Bahay Pastulan Goodies

During our weekend jaunt to Tagayatay City, with the thick fog and all, we were only able to visit two places - Sonya's Garden in Alfonso for lunch, and Bahay Pastulan in Maryridge within the city for some take home goodies, since we couldn't bring with us some of Sonya's glazed sweet kamote.

We were on our way to the Palace in the Sky to show the aunt, rather a poor alternative to a view of Taal lake and volcano which were then enveloped in a thick mist like the white curtains in Sonya's Garden, but a few kilometers past the Development Academy of the Philippines the fog had thickened, and prudence told us to turn around and just go home. Good thing Maryridge was on the way as we went back to Aguinaldo Highway.

We were still too full from our buffet lunch to eat the famous halo-halo, and it was too cold, anyway, so it was just a shopping stop-over. Bahay Pastulan is the Good Shepherd sisters' convent in Tagaytay City. As with other convents around the country, particularly the famous one in Baguio City, Bahay Pastulan offers goodies for sale.


There is ube jam that's as good as its Baguio counterpart. The brand is not Mountain Maid - rather Bahay Pastulan - but it's every bit as viscous, thick and chewy as its more popular cousin. It's not sold in bottles, though, but in plastic containers - a large rectangular one and a smaller round version. And what's better, there is no excruciating long line to fall into with the dreaded thought of the ube running out before it's your turn on the counter.

My husband declares Bahay Pastulan doesn't compare to Mountain Maid ube jam, but I must confess I can't tell the difference. The color alone, and the way the jam holds up quite thickly (first photo) - it's good enough a version for me. They're made for the same purpose and by the same order of nuns, anyhow, and nothing can measure up to it anywhere near Metro Manila.

There is ube-macapuno - macapuno bits swirled in the ube jam - in cute cups with accompanying little wooden spoons, but this is too diluted for me. Ube dimples, too - naked ube candies rolled in sugar. Perhaps for the kids. But there is nothing like pure ube goodness for me. And my kids, too.


The revelation, though, is the lengua de gato. The best one there is, in my opinion, rivaling all the lenguas even in Baguio. It's sooo buttery, crunchy but not too crispy - not a dry bone in it - and of course so great-tasting. The thickness is just right - not too thin that it can cut the tongue, but not too thick either that it's chalky in the mouth. In short, it's perfect.

The other products on sale similar to Good Shepherd Baguio's offerings are the peanuts, the angel cookies, and the strawberry jam, but at Bahay Pastulan strawberry jam containing mashed fruit is the only one available, unlike the Mountain Maid brand in Baguio where you can choose from fresh fruits, syrup, preserved whole fruit, spread, jam, jelly, or low sugar 100% fruit.


There are other products that define the locale, though. Like the pichi-pan, or pandan-flavored pichi-pichi, though I must say it looks and tastes more like kutchi-pan, or pandan-flavored green kutchinta (sorry, no photo). It is properly malagkit, and the pandan flavor is so strong, though I suspect the flavoring and coloring are not all-natural.

And there is a thick buco pie, in layers of pandan filling and tender coconut slices encased in a superb pie crust. The crust never went soggy or became makunat even when we had shoved the buco pie in the ref and forgot about it for a week - it was as good as on the day we bought it. Tender, appropriately chewy and flaky at the same time. And not too sweet, either.


The tawilis in olive oil came highly recommended by a respected foodie friend. It is such an inspired idea - a way to bring anywhere Taal Lake's endemic fish species. Tawilis can be enjoyed fresh at the many Filipino restaurants lining Tagaytay ridge and in the towns surrounding the lake, particularly Taal - good either fried or grilled - but not anywhere else.

So Bahay Pastulan's bottled tawilis lets one enjoy tawilis outside of the locality. It is reminiscent of Montano sardines, the spices and I guess the method of cooking the same. And for this tawilis, you need not scrape the scales off.

