Cephalopod Gallantry

More Mushroom Siomai

They're not very big. They are dwarfed by this rather large calamansi.

Yes, we are seeing a trend here. Might is snowball into the next Zagu craze or shawarma wave? Maybe not, but it's worth continuing on the mushroom path.

I just spotted another mushroom siomai booth, this time at the AANI Weekend Market at FTI. This was a healthier version, being steamed and more mushroom-y in flavor.


Twenty pesos for five pieces, not bad at all.


Who knows?

The same stall also distributes Golden Cucinero Homemade Products. And if you might just remember that you need one while waiting for your siomai, you can buy a "ballpen" here for 10 pesos.

(Like the other AANI Market, this one is decidedly down-to-earth. I'm currently having a little internal rebellion against the "upscale" Makati markets, because often the sellers are very disconnected to their raw materials, and sometimes sell them at disproportionately high prices. Admittedly, I sell at one of them. :p)

You also see here an abundance of Filipino food, Filipino ingredients, interesting plants and fruit trees, and more of those "inventors" so neglected by our government.

Golden Cucinero Homemade Products (Distributor)
AANI Weekend Market
FTI Complex, Taguig City
Scroll down on this page and there are driving directions,
since I don't know how to komyut going there.

Mushroom Siomai

How appetizing!

Count me in as part of the human population that doesn't mind eating while talking about excrement, death, or disease. Or getting served siomai by a dude wearing a dead and preserved frog as a coin purse.


Siomai love for you...

I am in full support of people who wish to make unconventional food products out of plants. The siomai tasted alright, like mushrooms with onions and flour. It seemed like it might have had "cheese" (Kraft shit) in it, there was a salty and somewhat tart note. It was fried and oily. But... alright, on the whole. Enough to inspire me to try to make a steamed version at home.

I didn't try the mushroom burgers, primarily because I very much dislike commercial hamburger buns, which are milky-sweet.


So colorful and glittery. Are those mushrooms what I think they are??

AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center is a great place to go if you like plants, livestock, food, and small new ideas. It's one of the few places where scientists and farmers can showcase their wares cheaply. Good ideas here rarely catch the wave they deserve, because those with access to media or purchasing power just aren't that interested.

Nicole's Mushroom Burger
AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center,
Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City
MRT Station: Quezon Avenue
Take a jeep that goes around towards the Circle.

Gas Chamber

Inhaler flashed into view every so often.

I rode a cab last week. The windows were busted and it smelled like gasoline. Apparently, the driver just bought an LPG-run taxi, and the fumes were entering through the airconditioning vent.

Torn between wanting to be on time for a film and getting lightheaded, I opted to stick it out, breathe as little as possible, and ask a few questions:

Who did the conversion job? Some small talyer.

So how did he deal with it? By buying asthma medicine that he never needed in his whole life.

How long was he going to keep it the way it was? Until he could still afford to buy medicine.

Spicy Peanut Explosion

Sili and garlic got me buying peanuts again.

Notice the spicy peanut explosion around Manila? From garlic peanuts, we now have peanuts with siling labuyo. Brings us closer to our Southeast Asian street food neighbors, no? I'm waiting for all the underutilized and forgotten Filipino herbs to begin cropping up again in the mainstream.


A vendor has many kinds and sizes of peanuts, along UN Avenue.

Donuts and Cavities

A funny juxtaposition, near Mall of Asia a few months ago. I wonder if it was intentional.

Nana Meng's vs. Starbucks Hot Suckolate

I get my regular chocolate fix at Nana Meng's Tsokolate, where I usually order this lovely and rich little serving.

Packed with dark chocolate goodness, the very thick tsokolate e! comes in a small demi cup (a shot, if you may) for 60 pesos. This is roughly the price of a large taza of the other less concentrated varieties, such as tsokolate a! (what are those bizarre names?), and cashew and peanut variations. They are all pretty amazing. I usually take my own mascobado sugar with me.

Two days ago, a photography gig took me (quite early in the day) to a faraway place where there was only Starbucks to provide me with my legal stimulant needs. Somehow I was fooled by the fancy Hear music into ordering a cup of hot chocolate for 100 pesos. The server asked me if I wanted the special "Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate". What was the difference, I asked, between this and the regular sort? Well, this was darker, and richer, I was told.

Well, Starubucks execs, I propose you rename it "Swiss Miss Delite". It's so soulless, thinnish and sickly sweet that I had to chuck the crap into the basurahan after drinking less than half of it. I am officially scandalized by the kind of cocoa perpetuated by this large coffee chain. It simply does not compare.


Home sweet home for this rubbish!

Nana Meng's Tsokolate
3rd Floor (near cinema escalator)
Glorietta 4, Makati
MRT Station: Ayala
Walk straight towards Glorietta from Ayala Station

Jeepney Wisdom

Bring The Mountain to Mohammad

Bus to Dumaguete, selling pomelos and snacks.

Many people in small towns take advantage of bus routes by preparing pre-packaged or portioned food that can be bought in a total of 5 seconds (through a window).


Bus to El Nido, girl selling corn.


Bus to Benoni, selling guavas I think?

An Original Relation To The Universe

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)