i am so excited for a long weekend to come because i just got myself a new book that i would like to read uninterrupted. well, as uninterrupted as a mother with three young kids and one angst-filled teenager can realistically expect.
ateneo hosted the launch of tony enriquez's newest novel, the activist.
the book is a historical novel set in the 70s about a young zamboangueno "who dares to challenge the despot Ferdinand Marcos".
the back reads:
Antonio Enriquez transports us to the Philippine capital city of Zamboanga in the grip of a military dictatorship and assassination, where Lorenz Diaz, Jr., a rising socialist, dares to challenge the despot Ferdinand Marcos. In search for truth and freedom, he was imprisoned several timesin notorious military stockades - unsure if the sun would shine in his face or on his abandoned corpse in the "killing fields" the next day. As we follow Lorenz's struggle against the dictator Marcos, we too discover a nation in terror. as a historical novel, its peculiar gift is that it doesn't read like one but as a suspenseful mystery novel, keeping us well-entertained, our eyeballs glued to its pages, but unlike a detective novel, unscrambling the oppression and horror of Martial Law.
he signed my copy. he wrote, "to yen, it's so nice to see you again. salud, Tony."
happiness.
antonio enriquez is from zamboanga. from the family that owned the mansions along buenavista road: the white house, the pink house. i have heard of him when i was still in college, my classmate amis buenafe, his niece, lived in the white house. amis told me then that she had an uncle who has won awards for writing books. but at that time in our lives, amis and i and our other friends had other things on our mind than uncles who wrote books, even award-winning ones.
in 2008 when tony enriquez was a writer in residence here at ateneo, i asked him to give a mini lecture on book the philippine book publishing industry to my introduction to mass communication class.
at the book launch yesterday, he said it took him four years to finish the activist. he said most of his books take that long to finish. he also said that he thinks this is the only novel about the marcos years, that there are many books about that period, but none of them were novels.
i got the book for 250 yesterday but i understand that after the launch, it'll go for 300.
i look forward to reading the book for many reasons (including my interest in anything martial law related largely because i am a martial law baby) but the most urgent one is to know why he gave the protagonist such an incongruous name.
ate mila on the phone a minute ago: "ate, ingon ni kuya tudluan daw ko nimo mag luto ug kaldereta para panihapon."
me: sa phone?
yaya mila: oo te. sa phone.
waaahhhh!!! i can't do call center chef now, ariel! it's my first day back at work after a week of being away! pwede mag take out na lang ka? or pwede ipa laga na lang na. mila can do that without over the phone instructions. :((
which bakery in zamboanga makes the best pan de sal?
when i ask pan de sal loving people this, they tell me it is either (a) national or (b) abc.
i love pan de sal. husband prefers slice bread., the softer, the better. i like my breads and cakes to be on the rustic side, dense and hefty. something you can really really bite.
slice bread is ok. but it's bland. and soft. so i toast mine 'til its stiff, but not charcoal-y, the way a high school friend liked hers.
once toasted, i slather the toasted bread with butter.
my husband does not understand butter. his spread has to be sweet and sour, like, say, ladies' choice sandwich spread which i think is the pits. he will only use butter if there is absolutely nothing else.
this is to me the best palaman: queensland butter.
queensland used to be widely available when i was younger. i understand from my mother that now they are already hard to find. boiled camote is excellent with queensland. the two go so well together, especially if the camote is still piping hot and the butter has not been refrigerated, and is therefore it is runny.
now i am hungry.
can someone please tell me where to buy shoes in zamboanga?
i have been going to town for shoe-reconnaissance mission for three days now, all in fruitless. i am looking for a particular kind of pair. wedge sandals, actually. i am also looking for something that meets the following criteria, arranged in order of importance to me:
1. they have to be strong enough to withstand ME for at least a year
2. they must not cost more than 2k
3. they have to look clunky
4. the straps have to of leather (related to #1), and cut wide (i will tell you why)
5. the color has to be in the brown family
something that looks like any of these:
if i can find one that looks like this, i will buy two of them, i swear.
the most important criteria is also the one that is giving me the most problems. do you remember cinderella's two evil stepsisters? one had narrow feet and the other had wide feet. i have feet like the latter's. on top of that, i am a heavy walker. (i am not yet ready to accept publicly that i am heavy). in general, i do not tread softly; more truck than bike. and i like to walk A WHOLE LOT. walking is cathartic to me.
so, wide feet + stomper + frequent walker + the-other-gravity-problem-that-must-not-be-named = a need for very durable shoes.
this rules out the korean and china made ones in the 250 to 650 price range that seems to be the staple of almost all stores here selling shoes. i envy girls who can wear them without destroying them. buying those are not cost efficient in my case because they break after one or two outings. AND/OR, my feet is gets abrasions and even open wounds.
they have to look clunky to match the rest of me.
the straps have to be of leather because that's the most comfortable and most durable. and because, aside from being wide sideways, my hooves are also ample up and down. :((
the color has to be in the brown family because that is the one that will go with most of my clothes now.
one of the things i do extremely well is make mountains out of molehills. take the unfortunate situation of a noche buena without my mother or my kitchen diva sister for example. i could have gone the buy-this ulam, buy-that dessert route (a patented technique of one smart cousin), sat back and enjoyed the holidays. but no. that would be so un-me. so this is what i did starting at 2pm, christmas eve:
this was the plan. wait. aside from a penchant for the complicated, i am terribly, clinically optimistic. i made the ham myself. from scratch. i bought the meat fresh (slightly less than a kilo, sayang ang pera if i botch the experiment), prepared the brine, cured it, boiled it, baked it encrusted with sugar. this is how it came out:
it was tougher and stringier than hoped but i was gunning for jamon iberico. not that i have ever tasted spanish ham. but you know what i mean.
compared to the hams in the grocery freezer, it did quite well, thank you very much. not one member of the family had a stomach ace. and the total cost? 250 pesos, tops. take that, CDO.
then i had fried garlic rice, a favorite. no brainer. i have been doing this since grade school. only at that time, i didn't bother frying it. or even adding garlic. it was old and cold rice + used oil + salt and/or toyo. this is the foundation of my elevated gastronomic standards. and while all of this was cooking, jana was busy with the drinks.
she wanted to make umbrellas but even i shot that idea down.
these were what she made, frilled up glasses, all in a row. waiting for its occupants.
after baking the ham, i left the gas on in preparation for the lasagna. while that was going on, i did the sweets. two days ago i made fruit salad, upon the request of diego and gabriel. the leftover cherries (29 pesos for 100 grams at mindpro grocery) went on top of it.
got this assortment of fudge from a cousin. the plate is from big v's -- 29 pesoses only!
and this is the biggest hit of the season in my family and with a lot of my friends. faye lorenzo go's double chocolate cookies. they are the very best i have ever tasted. and not too expensive. they are 150 for a dozen but the cookies are large (and the packaging is simple but pretty) so they are really super worth it. i ordered several one dozen packs to give to friends and i got great reviews. i wish i can say YES to everyone who said "did you bake it? it was sooooo goood!". but alas, i was thinking of santa checking me out and all that.
at this point in time, the gasul went kaput. what a time to run out of gasul. and i am NOT doing uling. i am optimistic, not suicidal.
husband, who schedules these things, could not believe it either: he bought it november 7, so it should have lasted us until january 5 at the earliest. yes. my husband tracks things this closely. i let him deal with it and whiled away the time i didn't have to take a picture of our PATHETIC christmas tree.
i pity my kids for having this as part of their hallmark memories.
but i am happier with our wreath. we made it with the christmas wrapping papers i went on and on about in an earlier blog post.
