i shifted with the wind, invisible, alone, and i found in loneliness a kind of indentity. i'd go days without saying a word. when i heard myself speak to a service station attendant, or a clerk in a store, i'd be startled. whose voice was that? sometimes i was scared, but in that too i found something indicative and unchangeable…
-from "The Aerialist", R. Schmitt
now this book i bought from page one, 10% off…have to finish this before i go back to philippines and devour my precious time with 2 fat loma books.
my mom is mostly responsible for what i put in my mouth when i'm in the philippines. according to her, one of the hardest thing in cooking is thinking what dish to cook. well, imagine if you cook everyday, you'll soon ran out of ideas. i remember her asking us at home if we want menudo sa pula (in red) or sa puti (in white). these were variants, one with tomato sauce/ketchup, the other without.
philippine menudo is usually mixed ground pork, diced potato, carrot, peas, onion, garlic, seasoned with pepper and soy sauce.. some even with raisins. but my menudo is just ground pork, diced potato, and seasonings. hehe.. well, i didn't want it to be that devoted that i could already pass in hell's kitchen audition. also, i just don't like fruits in ulam (dish)…like raisins, or pineapple.
when i cooked my menudo yesterday, it's the white version. not because i don't want it with tomato taste, but rather because i don't have tomato sauce at hand. i went home early today, head a short while for the gym, and recycled my leftover menudo into the red version by using a sachet of tomato ketchup i got from lunch today..hehe
which brought one major tip i can share with you in cooking… always make it less. it's better to use less salt, less pepper, less water, less everything. because with less, you can always add. if it's not too salty, you can add salt, not too spicy, add some pepper, etc…if my menudo yesterday was menudo sa pula, i couldn't imagine how could i transform it to menudo sa puti without going into the scientific stages of purification and distillation!
this solo cello from bach is one of the most beautiful music created of all time. it has captivated me the first time i heard it, and it always does everytime i listen to it again and again. 
