Wawa Dam Trip :)

Maraming lugar sa  Pilipinas ang hindi pa at hindi na nabibigyang pansin. Nagkaroon na ako ng pagkakataong makalibot sa ilang kilalang tourist spots sa Pilipinas – Boracay, Bohol, Palawan, Cagayan de Oro, Camiguin at iba pa.

Nagkaroon na ako ng pagkakataong makapunta sa Coron (Palawan) noong 2009 at masasabi kong ito na ang pinakamagandang parte ng Pilipinas na napuntahan ko. Sabay na gusto at ayaw kong mapansin ito ng mga tao. Oo, nais kong mapansin ito ng buong mundo dahil sa angkin nitong ganda at paniguradong makikilala ang ating bansa. Sa kabilang banda, ayaw ko rin dahil paniguradong mag-uunahan ang mga malalaking kompanya upang makapagpatayo ng kani-kanilang establisyimento doon at makalipas ang ilang buwan ay mapapabayaan na ang kapaligiran.

Maraming yaman ang ating bansa ngunit tila hindi ito binibigyang importansya ng ilan nating kababayan. Hindi kasama sa mga tinutukoy ko ang mga naninirahan sa Rizal kung saan makikita ang Wawa Dam. Maingat na binabantayan ng mga naninirahan doon at ng lokal na pamahalaan ang mga bumibisita roon. Ipinagbabawal na ang pangunguha ng marble doon.

Maganda ang daan patungo sa watch tower. Naabutan pa namin ang ilang kalalakihang nagpipintura ng railings. Halatang binibigyan talaga ng halaga ng mga taga-roon ang tourism ng Wawa Dam.

Sa kabilang banda, sa tingin ko’y kailangan ng kaonting ayos ang daan patungo sa Pamintinan Cave. Wala sa akin ang mabatong daan paakyat ngunit baka mawalan ng gana ang ibang taong umakyat doon dahil na rin sa hindi pa sementadong daan. Isa pa naman ito sa mga importanteng lugar na parte na ng ating kasaysayan. Ang kakulangan din ng ilaw sa loob ay isa sa mga maaaring maging hadlang upang mabisita ang lugar na ito.

Ang pinakahindi ko makakalimutan sa trip na ito ay ang mga taong nandoon. Sa kabila ng bigat ng kanilang mga dinadala paakyat at pababa ng bundok, nakukuha pa rin nilang ngumiti at makipag-usap sa amin kahit sandali. Maraming bata ang naglalangoy at naglalaro sa dam, mayroong mga naglalaro ng billiards sa isang banda at may nagvivideoke naman sa kabila. Totoo ngang ang mga Pilipino ang isa sa mga yaman ng ating bansa. Sa kabila ng hirap ng buhay, nakukuha pa rin nating ngumiti at makihalubilo sa mga tao ng walang alinlangan.

     

Ang pinakahindi ko makakalimutan sa trip na ito ay ang mga taong nandoon. Sa kabila ng bigat ng kanilang mga dinadala paakyat at pababa ng bundok, nakukuha pa rin nilang ngumiti at makipag-usap sa amin kahit sandali. Maraming bata ang naglalangoy at naglalaro sa dam, mayroong mga naglalaro ng billiards sa isang banda at may nagvivideoke naman sa kabila. Totoo ngang ang mga Pilipino ang isa sa mga yaman ng ating bansa. Sa kabila ng hirap ng buhay, nakukuha pa rin nating ngumiti at makihalubilo sa mga tao ng walang alinlangan.

Nakuha pang makipagbiruan sa akin ng isang mamang nagbubuhat ng kahoy. Nagpaalam ako kung maaari ko siyang kuhanan ng larawan. Tumigil siya sa paglalakad at sinabing, “basta ba makakarating yan ng ibang bansa ha.” Natawa siya sa sagot kong, “kuya wag mo po ako kakalimutan pag sumikat ka na po ha.” :)

Kakaiba ang karanasang ito para sa akin. Oo, tunay ngang napakaganda ng lugar na ito. Nakakapanghinayang isiping hindi ito napapansin at pinapahalagahan ng ibang tao. Kakaonti na lamang ang ganitong lugar sa bansa at may pagkakataon pa tayong tumulong na maisalba ito at hindi masayang. Nais ko ring bigyang pugay ang mga taong patuloy na pinangangalagaan ang lugar, sana ay hindi masayang ang kanilang mga pinaghirapan.

