Authentic Pancit Malabon comes to town

Pancit Palabok

One of the foods I missed the most, being here in Panglao Island, were the Pancit Malabon or Luglog and Palabok.  These noodle dishes are easily found at Manila’s eateries, but not in Bohol.  Jolibee’s has palabok, but the serving I find too austere … plus I feel like it has been prepared by a food technologist rather than by a cook.

Anyway, much to my surprise and delight, while walking through the food court of BQ Mall at Tagbilaran City the other day, I saw this food stall that carries authentic pancit Malabon and palabok.  So, before I went to see The Avengers, I had a plate of its palabok.  And right after the movie, I headed back to order pancit Malabon.  They were both good and priced affordably.

Pancit Malabon

Pancit Palabok is made of rice noodles with bright orange thick sauce sprinkled with a variety of toppings. Pancit Palabok comes in various versions, but the famous one hails from Malabon in Metro Manila.  Its ingredients usually include tinapa (smoked fish) and chicharon (crushed deep-fried pork rinds).

Pancit Malabon, on the other hand, is a noodle dish with a yellow-orange color due to its main ingredients of patis (fish sauce) crab fat, shrimp, squid, oysters, hard-boiled eggs, and strips of pork.  Unlike the palabok, this noodle dish contains some vegetables. It is aptly named Pancit Malabon because it originated from Malabon.

Edwin's Special Pancit Malabon

4th floor Food Court - BQ Mall at Tagbilaran City

For special orders contact Alvin or Riza

Cell phone: 0908-455-6604 or 0932-147-3785

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Yummy Sunday

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Lourdes Church at Tagbilaran City

The Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Tagbilaran City was built on a promontory overlooking the city’s scenic bay.

The church’s structure was originally a clubhouse of the Knights of Columbus Council 3290. Erected in 1955, this was the venue of the K of C’s social and religious functions, foremost of which were the Holy Masses held regularly for the members and the families of this fast-growing organization. With Boholanos being well-known for their religiosity, these masses were a great boon to nearby communities.

Eventually, the church became a chaplaincy, whose primary goal was to provide for the spiritual needs of the increasing number of the Filipino-Chinese populace. Rev. Fr. Thomas Chao, a refugee from mainland China, was the first resident chaplain.  In 1995, it finally became a full-pledged parish.

From a clubhouse, the structure of the church building has metamorphosed into a work of art -- reminiscent of old Gothic designs -- with its roof sharply pointing heaven-ward and with three gables in each side. This well-ventilated church can properly seat 500 people at a time.

The altar differs sharply from the altars of ancient churches that abound in Bohol. The main altar is a landscape painting on the wall, of sea, clouds and sky as backdrop to a sculpted heaven-ward rising Christ in its midst. Beneath the bronze figure of the Risen Christ is the sepulcher from which He emanated, with its half-opened tomb and stone cover.

Midway on the right side wall is a beautifully-made rock grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, with St. Bernadette kneeling beneath, among the rocks where a real fountain flows. Across the aisle, in the middle of the left side wall, stands a life-sized Crucified Christ. A portrait of Jesus of the Divine Mercy is placed nearby.

The lovely stained glass windows reflect Biblical scenes. Above the right wall is that of the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation of the Child at the Temple. On the left wall are clearly shown Mary and Joseph Finding the Lost Child at the Temple amidst synagogue elders questioning Him, Jesus Changing the Six Jars of Water into Wine, and the Crucifixion Scene, with St. John and the Blessed Mother looking up at the Crucified Christ.

OUR LADY OF LOURDES PARISH

Gov. C. Gallares St., Tagbilaran City, 6300 Bohol

Telephone: (038) 411-2413, (038) 235-3600

Feast Day:  February 11th

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Bohol's man-made forest

The Bohol man-made forest is truly a Boholanos’ labor of love.  It was created sometime in 1953 along both sides of a winding two-kilometer road that stretches from Loboc to Bilar. 

Mainly filled with mahogany trees, the uniformity in height of the trees, the spread of its branches, and the thickness and shapes of their leaves, give the forest its enchanting appeal. Some trunks are formidably thick, while others a mere few months in existence.  Seedlings supposedly abound around the older trees, but they may not be free for the taking. 

The roots of some of the mahogany trees along the road are partly exposed, which prevent soil erosion.  It is indeed a sight that gives nature lovers a reverence for the trees and a loathing for illegal logging that produces massive landslides.

