Yum Pancit

we frequently eat Pancit for medienda (afternoon break) or parties. There are various forms of this dish, depending on who cooks them.

long discussion here.

traditional Pancit uses thin rice noodles, with vegetables, pork, shrimp, and liver.

,,,

If thicker wheat noodles are used, it is called pancit Canton, and indeed the lazy way to make Pancit is to use the noodles from a ramen noodle pack as the base.

,,,

then you have Pancit Palabot...use subtitles for this video and go to youtube for the recipe.

...

this video discusses Pancit as made a century ago:,

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RICE: let's hear it for the drones

 we grow organic brown rice, which is healthier, but more expensive since a lot of the weeding by hand (instead of using herbicides) and other methods cost more.

But what about the poor who live in cities?

the dirty little secret is that you need cheap rice or other foods (often grown with chemical herbicides and fertilizers) to keep the price down. 

A lot of NGOs pushed organic ideas on Africa, and even influenced countries like Zimbabwe to refuse cheap American grain during their famine because it might contain GM or other modern changes, so the excuse was they were worried about the health of their people: The people of course were dying of infectious diseases because they were malnourished, but never mind. The green ideas in the NGOs and even those associated with churches (yes I am talking to you Pope Francis) triumphed over the need to feed the poor.

but the good news is that China doesn't worry about people getting diabetes or cancer at age 55: They remember starvation is always a danger and are willing to grow hefty crops using modern techniques.

And luckily for Africa, China is there buying farm land and encouraging farmers in these countries to learn how  to grow abundant food to prevent famine.

introducing hybrid rice and modern techniques to increase the yield: including the use of drones to apply pesticides.

Hmmm... we don't use drones yet on our fields, but the IRRI is introducing drone technology here in the Philippines.

Drones serve various agricultural purposes, including irrigation planning, crop health monitoring, damage assessment, soil health analysis, and fertilizer and pesticide application

Right now, this is done by walking through the fields and analyzing if additional minerals or fertilizer is needed. 

and walking through the fields monitoring the crop if problems occur during the rice growing season: weeds, blight, insect infestation, etc.

We still have small farmers with small rice crops, but as the farmers age and sell their land (because their kids prefer other easier jobs) then mechanized farming will start, so that is where the drones come in.

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and of course drones can apply  pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. to fields at a lower price than a farmer doing it by hand.

Increased efficiency and speed, reducing manual labor Precise application, leading to reduced waste and damage to crops Accessibility to difficult or remote terrain Ability to cover larger areas in a shorter period of time Real-time monitoring and data collection for better decision making.

 

Papal Baby Back Ribs

 the history of feeding the Cardinals at the conclave.

the recipe for those baby back ribs can be found here.

it reminds me of this old time commercial:

.....

BBC Has an article here about how to feed those attending the conclave.

Historically, food has presented a potential risk: a cardinal's ravioli might be stuffed with an illicit message from the kitchen staff; or a cardinal could sneak a vote update to the outside world with a dirty napkin.

....The code of conclave secrecy goes back to 1274, when Pope Gregory X established the regulations that still partly dictate how papal elections are run today. As with the coronation of many popes, his was controversial. It also had the distinction of being by far the longest, taking almost three years (1268-1271) to reach the majority consensus required to appoint a new pope. According to Italian canonist Henricus de Segusio, who served in that conclave, local residents threatened to restrict the cardinals' food to hasten a resolution.

 

....

Gambero Rosso has an article discussing the actual menu of what will be eaten.

The Conclave menu is based on a simple but essential principle: provide energy without heaviness, as advised by nutritionist Giorgio Calabrese to Adnkronos. It’s a formula not far removed from the meals typically served in the Santa Marta canteen—when the residence functions as a simple guesthouse—with dishes expected to be replicated for this occasion. The aim is clear: to ensure a strict and balanced diet, capable of sustaining a body and mind engaged in a crucial task, while fully respecting individual dietary needs and medical conditions such as diabetes, common among the 133 cardinals present....Pasta or rice with light sauces, white meat, oven-baked fish, seasonal vegetables directly from the Vatican gardens, salads, and fresh fruit. This is the selection for the main meal— foods that are minimally processed but rich in vitamins and minerals.

Goulash History: It's a soup not a stew

 the origin of Goulash predates paprika

it originally didn't include Paprika: Here is the history

..

altogether now:

what's that smell?

