, and pork ( sweet, sweet and spicy, and bacon-style ). For dessert, I had Sagot Gulaman ( bubble pearls, solid gelatin, and brown sugar syrup mixed in cold water ).
On Sunday, I had taho for breakfast ( what a surprise? ) with iced ovaltine. For lunch, we had Tinola ( Native chicken, chicken liver, green papaya, and gabi leaves in a broth ) and rice. We had merienda/early dinner which consisted of shell pasta in a creamy broth.
For dessert, we went to Chowking. We ordered halo-halo, literally translated to “Mix-mix”. This concoction includes gelatin, sago, red beans, ube, leche flan, kidney beans, ube ice cream, buko (coconut shreds), rice crispy, sweetened banana, jack fruit, and more. Mixed all these ingredients with evaporated milk in finely crushed ice, and you get halo-halo.
While we waited for our order, we started talking about weight lose and gain. One of my cousins recently got her braces. Her teeth are sensitive so for the past month, her diet was limited to soft and liquid-based food, such as soup, lugaw ( porridge ) and oatmeal. Needless to say, she often lost her appetite.
My other cousin remembered the time he put on the pounds due to his work. The graveyard shift made him tired. He basically worked, ate, and slept (repeat for a whole year ). His free time was spent in sedentary activities, such as computer games, internet surfing, and watching movies. Because of his fatigue, he resorted in exorbitant amount of food ( mostly junk/processed food ) for energy. He didn’t know that his body was operating in emergency mode, storing more fat to counter his dwindling energy.
Finally our halo-halo arrived. It was gone in a jiffy! Gym training resumes Monday: will I make it or will the “snacking” catch up?
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| If Philippines is a desert, it'll be a halo-halo with its mix of ingredients from the various eastern and western influences. |
Hey Mike!
ReplyDeleteSo I am enjoying all of your posts thus far but I have one criticism (that will hopefully help in the long run!).
I see that you are writing about the various foods that you have eaten and that's great but it's beginning to look like a cookbook or a chore list. I don't get the ambiance of PI culture. It's the problem that Julia Child had with Julie Powell's blog, the Julie/Julia Project.
In an interview with Judith Jones, Senior Editor and Vice President at Alfred A. Knopf*, Jones said, "What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned."
Hopefully this helps you avoid what Julie Powell did and have a blog that everyone will enjoy and learn a thing or two from! :)
*Alfred A. Knopf was the publishing house that published Julia Child's cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"
Thanks Ken!
ReplyDeleteYou're so mean! J/K... I agree with your comment especially as it applies to the Midnight Snack articles... while writing it, I felt that I was listing the food. The next two articles should have PI cultural tid bits in contemporary context. It won't be strictly cultural in an anthropological way because I'm not a historian/anthropologist. However, I'll use all my folklore training. Keep on reading!