Visitors are welcomed to explore the forest, wherein they will instantly feel the cooler temperature inside even on hot summer days.  That is because the leaves of the tall trees act like a group of umbrellas to protect the land below from the sun’s scorching rays.

This man-made forest is less than an hour’s drive from Tagbilaran City.

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Papaya

Go to any of the popular grocery stores at Tagbilaran City and notice how they rarely carry a good selection of papayas; worse, there’s hardly any selection at all.  I found this puzzling at first until I realized that most Boholanos have papaya trees in their yard.  A local I once spoke to claims the two trees at his backyard bear fruit so abundantly his family got tired of eating papayas, and nowadays just leave the fruits for the birds to feast on.

I love papayas!  There was a time I would go on a three-day cleansing diet by just eating papayas and nothing else.  According to recent studies, papaya has protein­-digesting enzyme, papain, in the milky juice or latex, which is carried in a network of vessels throughout the plant. The enzyme is similar to pepsin in its digestive action and is reputed to be so powerful that it can digest 200 times its own weight in protein. Its effect is to assist the body's own enzymes in assimilating the maximum nutritional value from food to provide energy and body building materials.  

Moreover, if eaten regularly, papaya can correct habitual constipation, bleeding piles and chronic diarrhea. The juice of the papaya seeds is also useful in dyspepsia and bleeding hemmorrhoids.

Regarded as a wholesome fruit, it can fulfill our body’s daily requirements for essential nutrients like proteins, mineral and vitamins. The vitamin C in the papaya increases as the fruit’s maturity progresses. Also, its carbohydrate content is mainly of invert sugar which is a form of predigested food. 

Papaya is cultivated for its edible ripe fruit; its juice is a popular beverage, and its young leaves, shoots, and fruits are cooked as a vegetable. It is also used as flavoring in candies, jellies, preserves, and ice cream. Shallow cuts on the surface of fully grown but unripe fruits cause the exudation of a milky sap or latex that is collected, dried, and termed crude papain. 

Papain, the enzyme in papayas, has a wealth of industrial uses.  It has milk-clotting (rennet) and protein-digesting properties. Nearly 80% of American beer is treated with papain so as to remain clear upon cooling.  Papain is most commonly used commercially in meat tenderizers and chewing gums.  Cosmetically, papain is used in some dentifrices, shampoos, facial creams and soaps.

Papaya has been used widely in folk medicine for many ailments: the juice for warts, corns, cancers, tumors, and indurations of the skin; the roots or their extracts for tumors of the uterus, syphilis, yaws, hemorrhoids, and to remove urine concretions; the unripe fruit as a mild laxative or diuretic, and to stimulate lactation, labor, or abortion; the ripe fruit for rheumatism and alkalinizing the urine; the seeds as an anthelmintic or to stimulate menstruation or abortion; the leaves as a poultice on nervous pains and elephantoid growths, or smoked for asthma relief; and the latex for psoriasis, ringworm, dyspepsia, or applied externally as an antiseptic or to heal burns or scalds, or smeared on the cervix as an ecbolic.

Waverley Root, an American journalist wrote, "The papaya leads a disorderly life. Normally some plants bear female flowers and others male flowers, putting it in the category of 'harem trees' -- male trees are thinned out as soon as their sex can be determined, to leave one male for each eight to fifteen females."   

"The papaya is not normal. Hermaphroditic trees appear, bearing both male and female flowers, while others change their minds in midcareer and shift from male to female or vice versa. Miscegenation is rampant, too," Root further claims.

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Related links:

Papaya Health Benefits - Part 1

Papaya Health Benefits - Part 2

Papaya: The Healing Fruit

Yummy Sunday

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Honey

Honey from a Mindanao honey farm

"When I add a spoon of honey to my tea, I give thanks to a dozen bees for the work of their whole lives.  When my finger sweeps the final drop of sweetness from the jar, I know we've enjoyed the nectar from over a million flowers.  This is what honey is: the souls of flowers, a food to please the gods.  Honeyeaters know that to have a joyful heart one must live life like the bees, sipping the sweet nectar from each moment as it blooms.  And Life, like the world of honey, has its enchantments and stings."

                                                                                                        Ingrid Goff-Maidoff 

                                                                                                         The Honey Sutras

Known as Honig in German, Miele in Italian, Shahad in Hindi, Miel in French, Miel in Spanish, Mel in Portuguese, мед in Russian, Honing in Dutch, and μελι in Greek, there is hardly any region in the world where honey is not cherished.

Honey has been used by mankind since the past 2,500 years, all over the world. While the numerous health benefits of honey have made it an important aspect of traditional medicines such as Ayurveda, scientists are also researching the benefits of honey in modern medicine, especially in healing wounds.

What makes honey so popular? It is the ease with which it can be consumed. One can eat honey directly, put it on bread like a jam, mix it with juice or any drink instead of sugar, or mix it with warm water, lime juice, cinnamon and other herbs to make a medicine. It is savored by all due to its taste as well as health benefits.

The health benefits of honey include the following:

Sweetener: Sugar can be substituted with honey in many food and drinks. Honey contains about 69% glucose and fructose enabling it to be used as a sweetener.

Energy Source: According to USDA, honey contains about 64 calories per tablespoon. Hence honey is also used by many as a source of energy. On the other hand, one tablespoon of sugar will give you about 15 calories. Further the carbohydrates in the honey can be easily converted into glucose by even the most sensitive stomachs. Hence, it is very easy to digest honey.

Weight Loss: Though honey has more calories than sugar, honey when consumed with warm water helps in digesting the fat stored in your body. Similarly honey and lemon juice and honey and cinnamon help in reducing weight. Read more about benefits of honey in weight loss.

Improving Athletic Performance: Recent research has shown that honey is an excellent ergogenic aid and helps in boosting the performance of athletes. Honey facilitates in maintaining blood sugar levels, muscle recuperation and glycogen restoration after a workout.

Source of Vitamins and Minerals: Honey contains a variety of vitamins and minerals. The type of vitamins and minerals and their quantity depends on the type of flowers used for apiculture. Commonly, honey contains Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron. Check for the vitamin and mineral content in sugar from any source, you will find it to be either nil or miniscule.

Anti-bacterial and Anti-fungal Properties: Honey has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and hence, it can be used as a natural antiseptic.

Antioxidants: Honey contains nutraceuticals, which are effective in removing free radicals from our body. As a result, our body immunity is improved.

Skin Care with Milk and Honey: Milk and honey are often served together as both these ingredients help in getting a smooth soothing skin. Hence, consuming milk and honey daily in the morning is a common practice in many countries.

Honey in Wound Management

Significant research is being carried out to study the benefits of honey in treating wounds. 

Nursing Standard provides some of these benefits in the document - The benefits of honey in wound management. These have been given below:

Honey possesses antimicrobial properties.

It helps in promoting autolytic debridement.

It deodorizes malodorous wounds.

It speeds up the healing process by stimulating wound tissues.

It helps in initiating the healing process in dormant wounds.

Honey also helps in promoting moist wound healing.

The healing powers of honey are not hyped. The Waikato Honey Research Unit provides details about the world-wide research that is being carried out on the benefits of honey in medicine. 

Further, BBC reported in July, 2006 that doctors at the Christie Hospital in Didsbury, Manchester are planning to use honey for faster recovery of cancer patients after surgery. Such research will provide scientific evidence to the so-called beliefs held by honey lovers all over the world and help in propagating benefits of honey to more people.

Now that you know the benefits of honey, how do you eat it? You can eat it raw, add it it in water and different beverages and you can add it in several recipes also.

Source: Organic Facts - Health Benefits of Honey

Honey from Bohol Bee Farm Resort

A bee only produces 1/12 tablespoon of honey in her lifetime. – Bohol Bee Farm

Honey from various bee farms in Bohol (sold at local markets) 

At Bohol's Dao market in Tagbilaran City, a 375 ml. bottle of honey retails for less than P200 or roughly less than $5.00.  They come from the local farmers' bee farms.

Related links:

Health Benefits of Honey

20 Uses for honey you never thought of

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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.

Thank you!

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Tagbilaran Airport

It is the main airport of Bohol, located about 5 minutes from the city proper.   Flights are either coming from Manila or Cebu City. The Manila to Tagbilaran flights take about an hour and 15 minutes, while those coming from Cebu are much shorter. The airport is strictly domestic. It is small with a 1.8 kilometer runway and a single terminal.

There have been talks to build a much larger international airport in Panglao Island.  If approved and actualized, bigger and more aircrafts will be able to make use of this new airport; Bohol will then become more accessible to more tourists, boosting the local economy to greater heights.

But President Aquino appears to favor the expansion of the existing Tagbilaran airport, instead of building a new one on Panglao.  “Tagbilaran is already a 1.8-kilometer runway. To service the aircraft of regional carriers, it will need 2.5 kilometers. So the expansion of Tagbilaran will just necessitate only 700 meters as opposed to building a 2.5-kilometer runway in Panglao,” Mr. Aquino argued.