Durians are banned from planes and some areas.

why? explains the UKGuardian:

The infamous durian – regarded the king of fruit in much of south-east Asia – is best known for its pungent smell, variously compared to sewage, rotting flesh or, at best, ripe cheese. The green, spiky durian is an awkward travel companion: it is banned on Singapore's rail network, as well as many in airports and hotels in south-east Asia. Durians polarise people. Fans say if you can get past the stink, the flesh has an ambrosial taste.

the good news? Frozen Durian doesnt smell.

LOL. Frozen durian doesn't smell. The best of both worlds. https://t.co/1rHh8WUOvP

— tioedong (@tioedong) February 20, 2025

yes, I've eaten it and it is delicious... it tastes like custard.

Coffee coffee coffee (and oreos?)

from Improbable research:

Coffee and the Wellbeing of Mice

It is concluded that caffeinated coffee increases… inhibition in mood-related areas bolstering wellbeing of both males and females, with increased sociability in males and hierarchy struggling and self-care in females.”

so could coffee help the blue haired cat ladies adjust to today's world?

Glenn Miller plays an Irving Berlin tune from the depression days of 1932 right before FDR turned things around and raised the morale of the country.

 

hmm... those lyrics could be about today's changing mood in the US to optimism. And check the second verse is in Spanish. Heh.

and maybe add some Oreos to that snack:

Explaining a strange idea: The Oreo Cookies Diet

Yum. Gobs.

Aka whoopie pie

Kuya brought this up yesterday as we were eating a chocolate cupcake, where the cake part was very dense and sweet, and the icing melted in your mouth.

When he was a kid growing up near Johnstown, their favorite snack was Gobs.

Gobs, you say? 

Where I grew up they were called Whoopie Pies.

it is two cakes with the icing part in the middle of the cakes. Usually the cakes are chocolate, but in other areas they use various cakes and filling for their Whoopie pies.

from WTAE Pittsburgh:

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — JR Harris' uncle told an employee a story about the origins of the gob. He said a worker for his family's bakery was on break. They were permitted to make and eat anything they wanted to at the bakery. "He had two small chocolate cakes and put icing in between," Harris said. "And then the company saw what he had done and started doing what he did with the gob cake."

The term gob was trademarked in 1927 by the Harris-Boyer bakery.

Gobs are inherently part of the fabric of (western) Pennsylvania's culinary landscape....

 

,In the 1930s, the sailor-boy image associated with the Johnstown gob was developed for the wrapper.

Gob can also be used as a synonym for sailor, though no one with any knowledge of the company knows if that was why it was given its original name. "Gob" was also used within the mining industry in reference to refuse coal. It is possible that miners gave the dessert its name in the region.

a similar confection is called whoopie pie and has it's origin in Amish cooking, or maybe the confection came to America with German immigrants. 

Susan Kalcik, a folklorist and archivist in Johnstown, said the recipe for gobs traces back to Germany in the middle ages. She thinks the recipe was brought to the United States by immigrants.

so why was this popular in Johnstown area?  

Regardless of where it was started, it was perfect for coal miners in Somerset and Cambria counties who didn't want their lunchtime dessert's icing to melt on the wrapper. Kalcik said gobs predate any bakery's claim to have created it.

Don't waste the food says ChatGPT

AnnAlthouse has a discussion with AI about if people get upset when food is thrown at someone in a movie.

What I learned from this is that ChatGPT etc has no sense of humor.

has anyone seen this done in real life? I haven't. 

 But both ChatGPT and all the commenters left out this classic scene:

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according to IMDB: 

The pie fight scene lasts four minutes and was shot in five days. It is the longest pie fight sequence in movie history. At first, the cast had fun filming the pie fight scene, but eventually the process grew wearisome and dangerous. Natalie Wood choked briefly on a pie which hit her open mouth. Jack Lemmon got knocked out a few times: "a pie hitting you in the face feels like a ton of cement". At the end of shooting the fight, when Blake Edwards called "Cut!" he was barraged with several hundred pies that members of the cast had hidden, waiting for that moment.

About 4,000 real pies were used in the pie fight scene, and the cast ate many of them during filming. However, during a weekend break in filming, the pies spoiled. The stink was so bad that the building required a thorough cleaning and large fans to blow out the sour air.

During the pie fight, the Great Leslie remains clean while everyone else is covered in pie. Tony Curtis was actually changing clothes several times, because he all too often got hit with pie during filming.

Mental Floss has a history of pie throwing.