--- Meg Rementina

The KIA Rio Cup Experience! :)

Days before Christmas, our brothers and sisters from southern Philippines were greatly affected by typhoon Sendong. The death toll has exceeded a thousand and hundred individuals are still missing. This has been one of the worst calamities to hit the Philippines for the past years and probably the worst that Iligan and Cagayan de Oro experienced.

Soon after the typhoon, help poured in from several groups and individuals. One of which is the Kia Rio Cup which is the Azkals’ second charity game for the benefit of ABS-CBN Sagip Kapamilya: Operation Sendong. The first one was against the Internacional de Madrid, a Spanish Third Division team, which concluded in a 3-1 score favoring the visiting team.

The friendly match between the Azkals and Korean’s Icheon City FC was held in the Rizal Memorial Stadium last January 21. This is the first time that our national team will be playing against a South Korean soccer club. The pre-press conference was held last Friday at the Discovery Suites.

Bin Tae Kwan scored the first goal for Icheon in the 21^st minute. There have been several attempts by the Azkals to tie the game in the first half. Denis Wolf, who played his very first game as an Azkals player, had a number of shots but were not successful. On the 89^th minute, Marwin Angeles scored a goal, forcing a penalty shootout to determine who wins the charity game.

#24 Marwin Angeles' goaaaaaaaal! :)

The Azkals lost the shootout, only able to score 2 goals from Chieffy Caligdong and Ruben Doctora compared to the 4 goals of the Icheon City FC.

           
This has been the third friendly game of the Azkals (first: against the LA Galaxy and the second: against the Internacional de Madrid) and sadly, this is also their third loss. Coach Michael Weiß is still optimistic about the Filipinos’ support in football by saying that we should take advantage of the enthusiasm and the euphoria going on in the country to encourage young boys and girls to play the sport at a very young age.

There were a lot of kids who watched the game.

They even got a signed Azkals shirt! (Nakakainggit! :| Hahaha!)

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I don’t really know how it is or what will happen in the Kia Rio Cup press conference and the game itself but I was actually nervous thinking about it. Haha! I really had fun learning and meeting new people especially in the media room. We were in charge of registering and releasing the media passes. Although this game wasn’t that jampacked compared to the previous ones, we got the chance to experience at least how it is to work and deal with the media and organize the press conference.

'Filipino time' is probably one of the most annoying characteristics of Pinoys but I think in certain events such as press conferences, we should definitely consider the limited time that the coaches and the players have. Maybe, one of the most difficult things to ensure in a pre-game press conference is whether there would be enough media to cover the event. It is necessary to get as much publicity as possible to make the event a success. Notifying and reassuring the media about the schedule of the press conference could be one of the challenges the organizers experience.

I watched and observed how Kuya Icko makes sure that everything was set. I must say that it is very difficult. He ran from one place to another, talked to the security to clarify things, briefed us with what will happen and what are we supposed to do, dealt with the media when they have concerns regarding their passes and tickets and organized the post-game press conference. There is definitely a lot of pressure being responsible for making this event a success and I think everyone did their best to ensure that all things fall into place. J

--- Meg Rementina

Lou's very very personal taste/sandwich contest review

As a foreigner in the Philippines, I experienced how much taste for food is based on culture. Reviewing food here means reviewing my palate as well. French food is told sophiscated. I would rather welcome you in my narrow minded culinary world !

When Chef Edward Bugia came to Ateneo on the17^th of January to judge students' innovative sandwiches, he was quite surprised nobody used mayo. My team mates straight looked at me. That's right I vetoed it. « I know it will look French and pretentious. But please guys let's not use mayo it will be sweet or at least I'll cook a homemade one ».

Many of my fellow country mate living here became « food pretentious » as well. We are frightened in front of any jelly, disgusted by the most common peanut butter and we are moved to pity for poor sweet bread. We did not grew up eating this kind of food. Our obsessive worry in front of a menu turned out to be sweetness present in so many salty eats.

My sweet/salty car accident 

Mantra of Sir Olivares sandwich contest was to be original. So on, originality efforts focused on sweet/salty compositions. When I tasted the Red Light District, burgers ingredients inside a Krispy Kreme doughnut, I couldn't help saying, « It's not good when it's too sweet, » to my sandwich's creator classmate. It was rude. It was also rude for my taste buds. Homemade beef patties were made from thick and tender meat. I crunched inside with pleasure. But this meat and sweet cake pastry combination was equivalent to a violent car accident for my palate. Collision of two tastes not expected to ever meet.

Lighter sweet and salty mixings

The Fili(pino) Cheesesteak and the Breakfast Club offered a lighter sweet/salty mixing. Longganisa, pan de sal with cheese for the first one and bacon, avocado and cheese for the other, those mixing are defenitely not included in French taste. Eating them, I felt the attachment I got to this food since I'm in this country. Still in France, I would have said, « Bread is sweet ! Meet is sweet ! It can't work ! » And now I do know I'll certainly miss pan de sal back in my country. I enjoyed as well the avocado creating a new spread with cheese.

Big sporty guys need meat

Peanut butter, ketchup, mustard and different meats between two sandwich loaf slices for the Buff Dude creation brought back my strict policy about sweet and salty segregation. Taste of each food was quite lost. But I do understand that's kind of sandwich big guys getting out of their sport training would crave for.

Rereading my review, I'm feeling French cuisine appears more conservative than sophisticated. What's salty must remains in the main meal while sweetness stays on the dessert list. Sweet/salty mixings are rare in France but when there are it's a matter of proportions. Sweetness is displayed by tiny touches to emphasize salty flavours. We like a honey drop on our goat chesse or few figs on foie gras.

The Nacocoloco sandwich reminded me those mixings. Contrary to Chef Edward's opinion, I definitely think coco jam blends with German roast beef. I enjoyed this soft taste meat which got emphasized by light mixing with this extremly sweet spread.

Jam is ready to be displayed. Just a bit. 

Keep it simple but keep it straight as well

As the session was ending, Chef Edward treated Journalist's students with his last original culinary creation. Between two large bread slices, he arranged lettuce leaves,  shredded kani sticks seasoned with Japanese mayonnaise, wasabi and pepper, strips of green mangoes, Japanese caviar topped with crispy dili . It was an interesting tasteful mix of salty/sweet flavours highlighted by the good quality bread.

He explained to the students sandwich making rule is K.I.S.S. Not kissing the bread but Keep it Simple, Stupid. And he definitely knows what's talking about. Adviser for cooking TV shows, creator of many restaurants in Quezon city, Chef Edward is a fusion food master. Pino, his restaurant near Manginhawa street arranges together oriental spices, Pinoy meals and European inspirations.

It gives a clue about his best sandwich choice. During Steaklibrary's brainstorming session, I insisted to avoid sweet sauce or meat. While we were preparing the Fancylog sandwich in front of the audience, Jiggy spoke with a weird well imitated French accent to present our multi cultural creation. We displayed on the bread a pesto tapenade made from sun dried tomatoes, olives and peanuts. The spread was covered by some Tocino and Beef Tapa meat cubes.

Contrary to our expectations, meat was sweet. And it did create this soft sweet and salty mixed that is certainly our sandwich key success. This last minute recipe change taught me I should avoid to be gastro fascist.

I often say everything labelled as « grown up stuffs » is disgusting at first taste. Coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. But people do enjoy it afterwards.

According to my personal proverb, everything is a matter of habit. I started enjoying the soft sweet taste of some Filipino eats. But with my 20 years French food education, it means I should eat tons of peanut butter before to like it. YUCK …. or yum according to different people tastes.

And those culturally subjective biases are certainly one of the most important limit for food criticism.