The president is also cognizant of serious concerns by environmentalists, such as the ability of Panglao Island’s limestone subsoil to withstand the load and stress of an international airport.  And although there are studies that show it could, Mr. Aquino is irresolute, for the most part, due to the billions of pesos that such project requires. “The Tagbilaran airport has long been there. It has no such issues,” Mr. Aquino said.

Speaking of airports, herewith a missive from a reader/contributor about his exasperating experience at NAIA1 last December, which he would like to share with us:

No Fun in PH NAIA1 Arrivals

By Roberto M. Bernardo, mid-January 2012

rbernardo2@yahoo.com

      You decide later on this report’s general bearing on our tourism brand’s “More Fun in PH”, but, more specifically here I want to ask: What brighter plan would you have cooked up in order to avoid my usual NAIA1 nightmare-problem below.  I was to arrive there from a welcomingly well-managed S.F. International on December 8, 2011 at 10:25 P.M. To prepare for it, I vowed to myself: “No more being stressfully stranded there for hours glued to my allowed boxes and bags of luggage.”

      Media had reported on various improvements in the micro-managements of the notorious airport’s toilets, visa & baggage processing, etc. in the campaign to improve the country’s image abroad. I can confirm those welcome changes from my most recent arrival from S.F. Yet, even as I noted them, I still doubted that its most dreaded nightmare-problem for most of us non-V.I.P arrivals would be identified and urgently addressed by the authorities. Therefore, many days before, I worked on the final surefire solution to my NAIA1 arrival fears, for testing on the night of December 8, 2011.

      I feared being forced to wait for hours amidst the usual chaotic crowds of arrivals, greeters, porters, airport security, other staff, potential snatchers. For, after emerging out of the airport building we would soon all be jammed jostling into each other plus a lot more people after herding into the two downward-sloping widely separated tunnels and coming out of them. Chaos would greet us and our heavy boxes of baggage on carts at the narrow ground-level sidewalk that connected their two exits. In past arrivals over the decades I’d been stranded for hours worried about my heavy boxes of baggage and big hand-carry while trying to locate my greeters. This added to the stress, for, signs in many public places of the country did warn, Don’t Leave Your Valuables Unattended.

      Via Internet I instructed my Makati team of greeters consisting of wife, secretary and car driver to look for me this time at only one place, not all over the waiting areas. Moreover, I would no longer look for them and endanger my things in all that overcrowded chaos but stay glued to them and my fixed spot. In past arrivals I would wait until the crowds and very heavy street-level traffic had thinned out. Then I could more readily recognize my greeters fenced off far across the street in the poorly and even perversely lighted areas from their backs and overhead and making their faces unrecognizable. When the crowds and traffic thinned out hours later I’d see and call them, and vice-versa. I remember from a mid-1970s arrival long ago how I got stressfully stranded there, and fuming and cursing the country for nearly four hours!

       I instructed: “Don’t look for me anymore at the tunnel exit area to my left at some distance from the right exit. Stick to the right exit-area. Don’t go driving around and around hoping to see me in all that heavy traffic and swarm. Park the car in the pay-lot adjoining the greeters’ fenced off areas. Just look for me at that one fixed area of the right tunnel exit I’ll come from. You can walk through the corridor from the parking lot and greeters areas to me eventually by telling strict door-guards that you are fetching a just-arrived senior citizen.”  

      Readers, there stood I stressfully stranded for nearly two hours that funless night. “What took you guys so long?,” I fumed in frustration.  They chorused about getting entangled in very heavy traffic near the approach to the airport. More of the same kind of heavy traffic awaited them on entry into the poorly lighted over-crowded parking lot freshly pot-holed from the rains. More waiting they suffered for a slot to free up. The security guards were stricter than usual in keeping greeters away from crossing the heavily trafficked ground-level street to look for and help their long-awaited ones.

      If I might say this: I’ve published online this year, printable from www.cnx.org, a book on our top hero’s supposed Catholicism & Nationalist Faith; so I felt bright enough to finally solve my NAIA1 arrival fears. How would you have more brightly planned it for yourself? Separately later, think: doesn’t all this add a question mark to “More Fun in PH [?]”.

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Related Links:

Aquino administration to spend 1B on NAIA-1 rehabilitation

It's a go for 'More Fun in the Philippines' campaign

Frommer's 10 Worst Airport Terminals

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Addendum February 8, 2012:

The Department of Budget and Management has allotted P1.2 billion 
for the development of the New Bohol International Airport in Panglao Island

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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.

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McDonald's

About a week before last Christmas, I went to Tagbilaran City to do some grocery shopping. When I was about to reach the corner of the BQ Mall building, I stopped dead on my tracks, my mouth agape and eyes wide open.  I could not believe that McDonald’s had once again opened for business after having been closed for renovation for some weeks.

I quickly crossed the street, almost getting run over by a tricycle, but I didn’t mind.  I have got to have a sausage egg McMuffin with a side of hash brown and a cup of coffee!

 

And as I feasted on my breakfast, I started feeling simultaneously giddy and silly like some deranged junkie now enjoying his long-deprived fix.  I went back there for lunch on that same day. I asked for a Big Mac and upsized to large everything else.  I also added an apple pie to my order.  I didn’t care even if the entire meal tabulated several pounds of trans-fat and a gazillion calories. 

Indeed, I was acting contrary to the infallibly cool image of a wise elderly gentleman, for I ought to know better than binge on – what knowledgeable and nutritious-conscious folks would deem as – “junk food.”  It didn’t matter, for I was deliriously happy at that very moment.

Food can do that to anyone.  And that’s why it’s so hard to go on a diet and lose weight.  As soon as certain foods become forbidden, your mind immediately goes on an overdrive; urging you mercilessly to consume those foodstuffs that you are now being deprived of.

 

I have no problem with excessive weight.  What I have is a dilemma with extremely salty foods as is the trend here in Bohol.  And the only respite from such, in my case, is comfort foods like those from McDonald’s and Chow King.  Pizza from Yellow Cab will do as well, but there is no branch here in Bohol.  But on top of it all, what puzzles me most, is how Boholanos remain impervious to the side effects of high salt intake.  God bless them!

Be that as it may, I profusely thank God for these fast food merchants; otherwise, I’d be relegated to the receiving end of fierce stares (from the wait staff of the local food eateries around here) as I sheepishly ask, “Not salty, please.” 

Now, I wonder if Burger King and Yellow Cab will someday open a branch here in Tagbilaran City?

Related Links:

The New York Times: How McDonald’s Came Back Bigger Than Ever

The Best and Worst Fast Food Meal Choices

McDonald's confirms it has stopped using ammonium hydroxide in its burgers

The McDonald's French Fries

Chicken McNuggets: How bad are they?

McDonalds pulls ad after pit bull owner outrage

McDonald's become target of Olympic food fight

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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.

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Rizal Park

It was once referred to as Plaza Principe, now it is Rizal Park and regarded as the cultural center of Tagbilaran City.  It is located in front of the Provincial Capitol Building and adjacent to St. Joseph’s Cathedral.  There is also a library in the vicinity, behind the Capitol Building, which has an interesting relief map of Bohol Island along with reference materials, photographs and portraits that chronicle the province's political scene.

The Rizal Park is a popular local meeting place which was first laid out in 1860. It has wooden seats around the park strategically located under the trees.  The Tagbilaran Lion’s Club installed flag poles for the Flag of Nations. During the national day of a particular country, their flag is raised on this park to honor their special occasion. Some of the flags were donated by the foreign countries themselves.

Monument of Pres. Carlos P. Garcia

Provincial Capitol Building

St. Joseph’s Cathedral



Last week was National Heroes' Day.
It was to commemorate Dr. Jose Rizal

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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.

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Bread Talk: Part 4 - Jojie's Bakeshop

This is my favorite Filipino bakery located at Masagsag Street in Tagbilaran City.   It’s a complete Filipino baked goods shop – from cakes to popular local delicacies.

  

They also offer suman (made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, and then wrapped in banana leaves before they are steamed).  My all-time favorite is the kamoteng kahoy, but here at Jojie’s you can find banana (saba) suman – surprisingly tasteful!  In addition, Jojie’s Bakeshop carry roasted peanuts without any oil or salt!  And when I found these at the counter, I could scarcely conceal my delight.

Incidentally, Jojie’s Bakeshop at Masagsag Street has a dining area with the view of the water – indeed, a very pleasant place to unwind and enjoy a cup of coffee along with those freshly-baked merienda fare.  Jojie's Bakeshop has branches all over Tagbilaran City.

A very amusing read: The 20 Greatest Bread Quotes of All Time

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Please note:

I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.

Thank you!

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