while still waiting for the gasul, i made myself the guinea pig for the castrated shirley temple: a lot of sprite, a very little grenadine, a lot of ice, and the fruity swizzle stick. husband gagged at the taste. but i did it for the kids, not for him. hmmp. my target audience loved it. so, mission accomplished.
when the gasul was back, we did the white sauce (bechamel, naks!) for the lasagna. the red sauce i already did two days before so it was more of an assembly work.
and while this was baking, i made the stir fry, our token vegetable in the menu.
i just took a picture of it in the carajay. do you know how tiring it is to cook the food, deal with christmas-crazed kids, and take pictures of the food at the same time?
but the OC in me reared its ugly head....and insisted on a picture of the gulay in its presentation plate, just like all the others.
and finally, the prawns. another no brainer.
just steam the prawns.
and dump this in. works 100% of the time.
and our centerpiece was this, courtesy of jana, our very own documentor.
merry christmas, everyone!
gift wrapper buying, a fast and painless procedure for most people, is a highly hazardous operation for me. i have never gone christmas wrapper shopping and not spend more money than i should have, or more time than i have. never.
this christmas i spent an hour scouting the stores (shop o rama, shopper's central, shopper's plaza). when i finally found the one with the best looking ones (bloomingdale's at mindpro -- many years has passed since it opened and i am still uncomfortable with its name) i spent an hour and a half there. thankfully, the woman in charge of the gift wrapping section was indulgent.
this is my harvest:
they are all by hallmark. if i remember right, they are php 13 each. except for the glittery green one. that one is expensive. well, expensive considering it's just paper. which you will use to wrap boxes. which other people will tear apart to get to what is in the box. i have three more expensive ones (50, 55 pesos, hehe) but i will not post them here because they don't look like much. in photos they look like cartolinas. but in real life they are so pretty i can go around just hugging them.
what i look for in my wrappers? that the paper is good, the printing is good, and the design is great. and as ever, i am hopeful that i will be able to find designs which are, if not Filipino, then at least nothing too european nor too american.
my favorite. i know it doesn't look christmas-y. but that just might be why i love it. i think i am going back to the store and get ten more of this.
i like the color of this too. acid pink, purple, and lime green. yummy!
of course, being a mother to four kids and godmomma to about a half-dozen inaanaks, i have to have wrappers for children. i bought three designs, and this is the one i like best. which doesn't mean the kid who will get a gift wrapped in this is my favorite. kids, in my experience, don't really care about the wrapper. they're only interested in abusing the wrapper.
i love this design. but of course, i am already violating my "nothing too european" "rule". :((
sorry for the bad picture but this is really a cute print. the reindeers are adorable. no reindeers in our part of the world but i couldn't resist.
and i give up. wala ba talagang pinoy themed, or at least "world" themed wrappers for kids? but still, isn't this sooooooooooo cute. santa was here! santa was here!
i had to have some traditional wrappers too. for the old fashioned people on my list. my mom for example. i will save myself the grief of having to explain to her my gift wrap choice by just giving her something expected.
this one falls under the last category also.
and this is my favorite in the traditional theme category.
i look forward to next year's pickings.
i have a feeling what i am about to announce will trigger a collective sigh of relief among my family and friends.
today is the day i say goodbye to my five (six? seven?) year old nokia cell phone. good bye friend. you served me well. this is such an old model that when i searched for "old nokia flip top models", this didn't show up at all. i know of only one other person who still has this phone but i bet he's going to abandon it soon as well, seeing as he might do a paris junket next year. and we can't have parisians thinking filipinos still use phones like these, can we?
hello samsung champ. bear with me as i struggle with learning how to abuse you.
thanks to the giver. you know i only lost the last phone you gave me because of typhoon ondoy, right?
so there. friends, family, you can again invite me out to dinner with peace in your hearts, knowing you have no more need to duck your head in shame as i take out my cellphone to take calls or to send messages, etc., etc..
