Tag: Marag

Summer Night – Lord Tennyson

Marag

I love this poem, very evocative. It clearly describes a typical night during summer, where petals of flowers close after shadow of sunlight falls in as lights can be gleamed from the flickering of fireflies.

This reminds me of life in Marag, Philippines during summer and when the moon was full. It would be a clear night and we would be fascinated by fireflies dancing merrily around a lemon tree making it appear as festive as a Christmas tree. The flowers from the squashes and melons had long closed their beauteous blooms for nighttime beauty sleep, yet to be ready once again as the dawn breaks.

Only the sound of the crickets competed with our joyful laughter and my mother’s admonition not to go too far in to the darkness.

I love summer

Summer Night
Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson

NOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.
Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

Binasuan – Philippine Folk Dance

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I remember as a child when I was about 10 years old at Marag Elementary School, selected girls from our class, including me as the star dancer, LOL, learned a folk dance called Binasuan.

Binasuan is a lively and colourful dance originating from Pangasinan, a province on the island of Luzon. It is often danced at weddings and fiestas. Or in our case as a school – end of year presentation.

The word binasuan means “with the use of drinking glasses” The performers balance glasses on their heads and hands while gracefully dancing. This is especially tricky because the glasses are filled with rice wine or some other form of liquid again in our case, tea candles.

The dance was very intricate as it involves rotating the arms in different direction whilst carefully balancing, not holding, glasses in the palms of our hands and another glass on our head.  To top that we had to get down on the floor onto our stomach and roll around still balancing the glasses. Whoever invented the dance was a bit of a sadist! 😉
However, it is a good way to learn good posture.

We did practise quite a lot, and after so many broken glasses and nervous fits of giggles, we perfected it on the night!

My father cut beer bottles to make glasses for me.  I must say he did have to make quite a lot. LOL

I do remember the experience fondly.

glass bottle cutting

Glass bottle cutting

Binasuan – Philippine Folk Dance

Binasuan1

Binasuan2

Chesa

FLORA Philippines

aaacanistel3

 

Chesa

At  the back of our house stood stoutly a fruit bearing tree. The fruit is called chesa. This fruit is definitely in the marmite category – you either love it or loathe it.

My father used to love chesa. When ripe it can be very sweet. He used to urge us to eat chesa because it was good for us. I think it was probably more to do really with the mess it made when the overipe fruits would naturally fall on the ground. It resembled poo and funny enough bluebottles loved it.

I would like to eat a chesa again one day and see for myself whether my tastebuds have changed. I’d like to know whether I like it better now, perhaps my tastebuds have matured?!!! I might be rather partial towards a chesa now.

Don’t get me wrong, chesa is delicious but the sweetness has a rather gluey feel and after taste to it.  The smell also, though not rancid or anything like that, can be overpowering.

I shall add this to my bucket list at once!

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The canistel (Pouteria campechiana) is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexicoand Central America.[3] It is cultivated in other countries, such as Brazil, Taiwan,Vietnam and the Philippines for its fruit.

The canistel grows up to 10 meters (33 ft) high, and produces orange-yellow fruit, also called yellow sapote, up to 7 centimeters (2.8 in) long, which are edible raw. Canistel flesh is sweet, with a texture often compared to that of a hard-boiled egg yolk, hence its colloquial name “eggfruit”. It is closely related to the Mamey sapote and abiu.

– Wikipedia

Pinakbet

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Pinakbet or Pakbet is an Ilocano recipe but because it is really delicious the whole Philippines have adopted it as its own.

Pakbet is easy to cook but what makes it really special depends on the bagoong or buggoong (ilocano) – Salted fish that you use.

When we used to live in Marag people from Pagudpod or Ilocos Norte would come to Marag to sell salt and the Buggoong. They usually come with two or three types of Bagoong but the one called Padas was always the winner. It was so delicious that it was a treat to eat it with ripe tomatoes as our main dish with the ubiquitous boiled rice. I can almost taste it now!

If you are to go to Manila, please do try the Pinakbet! It is truly gourmet dining.

Pakbet or Pinakbet Recipe
http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net/pakbet.htm

Estimated cooking time: 35 minutes


http://blauearth.com/tag/banga/

Pakbet Ingredients:
1/4 kilo pork with fat, cut into small pieces
2 Amapalya (bitter melons) sliced to bite size pieces
2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces
5 pieces of okra, cut in two
1 head garlic, minced
2 onions, diced
5 tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon of ginger, crushed and sliced
4 tablespoons bagoong isda or bagoong alamang
3 tablespoons of oil
1 1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Pakbet Cooking Instructions:
In a cooking pan, heat oil and fry the pork until brown, remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
On the same pan, saute garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes.
In a casserole, boil water and add bagoong.
Add the pork in the casserole and mix in the sautéed garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add in all the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are done, careful not to overcook.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with plain rice.