January 17 was a good day for me. It's not everyday that you get to spend at most 3 hours just eating different types of sandwiches and enjoying the company of your class. There were 6 groups (+1 ultra expert chef)who attempted to be the "fanciest" of them all, and here they are as follows:

We were the first to present, FANCYLOG, and am sure we made quite the impression because of our name. It pioneered a few of the others presentations as they kept blabbering that theirs was the most "fancy" but i believe nothing beats the original! It's even integrated in our name :D

I believe we came up with the idea of mixing two cultures into one, mainly French and Filipino. We have one groupmate(Lou) and she was from there basically. We wanted to initially integrate the culture of food that every Filipino would know, which is the ulam(viand) plus sinangag(garlic/fried rice) and itlog (egg), very breakfast-y in every manner. Jiggy came up with the idea of putting something fancy from France which was tapenade. Most of the Filipino breakfast food are salty and decided that it would blend well with the tapenade(but with the recipe from Lou, but still salty). As for the name, Lou came up with it, thinking of it randomly and i instantly fell in love with the name. 


Next comes the FILI(PINO) CHEESE STEAK. I did not try their sandwhich because they trash talked our group by saying theirs was fancier... nuff said.. on another note, their sandwhich was a Filipino version of the famous Philly Cheese Steak. But instead of steak, they used longanissa(Local sausage) and some fancy Holland cheese! some said it was okay, but some said it didn't blend well. Given that the longanissa was sweet/salty and the cheese was kind of bland for the sandwhich.


BREAKFAST CLUB offered a similar idea as us, something for the morning. What made me think differently was that they presented it as something really healthy but contained bacon, avocado, and cheese, very fattening food. But as soon as I tried it, it was okay, nothing special, but did remind me of the usual clubhouse sandwiches i occasionally eat.


THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT was something original to me, but knew it was pirated from the very start. It was something super bad and evil but still we ingest things like those. The bun they used was a original krispy kreme donut and the fillings was the usual patty, bacon, and cheese. I was susceptible at first to trying it out but it tasted pretty well. I like how it was first sweet then salty afterwards, it was a treat for my palette. Two things i did not like from their sandwich though, the patty could have been a bit meatier or saltier, theirs was bland and sort of ruined the mood of the experience. Next was that the bacon was poorly cooked, it was too oily and would have been sooooo much better if it was crispy.


NAKAKA-LOKO's group had an exchange student from Germany (German Rolls made it obvious) but retracted their name after remembering it. They kept mentioning how theirs was the fanciest of them all and true enough, i thought it deserved to be called fancy. They had two kinds of ham, relish, and coco jam. It gave a really foreign taste because of the ham's taste when it mixes with the jam. I liked how fresh it seemed because of the idea of using jam with meat when I usually just put it with bread. It mixed well with the other ingredients and i liked it best, next to FANCYLOG of course!


The last group was the most O_O (emoticon) of them all in my opinion. BUFF DUDE has this idea of mashing all sorts of meat into the sandwich to give some kind of monster meal idea. I believe they used spam, bacon, beef patties, and a few more. Then proceeded to add peanut butter, ketchup, and mustard. My mouth was very confused as i didn't like eating all sorts of meat at once and one of the wth taste was when they used wheat bread in it. The bread did not go so well with the sandwich and could have been much better if they used a bun.


The chef on the otherhand prepared something the night before and it was fantastic. He made a kani-salad-with-dilis-and-cavier ultra sandwich. Given that he used mayo (which none of the groups did), it made the sandwich very juicy. he used a buttload of stuff which made the sandwich look very stacked and appealing, only giving problems to those who try to cut it. The sandwich from the ocean is something i won't forget that easily because it's one of the firsts I've tried that contained caviar in it. Truly a fancy masterpiece.


-Raymond Yam 


p.s. apologies for not providing fancy food critic stuff. I usually just put anything in my mouth and say if its good or bad. this has been the furthest i've been with giving a food review. xiexie!

Food Food FOOOOOD!!! By Miguel Salvador

Fancylog
This has got to be the best sandwich ever!! But biases aside, I am really proud that my group was able to think of such a tasteful, classy but also simple sandwich! The mix between French and Filipino twist was such a good idea that I am so proud to be part of this group. From how it turned out last Tuesday, it seems that the creative juices and the love for food of my group has paid off! Im still sad though that I wasn't able to be there on time to host for my group. I really wanted to introduce my group's sandwich because from how it was planned, it really sounded amazing already. NEXT TIME, I will introduce something like this again and I WONT MISS IT! Plus, it was all about food! My group really loves food! Maybe thats why we had a knack for this! Haha!

Fili(pino) Cheese Steak!
I loved how they introduced themselves. I have always been a fan of cheese and the name of their sandwich really drew me in! But alas, i wasnt able to taste it because i was dieting and eating every single sandwich would make me feel too guilty to ever eat again. Another reason why i liked their sandwich was because it really made use of everyday Filipino ingredients. It really reminded me of everyday breakfast when i would be in a rush to go to school and just grab the nearest pandesal on the table and stuff it with every ulam i could see on the table. Now that i think about it, its an on the go sandwich! Great for students and those working!

Breakfast Club
Diet or no diet, there was one ingredient this group used that made me forget the diet and just dug in! But, i was kind of hesitant because they said that their other ingredient was avocado. I have never really tried mixing fruits with my bacon. I thought that it would tarnish the oh so juicy, scrumptious, mouth watering..ehem.. (did i mention i love bacon?) bacon. But actually, it was good! My only say for the matter is the mashed avocado could have used a bit more of seasoning to make the avocado taste show. The bacon overpowered it too much in my opinion. Or maybe my brain was still focused on the bacon! Teehee :)

Red Light District
This was second to the most hilarious group ever. The way they presented their sandwich was really entertaining. One of the reasons why i did go and try their sandwich was because of the way they presented their sandwich. The other reason why i wanted to try their sandwich out was because their sandwich was CRAZY. Its bun was a Krispy Kreme Donut!! In my head the clash of the sweetness and saltyness would destroy their sandwich. But, alas, i had to taste it and all my judgments towards the sandwich vanished. After a minute of scrunching my face because of the weird sensation in my mouth, i later realized, my mouth was liking it. Good job and yum yum!

Nacocoloco Sandwich
This for me sounded the most filipino for me because it made use of coconuts. Okay, maybe that didn't make sense but in my head, coconut is a word i sometimes automatically associate with our country. Plus the mix of ham, lettuce and cheese made it very yummy. But, to be honest, the taste of the coconut jam they used didnt shine on the bite i had so i really didnt see any difference on the sandwich. But i guess i would still have liked it. ITS FOOD! NYOM NYOM NYOM!

The Buff Dude Sandwich
I found this one really interesting. It was so meaty and so... BUFF! It had spam, bacon, and burger! All my favorites. I was kind of iffy towards the mustard, peanut butter and ketchup, but hey! everything turned out well and it was meatylicious! My only real problem with this sandwich was the fact that it was kind of salty galore and not healhy. Sadly i didnt taste it because i was really full at this time. Plus my diet.. :((

Chef Ed's Sandwich
THIS IS PURE AWESOME-NESS. He did it less than 3 min and it was so amazing. The crabstick mayo, wasabi, mixture was so great when it was mixed with the dilis. After the chef made it, i really felt bad about all our work because it was so good to look at! Though i have been saying i was trying to avoid food, this i had to try.. and im really glad i did! It really tasted healthy since it was all seafood and it even had green mangoes and lettuce! And as one of the first people to try out this sandwich, i would recommend it to all beings on this earth! it was filipino, simple, and on the budget! AWESOME!!

FOOD REVIEWS IN HAIKU

I like things straight to the point, but I like being artistic as well, so I'll attempt to make food reviews of Tuesday's sandwich making adventure in haiku form (per sandwich of course). This is gonna be tough, but I like experimenting a bit.

HERE WE GO!

FANCYLOG:

Tocino on top
Then baguette and tapenade
Add longganisa

Two cultures as one
Filipino and French jive
Fusion food success

FILI(PINO) CHEESE STEAK:

Pandesal and cheese
Then put the longganisa
Toast, and this you get

Cheese should be salty
A breakfast sandwich, we have
But all good, B+

THE BREAKFAST CLUB:

A complex sandwich
In, it has avocado
Too weird for my taste

Still a good attempt
Many a health buff will like
There is still bacon

RED LIGHT DISTRICT:

The donut is sweet
Burger, cholesterol
Bacon not crispy

Put all together
A heart attack just waiting
Tasty but deadly

NACOCO-LOCO SANDWICH:

They don't like it much
But I like the coco jam
It balanced the salt

Very ambitious
This is my true favorite
Triple A rating

THE BUFF DUDE:

Too much meat within
Spam and burger and bacon
Why put in wheat bread?

No flavor distinct
It's just wheat-meat in your mouth
Too bland for my taste

CHEF EDWARD'S KANI-DILIS SANDWICH:

Fil-Jap creation
It is a taste explosion
Green mango surprise

Needs a few more tweaks
It will be a bestseller
Maintain great texture

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Wow, that was a challenge. I had fun making these, but I don't think this will be very effective in magazines though. HAHA!

Until next time!

-Jiggy

Meg's Food Review :)

FANCYLOG

I think from the very start, we all agreed to keep the sandwich as Pinoy as possible. We thought of including tuyo and beef tapa but we decided to use tocino and sausages instead. We added a twist to our sandwich by integrating French elements, care of Lou J, such as baguette and tapenade. I was actually quite worried that the French and Pinoy flavors won’t really work because I haven’t tasted tapenade before but I trust by groupmates so we went with it. Compared to other groups, I guess ours is the most complicated one because of the tapenade made by Lou. One must really have a background and a good palate to get the exact flavor of the tapenade. It is not one of the easiest sandwiches to make at home, but it is definitely worth trying for.

We were actually excited about this exercise because we wanted to experiment on different ingredients and we wanted it to stand out from the rest – and it did! J

FILI(PINO) CHEESE STEAK

I really liked the simplicity of the sandwich. The ingredients are easily available and it doesn’t take much time in preparing it. The melted cheese on top made it look really tasty but I didn’t really tasted it, probably if they used other brand of cheese with stronger taste, the saltyness of the longganisa and the sweetness would complement one another.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

From the looks of the sandwich, I  think has the most colorful ingredients – which is actually good because it made me want to eat it. It was my first time seeing and tasting a sandwich with avocado on it. I though avocados are only meant to be eaten individually as dessert. Honestly, I am not a fan of the sandwich maybe because it was new to me and I am not really a fan of avocados . But I applaud them for taking a risk and introducing me to another variety of sandwich. J

RED LIGHT DISTRICT

Compared to the other groups’ sandwiches, this is my favorite. At first, I wasn’t sure whether the sweet donut will go together with the saltyness of the beef patty. It was actually good and very tasty. I was quite surprised that the flavors didn’t overpower one another. I would definitely try this at home and serve this to my family and friends! J

NA-COCO-LOKO SANDWICH

I really appreciated the group’s effort to create a unique sandwich. It was my first time tasting coco jam together with ham, cheese and lettuce. I think the ham lacked flavor because the sweetness of the jam and the bitterness of the lettuce are the only elements that I was able to get from it. But the fact that they tried to integrate German elements to their sandwich made it special.

THE BUFF DUDE

The sandwich had several ingredients (bacon, spam, peanut butter, mustard, ketchup, etc.). I think these are the kind of sandwiches buff men would like because of the meat overload. Hehe! I think overall, the sandwich tasted and looked good. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. The ingredients tasted well with one another.

CHEF EDWARD’S SANDWICH

From the looks and the ingredients of the sandwich, one would probably say that it costs much but I think the knowledge and the creativity of the chef is more important in determining whether it is a good sandwich or not. Chef Edward used ingredients which are typically used only for viands such as the sweet and spicy dilis and Japanese caviar. Yes, the sandwich is easy to make at home but requires skills and creativity before one could make it look really remarkable and mouthwatering at the same time. J

-Meg Rementina