Fables of Agoo: Now I write me down to sleep…

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Fables of Agoo: Now I write me down to sleep…: "There have been a lot of things happening lately that have prevented me from laying my thoughts down to paper. Ironically, the things that ..."

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Food and Oral History: Balut

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My sister shows off her contribution to the Merienda.      This edible surprise will scare you if you are not familiar with this Filipino appetizer.  I know of many Filipinos who dare not touch this unless they are drunk.  It is exotic and it is strange.  It even looks a little disgusting.  My father said something to me growing up about the etiquette of eating this culinary freak of nature.  He said "you must eat it in a movie theatre so you do not have to look at it."             The mysterious delicacy I build up here is the legendary balut.  According to Wikipedia, a  balut  is a fertilized  duck  (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed  embryo  inside that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell.      Popularly believed to be an  aphrodisiac  and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in ...
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Food and Oral History: Pancit "Long-Life"

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This recipe blog entry is dedicated to my Tito Filimar Blanco  who passed away on Tuesday, April 12, 2011.  May he rest in peace. My cousin Frances shows off the dish his dad, my Uncle Leo, cooked      On your birthday, you must have someone make this dish for you.  The dish is called pancit or pansit, which is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit (Chinese: 便ê食) which means "something conveniently cooked fast".      If you have ever been to a Filipino party anywhere in the world, this dish will be there 99% of the time.  If it is not on the table, the host ran out of time to prepare it.  I think this dish best appeals to Americans because it is not too strange and exotic looking on the table.  The taste also does not have a distinct single s...
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Filipinos and Hoarding

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What do you admit to hoarding?  Me?  Gift bags.      As the weather cools, my mind often drifts to fixing up the house because it is finally comfortable enough to work outside.  In Texas, the one hundred degree August heat was so unbearable, there was no need to move to break a sweat.  Air conditioners were breaking down everywhere.  There came a point where I was looking for excuses to go shopping because the stores were cooled to frigid temperatures for temporary relief.  Thus, my shopping habit increased due to some survival motivation to find a cool area to combine two things that bring me joy:  buying something I did not need and free air-conditioning.      This brings me to my topic of hoarding.  I ask myself if hoarding is an individual thing or should I stereotype my own culture?  If I frame my culture as my familial experience, then I think I can truthfully make this argument without surveying all th...
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