According to Hopes&Fears

, the first known pie fight appeared in 1909’s Mr. Flip, in which an obnoxious general store manager gets his comeuppance in the form of a pie to the face. Though the film itself is forgettable, other filmmakers of the time were inspired by the pie throwing scene—a visual gag perfectly suited to the then-soundless medium. Almost instantly, the pie fight became a staple of silent films. Just like the police chase (made famous by the Keystone Kops), an epic pie fight was an easy way to end a film.

Covid slightly up, but now we have a lot of dengue cases in the Philippines

 Covid cases are up a bit: only 

2,371 new cases and 1 new death in the Philippines with 16000 active case being treated. But testing the population shows a high positive rate of ten, suggesting there is a lot of covid circulating around. 

 but the real story is an increase in Dengue cases: and this is all over the country.Dengue cases hit nearly 65,000 from January to June 25; 90% up from last year (staying indoors might have lessened the cases last year, but now everyone is going outside).

we don't know anyone who got covid or dengue, in the last few weeks, but we were asked for money help to transfer a patient to the next town's hospital because the local public hospital is full ... from covid? (which means isolation beds, so fewer beds for non covid patients).

Dr Angie would know what's going on, but she is still in the USA attending the funeral of her sister I'm not sure what is going on in the hospitals.

Masks are still required indoors, but only about half of people on the street wear masks, although most at the palenke are waring a mask.(open air market).

there is a bird flu epidemic in the next province,The BAI disclosed that the confirmed cases of AI subtype H5N1 were recorded in the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Bataan, Laguna, Camarines Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Benguet, North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Maguindanao and Isabela. meaning that there might be a shortage of fried chicken at KFC and Jolibee.

we are close to Manila, so a lot of farmers put up chicken farms for either broilers or eggs, to supply the city dwellers. We had one set up on our high fields (hard to irrigate) until a typhoon blew them down a couple years ago.

A lot of farmers last year had to destroy their pigs due to African Swine flu, so the price of pork remains high.

We usually eat fish but often eat meat for supper, and in the last year for the first time since moving here, we have been frequently been eating beef in our ulam (the soup that you put over your rice). Of course, the beef tends to be tough (and sometimes is from waterbuffalo, not cattle).

the planting season has just started, so it's too early to tell if the rice will be a good harvest. Our late winter harvest was low due to rain, and due to the irrigation water being stopped to repair the canals before the rice was ready to harvest.

Sigh.

Bread Beer and Tiger nuts

Atlas Obscura has an article on the diet of the ancient Egyptians, and discusses recipes based on tomb paintings. Recipes included.

Workers painted scenes on tomb walls to commemorate the deceased’s accomplishments and to ensure that important ceremonies, from food to burial rituals, would endure in the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian afterlife. Some tomb paintings even included images depicting how workers prepared food......

This detail of a painting from the tomb of Ramses III shows workers preparing spirals of emmer wheat bread. PUBLIC DOMAIN

bread and beer formed the true bedrock of ancient Egyptian cuisine. Bakers usually made bread with emmer wheat and barley, two of the oldest cultivated grains. Bread was so important, in fact, that it had an outsized influence on ancient Egyptian writing. Historians have recorded 14 distinct hieroglyphics for bread.

but the article also mentions something called tiger nuts, which were mixed with honey to make small cakes: the earliest Egyptian recipe described how to  prepare it for the gods, but it was also eaten by folks.

Wiikipedia commons

I had never heard of "tiger nuts", but it turns out to be chufa, aka turkey food, which I am familiar with since it grew wild near my home when I lived in Appalachia. 

It is a grass/sedge with small tubers which are edible.

wikipedia article discusses, including discusses similar plants that look like it but are bitter.




and here is a discussion of Egyptian food that discusses how to make tiger nut cakes at 9 minutes.

SCMP report on Cornavirus outbreak

The SCMP is a Hong Kong newspaper and has a long report, including the time line, of the outbreak of the Corona virus in Wuhan China.

read the whole thing.

As a whole, China responded to the epidemic well, and the massive shut down of many cities has slowed the spread, but their clamp down on information early in the epidemic (i.e. Dec and early Jan), and the fact they denied that person to person infections occurred  resulted in a delay at putting contacts (including medical personnel) into isolation etc. was one reason the disease spread to outside cities and the world.\\
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update: NEJM editorial on the corona virus.

Despite the number of deaths associated with Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 appears to have a lower case fatality rate than either SARS-CoV or Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

 translation: not as bad as SARS.

