Alternative way of cooking hotdogs

One of the things I did while I was in Japan was cook or prepare food. Breakfasts are usually oatmeal or a "silog" meal that consists of fried egg, rice and whatever I can substitute for tapa, hotdog or longganisa. Fortunately, there are many sausages and other cuts I could get from the local deli or the supermarket near my place. Sometimes, I am able to get some hotdogs from shops selling Filipino goods in Tokyo (Ueno/Okachimachi area) or Yokohama. Or hotdogs from a store selling imported goods in Yokohama. Once a year though, I could get hotdogs from the church bazaar as the Americans in our congregation are able to procure hotdogs and burgers from the commissary the US Naval Base in Yokosuka.

We usually grilled or fried hotdogs. I actually prefer the grilled ones and our American friends at the church bazaar in Yamate had this huge set-up for the burgers and hotdogs that were very popular then. A Japanese friend taught me an alternative way of cooking hotdogs. You first boil the hotdogs. Once practically cooked, you can put them in the oven toaster for the final touches including having the skin crispy as if it were fried.

After boiling the hotdogs, place them inside the over toaster

Here's the final product

I still prefer the grilled hotdogs but these are really good. [Disclaimer: Don't eat too much hotdogs. It's bad for your health!] 

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Bathing our big dogs during the rainy days

We currently have three big dogs after our golden Mocha passed away almost two years ago and another a few months back. Two were Mocha's pups - Hiccup and Snowy. Snowy (born 2020) is a year older than Hiccup (born 2021). With the recent rainy days, we welcomed the break in the wet weather and took advantage by doing the laundry and also bathing our dogs.

Hiccup taking his bath quite seriously. He doesn't struggle and just stands as we shampoo, rinse and dry him. 

Hiccup is usually very malikot but when you give him a bath, he is relaxed. Still, we usually use a leash because if he thinks he's done, he will run away and then roll over the floor or the garden.

Snowy doesn't require a leash as he is usually chill before, during and after his bath. He will patiently stand while being toweled to dry.

After being towel-dried, we usually let our dogs enjoy the sun before letting them back in the house. 

 

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Delicious pastries from Ijo Bakery

A couple of weeks ago, a friend who was home for a break from his studies abroad passed by my office and gifted me with some of the most delicious pastries I've tasted. These were from Ijo Bakery, which is in Lipa City, Batangas. My friend is from that province and certainly knows my favorites. My only regret was we couldn't have at least some coffee or have a chat while he was here. 

Here are some photos of the goodies we enjoyed: 

 

You can Google Ijo Bakery to find out what these are specifically. I read that they opened their first Metro Manila branch but its in Alabang. 

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My Wilson Sledge Hammer 2.8

I gave a preview of this racket in an earlier post. Here are more photos of my Wilson Sledge Hammer that I also used playing tennis on some weekends while I was a student in Yokohama in the late 1990s.

The racket case is still very much intact and in great condition for something that is more than 25 years old. 

Racket tech circa late 1990s

Recommended tension for the strings

The Sledge Hammer has a larger sweet spot for those who want to generate power with less effort. Hammers and Sledge Hammer models have been associated with senior citizen players as well as those who play weekends or occasionally only.

I keep both my Pro Staff and Sledge Hammer rackets at my other office where I keep my personal stuff including some collections on display on my shelves. I actually miss playing tennis. I know I can still hit the ball but not sure about chasing the ball across the court. I eventually shifted to badminton many years ago while also still playing pingpong/table tennis after office hours. My paddles are also in my office. I think I will feature my badminton and pingpong gear in future posts.

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Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate covered Honeycomb Candy

Another pasalubong from friends is this milk chocolate covered honeycomb candy from Trader Joe's. This was a from friends from the US who came to visit (balikbayan) earlier this year. 

The chocolate covered candies came in a resealable package.

Details at the back of the pack

Nutrition information

Ingredients and storage recommendations

A view of what's in the pack - individual chocolate covered candies as shown in the photo on the package.

Close up of the honeycomb candy that's covered by the chocolate. It has a certain crunch to it that is a delight to eat.

This is a bit on the sweet side of chocolates because it is milk chocolate and also because of the candy. But it is a delight to eat as I mentioned. I didn't check how much a pack costs but I assume its not too expensive but not cheap either. It's a nice treat if you can get it but its not really my type of dessert or snack.

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Floods again!

Yesterday's rains were catastrophic. Reports stated that a week's rains fell over a period of 2 to 5 hours, depending on where you were in the Mega Manila area. The resulting floods provided misery to people in flood-prone areas as well as those who had to go through the floods on their commutes to their homes.

Flooded street in Gruar Subdivision in Cainta, Rizal

Flooded A. Bonifacio Avenue in Cainta, Rizal. This is the main avenue through the heart of Cainta.

Flooded streets in the Hunters ROTC area. These residential areas are prone to flooding and children commonly play in the floodwaters - certainly at risk from getting sick from whatever it is in the waters.

This is Ortigas Avenue Extension and on the way up to Antipolo. This area wasn't flooded before and residents attribute the floods to the high-rise residential buildings and commercial development in the area. That's actually a lot of run-off not absorbed by a drainage system that's supposed to have been constructed with the developments.

Is there an end to this flood problem? Are the solutions really being implemented or, as we've learned the past so many months, are we being taken for a ride by our so-called leaders and agencies that are supposed to address these problems. People are supposed to be tired of the resilience story being peddled by politicians but the clamor seems to be in social media only and the real people who are lobbying for solutions have to contend with trolls who are also peddling their own narrative for their masters.

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Pasalubong from Iceland - Lakkris

We found this pack deep inside our refrigerator. Apparently, this was a pasalubong from a friend of the wife who traveled to Iceland last summer break. This turned out to be a rather pleasant treat in the form of candy-covered chocolates that were like M&M's or Nips but better.

The image at the front of the pack shows something that looks like green grapes (muscat variety).

Each one was the size of an M&M or Nips

Nutrition information

The candy was crunchy and the chocolate was smooth. I would get a couple of packs or more if I see this on a supermarket or grocery store shelf. 

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My Wilson Pro Staff 5.2 tennis racket

Here are some photos of my Pro Staff racket including the case. This was my first own racket that I bought at a shop I found in Yokohama. This was was at the Marui Building adjacent to the Yokohama Station where my Japanese labmates pointed me to when I asked where I could buy a nice racket. I also got other items from that sports shop including tennis shoes (my first Nike pair), balls, shirts and shorts.

The blue color of the case has faded after 29 years but is still very much intact. The zipper and straps are in great condition.

The racket is intact with no damage to the frame and, surprisingly, the strings. The vibration dampener is also in great condition. I was thinking the rubber would have deteriorated (i.e., crumbled) but its as if it was bought and installed recently.

Stretch means this is a longer racket than the usual.

The Pro Staff was headlight, meaning the user had more control but have to generate the power for each hit. This one featured a Perimeter Weighting System that helps the user with stability, power and control.

Close up of the side of the racket frame

 

I will also share photos of my Sledge Hammer in a future post.

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Autographs - Pugad Baboy with Pol Medina, Jr.

I am very happy today as I got an autograph from one of my favorites Pol Medina, Jr. or PM Jr. He is the man behind the popular Pugad Baboy comics. I have been enjoying his work since I can remember. I do have the compilations though I have not been updated recently. Some actually perished in floods in the 1990s and I had to find replacements. Fortunately, there have been several re-issues of the older compilations. I brought one, maybe my favorite Vol. 4 to the Komiket at Ayala 30th. 

Mr. Medina signing Vol. 34

Autograph on my old Pugad Baboy 4

I used to have other autographed items including a couple of caricatures from a Humanities II project when I was a sophomore at UP Diliman. Our project had us interview a couple of artists. My partner and I interviewed the famous cartoonist Larry Alcala and political cartoonist Norman Isaac (Bulletin Today/Manila Bulletin). We interviewed Mr. Alcala at his home in UP Village while we went to the Bulletin's office in Intramuros for Mr. Isaac's. We both got caricatures from them as souvenirs. Those perished with my autographed planner (Monica Seles and Mary Joe Fernandez from the Japan Open in 1999) in the floods of Ondoy (Ketsana).  I will take good care of these newly autographed items along with other souvenirs since then.

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Tennis anyone?

After Alex Eala's win at Washington, D.C., I suddenly had the urge to check out my old rackets. I had kept them at one of my offices at U.P. and had removed the grips, which have already started disintegrating. I have kept two of three rackets that I purchased while in Japan in the 1990s and early 2000s. I gave the newest one (at the time) to my father who also played tennis at our village every Sunday with his buddies.

One my rackets was a Sledge Hammer from Wilson. 

I like to joke that at one time, I wielded a hammer - a Sledge Hammer to be exact. This is somewhat a dad joke referring to Thor, of course, but with some truth to it. Will I go back to playing tennis again? I do have access to tennis courts at UP but there seems to be a scarcity near our home as a lot of people have taken to pickleball instead. We'll see how it goes but I am leaning more towards badminton or table tennis. Magku-kuwento na lang muna ako about tennis.

More about tennis in future posts. 

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Local delights for merienda

After lunch at the resort last weekend, I had the idea to go out and see if there were stores that sold food other than the usual junk food found at sari-sari stores. I also wanted to see if there was a 'tinapayan' or bakery to get some of my favorite breads. There were only the small sari-sari stores selling the usual stuff and no bakeries. Fortunately, there was a roadside store selling turon, kamote cue, biko and other local, more traditional snacks.

Turon or banana rolls (friend banana with the wrapper coated in brown sugar)

Kamote cue (fried sweet potato coated in sugar)

Their version of biko, which is sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and brown sugar.

We bought turon and biko from the store to take back to the resort for our merienda. They turned out really good and we got to enjoy these local delights as an alternative to the food at the resort. 

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Another Panglao sunset (during Habagat season)

We couldn't get a nice sunset photo last Friday because it was overcast. Yesterday somehow made up for Friday with a nice sunset over the sea.

Sunset over the Cebu Strait. One can see the cranes at the left. These are for a construction project in the Alona Beach area. There are many resort projects now in Panglao Island.

 

We walked to a floating platform across from the beach to get this photo. It turned out well-timed as the clouds covered the setting sun as soon as we walked back to the beach, obscuring the sun and depriving others of a nice sunset shot. 

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Back in Panglao for a quick recharge

We had an unplanned trip to Bohol to unwind before busier days. We just could not schedule a trip to re-energize (applying the term used by the university for admin officials to take some time off). We knew where we wanted to go but somehow couldn't agree on a schedule. It started not so promising given the rainy weather in Metro Manila that we thought would be similar in Bohol. It was rainy where we headed to but fortunately, the weather improved a lot while we were there.

Our first day back was not promising as rains greeted us as we approached Bohol and it was raining when we landed at Panglao.

This was the scene at the beach that greeted us when we arrived at the resort. This was taken around noontime and we just prayed that the weather would improve and allow us at least to walk on the beach if not to swim there. There was no thunderstorm so some people still swam and frolicked despite the gloomy conditions.

The following morning we were greeted by this splendid weather. I already saw the sun's rays through our room's windows when I woke up. And we had our sunny weather to enjoy over the weekend.

 More on this trip in the next posts!

 

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Souvenir teas from friends

I took home a couple of pasalubong from friends who know I prefer tea over coffee. The green tea or matcha is from Kyoto. My mentor who is still active after officially retiring 5 years ago got me this after visiting his daughter who's family is based in Kyoto. Featured on the box is popular Japanese pitcher Shohei Ohtani. Green tea is one of those things I drink that brings back memories of living in Japan in the 1990s. Prior to that, I wasn't into tea. That changes when I tasted the really good ones, even the instant variety that we had stock at our laboratory in Yokohama.

The other one is from a colleague who is also my junior at university. He just got back from the US and Canada where he spent sometime during the break after getting his PhD diploma at Stanford. I haven't tried it yet but am curious about the taste of maple tea.

Green tea from Japan and Maple Tea from Canada

I haven't tried either but will probably have some soon as they wet season is here. These are perfect to warm the body during rainy days. 

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Cheese cupcakes from Burnt Sugar

There used to be a nice grocery store with a bakeshop along Katipunan just across from Miriam College. Shoppersville was already there when I first entered UP back in 1988. Fast forward to 2012 and I discovered it had a smaller branch in Antipolo; near where we decided to build our house after the experience of Typhoon Ondoy's floods.

Shoppersville was consumed by fire many years ago and their branch in Antipolo had to close, too.  They had opened a store in front of the burned building on a converted container. We thought that would last until they rebuilt the grocery but that too didn't last. Time went on and the pandemic hit a lot of business pretty bad. Recently though I learned their baking survived and they now have a commissary along Maginhawa near where we first resided temporarily about 26 years ago.

They now go by the name Burnt Sugar and the selections from their FB page shows they still have most of the products they offered before including our favorite cheese cupcakes, taisan and brownies. They usually post what's available for the day but you can order in advance for you to pick-up or have picked-up by a rider. They are very quick to reply and its easy to order and arrange for pick-up.

 

Our daughter doesn't know it but somehow she baked something like this when she started making cheese cupcakes. Kaya siguro may good memories the first time we indulged our daughter's creation?

A box of 12 cupcakes cost 320 pesos. Not bad for the quality and quantity.

I may be biased about my daughter's version of this cupcake being better (the ingredients are better) but there's some nostalgia about Shoppersville and their products. I will probably order some brownies soon. 

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Soap and childhood memories

Taking vacations in Iloilo during my childhood days, my aunts always took good care of us at our paternal home. Of course, there was always good, home-cooked meals. But this time I write about something a little different from the usual stories of food, relatives and friends, and going around. This is about something we use everyday - bath soap (trivial though it seems). I have a memory of one of my aunts justifying opening one of her imported soaps on the occasion of our vacation. She had many in her closet thanks to my cousins who were then based in the Middle East always sending her care packages. The packages usually have expensive cosmetics, lotions and soap for their mother who was at that time a public school teacher at the local elementary school. These were not so common brands at the time like - Dove, Ivory and the imported versions of Camay. There was also the imported version of Lifebuoy, which is how I learned about the product. 

Fast forward to the present and I still patronize products that I used back then. There's a certain nostalgia about the smell of Lifebuoy, for example, that I brings back memories of vacationing during my childhood years.

Lifebuoy soap has one of those distinct scents that's practically the same as the ones I used decades ago. The smell brings me back in time.

This is a Unilever product that's now manufactured in Indonesia.

 

We used a different brand soap at home at the time. I think it was usually Safeguard and at time Irish Spring (favored by Tatay). So it was somewhat refreshing to have a different soap for showers.

Bananas from Calawis, Antipolo

Yesterday, I made sure to stop by the weekend market at the Sumulong Park, which is the area between the Antipolo Shrine and City Hall. I already saw the fruits and vegetables being sold there on my way to City Hall and I knew these were cheap and sold by the farmers themselves.

Saba and latundan bananas from the weekend market 

 

Banana chips likely from the same saba variety that's abundant in the mountains of Antipolo.

I learned from the vendors from whom I bought bananas that they were from Calawis. I frequented that barangay because of Mt. Purro, which is managed by the family of close friends. Whenever we were there, we made sure we got some fruits and vegetables from the area if not from Mt. Purro where they have the farmers over to sell their products to guests. My only regret from yesterday was not buying ginger. Perhaps I will get some from them next weekend.

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