<
<
It is the body that knows first that summer has arrived. Sweat trails the scalp, the spine, the forehead. It is the exposed skin that turns a shade darker. It is the nape that feels the uncomfortableness of of the heat. It is the body that screams for an escape to the mountains, islands, beaches, and perhaps even the city. Summer has a way of surprising us. It is the place, the [...]
It is said that to be healthy, one has to pay a premium. But Healthy U defies this unwritten rule. The place feels and looks like a commonplace that I often frequent for lunch: a carenderia with a carenderia price with an atypical menu: vegetable with tofu, barbecue, menudo, torta, and bola-bola from meat substitute. During our short conversation, the owner–a yoga and namaste instructor–narrated the categories of vegetarians. Although the difference between vegan, lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovovegetarian, [...]
“It is an acquired taste for meat lovers,” the manager warned. I dipped the goi cuon (summer rolls) into hoisin sauce. Surprisingly, it tasted good even without the shrimp. Richly flavored dippings waltz with other ingredients in Viet and Thai food culture. Lemongrass picks the best of these two culinary worlds and make them available in Cebu. “The element of spiciness is always present,” I commented after nibbling the rolls dipped into [...]
It is the colors, schemes, and textures that make Japanese food deliciously beautiful. Its hues picture happiness: the greenness of spinach, the whiteness of daikon, the orangeness of sliced carrots and pepper, the pinkness of salmon, the yellowness of potatoes, and the redness of cherry tomatoes. Take Joed’s Lutong Hapon’s spicy tofu teppanyaki as an example. The cubed golden brown tofu contrasts the slanting parsley, red chili, and sliced green onions. And the [...]
Hüzün: Of the covered women who stand at remote bus stops clutching plastic shopping bags and speak to no one as they wait for the bus that never arrives.—Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse. Hüzün does not just paralyze the inhabitants of Instanbul, it also gives [...]
Everyone is invited to join a poetry reading and ukulele session for the benefit of the children of Carnaza Island. Entrance is for free. Just bring school supplies for the kids. For the interested parties, kindly contact Niiru at 09334183221.
There is nothing more honest than a map. It shows the shapes and sizes of the islands of this archipelagic country. It shows that some provinces are landlocked, while some are coastal. There is nothing more deceiving than a map. What looks small can actually take two days or even a week to navigate. On the map, there are only few islands that look like long strips of bacon: Zamboanga, [...]
Back in high school, notes were checked for clearance purposes. I was never the type who wrote everything written on the board. But my mother did it for me, copying my best friend’s notes. When my classmates inspected my notes, they were surprised with the neat cursive. She is one of the few whose handwriting is admirable and elegant. But I was not close to my mother—I was not the [...]
Cloud 9, Siargao, Surigao del Norte, Philippines EVERYTHING starts with strangeness and being estranged: unfamiliar faces in the resort’s restaurant, unfamiliar laughter on the beach, a familiar sleeping position on an unfamiliar figure in the airport lobby, familiar driving on an unfamiliar road with unfamiliar hands behind the wheel. Everything starts with strangeness and being estranged. It took a confident “Hi, where are you from?” at the resort’s restaurant to [...]
Before I took the risk of traveling northern Luzon for ten days, I paid my monthly visit to Terra Manna, waiting for a group of Cebu-based travelers/travel bloggers/freedivers who would survey TM’s marine paradise. I badly needed a paradoxically deep dip before I hit the Cordilleras—the mountain ranges. Johnn of Focal Glass, Doi of the Travelling Feet, Dylan of Wandering Dylan, Edcel and Sheena of the Wandering Couple, and [...]
