Hornbill

Coming back from the beach, I was surprised to see this hornbill. Hornbills are not common here, in fact, I didn't know what it was called until I googled it.



The background is Imelda Marcos' family masoleum.

Farm animals: Pretty carabao

A garlanded carabao. This is how he did it. Played around in the mud, and went under the weeds and voila!



That's when it came after me..

Farm animals: Chicken acrobat

Practicing for the audition at cirque du soleil.

Farm animals: Mama balut

Ever tasted 'balut'? That embryo-like egg that's not even a delicacy in the Philippines but an everyday energy food for everyone? Those eggs come from this unsuspecting duck specie.

Roasted chicken

Really tastes like chicken. Roasted chickens are more in demand in Tacloban than lechon manok. They do taste better.

Tastes like chicken

Um.. frogs. We eat them here in Leyte, mostly as sumsuman (pulutan). Best cooked with gata, or just fried. They're hard to come by, you can't find them in the market. They've to be caught fresh from ricefields and eaten immediately (after cooking of course). Can you imagine keeping frogs in your freezer???

Banisil

These shells are called 'banisil', commonly known as su-su. When I was a kid, my father made many explanations to make this sound delectable. He called it sup-sup (sucking sound), because you suck the meat out of the shell. I was never fooled. Best cooked with gata (coconut milk). Although I'll probably never know for sure.

Sea cucumber

These are sea cucumbers, the rubbery gelatinous meat you sometimes find in your chopseuy or mixed vegetables. The squirming worm-like sea creatures that are suspiciously called cucumbers.

Sea shells? Snails?

We eat them here.

From the pier

The view from Tacloban's pier. This is where the San Juanico strait ends.

Shrimp paste

Remember those shrimp pastes that some Asian recipes call for? That's what the guy is selling. They're all sizes, colors, type of fermenting, type of shrimp, etc.. Yes, there were flies flying about. I always wonder which is safer to buy, these ones or the bottled/packaged shrimp paste which you don't get to see how they're processed? Something to think about..

Market tip

Very practical and smart couple, bringing those sturdy straw baskets when going to the market. How come I never remember to do that? I always end up carrying many small plastic bags of every item I buy.

Fresh fruits

Fresh fruit stands. These are locally produced in the Philippines except for the apples and oranges which are imported from China.

Ukay ukay

One of the ukay-ukay areas in Tacloban. Or the illegal selling of second-hand imported goods. Even with Republic Act # 4653 that prohibits the importation of second-hand garment goods, these ukay ukay shops even have mayor's permit to operate! One of the Philippine Facts of Life. Here's an abstract about the Ukay-ukay economics in the Philippines.

Beach Volleyball

Without the ball. Photo at Olot beach.. (will post more about this former summer house of the Marcoses.)

Tabako

In markets here, you will see old women selling 'tostos', dried tobacco leaves that they roll with paper or dried banana leaves or just with the tabacco leaves. Beats filter..

Snapshot

A scene at UP Tacloban Botanical Garden. Kids meeting their father from fishing.

Coconuts

My friend in Canada just told me how she got a hammer and smashed the coconut she just bought into pieces, spilled the water on the floor, scraped the hard meat inside and ate it! I told her, this is how we do it here: Get a 'sundang' (long knife) and hold it in your right hand (if you're right-handed), hold the coconut with your other hand, then smash the shell in half using the blunt side of the knife. That way, no one here has ever had their hands or fingers cut off accidentally.



Second photo is buko (young coconut) being cut open. No one had their fingers cut off using the sharp side of the knife either.

More banigs

These banigs are made from buri grass. It's made everywhere in Leyte and Samar. These are less expensive than the tikog banig (a specialty of Basey, Samar) which I posted yesterday. The buri banigs are used to sleep on and it's not really folded because it breaks the mat and make it more susceptible to tearing. To keep, it's rolled and put in the corner of the house. The old ones are used to dry rice (palay).

Banig

Banigs (tikog mats) are mainly made in Basey, Samar (30 minutes from Tacloban). Recently, while buying souvenirs for some guests, I saw that they were making new designs and using new vibrant colors.



If you're planning to buy these souvenirs, the one near the Post Office is easily accessible.

Suman

At the Palo Tabo (market day), you can buy all sorts of suman. The way they are wrapped with the leaves, the leaves used, the way they are tied with a string determine the kind of suman you're buying. Suman is a rice 'pudding' wrapped in a local leaf then steamed. In the Visayas, we like to eat our suman sprinkled with sugar OR with tsokolate (chocolate) and mango (called SMT for suman-mangga-tsokolate).

Children Series: Bye

The farmers' children posing for my obligatory goodbye photo. This ends my Children Series. :D

Children Series: Water Pump

At the farm, there's no running water (tap). So there's this manual water pump that the farm people use to get drinking and cooking water. The kids learn to collect water at an early age. When I was a kid, I remember rinsing off at a pump like this after a swim at the ocean.

Children Series: Riding a bike

Biking in the countryside. I used to be that small kid, riding the bike with my older sister.

Children Series: Closeup

This boy was very shy. I like his wide clear, innocent eyes reflecting the world around him.

Children Series: Painted faces

Saw these two painted kids playing. I asked them to pose for the camera. That finger/hand thing we do here.. that's the tongue-in-cheek pose for the camera.. like saying, here's my handsome face.

Children Series: Shy singers

Two shy boys singing a song against all odds. They giggled their way through the song.. just to get the door prizes.

Children Series: Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead yesterday.. but we're still celebrating it here, people who avoided the crowd and traffic yesterday are still visiting the cemetery to be with their dead loved ones today. Because of the 'ghostly' cemetery atmosphere, people tell each other scary stories, ghost stories.. the kids love it. I caught them telling each other horror stories.. it was funny, they were huddled together and were whispering and were scared of their own stories. I had to climb up to take this photo from above so they wouldn't see me. My flash scared them hahaha..

CDP Theme Day: Books

I grew up surrounded by books. There were books (encyclopedias, novels, bound old Time and Life magazines, Readers Digest) everywhere at home and by the time I finished 2nd grade, I had read them all. Because there was nothing else to read (and do, there was no tv then), I remember reading Ayn Rand's thick novels by 5th grade (hahha, I find that funny now because I had no concept of communism then). For me, as long as they had words, any book would do.

We were blessed in Palo (12 km from Tacloban) where a few blocks away from home was the Palo Public Library, which was constantly supplied with American books by our sister city (Palo Alto, CA) and its NGO, Neighbors Abroad. I especially love reading my two favorites, Dr Seus and Tintin (not American, but maybe it was popular there), books on suburban life in America, American educational magazines (like Popular Science), Asimov and sci fi magazines, classical books I wouldn't have been able to read at an early age (my favorite then was Simone de Beauvoir and George Sands) if not for the good works of those few Americans. The library then was supplied by the Neighbors Abroad with used books, the building was the renovated old home of Don Pio Pedrosa, and the library was maintained by the municipality. Almost 50 years later, the library is still in existence, still being supplied with new books by the Neighbors Abroad, and still visited by children hungry for books and knowledge. I visited the library recently, and they still have copies of Dr Seus, Tintin, and countless new children's books, and even hardbound copies of Harry Potter!

Thank you Neighbors Abroad! We appreciate your good works and generosity.


Click here to view thumbnails for all participants