Compromised respiratory status on admission (the primary driver of disease severity) was associated with worse outcomes...

translation: If you are chronically ill already you will get a lot sicker than healthy people and have a higher chance of dying. 

We found a lower case fatality rate (1.4%) than the rate that was recently reportedly,1,12 probably because of the difference in sample sizes and case inclusion criteria....

Translation: Because they only tested sick people at first, the rate looked high. But this ignores that a lot of folks weren't sick enough to get tested: Meaning that as they test more mild cases, they will find the rate of dying is a lot lower than the early cases suggested. 

Since patients who were mildly ill and who did not seek medical attention were not included in our study, the case fatality rate in a real-world scenario might be even lower.

Early isolation, early diagnosis, and early management might have collectively contributed to the reduction in mortality in Guangdong.

translation: by isolating people, fewer people caught it. 

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cultural explanation of Asian wet markets.

I should mention that here in Asia, a "wet" market is the open air meat/fish/ produce market, where independent sellers have meat etc. on open display.

this is in contrast to American style supermarkets, where the meat is wrapped in cellophane, or behind glass in a refrigerated box where the vendor will take out the meat, cut it up, weigh it and then wrap it for you.

and a "dry market" is the area of the palengke/open market where independent vendors sell dry goods. This might include dry groceries (i.e. canned goods, noodles) but also includes clothing, school supplies, soap/shampoo/ plastic goods, etc.

the poor and bargain hunters go to the Palengke: the next step up is the small stores that sell things, and for the middle class, we now have American style supermarkets.


MikeBustos has a video about Philippine palengkes: The "wet market" of selling meat is seen at 0.41.

Spaghetti

from the BBC....and a happy April Fools day to you.

Craft item of the day

how to decorate with bananas:

Outlander trivia

The next book planned for the Outlander saga is "go tell the bees I am gone".

The author explains:

Where did the title come from? Talking to your bees is a very old Celtic custom (known in other parts of Europe, too) that made it to the Appalachians. You always tell the bees when someone is born, dies, comes or goes—because if you don’t keep them informed, they’ll fly away.

I actually ran across this belief in the book Precious Bane, about life in Shropshire during the early 1800s...

she refers to an NPR article about ancient beekeeping, but this video from the Chicago Oriental Institute discusses the subject.




This video is a discussion of the use of herbs, and they actually mention Gabaldon: saying local Scots lasses are busy trying out the herbs used by Claire, and he notes she seems to use a lot of hellebore (which is a very dangerous herb).



Finally, the name Gabaldon is Spanish, and actually we have a town in the area with that name, and the town changed it's name to honor a local politician/businessman/patriot.

presumably the name Gabaldon from the Spanish town, but there is a lot of arguing on the internet if it is Basque origin or not.

Recipe of the week

it' not just eggs that you soak in Brine:

How to make Syracuse Salt potatoes:

...........

AltasObscura tells the story of how this began:

In the 19th century, Irish salt workers would often bring along sacks of potatoes for lunch. While boiling down brine from Syracuse’s salt springs, workers would add in the small, white potatoes that became the spud of choice for salt potatoes. Soon, the potatoes were a staple.

In 1899, one newspaper boasted, “The salt potatoes of Syracuse rank with the baked beans of Boston, the terrapin of Baltimore, the scrapple of Philadelphia and the frankfurters of Milwaukee.”

yes, we do have potatoes here, and they are small and with a brown skin... I haven't seen them growing here, but like lettuce, strawberries and other cool climate veggies, I presume they are grown in the mountains north of here.

 but they are used as part of a stew like other vegetables.

But now we do see lots of French fries at fast food places, and you can even get mashed potatoes at KFC (along with a serving of rice, of course).

Asian Potato growing information. 

overpriced sauce from rotten fish

Atlas Obscura has an article on Garum, the sauce that ancient Romans put on all their food.

Slaves and laborers made the aromatic fish sauce by chopping up whole fish, including their guts, and tossing them into large clay pots with salt (amounts varied). The concoctions were then left to ferment for at least nine months under the hot Mediterranean sun while halophilic, or salt-loving, bacteria from the fish’s guts helped break down the flesh.... 

While some famous Romans, such as Seneca, were known to grumble about the “overpriced guts of rotten fish,” Pliny the Elder prized the “exquisite liquid.”

the closest equivalent to Garum today is Asian fish sauce, which here we call Patis.

and here is a recipe on how to make it (although I suggest you just buy it: either in your local Asian grocery store, or at your local Walmart superstore grocery, where we used to buy it all the time.