Bahay Pastulan
Good Shepherd Sisters
Maryridge, Tagaytay City
(046) 483-3590

• From the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road, turn left on the the road going to the Palace in the Sky. Maryridge is a road, more like an alley, to the right a way off from DAP. There is a sign along the main road, and you turn right and go straight for about a block or so until you reach the gate marked Good Shepherd Bahay Pastulan.

Related post
Good Shepherd Baguio City

Other food places I go to in Tagaytay City
Rowena's Cheese Tarts
Mahogany Market
Josephine's Restaurant
Sonya's Garden
LZM Bangus
Starbucks

Sonya's Garden

The sky was overcast from Cavite to Makati the other weekend, and throughout the day a slight shower persisted. It was no surprise that when we arrived in Tagaytay thick fog had enveloped the entire city, and visibility was less than a kilometer.

We should have postponed - but we had planned the trip weeks in advance, and we had already made reservations, so we went anyway. It was a good thing we were going to Sonya's Garden, because the entire experience of eating there, plus the food itself, is more than enough to make up for the offerings of Tagaytay itself that we missed showing my balikbayan aunt (who had been around the world, or even twice around it, but had never been to Tagaytay).

I was actually surprised upon arriving at Sonya's - it had been more than five years since I last ate there. Now there's wider space for parking, there's a huge banquet hall so tastefully decorated in Sonya's distinct fashion - still with white cloth netting, huge indoor plants, water fountains, though the floor was new - unglazed red tiles interspersed with hollow lines filled with white pebbles. And the place was all abloom as ever, with more flowers and scents to soothe one after a long, tiring drive made horrendous by Saturday traffic.

I was whining that we couldn't go around the gardens in the rain - but the banquet hall, where we were directed to have our lunch, provided sufficient ambience that we were content to just eat our leisurely way through the fixed menu. Even the comfort rooms retained their characteristic homey, airy feel - all in white, embroidered linens and looking out on the surrounding gardens.

The menu is still the same - pitchers and pitchers of freshly-squeezed dalandan juice serve as a welcome drink as well as a refreshing interlude throughout the meal, salad greens with various toppings and Sonya's special dressing, sesame bread with home-made dips, pasta with two kinds of sauces, and dessert - turon, sweet glazed kamote made more decadent by a slice of chocolate cake for each diner.

The components of the menu change according to the season, although those that are available canned or bottled, mainly imported ones - and maybe considered by Sonya to be an indispensable part of the meal, are constants.

For that Saturday lunch our lettuce and arugula for the first (salad) course came with cubes of fresh mango and honeydew, strips of fresh langka and cucumber, some pop beans and slices of boiled eggs. No edible flowers this time of the year, though. But Sonya's salad dressing is as good as ever. I forgot to buy a bottle at the shop.


For the next course our warm bread came with cubes of white cheese (kesong puti - curdled carabao's milk) in olive oil, creamed mushroom, anchovy and liver pates, a beautiful pesto and tapenade. We decided early on during this course that we would ask for a second serving of bread, thinking the contents of the small bread basket would not be enough for all four of us. I forgot that from past experience I learned that this would not be a very good decision - we were already too full by the time we got to the next course.

When I once did a feature article on the top four healthiest restaurants in and around the metropolis for a health magazine I first thought of including Sonya's Garden. But that time I had only experienced eating there with just one or two companions, and I thought the sole prospect of finishing humongous bowls of greens and pasta was rather unhealthy. For of course I had taken into consideration the Filipino propensity - and my own nagging tendency wrought by how I was trained at the table - to finish food on the table. Anyhow, it would be wasteful not to finish up food served for you to eat, especially at a restaurant, so I excluded Sonya's Garden from my list.

Last Saturday we were four adults, and the contents of the huge bowls proved not that much among us, though they still filled us to near-bursting - what with the dalandan juice and all. And the extra serving of bread.


Our pasta was linguini cooked perfectly al dente, which was very filling indeed. It was served with a pineapple-shaped wooden serving ladle that caught the eye of my non-dining little daughter.


The pasta came with chicken in cream, capers and black olives, some ratatouille, a chunky and sweetish tomato sauce, melon slivers, sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, and to my husband's delight, a bowl of fried slices of fresh salmon belly that was refilled and refilled. The salmon replaced the steamed, shelled shrimps that featured during my previous meals at Sonya's. Healthier, I suppose, though I object to the frying.


Sonya makes a good chocolate cake - a new addition to the menu from my last meal there - and it is just as well that it was added, because it has been said that chocolate relaxes our stomach muscles, so that we could have a little more space for more dessert. At Sonya's Garden I would advise everybody to have their cake and eat it, too, so that you won't have to forgo the other excellent, local desserts included in the menu - turon and sweet kamote.


Wedges of kamote in a fragrant, sinfully sweet and lemony syrup, crunchy to the bite and then your teeth sink into the soft, mushy inside. We would have taken home containers of these had they been on sale.


Thin rolls the length of your fingers of sesame-coated, sweet turon spiced up by ripe langka. Ummmm. Both local desserts not to be missed!

The last thing to be served is tarragon tea - hot water infused with fresh tarragon that is present at the bottom of the cup. Very aromatic and sweet-tasting, the hot drink will aid in digesting everything that was served and eaten at Sonya's Garden.

Sonya's Garden
Barangay Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite, Philippines
Restaurant Phone No. 639175329097
Reservations 639175335140
Email: info@sonyasgarden.com

• Lunch from 11AM onwards, by reservation only
• Filipino menu available for groups of more than 10 people
• The website states that the fixed menu costs P500 per pax, but from experience the cost per person goes down as the number of diners in a group goes up. For the four of us the cost was P610 per person. Major credit cards accepted.

Directions:
Go through the main Tagaytay road, through downtown Alfonso. About five kilometers on there is a road going down right after the Royale Tagaytay Estates (to your right). Take this road and just follow the signs - the gate to Sonya's Garden will be to your left.

Other food places I go to in Tagaytay City
Rowena's Cheese Tarts
Mahogany Market
Josephine's Restaurant
LZM Bangus
Bahay Pastulan
Starbucks

My Holiday Stash

Not a lot of chocolate gifts in 2007 for me and the family, comparatively speaking, in kind and the quantity of sources. Throughout the year the chiller never ran out of chocolate bars, but they were of the common, "ordinary" kind, the kind brought by balikbayan friends and relatives which are available in any local 7-11 or grocery store regardless of size or extent of imported goods it carries.

The only markedly different ones I got were the Nestle bars under the Cailler line from Switzerland, bought at the DFA Bazaar.

And then an aunt came from New York, and my chocolate dreams became livelier.

[Godiva, Lindt, Ferrero chocolates from NY, US-made shortbread and butter cookies]

The brands are commonly familiar - exceptly for Godiva. I had the sense to warn the aunt that all these brands are available here, and fortunately she chose the flavors not found in the country. I may be wrong - I don't peruse the chocolate sections of supermarkets that much since I never buy, but I have passed by them a great number of times and I can safely say that I've never seen these before.

The Lindt bars came in peanut butter, intense orange and creme brulee flavors, and there was a holiday ball full of truffle squares that delighted the kids. There was also a Ferrero Rondnoir - dark chocolate Rochers. I have never been a huge fan of Rochers, even though it is full of hazelnut goodness in various heavenly forms, but this variant created a convert in me. Now where do I get more when the family finishes the pack?


The same source also enlivened my tea cupboard, providing more than enough cheer for a whole year due to the variety of teas she brought. This aunt is a frequent traveler, and I would always ask her to buy me teas wherever she goes. She reports she sees the teas I want, but refrains from buying them for me because there is no guaranteeing when she'll be coming here (not a regular balikbayan - the last time she was here was when she attended my wedding).

But this time she made up for it, going overboard with her tea shopping. Of course nothing too exotic - everything came from her grocery store in New York - as this trip was largely unplanned. But the variety suits me very well - at least, even if some of the brands are locally available, the flavors are hard to find, and some are my first encounter of their kind.

First off are the Tazo teas, the brand carried by Starbucks, but I don't believe anyone could order these in any local outlet. The African rooibos (red bush) tea is a special request, but I'm lucky the aunt included two more organic, naturally-caffeine free flavors - lotus and berryblossom white. All three are anti-oxidant rich, with the white tea naturally containing the most antioxidants. It is flavored with a blend of blueberry and white cranberry.

Lotus is a green tea with the subtle essence of lotus blossoms. I've eaten lotus roots in Japan, and stuffed myself with white lotus cream mooncakes from the Far Eastern Cafe in Binondo, but I'm not really familiar with the taste of lotus blossoms. This one is subtle indeed, fragrant and a bit tangy.

The Russian Caravan is a pine-smoked black tea that evokes the flavors highly-sought by the 19th century Russian Czars. These teas of old journeyed from China to Russia in camel caravans, their flavor heightened by the smoke of nightly fires during the long passage. The Russian Caravan is a blend of rich Yunnan with the distinctly smoky Lapsang Souchong teas.

The gem among the whole lot is easily the Haiku organic kukicha or Japanese twig tea. Kukicha was a peasant's drink in Japan, drunk by the tea tree growers after selling the more valuable leaves for tea. It consists of 40% medium twigs that are 3 years old, 40% thick twigs which have been growing for 10 years, and 20% thin twigs and leaves about a year old.

This is a very mild tea that can be drunk even at night, because caffeine is mainly found in the leaves, and so twig tea has the lowest caffeine content among all traditional teas. But whether it was just due to economic reasons that the Japanese peasants of old drank concoctions made from the twigs of the tea tree, or whether they knew about its health properties, kukicha is among the preferred drinks of the macrobiotic diet - essentially eating all things natural for health and well-being.

Kukicha is reported to be a nutty and creamy tea, but I cannot confirm this as yet. I'll be able to taste it only after about two months or so - I'm avoiding it now as it has been proven to be effective in inducing labor.

For now, I'm content with reflecting on the haiku, by my favorite Basho, that accompanied the kukicha -

Deep in the summer shade, when leaves are mute
I heard the Sunma Temple's unblown flute.

Khas Food House

[Centennial Lights and The Oblation]

The University of the Philippines kicked off its year-long centennial celebrations on January 8, 2008 at the Diliman campus, with a series of symbolism-packed events. The landing of skydivers, sounding of tambuli, a 100-man torch relay passing the centennial flame and lighting of the centennial cauldron, a 100-gun salute and tolling of the Carillon bells, the emotional assembly singing of UP Naming Mahal, a concert showcasing UP's famous talents, and fireworks display - all were held around the academic oval and in front of the administrative building - never far from UP's symbol The Oblation, which stands for the unending search for freedom and truth in knowledge.

[Centennial Cauldron]

Of course, as much as the trip back with friends to the campus were for sentimental and celebratory reasons, part of these reasons is the chance to once again partake of student food. I'm sure nobody ever goes back to eat dormitory food again in Kalayaan, or Molave, or Ilang-Ilang, but campus food means the whole gamut of streetfood to SC offerings to fresh, home-baked breads to the new, classy restaurants that survived the years.

The night meant a late dinner for revelers, as all the celebratory events ended at about 10PM. I had the sense to heed the call of a bike's horn behind me as the torch-bearers' names were announced (distinguished alumni, university officials, the topnotcher of the UP IS elementary graduating class, and a 100-year old alumnus). Monay being vended on a bike by a manong along the University Avenue was not surprising - what surprised me was that he had pre-packed single slices of cheese, and individual servings of peanut butter in small cups with a small spoon to go with the warm bread.

That was a blessing that sustained me and my companions through the cool evening, since all campus eateries were packed and service was at a crawl. This meant most celebrators opted to eat inside the campus, even though it meant walking blocks and blocks to get to the area where most food joints were located, since parking was restricted to the backstreets, and the academic oval was of course closed to traffic.

Our first choice was The Chocolate Kiss, it being the nearest at the Alumni Hall, but it was logically SRO. Chateau Verde was having problems serving all of its customers, so we ended up at Khas Food House.

[Sizzling Kebabs]

Khas, which used to be called Cititop, but which we've been calling Pakistani ever since it opened (in our generalization mode, and because in my time there were a lot of Pakistani students - again, they were not really all from Pakistan, but we tended to lump them all together). It should not have been our last choice (we decided early on that Rodic's would be impossible, given its few tables), considering the service and specialties, but we wanted a more "classy" ambience and experience, given that a centennial is a cause for grand celebration.

But Khas was actually perfect for the event. Besides the usual prompt service and the consistently good food, the exotic rich taste of its cuisine represents the path towards which UP intends to go for the next hundred years.

We had Sizzling Kebabs - two thick beef patties piled with crunchy vegetables and drizzled with spice-rich sauce, served bubbling that the sizzling was so loud on the hot plate, leaving a comet's trail of smoke all through the eatery.

[Jambalaya]

The kebabs went perfectly well with Jambalaya, which was so flavorful that it was good on its own. We were so hungry, and the pair was so good that we ordered seconds. The second order of kebab was declared the last order of the dish for the night because, unlike the other dishes, it takes a long time to cook, and by that time it was nearing midnight (Khas closes at 12MN).

[Cititop Fiesta]

Khas has been feeding UP denizens for about 14 years now. I was introduced to it by a Muslim classmate when I was doing graduate studies at the university. It occupied the "garden" inside the UP Arcade, beside the swimming pool, and it filled up the gap left by the closed cafe once operated by the now defunct UP Food Service.

That it is patronized by Muslims is logical - the food is described as Persian (mostly), almost every dish has a vegetarian equivalent, and everything is halal. Filipino and foreigner Muslims patronize the eatery, but other diners regardless of religious or ethno-linguistic affiliations also occupy about half of the tables.

The eatery was open air, the floor mud-packed, the kitchen was separated from the main dining area by a low wooden wall, which was tacked with white cartolinas covered in plastic, on which the menu was written.

This menu never changed - but now there are laminated menus on folders with photos of the dishes and brief descriptions of each. When I first ate there my classmate recommended either the Chicken Garlic(or beef, squid or all-vegetable) or Chicken Topping (again, it could be beef, squid or all-vegetable), the two bestsellers. They also contain the least spices, so they are the perfect introduction to Khas' cuisine.

For years I could not pull myself away from these two. Chicken Garlic was sauteed with garlic, cabbage and spices, while the topping had chopped Baguio beans (long green beans) and spices. They tasted like nothing else in any restaurant I went to or what I could cook at home. But a big part of the reason I could not veer away from them is the fact that the rest of the menu was unfamiliar territory - I didn't have the guts to try Hajj Burning Lips or That's Not What You Think, or the popular Keema, by myself.

But I couldn't contain the addiction to myself. Gradually I introduced several circles of friends to Khas, and after their first heady taste of Topping and Garlic we became more adventurous and tried other dishes. It helped that the waitresses are more than willing to describe, though not amply, each dish.

The safest way to venture to the other dishes is to order the Cititop fiesta, which is a sampler of four dishes - Beef Garlic, Keema, curried vegetables and chicken lollipops (bland). After experiencing the rich spices and realizing that they are tolerable, you are ready for the others.

But the next best thing to Garlic and Topping is the Safari (beef, chicken, squid, vegetable), which is basically Garlic ingredients folded in scrambled eggs. If you happen to be ravenous (like me most of the time when I get to Khas late in the morning, when I intentionally eat no breakfast so I could sample more dishes), try the Double Decker, which is Safari that is twice the serving size.

[Bradi Platter]

But lately I've discovered that the Bradi platter doesn't contain any spice, but is enriched with the flavors of its ingredients that are half-cooked so that every bite is a crunchful - chicken, squid and shrimp with slices of bell pepers, young corn, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, onions and celery, simply sauteed.

[Keema with Squid]

The popular Keema is ground beef simmered until dry with tomato sauce, ginger and spices. It can be ordered with squid or chicken slices, and it is best eaten with steamed plain rice.

The beef dishes at Khas use ground beef, always cooked well-done. This may be one of the eatery's strategies of keeping the prices of beef dishes down, but I think that it is also the best way for the meat to absorb all those spices that it always comes out so full of flavor.

The dishes have remained practically the same - in taste, serving amount and price, over more than a decade, but the place has evolved, albeit gradually. There is now a sort of canopy so diners could enjoy the food even during the rainy season. It's funny, though, that an aluminum water gutter now runs along the ceiling, and small fruits from the trees which rise way above the canopy produce small explosions like sporadic high-powered gunfire when falling. Perhaps in keeping with the Arabian ambience?

The floor and tabletops have also been tiled, in bright colors, and some wind chimes and water fountains counter the din in the kitchen. The expansion that can be accommodated is a couple of tables toward the entrance, but the service is always prompt, dishes take only a minute to cook, so table turnover is quick.

[Zetheska]

The equivalent of the hugely popular shawarma is Zetheska, pita-wrapped beef, cabbage, cucumber and onion slices with mayonnaise and a hot sauce.

[Spinach and Potato Topping]

---

Khas Food House
UP Arcade*
UP Diliman Campus
Quezon City
Open 730AM - 12MN, Mon-Sun
Cash only

---

* between the Church of the Holy Sacrifice and Ilang-Ilang Residence Hall, on the vacant lot at the back of the College of Law

Related Posts
UP Centennial
UP Centennial Pag-iilaw
UP at 99

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SauceMate
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Patola Blooms

The community in which we live has been ablaze with lights since December 14, when there was a lighting ceremony with the padres de familias along with their spouses, that had been preceded by the kids' Christmas party.

The decor is a sight to behold, very festive with a myriad of lights and a huge star shining down atop a tower. But lights are only good in the evenings, the enjoyment lasting only a few hours.

During the daytime, though, the entire place is alight with a different kind of decoration - golden, ethereal, not as brazen as the blaze of light at night, but as profuse, and the impact is the same, or even more forceful.

For at first sunlight the whole neighborhood is already afire with yellow blooms that had started sprouting merely a week before the lighting ceremony. Every backyard, frontyard, sidewalk and lower areas of every building, and virtually any patch of soil in between, is covered with leafy vines on which golden floral bells reign, tolling the countdown to Christmas.

It is my first time to see patola (sponge gourd) flowers on the plant, and it seems a blessing to witness them in full, profuse bloom. At first I thought they were bulaklak ng kalabasa (squash flowers), and I had asked the househelp one morning to pick some at the nearest crawling tendril for that day's lunch.

Well it turns out patola blooms are not edible, so the flowers were allowed to bloom, greeting attendees to the Misa De Gallo each dawn up to Christmas, and providing constant, live golden fireworks the whole of New Year's day.

I'm sure the backyard trellises sporting the yellowbell lookalikes had been intentionally planted, but I doubt the same elsewhere. Even pavement cracks are sprouting flowers. It's such a wonder how nature, when the right season has come, lets nothing stop it when it decides upon abundance.

The greater wonder is that the first fruits arrived in time for Epiphany. It's as if it is telling us, wishing us, that all the festivities, perhaps even the frivolities, should now be bearing fruit - a more generous spirit all year-round, with radiant light emanating from within from a shiny new heart brimming full of love, charity and hope.

I have never been a fan of patola. Actually, I abhorred - I cannot use the term now, but I still can't bring myself to eat - the vegetable. As a child, having naturally over-sensitive senses of smell and taste, the subtly flavored and scented vegetables eggplant and sponge gourd had such strong, undesirable aromas for me that I couldn't tolerate them in proximity. I don't know why I picked on these two, there are certainly other vegetables that are stronger smelling. Perhaps it was due to the green, or greener, smell.

My mommy was clueless, stating that the vegetables I was picking on were actually tasteless and scentless. I eat eggplants now, and I know that they have a certain subtle flavor and aroma. As for patola, I can get near it only when it is already in loofah form. Its smell, and taste, is really distinctive, even now for me, and I have long decided that I'm missing nothing avoiding anything cooked with it.

I don't take pains staying away from it, anyhow. Patola never featured much in my childhood food landscape - it was never used commonly. I know it is added to misua, but I grew up on patola-less misua. It is also added to some versions of bulanglang, but the oldies, including the in-laws, never cry when patola is absent in the repertoire, so my food peculiarities have never been highlighted. Well at least in the patola division.

My food biases nevertheless, wishing everybody the spirit of Epiphany - wealth and richness in heart and spirit.

Pomelo Salad with Honey-Patis Dressing

The cooking and eating frenzy is far from over for me at this time, with the foundation anniversary of the agency I work for, the impending arrival of a balikbayan relative who will be staying here until Valentine's week (meaning five weeks of touring Manila's restaurants), and an ongoing despedida for my Flynn, who will be out of town for about a month on a maiden voyage of sorts.

I'm about fed up with eating, excuse the pun, particularly since the debauchery started upon the entry of December, what with many different groups of friends holding parties and binge-out events spread out over the month, and in all of these, the main course always, as in always, centered around meat.

The scene did not change in Pangasinan, where we spent Christmas. The traffic along the road to the daungan in Dagupan City, where I was planning to scout for Lingayen Gulf's bounty like fat-laden crabs, prawns, lapu-lapu, malaga, was so horrendous that we bypassed it and ended up in the grocery. And a grocery is only good for meat, canned goods and processed food, if not much else.

We spent New Year in Cavite, but by the time we arrived it was already too late to buy seafood - there was not much else to buy, actually.

I don't know if the tingling and numbness I'm experiencing in my upper extremities is due to too much meat consumption, but whether or not this is the case, I'm near to sprouting wings and growing a snout and some hooves.

I find that the most refreshing treat for umay is a bowl of maarat, bitter-tart, lukban (suha, pomelo), thankfully still in season, so much so that I sometimes crave for the juice (in pink powder form). The arat and the bitter hints serve well to erase the grease on one's lips, better than the other citrus fruits in season nowadays, like oranges which prove too sweet.

More than that, lukban is a good neutralizing agent for blood sugar, which would serve well with the sugar-laden desserts of the holidays.

Lukban is good to munch on anytime, anyhow. My friends open up a whole globe - good enough for sharing, since the native lukban is so large - then dip the juicy segments in a mix of vinegar, salt and sili. I love best the peeled and segmented lukban vended along the streets of Baguio City towards the last quarter of the year, in a plastic bag seasoned with salt spiked by dried chili flakes, and accompanied by a stick for convenient eating while sauntering along the hilly roads.

The most common lukban is the pink pomelo, in large, 2-kilo globes, the bigger and more bitter-tart version of the Davao suha, but I prefer the white variety whenever I can find it. The small white ones in Pangasinan - smaller than their Davao counterparts - are so, soo sweet, yet still with the characteristic tart-/bitterness.

People say the arat - bitterness - is due to the wounding of the fruit when the pulp is not skillfully peeled. But I have eaten enough bitter pristine-skinned lukban to believe otherwise.

Pomelo salad, yam som-o - pomelo segments with greens, peanuts and sugar, with shrimps or chicken - is common in Thai cuisine. This pomelo salad is the concoction of a friend, and consists of pomelo segments, julienned carrots and lakamas (jicamas) on a bed of lettuce and drizzled with a honey-patis mixture. It may be a deconstruction of the Thai salad.

This salad is heftier with the maximum crunch due to the carrots and the jicamas (the salad in the photo contains grated carrots and jicamas for the kids, which was fine, but it made the salad a little too watery), but without meat. It is what I like eating these days with my meat fatigue, but it is also an excellent side dish to any meat, or seafood dish, especially if grilled.

The patis dressing is perfect for the sweetness of the carrots and the jicamas and the tartness of the pomelo, with the honey (just a little bit) tempering the saltiness. Nice blending of flavors, and so refreshing. Great colors, too - it livens up any table.

White Tropicale Salad

I first made this buko salad many years ago, I've already forgotten where I got the inspiration for it. I'm sure it wasn't something I ate somewhere, whether at a party or at a restaurant - I've never encountered something like it before, and until now I've never seen it anywhere.

I think I made it with the idea of creating something purely white, for the holidays in this tropical country. The ingredients assembled themselves before my eyes, since they are all readily available and used in any occasion. Fast forward to about a decade later, and I'm hearing strains of the ad jingle "Mayo (sic) have a white Christmas" over and over on TV.

My daddy's ideal buko salad is an assembly of fruit cocktail, buko, whole sweet corn kernels, kaong, nata de coco and fried peanuts, caressed by cream and sweetened even more by condensed milk, served almost frozen. It has become, and still is, my standard buko salad.

My white tropical salad is a simplification of that buko salad, and, needless to say, tropicalisation. So I did away with the fruit cocktail, and the corn and peanuts were also removed for their color. What's left is an absolute buko salad - coconut in all its forms and variations - fresh buko strips, kaong, nata de coco, swimming in evaporated and condensed milk, which are also forms of coconut cream/milk.

The evaporated milk component here is more suited to buko, and because I like this salad almost soupy - it should be served with small individual bowls and a serving ladle. Less fat, too.

I also like to add lots of small sago because I love the mouth feel, plus it adds to the presentation effect, and diffuses the over-all sweetness, too. Sometimes I add almond jelly, too - still white - to add to the textural contrasts, but in keeping with the coconut "theme" it is more appropriate to use coconut-flavored jelly, or use coconut cream (gata) in flavoring clear gelatin.

Besides serving this at Christmas (good for fiestas and birthdays, and almost any other big occasion - very economical), it is great for New Year feast, too. It is a good (or better) alternative to the omnipresent buko-pandan salad, and for me it symbolizes purity - approaching the new year with a clean slate and pureness of heart. The sago, being round, and the almond jelly, are believed to be harbingers of good luck, although of course I don't practice such things. It is just nice to play along.

White Tropicale Salad

Ingredients
meat strips from 4 buko
1 big bottle white nata de coco, drained well
1 big bottle white kaong, drained well
1/4 kg small sago, boiled and drained
2 packets almond jelly, cooked and set according to instructions, and cubed (or clear gelatin using kakang gata in lieu of water, and sweetened with sugar)
1 big can evaporated milk
1 big can condensed milk

• Mix all ingredients, and refrigerate at least 6 hours. Serve chilled.

Still on the subject of salads, I used to find it weird that in some areas in my province, particularly in my husband's barrio and in other rural areas, fruit salad - which I am used to eating just with frozen cream, and perhaps a hint of condensed milk - is spiked with mayonnaise. I couldn't understand the logic behind it (to foil the cloying sweetness?), and I didn't like the taste.

But what was more weird is the fact that boiled elbow macaroni is added to fruit cocktail in making fruit salad. I had only been exposed to macaroni in savory dishes, so if it were a salad it was chicken-macaroni salad, in its many variations, with mayonnaise.

Over the years I met Ilocanos and Chavacanos who ate fruit salad with mayonnaise, and this season that white Christmas TV ad confirmed for me that these two salads - fruit salad with mayonnaise and fruit salad with macaroni - is a Filipino phenomenon.

Perhaps because we are so enamored with the taste of mayonanise (where else can you find somebody enjoying a sandwich with just mayonnaise as palaman?), so we like it in our fruit salad. And yes, to add a different dimension to the sweetness, although I might say it is also adding to the fat content. I think the pasta addition to fruit salad is our own way of economizing - as a form of extender to the very costly fruit cocktail, which contains fruits not found in the country. This practice, after all, goes way back before our canned fruit cocktails were tropicalised into almost nothing but papayas, pineapples and nata.

Anyway, I have found that it grows on you, and I have become addicted to pasta-fruit salad. I have discovered that angel hair pasta broken into short stumps is better than elbow macaroni in a fruit salad, although of course it is much more expensive. Gives quite a nice touch in terms of presentation, though. Almost surprising. Even magical.

Happy New Year and wishing you all what I would like the new year to bring - more food adventures the whole year round!