MOVING ON

My roommate, Karen, knocked on the door of my tiny bedroom one late lunch time, and in her broken English, gave me a small bowl of ginataan to eat right away while it's still hot. So that was what she was busily preparing while we were talking earlier about our lives here in NYC as immigrants. I went out of my room, and shared time with her as we both eat ginataan in the tiny space in our apartment where dining, cooking are done in a tenement-fashioned housing here in Chinatown. It's her own version, which reminded me of what we would have back in the Philippines. She's Chinese-Malaysian, and apparently have strong memories of this kind of snack (merienda) fare as well in Malaysia of which she prepared this time. Her ginataan's got the usual coconut milk, with some tapioca, sweet potato (camote) but without sago (that main ingredient that makes up pearl drinks some people rave about during hot summer days!) as she explained that if she put sago, the whole thick desse

I've taken the liberty of sharing here the video made by Meinard, a dear friend back in the Philippines [read: I would have not done anything like this, if I don't know personally the person taking lead]. I'm delighted to learn from an email exchange that he made a video he originally posted on YouTube, which I tried to blogged on two nights ago but failed to get posted here for some unknown technical reason (it may get posted here, sometime, but I won't worry about it). This serves then as a second article on the said video. I'd rather keep my efforts to do charitable works not blasted about here, nor even to my own network. I'd always remember some biblical entries, to wit: "Matthew 6:1-6. 16-18 1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. 2 When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the syna