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more here:

Cooking tip of the day

Please Don't Roast Marshmallows Over the Erupting Hawaii Volcano, USGS Warns



but dave barry adds: but hot dogs are okay.

more HERE at Etiquette Hell,  from a man who worked as a park ranger at one volcano:

They said, “Oh we don’t want to come to your talk, we want to roast marshmallows on the lava. Is there a stick here we can use?” I explained that we only have props for visitor education. I wasn’t even sure if roasting marshmallows was a park-approved activity, but it didn’t seem too harmful so I let that part go.

But they were so determined they actually asked if they could break branches off of the trees to use as skewers. Here I had to interfere, because destroying living things is definitely not allowed in a national park. They didn’t seem to understand why that would be inappropriate, but finally suggested using only branches that were already down. I didn’t have time to argue, so I tried to excuse myself.

But they weren’t done. If I wasn’t willing to help them find the perfect stick, the least I could do was get them some marshmallows. I directed them toward the gift shop and walked away.

They actually seemed annoyed with me the whole time, as if they had expected to walk up, be handed a bag of marshmallows and a roasting stick, and walk off to the lava. Perhaps we could even club a few endangered animals for them to roast for dinner. 

Bubble Tea

Joy is always bringing this home as a pasalubong gift for me, and I hate it.

It's milk tea with tapioca.

the "Milktea" here is thin tea with milk, which does not taste like British milk tea, which is stronger, but almost tasteless.

Then they have tapioca/jellied pearls in the bottom. They don't give you a spoon but a large straw, so you can aspirate the tapioca into your trachea more easily.

Wikipedia: Bubble Tea.

Most bubble tea recipes contain a tea base mixed with fruit or milk, to which chewy tapioca balls (known as bubbles, pearls, or boba) and fruit jelly (especially tropical fruits like lychee) are often added. Ice-blended versions are usually mixed with fruit or syrup, resulting in a slushy consistency.^[2] There are many varieties of the drink with a wide range of ingredients with some ingredients being mango, taro, coconut, and peach. The two most popular varieties are bubble milk tea with tapioca and bubble milk green tea with tapioca.^[2]

more here at Weibo, a Chinese site. which lists the ten best places to buy it in China.

apparently it is also a big hit there too.

however, looking at the discarded small straws littering the street, I suspect except for the trendy students, the locals still prefer the much cheaper fruit juice  or buko juice, served in a plastic cup or in a bag with a straw from a local street vendor to drink.

All you wanted to know about ketchup

FYI:



and how to make it:



here we have sweet, hot, and banana catsup.




and finally: Catsup vs ketchup.

Local news from the Philippines

Here it is Holy Week, and the country is closing down so everyone can travel back to their home towns for the Easter holiday.

They are singing the "Pasyon"outside: Florinda erected a small chapel in the middle of the street near us, and they are also singing it in our neighborhood Chapel.

wikipedia

The Pasyón (Spanish: Pasión) is a Philippine epic narrative of the life of Jesus Christ, focused on his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. In stanzas of five lines of eight syllables each, the standard elements of epic poetry are interwoven with a colourful, dramatic theme.

The uninterrupted recitation or Pabasa of the whole epic is a popular Filipino Catholic devotion during the Lenten season, and particularly during Holy Week.

and no, our area doesn't have the "crucifixions" that the MSM loves to report on to prove Filipinos are crazy. They are mainly in Pampanga, not in our area, and it says a lot that the Wikipedia article names the few devotees who perform this custom.

The Church discourages it, of course, but won't condemn it because it is folk religion to honor Jesus, and very personal for those involved.

the best explanation of why people do this was in this Nat Geo program:




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I have written before how hand plows (large rototillers) are replacing the water buffalo for plowing etc. on most farms.

The Inquirer has an article on how local farmers are using their waterbuffalo for milk, and how introducing new breeds will improve the stock and enable farmers to have another source of income.'

The Philippine Dairy Carabao is a product of crossbreeding native and Murrah water buffaloes. —ANSELMO ROQUE

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/978660/3-in-1-carabaos-developed-in-nueva-ecija-to-boost-farmers-earnings#ixzz5B5jJwoke 

more HERE.

Most of the milk is imported (ultrapasteurized milk, usually from New Zealand or China) but we always buy local Carabao milk, which is high in fat and wonderful for adding to our coffee or for making sweets.

altogether now: