Karlo Marko's superb longga

Rolly and I are in a good mood today what with the hefty breakfast we had of sunny side up eggs, fried rice cooked in the fat rendered by the country style bacon made by That Mountain High, meat smokers led by our godson Karlo Marko Altomonte. The slices of bacon did not shrink as I cooked them without oil on the Teflon pan. In the past, we bought commercial bacon, and this would shrink so fast, you had to cook a whole pack to feed a demanding family that wanted their bacon crisp and dry. Last night, we tried Karlo's smoked longganisa. It said on its label: "pork sausage flavored with garlic, vinegar and spices, smoked with a blend of aromatic wood chips." The sausage links lived up to expectation after they were cooked in a half cup of water. As soon as the water evaporated, the links were allowed to cook in the small amount of fat they rendered. No shrinkage either. The sausages were still as long as my hand and not the size of my pinky. We made a mental note to order another batch of meats when Karlo gets his smoker roaring again. Baguio residents have all the luck. He only charges 25 pesos for delivery anywhere in the city. Look out for the bohemian on a motorbike. Patronize local business!

I shall eat pie every single day (or until it runs out)

My family members are fans and followers of Sweets and Greens in Baguio. We relish its home deliveries of lemon pound cake that gives the taste of sweet and sour a new definition. Baguio-ites, hear this. They have a new product: Rhubarb Strawberry Pie. It is billed in their FB page as "juicy, sourly sweet, tangy and tart all wrapped up in a flaky, buttery crust." It's all that and more. It brings back memories of earlier times in my youth when the family gathered around the table for pie with a half gallon of vanilla ice cream waiting to turn it into a la mode. I distinctly recall the apple pie of Goodies N' Sweets at the old Greenhills Shopping Center that was the centerpiece of special gatherings. It came with a caramel sauce that was drizzled over the warm pie. Yesterday's pie arrived at exactly 11:32 a.m., right before we went down for lunch in the dining room. The family had been waiting for it since Friday. There was a miscommunication between the pie seller and me. I failed to check the order delivery date (Nov. 27, it said), expecting the pie on Nov. 20. You can't imagine the groan of disappointment from my family, especially from Rolly Fernandez, when I announced that our order had been moved back. I pleaded with seller to please move it by a few days forward. My plea was accommodated. We declined the custard that was supposed to be paired with the pie, saying we'd have ice cream on top of it. And that we did with matching rolling of eyes till the whites showed. Yeah, I know, a bit exaggerated in comparing the eating to an orgasmic experience. But it was. Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Some like it sour

This pandemic has been kind to some small businesses, particularly the ones involving food delivery.

For the past two weeks, we've had different kinds of bread delivered to our door by the Baguio-based baker from Sweets and Greens. My daughter Kimi discovered the outfit through a Facebook ad and decided to try it out after being enticed by photos of its products.

It was love at first bite when Kai sliced and tasted the glazed lemon pound cake. She can easily finish half of it spread over a few hours between meals.

There's a variation of that bread, this time with herbs baked into it. It is just as good and lemony (sour, not sweet).

Sweets and Greens delivers to Baguio residents every Tuesday and Friday. This is not an ad. It is a full endorsement. Let's support our local bakers.

As for Rolly, he would like it better if the pound cake was heavily infused and aged with rum.

Aurora's Mananita

Auring Bautista sauteeing the meats and tomatoes

The paella is a staple fare when Rolly, my husband of 36 years, and I have a meal out. We are partial to the paella de marisco of Mario's Baguio and Alba’s Estancia, Capitol Commons.

Ever since I learned how to make Arroz a la Valenciana during the lockdown, I thought I could confidently make my own paella for family consumption. But from whom can I learn how it's properly done? There was no doubt about who should it be--birthday girl Aurora "Auring" Bautista. We've feasted on her table many times in our Baguio lives and her paella always hit the spot.

We arrived at the Bautista family home on Happy Glen Loop past 11 a.m. yesterday and the electric paellera was already steaming with olive oil and Auring cooking the pork and chicken cutlets to a nice brown. In between she annotated how her paella was learned firsthand from Maria Pedrosa, wife of Upsilonian Lito. The recipe has Catalan origins.

I noticed two whole unpeeled garlic bulbs were tucked on a side and remained there while the other ingredients (quartered tomatoes, onions, red bell peppers, eggplants) were mixed in. Then it was time to put in the uncooked jasmine rice (eight cups) followed by nine cups of water, the threads of saffron and a whole pack of seasoning labelled El Unico Paellero (available in better stores and delis like Mother Earth).

Waiting for the paella to boil

"How do you know when it is done?" went my ignorant query.
Auring patiently replied, "Cook it like you're cooking rice." And if you want that delicious burnt rice (tutong), let the rice simmer for a few minutes longer after it's done.

Meanwhile, my grandchild, the curious observer, inhaled the aromas wafting from the paellera and declared she was hungry. Later, she had two servings of the dish.

There's something else I learned from the making of the aioli sauce that we put on top of the paella. For the garlic to achieve a mushy quality so that it blends smoothly with the mayonnaise, mustard and sugar, pound the cloves with a tablespoon of salt. This adds to the sweet-salty flavor.

Garlic and salt being pounded to a fine mush

Portion of the cooked paella

As added viand to the already rich paella, there were fat prawns cooked hilabos style.

Need we say more?

All throughout, Auring smiled as if the effort in passing on her culinary knowledge was as easy as pie. It really was.

Re-imagining Nutmeg

Kai cradling Nutmeg

I will proceed as if the disappointments and frustrations of yesterday never happened. I will carry on as some kind of knucklehead Nelly, the self-confessed cock-eyed optimist in the musical South Pacific.

Nothing pulls me out of my blue funk more than pictures of my grandchild romping with the family dog, in this case Nutmeg, a mixed breed who stayed with us for only a few months. So frisky was she that she bit Kai not once but twice. The first time was a shallow nip on the child's face, but it was enough to get us all worried and bring her to the doctor for an anti-rabies shot.

The second time Nutmeg bit Kai, this time on the leg, we knew we had to let the dog go. But how? The opportunity presented itself serendipitously when Kai's yaya bid goodbye to our family after serving for five years or just when the kid was about to enter Grade One. Kai needed to grow independently while Mackenzie had commitments to fulfill in Pangasinan, among them to marry her beau.

As Macky boarded the hired jeep that would take her back to her home province, my daughter Kimi pulled the leash tied on Nutmeg and told Macky, "Here, take her. She's yours. We cannot mind her anymore at the same time that we're taking care of Kai."

Kai was too numb from shock at the sudden parting--first, from Macky, then from Nutmeg.

But Macky and Nutmeg had always been best buddies. She followed her orders and kept still when she had to be bathed or her head of hair trimmed.

Sometimes at night, when I imagine that all hope had flown away, I wonder how Macky and Nutmeg are doing. Nutmeg likes the beach in La Union. I wonder if they ever visit the beach together or with Macky's new family.

Meanwhile, Kai found a new friend in the golden retriever named Satchi. All is not entirely lost.

A girl and her dog

This morning Satchi, our golden retriever, came bounding up the stairs. I called out her name, and she entered our bedroom instead of heading for the balcony which is where she stays most of the day after her walks.

She slobbered all over my husband Rolly's face as he was snoozing. She refused the treat that my daughter Kimi was trying to entice her with.

This seven-month old golden is, most of all, Kai's best pal. Apart from walks, they chase one another or Kai talks to her in a commanding voice to make the dog obey. The latter doesn't seem to work yet because it provokes Satchi to get more excited and jump all over my apo. They're a happy sight to behold.

Last Saturday, as Kai and her father took Satchi for her morning walk, she loosened herself from her lease and ran all over the village park, the little girl giving chase and breaking into tears, thinking the dog might get lost.

Satchi found her way home alone and waited for the gate to open. Kai cried more tears of relief.

All in a day. With Satchi, our lives are complete.

Photo by KIMI FERNANDEZ

Textures and patterns

There was a time I brought my Canon digicam everywhere I went and trained my eye on anything interesting I saw. Such were these photos I took while we were having a bienvenida lunch with old friends Myriam and Steve Benito, now based in New Zealand.

Friends used to ask how I kept myself busy in Baguio. Well, here's evidence from years past--not yet erased by the need to create more gigabyte space in the computer.

Location: Iggy's Inn and Bonuan Seafood Restaurant

Myriam and Steve Benito, plus Del Tolentino and Babeth at Iggy's Inn and Bonuan Seafood Restaurant

Except for the last picture, all photos by Babeth

A Saturday afternoon in Baguio

As Saturday afternoons go in these parts, the clouds were gray. Weather was drizzly, but that didn't deter my grandchild Kai and I from having a good day. We had it all planned out. She would document the day in pictures, I would describe it in words.

We started off with a late dimsum lunch at the fairly new King Chef Dimsum Kitchen on Legarda Road with long-time friends Jenny Carino and Karen Hizola. My daughter Kimi drove us afterwards to a nearby Korean grocery so we could enjoy frozen yogurt popsicles, the Lotte brand, then onto Mt Cloud Bookshop at No. 1 Yangco Road. There I saw, after many, many years had passed, Ani Rosa Almario of Adarna House at the registration table.

With Karen Hizola sporting her new hairdo and Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño

I used to see her as a child when her parents Rio and Lyn Almario would visit SV and Nieves Epistola of the University of the Philippines Diliman. I think she even drew a portrait of me wearing my lace-up ballet shoes (I was thin then and studying jazz at the Julie Borromeo Dance Arts Studio).

Kids had to each pay P100 to get into the story-telling event. Adults accompanying them got in free. Kai had time to roam around the shop, clicking the digicam, a well-worn Canon PowerShot A2300 HD.

She picked out the book edited by Neni Sta Romana Cruz, Don't Take a Bath on a Friday, asking if I could purchase it. I told her we had a copy at home, and she only had to ask her grumpa Rolly to retrieve it from one of our bookshelves (he's only our librarian apart from being house manager). Nonetheless, she sprawled on the throw pillows and mat that Marisol Michele Montilla's staff had laid out on the floor and began reading said book.

Marisol Montilla introduces story-teller Rey Bufi.

Then she perused the shelf for knitted stuffed toys and took down the whale shark with a pleading look in her eyes. I looked at the price tag and shook my head. She went to the "bookstore within a bookstore" (as Marisol called the children's book room) and chose Alamat ng Ampalaya by Augie Rivera with illustrations by Kora Dandan Albano. At P100 a copy, it was most affordable, and Kai now has it on her shelf.

Rey Bufi of The Story-telling Project captured the children's attention with his expressive narration of two titles: Candy Gourlay's Is It a Mermaid? in its Filipino translation and Padmapani L. Perez's Shelah Goes to a Da-ngah.

Kuya Rey gathering all the children on the mat

Ice breaker

Even if there were kids as young as three years old in the audience, they weren't restive at all and were putty in Kuya Rey's hands.

Immediately after the story-telling, Ani came up front to distribute mini red velvet cupcakes to the young audience and their parents and guardians.

Two cupcakes: Kai and the red velvet cupcake from Ani Almario

The Adarna and Mt. Cloud teams pose by the Adarna House van

Baby pine trees

While we awaited Rolly to fetch us, Kai roamed the kid-friendly store and grounds and took more pictures of the pine saplings and the Adarna and Mt. Cloud teams posing by the Adarna van.

Except for my portrait of Kai with a cupcake, all photos are by her.

Space of my own

I was in Mega Manila for 10 days and came back to my Baguio room and adjusted to the new changes my husband Rolly Fernandez made on our shared space. We used to have a small table between our single beds and shared a lamp for night reading between us.

Now he moved my work table between our beds and put my growing pile of books half-read, unread and intended to be read on our grandchild's table. (Wait till we hear what she has to say about this when she herself arrives from her Manila summer break.)

This is where all the writing action takes place. The blue comb is there for the purpose of running through my hair to help me think.

I like where he shoved my old bed--nearer to the window where I can have more natural light while reading or writing in my journal. As for the work table's new space, I now have windows with a view of the neighbors' greenery. I can take 20-minute breaks from computer chores and rest my eyes on said neighbors' green roofs, the pine trees and plants whose green colors are sharpened by the rain.

That he doesn't ask my permission to move things around in our room I don't mind. Rolly knows best--whether it's housekeeping, drawing up a menu, picking out items to put in the grocery cart or gardening.

As you can see, I'm not good for anything in terms of decorating space. Gosh, he even fixed my table where everything is now in place and there's a place for everything.

Grateful Wednesday!

That garden resto on a steep hill

Even if he drives an automatic car, my husband Rolly Fernandez prefers to park in his downtown office, then take a cab through winding Naguilian, Bokawkan and Ferguson Roads to get to Mother's Garden Baguio. But our daughter Kimi is the bolder driver so on the week of my birthday and her birth month, she took over the steering wheel while Rolly sat in the back seat, calling out instructions for her to drive carefully.

Carved signage

The place's patron chef Therese Jison chose a menu for us: very tender beef striploin and what I think is a new item, the Pork Souvlaki, paired with salads, mashed potatoes and vegetable sidings with a complimentary plate of palitaw and vanilla ice cream overload for the not so little one Kai.

It was the start of the garden resto's renovation season since the rainy days meant fewer customers. We were the only ones present--the only humans. In their cages were the resident rabbits, chickens, pig (the celebrated Michelle), an eagle healed from injury, quails and pigeons. The waiting and kitchen staff was attentive, and I pointed out to my kids that the veggies we were eating were freshly plucked from the garden. I don't know if it was my mother's tone, but they finished everything.

Here are pictures of that family sanctuary in Quezon Hill, Baguio, taken by Rolly on one of our earlier visits.

Salad garden

Mamma Mia Cafe

Michelle the pig who will grow to a ripe old age and never be slaughtered for her meat

A harvest of carrots

Statue of St. Francis--the owner is a devotee

Sungkaan corner

Ribs and gravy

Palitaw

Peach melba

Food glorious food

Once a week, my friend Toottee Chanco Pacis and I get together with our painting tutor Norman Chow to spend a whole day mucking around with our brushes and paints. Toottee and I paint different genres--another reason we get along famously. We can never consider each other rivals. I'm sorry I wasn't able to take photos of her works. But here are mine, done over the past three weeks. I've focused on the theme of food because it is always at the back and front of my mind--what to eat next after the current meal is consumed.

Or maybe because Toottee, a baker also by avocation, serves wonderful refreshments. Yesterday we had slices of moist banana bread brought by Norman's other occasional student, Angie del Rosario of Veniz Hotel, Toottee's oatmeal cookies and famed brownies with Sagada tea. Conversation is always warm and robust even if Toottee and I are beginning to feel our bodies betraying us. But for as long as we can hold a brush, we promise to soldier on.

"Cupcake Fiesta," acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18"

"Brekkie," acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18"

"Halo-halo Ka Rin," acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18"

A Tuscan afternoon

The invitation to lunch was irresistible--the hostess was going to prepare American roast ribs (the better to lick our fingers with) and was going to give my husband Rolly a bag of tulip bulbs for planting when the temperature drops lower in December or January next year.

When we got to Mother's Garden in Barangay Fairview, Quezon Hill, Baguio, our hearty appetites were there to flatter the cook and hostess, Therese Jison. The salad plates were brought out, followed by the star of the afternoon, the ribs. Words fail to describe the crisp top and juicy middle. I had two heaping servings and was rubbing my belly for the rest of the day.

Straight from the oven

Perfect pairing of salad and roast

Therese called ours a Tuscan lunch because in Tuscany, Sunday lunches go on and on until dusk. Which was what happened on this particular Sunday as talk ran the gamut of raising children, raising pets, the life of endurance that Baguio exacts of its residents, the culture of impunity that is keeping the country's progress at a standstill.

But then dessert came: peach melba and whatever negative pronouncements vanished in the clear air! Therese's partner, retired hotel executive Heiner Maulbecker, told of the dessert's history. How a restaurant owner paid tribute to a then famed opera singer, Nellie Melba. He named the dish after her. Heiner said, "Who remembers the opera singer? But we know peach melba." Forthwith, he dug into his bowl con gusto!

If this dessert could only sing, what would it say?

Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Three cheers and kisses for the cook

Weeks before today dawned, there was talk around the dining table on where we'll celebrate someone's turning a new leaf or another year older. No consensus was reached despite lobbying on one side for Japanese food, pizza and pasta on the other.

The impasse was broken when I declared, "Let's just stay home and enjoy a home-cooked meal by Tatay." I requested that we have grilled fish and a salad. If there was anymore leftover fish, let it be cooked into a sour paksiw. Kimi volunteered to prepare the long-life pasta dish.

Tatay Rolly was assigned marketing and cooking chores, and he rose to the challenge. At 5 a.m. today, just as my phone pinged to announce the first text of the day, Rolly bent over me to pinch my cheek by way of greeting me. It was still dark and my eyes were reluctant to open, but I could hear him getting dressed to leave for the market. Before he did, I managed to utter a word: "Champorado!"

So he cooked the family's favorite breakfast fare before heading out to catch a fish or two. Sweet!

Not steak, not lechon manok either. It's grilled yellowfin tuna. Comes with a dipping sauce of soy, vinegar and small red chilies.

Salad of pomelo (too much of it, in my opinion) and wansoy

He didn't forget the cake, walking from the Baguio public market to his office to put down the market basket, then another walk to Vizco's on Session Road for its famed strawberry shortcake before heading home.

Our food and family portrait photographer, Kimi, catches us right before we dig in.

Kai made me a rainbow necklace from her blocks, but I found it too heavy to wear so she did. By the way, it's also Pride Month so here's to our LGBT friends and relatives!

Message in a bottle

Chris Ordas at his brewery Photo by EV Espiritu

Message in a bottle

Four and a day forever

Before she grows too fast (and she is doing so each day), I'm posting photos of Ms. Curly Tops Kai during the summer of her fourth year. What I like about her is she never complains of boredom or maybe hasn't felt what ennui is. There is always something to be done either with her toys or with her immediate world. She can observe her shadow or watch a bee buzzing close to a flower or balance herself on the walkway around the community pond. In a few months she will be five and will move on to other activities. For as long as these pictures are here, she is four in my eyes.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga