deebeedee

Just to move this blog along, I will be posting, once in a while, pics I have taken with my T616. I’ve created a new category for this kind of post. It’s called Faux Phlog. It’s because the pictures are not posted via the camera phone, although they are taken with it. Rather, I upload the phone pics to my computer when I get home, resize them, then post an entry using MovableType. So technically this type of entry is not a phlog entry.

Below is a snapshot of a poster touting Philippine coffee taken at Red Ribbon, which has the chewiest, tastiest palabok I’ve ever tried.

Is that Juan de la Cruz, the Philippines’ answer to Juan Valdez?

Yesterday, my father-in-law and I drove up north to wine country. My wife and I wanted to treat him to a day in Napa Valley for his 60th birthday. The wife didn’t go with us since she had to watch the kids. Besides, she and a few moms from our son’s school had already gone there a couple of weeks ago. It was our turn, she said.

We first headed off to Calistoga, a city known for its hot-spring spas. We got there just in time for our massage appointments at Golden Haven Spa and Resort. We opted not to do the mud baths. Too icky.

The massage did such a marvelous job in relaxing our muscles that the rest of our day was like “a walk in the clouds” (he-he). We had lunch at the restaurant on the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America.

Next, we stopped at Grgich Hills Winery where we sampled their fine wines. The next winery down the road was the one owned by Francis Ford Coppola. We skipped it since we had to go home. It was a great day. Glad we went on a weekday. No waits. No traffic. Perfect.

More pictures here.

Dogster.com is a growing social networking site for dogs put together by “self-described computer and canine geeks.” In this chart, it shows the Philippines as the fourth most represented country on the site with 124 registered dogs (the United Kingdom has 121). You realize the Philippines’ numbers can be much higher than that, don’t you?

My sister surprised us with some goodies from her trip to the Philippines earlier this month. She got me three Filipino comic books drawn with a decidedly manga flair: Maynilad, Maria Makiling and Alat sa Dagat. The children’s books went to the boys. My wife got a slab of Choc-Nut and a big bag of cornick, which I’ve already brought to work and halfway scarfed down in one afternoon. Thanks, sis!

In Filipino-American households, dishes like adobo, laing and dinuguan sit side-by-side with the stuffed turkey, ambrosia salad and pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving banquet. EthnicGrocer.com can provide you with the ingredients necessary to concoct these non-traditional recipes.

Too bad its Philippine section does not have a wide selection of products. One glaring omission: Banana Ketchup. Or rather Banana Sauce. Did you know that the U.S. FDA has outlawed ketchup not made from tomatoes? Philippine exporters such as Del Monte, UFC, Jufran and Mafran have had to relabel their banana ketchup as “banana sauce” for the U.S. market. Here’s an excerpt from a related article:

Ketchup is a combination of vinegar, sugar, spices and some solid. There are ancient recipes that use almost anything but tomatoes - walnuts, mushrooms, gooseberries, even anchovies - as the solid ingredient.

…the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was not a big fan of ancient recipes. If something was going to be called ketchup, it had to be made from tomatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving!